TEACHING
“I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.”
—Haim Ginott, clinical psychologist, child therapist and educator (1922–1973)
This is a disturbing thought to me sometimes. The one constant element in my classroom over the years has been me.
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