Reflections on (and for) Lent, #6
Last night on a popular news program that host talked about what Catholics give up for Lent. I rolled my eyes. Misinformed news people!
I am reading, finally, Parker Palmer's book, The Courage to Teach. It is, well, not convicting, because I doubt that is what he wants and I am getting tired of framing everything in terms of sin or not sin. But it is challenging, because while I am a teacher and it takes up the biggest amount of my time and effort, I do not reflect on "my self" as a teacher, the integrity and identity aspect of it. I focus on creating conditions for learning, which is a good thing, but take myself out of the equation. I dismiss it because I know I have the charisma of a Bic pen, and I don't want my students to remember me but the big ideas of the course. I say that--but I do want them to remember me just as I want to, and try to remember them, which is very difficult since I've had well over 2,000, maybe 3,000 students sit in my classes over the years.
Identity and integrity are the core of any exploration of the self, though. What is my identity as a Christian and how to I keep integrity--wholeness--in that process. I think that is the message of the journey to the cross called Lent. Now, the doing of it, is a different matter.
I am reading, finally, Parker Palmer's book, The Courage to Teach. It is, well, not convicting, because I doubt that is what he wants and I am getting tired of framing everything in terms of sin or not sin. But it is challenging, because while I am a teacher and it takes up the biggest amount of my time and effort, I do not reflect on "my self" as a teacher, the integrity and identity aspect of it. I focus on creating conditions for learning, which is a good thing, but take myself out of the equation. I dismiss it because I know I have the charisma of a Bic pen, and I don't want my students to remember me but the big ideas of the course. I say that--but I do want them to remember me just as I want to, and try to remember them, which is very difficult since I've had well over 2,000, maybe 3,000 students sit in my classes over the years.
Identity and integrity are the core of any exploration of the self, though. What is my identity as a Christian and how to I keep integrity--wholeness--in that process. I think that is the message of the journey to the cross called Lent. Now, the doing of it, is a different matter.
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