Educators like a lot of professionals do have strong
egos. We want to be considered experts in our fields, we want our reputations
to be flawless, and pity the fool who does not follow our logic or does not know
what we know!
However, sometimes we are simply wrong, because to
be human is to make mistakes. Sometimes we let our egos get the best of us and
we end up insulting someone who does not deserve it, we end up underserving our
students, or we end up becoming legends in our own minds and believing our own
hype.
If you have like-minded, dedicated individuals, with
the same qualifications, do you really need to point out that you went to a
traditional school versus their non-traditional newer school? Maybe there was
no possible way for the other person to give up everything for school; it does
not make them less qualified, especially if they did the work. It seems like we
are now measuring whose PhD is bigger instead of measuring what we need to do
to achieve the mission, and measuring the intention our hearts.
There is an old story about two women talking about two
different British politicians who they met. The first lady went on and on about
how this man was “the smartest man in the room”. The other lady thought about
it for a second and said: “this other man made
me feel like smartest person in the room”. Are you making those around you
feel valuable, or are you constantly belittling them?
Sometimes we need to step back and get our egos in
check, sometimes we have to remember what our mission is, and sometimes we have
to remember who this is really all about.
It is not about us, it is about the students.
Educators, stay humble.
Dr
Flavius A B Akerele III
The
ETeam
As one who has a dual career of K-12 education and nursing, I find that you could substitute doctors and nurses for educators and patients for students
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