Trust

In The Courage to Teach, Palmer addresses the issue of relational trust as "a vital but neglected factor in school success."  He cites all kinds of research which shows that schools full of teachers who report strong trust and far more likely to create improvement in reading and math scores.  He points out that schools like mine, where we high numbers of students in poverty and large numbers of students who are constantly moving in and out of our boundaries, creating lasting improvement is more difficult than in schools that are predominantly upper middle class.  No surprise there.

As I prepared to take over the job of English department chairperson, I assessed the needs, strengths, and liabilities of the department.  One of the things it did not take a particularly observant person to notice is the fact that morale in the department is incredibly low.  Some of us eat lunch together, trying to cobble together something that sounds like community, but we are all struggling under the pressure of improving test scores, getting students to class on time, making students complete class work, responding to cheating, and all the other things that often feel like the world's largest syringe sucking out the joy of teaching.

My response to the eroding morale has always been to take time on teacher workdays to sit and visit with colleagues.  To listen to them.  That provides a temporary help, but not a cultural shift toward people hearing each other.  We are so focused on the checklist of the day that we hear a new teacher's anger at a student not complying with directions and respond the fast way: with ideas for solutions and complaints of our own.  But we don't hear the fear, the worry of "what if I lose this kid's attention and the rest of them mutiny."  

The response that young teacher needs is empathy and compassion.  It's the response we all need.  It is the response that builds trust.

About a week ago I was wishing to make a change that I was afraid would make the outgoing department chairperson feel marginalized.  I voiced this concern to a colleague who said, "Did you grow up around passive agressive people?  Because you really worry more about other people's feelings than most people do."  It was a truly interesting question.  It wasn't accusatory, just curious.  It allowed me to pick it up like a stone at the river I would consider bringing home with me.  I turned it over in my mind for days, wondering if he was right.

I saw the evidence he spoke of.  I do consider other people's potential feelings before they even have a chance to feel them.  I do strategize my actions and consider how other people would feel.  When someone might be angry with me, I go out of my way to find them and make peace.  

I don't know if that inclination comes from being around passive aggressiveness or what.  Don't care really.  Because wherever it comes from, though it causes me problems now and then, it also allows me to build relational trust with people.  Palmer says, "Relational trust is built on movements of the heart such as empathy, commitment, compassion, patience, and the capacity to forgive."  I claim the truth that I am good at those things (usually).  

I desire to find a way to create a team of teachers who can hear each other suffer and sit in empathy and compassion while the speaker sorts things out.  I want to create a safe place where good teachers can take risks and try to new things so they become stronger.