When dealing with student misbehavior, student apathy, or student complaints, it is easy for me to lose sight of the bigger picture and drown myself in feelings of unworthiness, aggravation, anger, and despair. That is where I found myself today. Like quicksand, the more my mind struggled with these frustrations, the deeper I was swallowed. Somehow, I managed to come to a calm center and allow myself to float back to the surface. In doing so, a forgotten truth reverberated within me. My students are afraid. The student who acts out, defiant and loud does so in reaction to fear. In the face of not understanding, this student goes on the attack. Like the vicious chihuahua, barking and biting at invaders twenty times its size, this student strikes first out of fear of being crushed by a mountain of information. The student who seems apathetic has developed this practiced disinterest in reaction to fear. Rather than fighting, this student's response is to hide. Like the frightened possum, immobile and vulnerable, this student claims a lack of interest in the hopes that the monstrous burden of knowledge will ignore and pass the student by. I need to remember that my students are often surrounded by fear: fear of taunting, fear of failure, fear of their future, and fear of disappointing family or friends. In many ways, they are the same fears that I find within myself. Like them, I often hold back or act out as a way to control the fears within me. If I am to truly reach my students and help them reach their true potential, I must help them recognize and face their fears and the truths behind them. It is fear that holds us back ... from life, from love, from knowledge, from dreams. We need to unfetter our minds and stop listening to the voice of despair. Only then will we truly reach our potential, only then will we be open to our destiny.
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