"Lessons of Another Kind"

"Lessons of another kind- By Leslie Owen Wilson

I came to teach,
To see what I could find
Inside my students' deeper selves.
I came to try and open minds
Before they were slammed shut.
I came to channel passages,
Hoping to connect hearts to heads and hands.

I came to entreat,
To coax ennobled thoughts,
Ideals, and love of self and others.
I thought that this must come from inside out
Into the essence of their beings,
Into relationships.
As connections to words and deeds,
and pedagogic styles.

I came to probe,
And sometimes poke,
To make them think,
And laugh
At small and narrow views.
For I wanted to see,
With their own eyes,
Beyond the limitations of closed perceptions
Into the beauty and the pain of others' view.

I came to teach,
But learned instead
That they had just as much to say to me.
Their lessons were often raw,
Sometimes unformed and yet complex.
I came to give and yet was given.
For through their gifts I saw a new
That I must learn to guard against complacency, conclusions,
And the allure of too soon ends.

I came to grow,
unknowingly
To shed my false, new scholar's skin
And metamorphose
Into something new
And strange...
Something far beyond the shadows
of my old instructive self.
I came to teach but was changed in other ways.
And now remember that life is still a two way street.
I needed to commit to memory,
Again.

Perhaps it is enough to say, I came to teach but learned instead."
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I chose to share this poem to you because it expresses everything I think I would experience as being a teacher. After this Educational Psychology class I see it expressing even deeper meanings. What Wilson writes, "As connections to words and deeds" she is talking about children in the Preoperational stage; children Begin to represent the world with words and images. I like how Wilson talking about opening minds up and teaching them not be be "narrow minded." I hope I can do that with my students. I want them to believe in anything and everything positive. I want my classroom to be a safe place for the children to come and learn and not feel self conscious about what others will think. I believe human beings are at the purest from when they are kids. As kids everything is fresh, new, still innocent ... this is why I would learn from them. Little do they know that they are the greatest teachers. Adults study children -- we learn from them more then they learn from us. I only hope to guide my students in the right direction where their dreams will flourish.