Sincerity In School

vs. hypocrisy

Doing what is right with transparent motives

To practice Sincerity I will:

take responsibility for my own actions
always mean what I say
respect others’ opinions
not take advantage of other people
be my truest self

“Teaching Sincerely”

When I started teaching at the college level, I chose to be a helpful, compassionate teacher interested in student learning. It didn’t take long to realize that many students took advantage of my niceness as they saw it as a weakness they could exploit. When the next semester started, my opening remarks were quite different. I had to be harsh and unyielding to set the appropriate expectations. This felt very insincere since that isn’t who I was. That didn’t mean that I didn’t help students who were truly struggling, so in time I learned to live with the opening remarks. I realized it was a way to call them to accountability from the beginning and encourage high performance. And that did align with who I was as a teacher.

How does being a teacher align with who you are?