From the Frank McCourt video and class discussion, I was struck by what McCourt calls the "ideal" of being honest as a teacher. He compares teaching to good acting, which, he suggests, is best done when you do your lines but be yourself. He suggests we need to "drop the mask." I have been reflecting some on the comparison of teaching with acting. For most people, "acting" means to put on a different persona, to adopt a different personality. And yet, if McCourt is right, the best actors are those who are in some significant way working out of who they are as people. I find this to be a very helpful parallel to thinking about teaching. Surely we have to "act" at times as teachers: we will not always be in the right mood or mindset to teach. We will need to be able to put on our "teacher self." And yet, teaching would seem to require a deep level of honesty and appropriate vulnerability. Student transformation and growth (and all genuine learning) means more than the transfer of information -- students are impacted not only by the content of what they learn but by the experience of learning it from a person. I am pondering that line between "acting" and showing up genuinely day by day and look forward to growing in my understanding of this space inhabited by the teacher.
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