This morning when I looked in the mirror I saw a new wrinkle. Right there inching along on my forehead, something I swore was not there before. I look younger than I am and yet the signs of time will cover my face slowly but certainly. It makes me wonder when will people think that I am outdated? That my teaching no longer is fresh or new? When will parents request the other teacher simply because they seem to have more energy?
Teachers seem to have a shorter shelf life these days. Like our glory days of innovation are numbered and one can only have so many new ideas, and only when in their prime years. Yet, I see teacher much older than me generate ideas that I could never even fathom. Come up with lessons that students talk about years later. And yet the credit goes to the young, the fresh, the energetic but only if they look it.
Can an idea still be fresh if thought of by an older mind? Will the general consensus continue to be that new must come from the young, the innovative, the ones that are most tapped in? Can we change the stigma of the aging teacher and how their ideas lose merit with the years of use? Or is this simply a product of my aging imagination that wonders whether I will be old and my ideas will lose their luster? Are teachers judged more on their ideas than their age? Can innovation be embraced when it comes from someone older than you or must it always be packaged as coming from the next generation?
Teachers seem to have a shorter shelf life these days. Like our glory days of innovation are numbered and one can only have so many new ideas, and only when in their prime years. Yet, I see teacher much older than me generate ideas that I could never even fathom. Come up with lessons that students talk about years later. And yet the credit goes to the young, the fresh, the energetic but only if they look it.
Can an idea still be fresh if thought of by an older mind? Will the general consensus continue to be that new must come from the young, the innovative, the ones that are most tapped in? Can we change the stigma of the aging teacher and how their ideas lose merit with the years of use? Or is this simply a product of my aging imagination that wonders whether I will be old and my ideas will lose their luster? Are teachers judged more on their ideas than their age? Can innovation be embraced when it comes from someone older than you or must it always be packaged as coming from the next generation?
