From the Back Porch
by
Jane Vella
Global Learning Partners Founder
Honesty
It is always a privilege to come
to you from my back porch. The tea kettle is singing! Welcome!
Today I am thinking
about honesty. It has been difficult for me to accept my new
role as "retired" and to acknowledge that I simply
do not have the energy I had in the past. When I wrote a note
recently to say that I could not do a particular job, it brought
tears to my eyes. There is real grieving here.
I see this linked
for all of us to what Paulo Freire calls "the death of
the professor." His words were: "Only the student
can name the moment of the death of the professor." I realized
some years ago that I could name the moment of the death of
the professor in me when I had a real Dialogue Education design
and I was learning along with the others. I was the student
naming that moment.
There is a sadness
in giving up power, no doubt. Mothers and fathers feel that
as their children go off to school - first grade or first year
at university. When I use Dialogue Education and am not the
center of attention in the room; when learning is going on among
students who are absorbed and don't need me; when it becomes
difficult to draw learners back from their work-I feel both
joy at our mutual learning, and wistfulness at the remembrance
of things past: Professor Jane!
I know that the joy, not the wistfulness,
lasts. And I am somewhat hopeful that this new role will be
fruitful and sweet, full of quiet contemplation and long snoozes.
The tea kettle is always on - and singing.
Welcome!
email
Jane
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