FEAR!

We've all heard it, time and again, "there's nothing to fear except fear itself", however, have you ever really thought about it? Until this past week, I have to admit no! What exactly is fear, and why do we fear it?In the dictionary, fear is defined as "A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger." So then we could say that this feeling of fear is always brought upon by something else. I would say that one way of overcoming fear is to determine what is causing the feeling in the first place. It would be to determine the "danger".

As far as teaching goes, the idea of fear exists, yes, but what are the "dangers" that teachers face? There are so many that it would be impossible to list them all, however, perhaps by categorizing them we would be able to have a better understanding of where they come from and how to deal with them. In Palmer's article, he labels different kinds of fears. He divided them into four categories: 1. The fear of live encounters 2. The fear of conflict 3. The fear of losing identity 4. The fear of transformation/personal change. We each deal with these dangers within our own classrooms, almost on a daily basis. However, just as Palmer has said, "My fear that I am teaching poorly may be not a sign of failure but evidence that I care about my craft. My fear that a topic will explode in the classroom may be not a warning to flee from it but a signal that the topic must be addressed. My fear of teaching at the dangerous intersection of the personal and public may be not cowardice but confirmation that i am taking the risks that good teaching requires." So maybe, the fact that we are able to either label or categorize our fears means that we are being "good" teachers. It all goes back to that! I would say that if we are unable to notice and face our fears then are we ever able to become GOOD teachers? Probably not.


My co-op and I talk about our fears a lot, and I never really thought about how seriously they affect my teaching or the community environment that exists in my school. Palmer mentioned, "In a culture where fear is the air we breathe, it is hard to see how deeply fearful our education is - let alone imagine another way to teach and learn." So often I think about my fear of only being able to teach the way I was taught. I know that we've talked about this a lot, but yet I'm always worried that if during my lesson something doesn't go well, what will I do? Will I resort to the ways I was taught?

Another interesting thought that my co-op and I have discussed is actually brought on because of our lunch duity. As we stand there everyday watching the kids eat their lunches, making sure that they stay in the cafeteria and that other students that don't have that lunch stay out, we've talked about what would happen if the kids decided to rebel? How would we stop them? In all reality, we couldn't. If they all decided to get up and stamped out, there is no way physically possible that we could actually stop them. So what's keeping them in their seats? What's stopping them?! Their own fear!