Mindful-fun-da-mentals

Explorations of mind, paths, and life

Stretch

Posted on May 22, 2008 - Filed Under self reflect

[I started this blog on 5/22 – while agonizing over some feedback I got. Meanwhile, all is good now in the world of teaching. I still know that I can’t control what others see, I can only know myself. If I write, it I want it posted… so here goes.]

It seems that as much as I try, I will never have the full scope of the experience of others. It puts me, and others, at a huge disadvantage. Although I am certain that we, as humans, have common experiences or themes in our lives, I also know that I will not know what it is like to be male, or Jamaican, or a Muslim woman in America. I only stand with the eyes of the privilege I have, and just slivers of knowledge based on the stories I hear from others, the articles I read and what I can observe. As an instructor it can make things challenging. I never know what experiences have formed the personality of the students who attend a class. I can not predict the influence of my words, and tread carefully on topics, reminding students that we live off of generalizations that hardly encapsulate all there is. I have to use some generalizations, just as movies, comics, writers, poets, and musicians do, in order to reach some common place in the scope of what we are discussing, but that never means that THAT is the only view, or way, or perspective. Regardless, I find it frustrating that I can only use labels to describe. If I could meld into the mind of others it would be so much more. Such is the limitations of teaching, I guess.

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