What is your deepest fear?

“Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God: Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Marianne Williamson in her 1992 book “A Return to Love"

You can watch a video she gave in Washington D.C. recently (you can view it here). It was a very inspirational video about our call as woman to extend compassion to the world. She says during that video, "the look of compassion is sometimes fierce," when woman have to protect their children. Wow, what a thought as a teacher. I am to be a fierce woman in order to protect my children, not just as a parent of two young girls but as a teacher. My favorite statement came when she was talking about how they used to burn women at the stake because of their free thinking beliefs. She said, " Passionate free thinking women tend to raise passionate free thinking kids. Passionate free thinking kids turn into passionate free thinking adults who are difficult to manipulate and almost impossible to control." My goal as a teacher this year has been to run my classroom in a way that is student led. That means that my lessons are created solely because that is what my kiddos need. If we run into problems I simply ask, "how can we solve this?" I am asking them to be free thinking. The way that I instruct them is passionately! Look out world, I am raising children that are passionate free thinkers. They will be difficult to manipulate and almost impossible to control. I also hope that through the use of literature, my actions as a woman, and the lessons that I teach about being a community my students will learn a most important lesson in compassion. This compassion will change my small corner of the world.
My ultimate goal as a woman when raising these children is to protect them, keep them in the circle of compassion so that they learn and grow and become all that they are to be...

Marianne Williamson goes on to say in the end, "It is the task of a mother to say to a man or woman, a government or a religious figure, whoever that might be to stand up and say, 'Not with my kids you don't" Isn't it time that we stand up for the kids who are tested beyond measure, that are losing their innocence, who are hungry, poor, and abused and say, 'Not with my kids you don't!'
That my friends, is leaving No Child Left Behind...