Writing is a unique academic endeavor in that its purposes move beyond academic advancement and into personal healing, growth and discovery. Through writing, we can unveil insight into our own selves that we couldn't have uncovered by any other means. Reading is much the same. Literature presents ideas about society and culture, and thus allows us to wrestle with relevant topics in tangible ways, allows us to form our own opinions, inspires and frees us to evolve and become. Thus, English educators, in a position to guide their students through these processes, have opportunity to bear incredibly powerful and influential roles in the lives of their students.
In her article, "Towards a Restorative English Education", Maisha Winn proposes a new approach to English Education that allows freedom for her students to create their own literate identity by exploring ideas about race, sexism, classism, and other issues of injustice that cause students to feel isolated, demoralized and discriminated against. She fights for a classroom that rejects labels and instead embraces justice and freedom by promoting healing and restoration. She believes every student is constantly evolving and becoming, and it is our job as educators to allow space for that, and to believe in the vision students have for themselves. This type of restorative approach to teaching has a goal that is motivated by morals rather than academic proficiency. It is facilitated by students sharing life experiences and backgrounds, and being completely vulnerable in the process to promote healing or new personal discovery. Its purpose is to generate unique literate identities among the students, and thus perhaps personal identity as well. In so many words, Winn is proposing that our teaching practices should have, at their very origin, a moral vision or goal that fuels our teaching.
This approach to English Education encompasses my original inspiration to pursue the education field in the first place. My personal worldview has been heavily shaped by former educators, their influence on my life reaching far beyond the borders of mere academics. The most powerful and effective teachers I have had have invested in who I was becoming, not just in my academic progress. They inspired me and challenged me to grow and believed in who I was evolving into. Yes, they contributed and facilitated my progress as a student, but they didn't stop there. They invested into me, and it was this that changed my world--my view of myself and the course of my life.
This is the type of teacher I desire to be: a world-changer. Not just a teacher, but a woman who inspires growth, who believes in her students, who speaks freedom into the spaces of injustice and rejects the labels her students are subjected to. I want my teaching to be shaped by the desire to see my students become, to find their identity and be free in it. Writing is the powerful platform in which we can explore our identities and become together, and this is the type of classroom I envision and dream for.
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