Guide me, but don't lead
I've said before that I hate to follow. I would like to qualify that statement. I'm not opposed to seeking guidance. But when you follow a leader, you allow that leader to make decisions of where you can and cannot go. Leaders, in my opinion, should be more like guides, rather than gatekeepers. In fact, we should all look to ourselves to lead, and seek guides along the way who will help us reach our desired destination and not try to take us to theirs.
As a teacher, I try to adhere to this philosophy. My students are not here as pawns to be placed into a course of study that I know will ultimately take them to an understanding of English as I perceive it. I am here to guide them on the path to understanding the English they encounter in their world. This will ultimately be more fulfilling for them, and the experience will be more rewarding for us all.
I've had language teachers along the way, especially in French, who set forth a plan of study that started with one point of "simple" grammar and continued down a linear direction to a place of more "complex" grammar. They intended for me to become fluent in the language. And when I say they, I mean all of my French teachers, who had learned to instruct in this way from others who had learned to instruct in this way, and so on. Following their lead, I eventually learned to read and to write, but I was never able to speak until I was put into a real world scenario, until I had to rely on my own instincts.
When it came to Spanish, I was my own instructor. I plotted my course, traveled the road in my own way, bouncing from complex to simple structures and back again without regard to the proper, established rules of how one learns Spanish and its grammar. All the textbooks I looked at were slow and artificially based on an author's invented contexts, as my French courses had often been. After learning the sounds of the Spanish alphabet and its pronunciation, I decided I wanted to study verbs first. Then I looked at the nouns that were present in my world, and I started to build a real understanding of the language. I became fluent rapidly, and didn't have to wait for someone to test me and tell me if I was ready or not. I spoke, and I was understood. I listened, and I could understand.
I know there are obviously moments in time where following a leader is the only good option, but I think more often than not I am my own best leader. I trust my instincts and am skeptical of those who say their way is the one and only option. Even I don't think my way is always the best way, but I do know I am capable of making good choices by researching and investigating, and most importantly, by following my heart.
There are many out there who have taught me, and there are many others from whom I will learn more lessons in life. But rather than leaders that I follow, I consider them guiding partners, just as I consider my students to be partners with me in their education. I am available to help them at all points along the way, but I encourage them to seek the answers themselves, and not to be arbitrarily lead by me or by any other teacher. By leading themselves through their studies they are more likely to be satisfied and to not only accomplish what they set out to do but also reap all the fruits of their efforts.
As a teacher, I try to adhere to this philosophy. My students are not here as pawns to be placed into a course of study that I know will ultimately take them to an understanding of English as I perceive it. I am here to guide them on the path to understanding the English they encounter in their world. This will ultimately be more fulfilling for them, and the experience will be more rewarding for us all.
I've had language teachers along the way, especially in French, who set forth a plan of study that started with one point of "simple" grammar and continued down a linear direction to a place of more "complex" grammar. They intended for me to become fluent in the language. And when I say they, I mean all of my French teachers, who had learned to instruct in this way from others who had learned to instruct in this way, and so on. Following their lead, I eventually learned to read and to write, but I was never able to speak until I was put into a real world scenario, until I had to rely on my own instincts.
When it came to Spanish, I was my own instructor. I plotted my course, traveled the road in my own way, bouncing from complex to simple structures and back again without regard to the proper, established rules of how one learns Spanish and its grammar. All the textbooks I looked at were slow and artificially based on an author's invented contexts, as my French courses had often been. After learning the sounds of the Spanish alphabet and its pronunciation, I decided I wanted to study verbs first. Then I looked at the nouns that were present in my world, and I started to build a real understanding of the language. I became fluent rapidly, and didn't have to wait for someone to test me and tell me if I was ready or not. I spoke, and I was understood. I listened, and I could understand.
I know there are obviously moments in time where following a leader is the only good option, but I think more often than not I am my own best leader. I trust my instincts and am skeptical of those who say their way is the one and only option. Even I don't think my way is always the best way, but I do know I am capable of making good choices by researching and investigating, and most importantly, by following my heart.
There are many out there who have taught me, and there are many others from whom I will learn more lessons in life. But rather than leaders that I follow, I consider them guiding partners, just as I consider my students to be partners with me in their education. I am available to help them at all points along the way, but I encourage them to seek the answers themselves, and not to be arbitrarily lead by me or by any other teacher. By leading themselves through their studies they are more likely to be satisfied and to not only accomplish what they set out to do but also reap all the fruits of their efforts.
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Bethezda