Today was a school holiday and I was able to watch the Inauguration
in real-time. I watched because I love
this country and our capital city. I
watched because I feel that it is the right thing to do as a citizen. I watched because God needed me to listen.
What I found was my future.
In the few moments that it took Kelly Clarkson to sing a beautifulrendition of My Country Tis of Thee, it was suddenly clear. As I watched the flags wave, I remembered a
summer quite a few years ago when I worked on a special project at the Office
of Special Education Programs (OSEP). I left with clarity, a clarity I lost
but found again today. My Mission Statement
for a lack of better term for who I am and who I will become. Today, I take a great risk. I am sharing it with you.
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I am
a teacher. I am destined for
leadership. I believe in this country
and all it can and will be. I have
unique talents, gifts and insights that can lead others to a reality that we
can only hope for at this moment.
I
have a passion for teaching students that have significant and intellectual
disabilities. I am drawn for so many
reasons. Their courage; but also, what
they represent to the education of all children. You see, teaching those who appear to be the
most "un-teachable" or most “challenging” is a testament not only to
who we are as a society but what is truly possible. After all, if the child you think can not learn, does, then imagine
what will be achieved by the child you think is brilliant. If a method of teaching or curriculum works
with the child that others feel will be a “burden to society” their entire
lives, imagine what the child you think is our next great mind could be become.
And yet, imagining that future is almost impossible as it takes so many of us
outside the limits of what we believe humans could ever do no matter the
circumstances. I however, do believe in
that vision. I can see it in my heart
and know that it is a reality, not a dream.
A reality we simply haven’t yet reached. I will be a catalyst to reaching it. I do have leadership within me.
This
week I was asked what I am called to do that “requires passion, vision, hard
work, proverbial wisdom, and sacrificial love.”
My first reaction was teaching. Then I questioned it. Did I say teaching simply because it was what
occupied most of my day? Was I called to
it? Maybe I am just not enough.
I was
wrong, I was listening to others judgment not my heart. The inauguration for all its pageantry and
beauty reminded me that teaching is my passion. But a larger class than I had
considered. My passion reaches far
beyond teaching my class. It is about
teaching by example, by words, by hope.
I am
called to teach with passion, vision, hard work, proverbial wisdom, and
sacrificial love? YES! But, for the first time, I realize, that the
teaching I am being called to, is the teaching of our society. I will be a leader.
No,
I am a leader. I just took my first
step.
