If I were a teacher the first thing I would do would be…

If I were a teacher the first thing I would do would be to give my class some perspective. Perspective not just about the class, but about life and purpose. I would ask them to evaluate what they really wanted out of life. Whether it be family, money, respect, friendship, etc. Then I would ask them if they were pursuing that goal. Whether or not they were really going after the things in life that matter. Second, I would have them list out a set of values. Values that shape and define them. I would ask them to make values based decisions. Many people have mental values that they never act upon. You have the executive who values family time, yet works overtime at his job for his family. His decisions don’t match his values, and this process could continue indefinitely if he never examines the way in which he makes decisions. I would emphasize to my class that the work they did in my class is valuable for a few reasons. First, it is valuable for the since the subject has valuable and is useful in life. Second, in the class they will develop skills and abilities, the most critical of which is learning more new skills and abilities. Third, the grade they receive may help them in graduating, and pursuing their goals outside of the classroom. I will emphasize that their participation in class is important but that it is not the most important thing in life. Their grade in particular is not the most important thing in life. Family for example is more important than getting a good grade. If they had to sacrifice their grade to spend more time with their family or fulfill family obligations that would be a good values based decision. Their character is more important than the grade they receive. It would be better to be an honest person with a poor grade than to be a liar with a higher average. In the end being an honest person is more important than having a flawless GPA. I’ve had teachers tell me some of these things, some of them I have learned on my own. Whenever I encounter teachers who are honest about the importance of life outside of the classroom, I tend to do learn more from them, sometimes about their subject but always about life.

In an effort to continue giving you more posts. I selected today’s topic from this website and used the write or die web app to motivate me to write for 10 min.

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