Teaching, Living, and Learning: Journal: 10/31/05

Monday, October 31, 2005

Journal: 10/31/05

Yesterday, around 8:00 in the evening, I took a short walk down in the park, and what a rewarding time it was. There was no one else there, so I had the looming trees, the shadows, and the spring-like breezes to myself. I walked slowly and peacefully, taking in the beauty of this most astonishing park. I wondered, as I followed the paths, how I got so lucky to live next door to it. I especially noticed the lamps along the walk. Strange, but I had never walked in the park at night, so I was surprised by the quiet beauty of the lamps. Their lights were golden and soft, just throwing enough light onto the grass and trees to illuminate the mysterious beauty of the place. I sat for a few minutes by the lit-up fountain as it quietly splashed and changed colors in the darkness. I felt absolutely at peace. Somehow the universe had softly dropped me into this park early on a Sunday evening in autumn, and I was grateful for that. The breeze passed by as gently as my thoughts did.

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I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:
" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom:
"The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."
-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett