When Teachers Face Themselves

This book is concerned with the strivings, satisfactions, hopes, and heartaches that pervade the teacher’s life and work. It deals with aspirations and struggles which large numbers of teachers have described and which all of us share. It searches into meanings we all seek to embrace. While it centers on teachers, most of what it contains applies to people in other walks of life. It has been written for teachers with the help of teachers. The research findings underlying it are noted mainly in the Appendix. The emphasis in the text is on what these findings mean from a personal point of view.

This is a personal document, for the voices of those who helped prepare it speak through it. Many of them, in the course of the study, glowed with the dedication of their calling, bristled with anger, trembled with fear, wept as only troubled souls can weep. Many of them unveiled a little of the pride and shame and tenderness people usually keep concealed from one another, and they also voiced hopeful expectations of things to be. They spoke in the language through which people reveal their weaknesses. This is also the language of humility and courage and kindness, through which people reveal their strength.

The author and his associates have also tried to speak with this voice, for the concerns expressed by the people in this study are our concerns. Many of them said they have been anxious—so have we. Many spoke of their loneliness—we, too, have tasted the loneliness that flows through so many of the tides of life. Many said they search for meaning—we, too, are involved in this search. Many expressed faith and hope; unless we shared this hope, there would be no point in undertaking a study such as this, and it would be foolish to remain in the teaching profession.

Contents

FOREWORD Stephen M. Corey

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Background and Theme

Major Concerns

Underlying Sources

CHAPTER TWO

Anxiety

Anxiety as an Essential Concept in Education

The Nature and Some of the Conditions of Anxiety

Some Theories of Anxiety

Anxiety and Fear

Perception, Feeling, and Impulse in Anxiety

Anxiety in Childhood and Youth

Teachers’ Reactions to the Personal Implications of Anxiety

CHAPTER THREE

Loneliness

Conditions Contributing to Loneliness

Loneliness and Self-Alienation

Homelessness

CHAPTER FOUR

The Search for Meaning

Education and the Search for Meaning

Helping Others through Facing Oneself

Hopelessness and Despair

The Paradox of Meaninglessness

Religion

Humility

CHAPTER FIVE

Sex

CHAPTER SIX

Hostility

Externalized Hostility

The Feeling of Being Abused

Using the Arts of Love to Accomplish the Purposes of Hate

Hostility in Education

Attitudes toward Authority

Hostility, Guilt, and Anxiety

The Right to Be Angry

CHAPTER SEVEN

Compassion

Love of Self and Love for Others

So Small in the Infinite Scheme of Things —

—And Yet So Great

BIBLIOGRAPHY