Week three: Authenticity

Quote: "What we're all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection." - Oprah Winfrey

Authenticity seems to me to be one of the most valuable traits of a teacher. We've all had or known of a teacher who obviously didn't really care what was going on, despite trying to pretend they did. Personally I would rather a teacher obviously be apathetic about the subject and students than try to pretend they do care. Of course the best thing is if they really are interested in their subject and students, but if not, don't fake it, especially if you're bad at faking.

To a certain extent it's easy to fake emotions. We do it all the time. When someone asks "How're you?" a typical response is "Good! And you?" despite what may or may not be going on in our lives at that time. Most of the time the questioner doesn't really care that much about exactly how the other person is feeling, they're just trying to be polite. Both people realize this, probably subconsciously, and reply according to society's preset "rules."

When it comes to teacher...I guess this is true, but only to a certain extent. Favoritism is in this category. In my limited experience, it's impossible to not develop more affection for some kids than for others. The big thing is not showing them that. Like the textbook said, not showing favoritism is one of the top signs of a good teacher, and showing favoritism is one of the top signs of a bad teacher. You have to be willing to accept that you're going to have favorites, and then just don't let it influence you.

Self-reflection can tie into knowing what your limits are. Going back and thinking about what I've done, at least to some extent I can analyze whether or not I would have believed me, or whether I really believed what I was saying. Then I can focus on the next time in that kind of situation whether or not I'm being real or if I'm just sort of shrugging it off. Like in class when we were talking about trust, I think authenticity is a great way to build trust. If a kid can sense that you really do mean what you're saying, all the time, positive or negative, you'll get much better results, I think.