Quote:
Originally Posted by Cantando  I am happy that you and Michael feel strong and confident enough to take on all-comers and it give it your best shot. |
I don't feel this. This is why I'm not taking on all comers. For instance, I've been extremely skeptical of my own ability to teach a class, so I'm very hesitant about applying to Teach for America, because I'm not convinced I could handle it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cantando But, is it not conceivable, and within the realms of possibly, that something could happen to you, for which you are not prepared, something so horrific and overpowering, that you could not fathom or comprehend it, let alone fight it? |
Happens every day. But I see no reason to magnify and dramatize the enormity of life's difficulties such that I can gain nothing from experiencing them. I'd rather choose to learn, rather than choose to become a blubbering idiot crying for mommy.
You choose your reaction to what life throws at you, whether it be nasty or nice.
Terrible things happen daily, hourly. And yet, nothing is so monstrous as to be incomprehensible. It was difficult, thousands of years ago, to understand why storms would boil out of the desert and flood the hot, dry region with lightning and water; but we've begun to understand why now. Why do the stars' position remain fixed in the sky? Why do the clouds glow with an eerie, yet beautiful, color in that short time before dusk? Why do people kill one another? Why do people stand by when others are being abused and tortured? Why do beaten wives go back to their husbands? Why do children bully one another? Why do we torture and humiliate others? Why do we process and systematize a genocide? Why do former neighbors take up machetes and slice us to pieces? Why do we rape, pillage, plunder, nuke?
It can be understood. It is
being understood. And the process of understanding is what education is.