As adults we have a very important role to play in the lives of our children’s live, what they will believe today and what they will become as a result of those beliefs tomorrow.
When they see and hear us complain and even cower against the troubles and difficulties of this world, they begin to lose their ability to dream and believe big and begin to dream and believe in themselves less.
When we stand up for what’s right and stop the train of what is in its tracks we teach them to do the same.
I’ve made a deal with my principal (who is just trying to follow the rules given to her). Once I get the students to the curriculum-approved target Level of 3, I can work with them on my School of Athens life-changing levels 4-10.
I’ll tell these new students that I’ll meet in one week that all we have to do is learn and grow to the minimum level of achievement before we can go to the much higher levels.
Stand strong and stop the Level 1 train, the Level 2 train, and the Level 3 train.
Now you get to become a superhero and learn to stop the Level 4, 5, 6, etc trains until you become so strong that you’re picking them up and throwing them across the sky.
****They can’t see themselves doing this until they see the adults around them doing it.
Teachers Don’t Make Heroes out of Hope ~ We Make them Happen out of Hard Work Forged in the Fires of Pushing Ourselves to our Limits
But getting our students to achieve a Level 3 in school is only helping them become successful in school.
Where the real fun begins, and the test of your heart and that deep body-building type of strength, is at the Level 4 and above:
What wakes me and taps into my hunger to do this is creating levels based on some of the “School of Athens” greatest thinkers and achievers
LEVEL 4 ~ Enheduanna, Sappho, and Hypatia; three women of ancient history that allows me to give powerful, irrefutable evidence to the girls, and boys in class that women can be just as great as any man and can work just as hard to achieve it.
These three women alone cover almost 3,000 years of history (2300 BCE - 415 CE) and have taught or inspired greatness in others, such as…..
LEVEL 5 ~ The Seven Sages of Delphi, who taught/inspired….
LEVEL 6 ~ Socrates, who taught/inspired…..
LEVEL 7 ~ Plato, who taught/inspired…..
LEVEL 8 ~ Aristotle, who tutored.inspired…..
LEVEL 9 ~ Alexander the Great, who inspired……
LEVEL 10 ~ Hannibal, who teaches and inspires us to either find a way or make one!
This is the level I feel I have to get them to. This is the level that will set them free today, tomorrow, and forever.
But this is the level that challenges me the most and makes me want to quit the most out of feeling the most exhaustion and frustration, not with them but with me not being smart enough yet to get them here.
Getting them excited and to want it is easy. Getting them to be able to do it is hard.
And if I’m not hard enough to push myself to a physical, emotional, and mental LEVEL 10 what is the reality of me being able to push them and get them there?
Teachers don’t make heroes out of hope. We make them happen out of hard work forged in the fires of pushing ourselves to our limits.
I have no desire to look like a bodybuilder, not that it’s wrong, it’s just not why I want to push myself so hard physically.
Teaching is tough. We need to be tougher. It’s hard. We need to be harder.
Personally, my body or outer appearance and ability is for my children, my woman, and my tribe of people that exist around me.
My inner body is for making sure all my students grow and achieve the learning targets, or Level 3s throughout the year.
My Inner~Inner body is at the cellular level where my belief and passion become so dense that they collide as hydrogen atoms at the core of the Sun producing light and heat for an entire solar system…………
Just like every teacher can do for their entire classroom, when the core of our being is so hard and dense that dreams and beliefs flow like lava and come alive in the hearts and eyes of our students.
Your outer muscular strength is not as important as your inner muscular and mental strength.
With your outer strength and stamina you can play with your children, please your woman, and protect your people; especially the children of the world and in your tribe.
But it cannot help you pursue your dreams and hold onto others until they are strong enough to hold onto their own.
When we concentrate more on our inner strength then the world will become less impressed with our outer strength, and real changes will be made.
