The last section in the book “Teaching Hope” is one that needs no extra words, “Empowerment”. Throughout the entirety of the book we find that teachers are trying to reach, guide, educate and empower students with not just academic knowledge but life lessons. This last section really brings the book home, close to your heart, and puts teaching in the perspective of no longer being a profession but being a piece of whom you are. Taking chances within the classroom whether it be for a lesson plan, an activity, or with a student is something that never ceases to be important. Learning and growing not just in success but in failure is the only way to truly educate yourself and your students.
Confronting problems in the classroom may not just be a problem about an assignment but rather about someone’s ethnicity, race, gender, religion, home life, the community, other beliefs or something central to who they are and want to become. Being able to confront these problems and really work them out WITH your students is one way to integrate not just each student but the school, the community, and others across the country. Investing into each student and into ourselves as a teach is key in being able to relate and understand each student. We can mentor, guide, coach, and help all we want but students need to make this decision on their own. Teaching students or giving them the tools they need, to make these decisions for change is what empowers their lives.
As much as we want to help each and every student become the very best they can be in our eyes, we must help them to be the very best in their own eyes. Giving students the “light bulb” to see what they are capable of, the joy and nervousness of anticipation, the appreciation for challenges of life, the willingness to engage in not just the classroom but the world they live in, the courage to overcome disillusionments of everything and everyone around them, the strength to become rejuvenated after a long struggle academically or in life, and the power to lead the life they have hoped for, dreamed of and deserve is the “job” of a teacher.
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