Teaching Journal

Day 149, Thursday, May 21, 2009

 

     In a story I read recently, a character was described as wearing “beautiful garments” for some special occasion, and it started me thinking about why I dress up in my pressed shirt and bow tie each day. I guess I would simply say that each class is, for me, a special – a very special – occasion. Men wear ties and jackets to banquets and weddings because of the importance of the events, and I wear dressy attire in my classroom for the same reason. In fact, teaching children is an activity of far greater magnitude than eating at a banquet or celebrating at a wedding, so perhaps I should wear a tuxedo when I’m teaching. When we dress up for a special occasion, we ourselves feel  special  – like we’re not ordinary but extraordinary, not nobodies but somebodies of stature and prominence, and I feel exactly that way in my classroom. I am lucky to be taking part in the most honorable of all professions, and therefore I dress in an honorable manner. In my room, I feel like a dignitary, a distinctive celebrity of some sort, and I try my best to make my scholars feel the same way. They have their dress code, and I have mine, and together we’re dressed each day in our own kind of "beautiful garments" for a very exclusive event called English class.