"They are not your children" - about being a Teacher

"They are not your children"

 

Some days ago I was expressing my disapproval of the highly competitive environment children are exposed to from a very early age in the institutional educational system when one of my colleagues at work says: “…but they are not your children”. This, in turn spurred my reply: “all of our students are in a sense “our children” in the sense that we have an educational responsibility to bring them growth experiences that will stimulate their self-esteem and self-confidence as well as their overall Human skills and values. When they sit in our classrooms we have it in our hands to create opportunities for them to develop as healthy and balanced Human Beings and our influence goes a long way beyond the classroom chairs.”

And I would like to now add that, no they are not our children in the same way as our own biological offspring are not ours to own. We are responsible for their upbringing yes and our example is crucial in the shaping of their conceptual and behavioural makeup. Nevetheless, they are their own Masters, free to choose whichever example they deem appropriate to follow, then creating their own very unique identity. This is virtually the same as what we are to our students – they are not our children, but they are indeed our responsibility. In fact, all of us adults have this very same responsibility to check what kind of an example we are passing through, whether we walk our talk and whether it makes sense according to what we say is appropriate.

No, they are not my children… they are not our children… but yes they are my social and human responsibility, and above all they are my soul companions and we share each other’s consciousness, each other’s world, we are, yes we are all here together with and for each other’s grandest evolutionary purposes.