In the next 6 days I have a lot on my plate. If all goes as scheduled I will post a diary on an about to be published book which the author, a former writer for the Washington Post, asked that I read and review. I have been invited to attend as an observer a hearing on NCLB sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. I will attend political events to which I have been invited with Russ Feingold and Dan Maffei. I may at his request be part of a small group to have dinner with a U S Senator to talk about education. As one who wishes to influence educational policy several of these occasions seem to validate my efforts. As a politically active person all give me an opportunity to connect and thereby to have the possibility to make a difference. Several will clearly provide material about which I could blog and perhaps get some visibility for my efforts. Five events of interest, perhaps of some import. But none of these are the reason for my title.
On Thursday I will spend one-two hours with a young lady named Sara, who was my student when she was a freshman in high school in 1999-2000.
Sara was a very intelligent and intense young lady when I first encountered her. We had only casual contact during the rest of her high school career: her junior year I taught in another district, and while I did greet and congratulate her on graduation day, we were not in continuing contact. While she was my student we would occasionally chat by IM and especially via email. She was inquisitive, often wanted to pursue ideas to a depth that might not have interested others in the class.
One thing that was clear about Sara was a very strong sense of right and wrong, but this was combined with a deep willingness to attempt to understand why others might have a different opinion. For a freshman in high school she had an openness in discourse that was remarkable: she was comfortable enough in her own beliefs to be willing to expose them to challenge with anyone willing to discourse with respect. And since I so emphasize learning how to disagree without being disagreeable, perhaps this formed a stronger bond between us than might otherwise have been expected. I also should point out that at the time I taught Sara I was a member of a Conservative Jewish Congregation. This is relevant because Sara is very much shaped by her own Jewish heritage, and by the ethical traditions of Judaism, something which her parents have emphasized throughout her entire life. Perhaps that is one reason she has always been willing to think things through, to explore the consequences of reasoning and of actions.
I had not heard from Sara for more than a year when I received an email that started an extensive exchange between us, and in which her father also chose to join at one point. The first of many emails of our exchange came in the late evening of March 23, 2005. The occasion was the case of Terri Schiavo. Sara saw a possible parallel with history and I quote from that first email:
After viewing the movie "Judgment At Nuremberg", the comparison between this case and the killings in Nazi Germany is striking: the extermination of over 6 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals,and other "undesirables" was perfectly legal. I truly am horrified by the media-spin on this story and it seems to explain why the German people were desensitized to the mass killing in their own backyard. I hope I haven't offended you ad I look forward to hearing your thoughts and criticisms of what I have expressed in this matter.
I realize that many reading her words may have a visceral reaction: after all, most progressives supported the actions Michael Schiavo was taking towards Terri. My own position was that this was a very difficult issue and given what was known the deference had to be given to the husband in this case. I had some experience in dealing with my father as he faded from Alzheimer's, and in consultation with his court-appointed guardian and my sister agreed that we would not put in a feeding tube.
The point of my sharing part of Sara's first message is the way she phrased it. She had a point of view, realized that it potentially might offend me, but genuinely wanted to explore her thinking with me. It also meant that I was going to have to explore my own thinking with her, this could not be wisdom from the Mount on High from my end. Our exchanges, and a couple when she shared what we had written with her father including him, went on until June.
Three weeks ago I received another message from Sara. Now that she has graduated and is exploring what she really wants to do with her life, she wants to sit down and talk with me. She has made clear that this is very much influenced by the exchanges we had on Terri Schiavo and a whole host of related issues. She wants to talk about ethics and morality, and how one addresses them in the process of living a life focused on other things.
This is an example of what really matters. It gives me more validation than having a senator invite me to talk to him about education, or having people whose judgment I admire recommend a diary I post at dailykos. It is certainly of greater significance than having a letter to the editor published in a major metropolitan daily, or being asked by an author to read and review her latest book.
I became a teacher because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people. I am fortunate that I get to watch most of the students I teach, who used to be largely freshman and are now mainly sophomores, as they advanced through high school. I would occasional have a few stop by during their college years, especially when they were freshmen. I have a few who stay in intermittent contact, and when I spent time on IM would look for me to say "hi" and to share what was happening in their lives. Some send me invitations to their graduations, or ask advice about things political.
In "Schindler's List," a movie from which I had occasion to quote recently, there is a scene near the end when Schindler is given a ring on which has been inscribed a text from the Talmud. In the film, Ben Kingsley, playing Stern, explains:
It's Hebrew from the Talmud. It says, 'Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.'
I think of this line because it bears a relationship to my understanding of teaching. It is not that I have put myself at risk to physically save the life of even a single person. It is that to open the mind of a child can have consequences that one cannot imagine. Each mind opened, each student inspired to go further, is potentially the mind or the person that can make a huge difference in the world. That is the grand vision. Perhaps I cannot aspire to that.
But I can say that each student who is able to go further, to think more clearly, to take the risks intellectual and otherwise to go further than minimal requirements, is an improvement not only in their own lives and potential but also in the world in which we both live. It is like taking the time to find a trash can for one's litter, or perhaps picking up a piece of litter left by someone else and properly disposing of it. By such small actions we take responsibility that the world be no worse off by our individual actions and inactions than we first encountered it, and perhaps marginally better.
I have no idea what consequences may flow from our meeting, and I must respect Sara's privacy in what she chooses to share. I find myself simultaneously gratified and challenged that she would choose to reach out to me for this exchange. It reminds me that in what I say and do as much as in what I write for others to read I bear a responsibility and have an opportunity. The responsibility, as every reflective teacher knows, is that we never know what the impact of what we say and how we act will have upon those who observe it, not just those to whom it is directed. And the opportunity is that we get to complete a circle - that if we remain open and vulnerable those whom we have encountered can enrich and enliven our own existences.
My summer vacation is more than half over. I have already begun to reflect on what I might try differently this next year. As I am eligible to retire next June, I have wondered what else I might do with what is left of my life. The meeting with Sara will be not only an opportunity for her to explore her possibilities with me: it will be equally an opportunity for me to remind myself of why I became a teacher, and perhaps give me the motivation to continue in the classroom even beyond this forthcoming year.
I have a chance to be part of a difference in the life of one unique person, someone in whose life I have already played a part, and someone who turns to me with trust. As I am not a parent, this provides me with an opportunity for what some might call a legacy - how my life can live on through the lives of others. And yet, were that the sole motivation it would be insufficient. Because of the direct human interconnection, I can assist a sensitive and gifted young lady continue to grow, to find a way of truly being her best possible self. And it reminds me of the responsibility I have in every human interaction, to honor the uniqueness of that person at the same time as my very presence also represents our inevitable interconnectedness.
So let me take the Talmudic expression and rework it:
Whoever enhances one life, enhances the world entire.Or perhaps rephrase it like this: :
Whoever honors one life, honors the world entire.
And then I realize - saving a life is not that of facilitating the continued breathing and blood circulation: there are those who breathe who are dead inside. It was not merely physical life that Schindler saved, it was also his own, his soul.
I am a teacher. Should I leave the classroom that will not change. For me to be a teacher is not to inculcate knowledge, rather it is to participate in growing, exploring, learning, risking. It is to facilitate living fully.
On Thursday, if we can keep our schedule, I will have the opportunity to deepen my relationship with another unique human being. It is that which really matters. And for the opportunity that Sara is giving me I am not only honored, but exceedingly grateful.
Peace.
let me explain - I think all of our actions do have consequences, and that in our political actions we need to be able to think not only of groups of people, but of individual persons. Perhaps that is how I justify posting this on a site dedicated to electing Democrats.
It is very personal, and I realize that many here may not agree either with my posting it, or in the focus on individuals that this at least implicitly advocates.
And yet - I can take the Schindler and turn it around - he who ignores the individual life is as if he ignores the entire world. Perhaps that is not as clear. It does connect with my Quaker outlook of attempting to walk gladly across the earth answering that of God in each person I encounter.
I hope at least one other person finds this of value. I phrase it that way because the writing of it was of value to me, but the posting perhaps is justified only in the reactions of others. After all, what I think can be only the starting point of a dialog, as Sara's 2005 message to me exemplifies.
Peace.