It Matters What We Believe
Implementing Lyon Fah’s other beliefs can transform lives whether in the classroom or beyond. When we see others forlorn, tired, unhappy, disinterested, disheveled, or discombobulated, we have a choice. Invoking the wisdom of her other beliefs in these circumstances is “expansive,” brings in “sunshine,” and creates “gateways opening wide vistas for exploration.” At the same time, we “nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal worth in ourselves and others.”
If we are a parent or a teacher, we may see a child “weaken” herself, and “blight the growth of [her] resourcefulness.” We know that depression and suicide are on the rise in the young. But we also know that children are “pliable like young saplings, ever growing” to whom we can offer love and support toward “the upward thrust of life.” We can choose to nurture that.
Lyon Fahs’s poem invites you to assess how you live, work, and if you are teacher, how you teach. Where do you appear choosing “some beliefs?” Where do you appear choosing “other beliefs”? Some beliefs constrict, impede, weaken, and are divisive. Other beliefs are gateways opening wide vistas for exploration. Commit to the latter and discover that “It Matters What We Believe.”
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward” (Kierkegaard)
I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Substack or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.
