Ten Paths to Becoming an Educational Artist

 
 
The first three paths paraphrase Sun Tzu, Chinese military philosopher:  
    1. Know yourself. 
    2. Know your students, parents, colleagues, and administrators.  

    3. Know your community. 

The next seven paraphrase the thinking of a school of Shaolin martial arts:  
    4. Patience. You must give yourself time.  

    5. Perseverance. You must stick with it--commit.  

    6. Practice hard--you must work at it, focus.  

    7. Practice what you want to perform--you must focus on what you want to do, then try to do it. Then reflect. Did you work your plan? Correct what you have not done well and reward yourself for what went well  

    8. Meditation--To still the mind and thus control the body, to pass beyond the ego, that is the beginning point of critical educators. Your mind is the catalyst of the classroom. Your breath allows your mind to live. Be here now. Watch your breath.  

    9. Passion--you must decide to love what you do--and do it lovingly.  

    10. Create a place where gaining and testing knowledge can thrive. It makes no difference if it is an elegant classroom or a cave, you must make it your space in which people are safe to take the risks to think critically. 

 
 
 
 
 
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