I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration;
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides
whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,
and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become
what they are capable of becoming.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Write to Renew
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One of our previous graduates, the talented Jay Nahani, is leading us in a
Write to Renew workshop June 14th. For writers and non-writers alike, this
one-d...
Thank you, Rick. I need to copy this out on a beautiful piece of paper and frame it somewhere for me to read first thing every morning as a reminder.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to the four of you!!! xo
I love this, I think it's brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI posted it in my friends-only journal and one of my friends was intrigued enough to try and trace what book it came from. He discovered that it's actually misattributed to Goethe and instead an adaptation of this:
I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized
From Haim Ginott's 1995 book Teacher and child: A book for parents and teachers
Thought you might care to know.
Btw, I've been reading your blog for sometime and really enjoy it. Thanks!