Emotional power

Quote of the day:

This is one aspect of teaching I hadn't thought of until now - the emotional power teachers hold over children. [A student in class]

Tomorrow, I am on the road again, traveling back to my beloved Buffalo to see numerous old friends. But first, on the way, I must deliver a keynote speech. It is something different and I decided to use power point. And so, lately, I have been playing and experimenting with a lot that power point has to offer. What fun it has been! I decided to test out the almost final product with my students yesterday. They split up into groups representing faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and administrators, taking their roles and duties seriously and writing feedback for me at the end of the presentation. I felt supported and encouraged by them, not to mention learning much from their valuable suggestions.

"Emotional power," one student wrote about at the end. I have been thinking about that since reading her words. I decided to place her quote right at the beginning of the presentation. Because, for a long time now, I have known that our emotions have an impact on our relationships with young children, but when I read the word, "power," it elicits a different dimension in the discussion.

More dramatic, even, urgent.

I'll be away for a few days and am not sure about blogging time. I think I might be enjoying myself way too much, bathing and enveloping myself in the warmth of old friends who knew me then, and still know me now.

A year ago at Tamarika: A decision is made

Comments

[tamarika]

james,
Thank you for your comment and welcome to my site. I do believe this subject is complicted because so much of it has to do with feelings, and is embedded in our earliest emotional memory, which has connections with our subconscious.

[james]

good posts. It is funny how your talk about emotional power elicits such a postive response from me. When i was young, i thought nothing but of how negative all that emotional power was, but when i look back i just remember the tremendous inspiration i received. Sometimes i think i don't remember any of the facts, but it was in learning the facts that so much emotional power was transmitted to me. It still resonates very deeply.