My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

Whenever injustice, oppression, hatred, fear, or just plain stupidity invade my social media feeds, I tilt at windmills and post my thoughts, fears, and opinions.\

Sure, I am a nobody, with a small number of followers and no more expertise than simple common sense, and I often get called on that by others. Who am I to think my opinion matters? Why do I think I can have any effect on what is happening in the world? How dare I have an opinion?

A few weeks ago I wrote that I post and share not to try and change the minds of others, but rather support those who share my opinions and let them know that they are NOT crazy and other people also see the problems they see. You can’t force anyone to change their mind. You can offer support, evidence, reasoning, data, but only they can decide to change their mind.

So why do I continue posting? This phrase came to me last night…

“100 pebbles still have weight when thrown together.”

Alone, I am one pebble, tapping at a stone wall. Online, with many others, we are a hundred, a thousand, a million pebbles making our mark individually and collectively on the walls of injustice, oppression, hatred, and fear. Perhaps in this way, we can give change a little nudge — a middling push — a heavy shove — in the right direction.

Use your pebble wisely!

Photo: NeONBRAND

I was chatting with a long time friend today on our private Discord server and he was telling us how he was about to start teaching his first remote class for his Junior High students. This man is one of the best educators I know. He is knowledgeable not only in technology, his educational topics of specialization but also in education itself.

It surprised me a bit when he confessed he was feeling very nervous about his first class. Again, this person is someone I consider an educator’s educator, but as with all of us, doubt can creep in at the oddest times.

Partly this is because we all consistently under-acknowledge and undervalue our own knowledge and skills. It seems to be a universal trait of human nature. Sure, there are the narcissistic and arrogant among us, but I believe the majority of us carry doubts and fears about our own abilities and in most cases these doubts and fears are baseless.

How do I know this? It is because I suffer in the same, human, way as everyone else. We always need to look for a trusted external source to tell us the truth about our own knowledge and skills. These are the friends who know when to tell us we are full of sh*t and know when we are not giving ourselves enough credit. It is here we find the truth which we can find so hard to see ourselves.

So, yes, it can be a little scary, a little stressful, even a bit panic-inducing but trust me, you’ve got this. You know how to do this and you know how to do it well. Will there be hiccups? Sure! Not every day in the classroom runs as smoothly as you might wish, but in the end, you (and your students) will be fine. You will get through this, together, and learn much along the way.

In fact, you might even find your skills growing with new innovations that you have been wanting to try but didn’t have space or time. Being forced into remote teaching might be the best thing for education in decades. Sometimes we need extraordinary circumstances — and the freedom to address those circumstances — to really grow in our profession, no matter what it might be.

Again, you’ve got this. I know because I know you. I can see the person you can’t always see in yourself.

What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments!