Who Creates the Learning Environment?

This beautiful quote from Chaim Ginott in 1972 still seems to be new news today:

I have come to a frightening conclusion.

I am the decisive element in the classroom.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis

will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized

The hard and beautiful thing about this understanding is knowing that you can make and must be the change you seek.

Take responsibility and become an instrument of inspiration.