It is difficult when teaching to always choose the most suitable response in the moment. We can give ourselves the best possible chance of doing so if we give ourselves time, if we set ourselves to retain composure.
In 'The Fountain', Charles Morgan writes:
In 'The Fountain', Charles Morgan writes:
One must seek the stilling of the soul within the activities of the mind and body so that it might be still as the axis of a revolving wheel is still.
Through stillness, slowing down, quietening, waiting, we become able to teach with grace.
Teaching fundamentally requires patience. Those we teach might not yet be able to respond to the demands being made of them.
Knowing this requires that we adopt a kind of continuing unconditional forgiveness - renewal - towards the children we teach, as captured in this passage by Dorothy Heathcote:
One of the most rejuvenating things is to give everyone a fresh start each morning. The ability to do this is part of the condition of innocence. I think innocence has a chance of bringing with it enormous gaiety and trust, so that you walk into the classroom clean every morning, however mucky you are at the end of the day.
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In his book 'On Forgiveness', Richard Holloway provides a commentary on the parable of the Prodigal Son:
But while [the son] was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms round him and kissed him.
Holloway suggests that the key moment in this parable is the movement of the Father towards the son. We do not have to wait for the other to repent, to confess; the father's unconditional forgiveness causes a true change in the son.
What Holloway calls the, 'possibility of pure grace' can 'deliver the future to us'. This might be one of the most important things we can demonstrate to children.