Jane's Pocket Change: The Courage to Teach
Springtime in independent schools is truly crazy-busy. We welcome newly accepted families, ask our students to look ahead and choose their program for next year, support our seniors as the final college decisions come along.
Springtime in independent schools is truly crazy-busy. We welcome newly accepted families, ask our students to look ahead and choose their program for next year, support our seniors as the final college decisions come along.
And we prepare ourselves for good-byes, not only as seniors graduate but as teachers retire or move on to other opportunities. It is a complex time full of multi-layered emotions and in the midst of this time of turbulence, we seek new teachers and staff members to join us for the next school year.
CSW, as you know, is part of the Progressive Education Lab (PEL), a four-school collaborative that was formed to train teachers new to the profession. One of the questions we ask applicants to the program (and yes, we are working through the PEL applicants right now too!) is: “Teaching is hard; teaching in a progressive school is harder; why do you want to do this?” So as I turn to spring and all the events and activities that accompany it, I turn to this idea of courage.
In Parker J. Palmer’s seminal book on teaching The Courage to Teach, Palmer talks about the power of beginning movements that create change. He articulates that “the starting point of a movement…happens when isolated individuals decide to live divided no more. These people come together to claim the identity and integrity from which good living, as well as good teaching, comes.”
There’s a lot of courage in teaching, and CSW teachers take up the mantle every day; just as their students take intellectual risks, our teachers put themselves on the line—all in the interest of growth and the power of community.
So yes, it’s crazy-busy. But a time like this is one where we must look more deeply to the roots of why we are here, why we do what we do and how rewarding it is to be in teaching and schools. Here’s to all of my courageous colleagues.
_____________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
And we prepare ourselves for good-byes, not only as seniors graduate but as teachers retire or move on to other opportunities. It is a complex time full of multi-layered emotions and in the midst of this time of turbulence, we seek new teachers and staff members to join us for the next school year.
CSW, as you know, is part of the Progressive Education Lab (PEL), a four-school collaborative that was formed to train teachers new to the profession. One of the questions we ask applicants to the program (and yes, we are working through the PEL applicants right now too!) is: “Teaching is hard; teaching in a progressive school is harder; why do you want to do this?” So as I turn to spring and all the events and activities that accompany it, I turn to this idea of courage.
In Parker J. Palmer’s seminal book on teaching The Courage to Teach, Palmer talks about the power of beginning movements that create change. He articulates that “the starting point of a movement…happens when isolated individuals decide to live divided no more. These people come together to claim the identity and integrity from which good living, as well as good teaching, comes.”
There’s a lot of courage in teaching, and CSW teachers take up the mantle every day; just as their students take intellectual risks, our teachers put themselves on the line—all in the interest of growth and the power of community.
So yes, it’s crazy-busy. But a time like this is one where we must look more deeply to the roots of why we are here, why we do what we do and how rewarding it is to be in teaching and schools. Here’s to all of my courageous colleagues.
_____________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.