Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” The root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart.
During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens whether we like it or not.
Maya Angelou
A friend told me a story today about helping a man in a parking lot whose car battery had died. The man told him he had asked five other people –all had declined to help him. We think fear must have been at least part of people’s refusal to help a fellow person. Fear reduces us. Courage strengthens us.
A few ideas to sustain courage and not allow anything to reduce your humanity.
- Link with colleagues. Young teachers often rely on the depth of experience and perspective that veteran teachers bring. Veteran teachers rely on younger colleagues’ fresh perspectives and learning. Colleagues who understand, who help me believe I’m not crazy, and who work with me on finding strategies are possibly the most important part of how I continue.
- Find guidance in stories, quotes, poems—not merely as good news or inspiration, but as wisdom, reminders, and pointers to prevail in an ongoing struggle to save the soul of education.
- Take lessons from the civil rights era, from Cesar Chavez’ migrant workers’ boycott, from current environmental activists. Like recycling, reusing, using public transportation, turning our heat down at night to reduce our own carbon footprints, we do as many small things as we can in our school lives to resist the juggernaut of test control.
- Speak up with allies when possible so you are not a lonely voice, easily dismissed, but part of a loud chorus.