The Journey through my Heart and Soul to Creating a Manifesto

 

Have you ever created a manifesto? I searched my soul to create mine and the discoveries I made came out like music. So, what is a manifesto in the first place? Well, my definition comes from the emotional journey I embarked on to construct mine. I believe a manifesto is everything we pull from our hearts to construct a positive message to the world. Throughout this blog, I will discuss what I found when I looked inside myself and the meaning of the words, colors and designs spread across the canvas.

My journey was sparked by a simple graduate class assignment. I Found myself sitting in front of my computer trying to figure out how to yet another assignment. But after some time, it went from an academic task to something a little more abstract that involved being honest with myself and soul searching. I discovered that I would have to reach deep inside my heart and pull out everything and convert it all into words. The closest metaphor to this project is how a guitar player plays a solo during a concert. There are no music sheets in front of him/her and no memorized notes. The guitar player absorbs the energies from the environment, reaches into the deepest depths of his/her heart and just plays. You might say at this point that creating a manifesto is a way of synthesizing our ideas, feelings and beliefs into colors, shapes and words.

So, let’s begin by following the order of steps which I took to create my piece. First, I chose to set a background texture of violent red and orange flames consuming the page. For me fire symbolizes raw passion and anger. These virtues are unstable in nature but for me they represent how deeply and intensely I care. In terms of what this means for me as an educator, I will push my students to succeed and to learn. It makes me angry to see where the values have shifted in our younger generations. For example, video games are the scourge that all educators have to contend with. The reality is that educators are fighting a two front battle every single day we enter the classroom; the battle to teach our students and the other against video games. As an educator in training this is a clear source of anger which I believe will motivate me during my career to show children that if they can turn off their game consul, they can learn something practical and real. I went through my first fieldwork experience as a graduate student and I quickly learned that as long as I was involved with the students, I was competing with their interest in video games. It seems that educators have long embraced technology by using games to make learning more fun. Here’s the truth! Learning IS fun. Educators should not have to make it fun or enjoyable because it should be rewarding enough to learn a new skill. I believe that video games have stolen the thunder of educators and we MUST take it back! My anger toward that very problem will be what motivates me to do something about it.

There are other things that have been a cancer to all classrooms long before video games ever arrived on the scene that also stokes the fire of my anger such as bullying. As an educator in training, I have a soft spot for children with disabilities and seeing them being battered, bullied and belittled makes my blood boil. I feel their pain therefore it’s almost as if myself and the student go through it together. For the sake of length, I will conclude my discussion of anger and how it is represented in my manifesto here. Although, rest assured it will play a positive role in my teaching career and it is my hope that it helps me give my students a true learning experience. Anger has been given a bad reputation but the truth is that when its power is harnessed correctly, you can do wonderful things with it.

Let us move on to the ideas spread across the page. For starters, the word “achieve” appears in bold, yellow font. Setting and achieving goals is very important to me as a person. I believe that setting out to achieve goals makes us all better individuals. Over the course of my life, I have set goals for myself and I haven’t been the same since. When I was in high school, my goals for my senior year were to achieve straight As, qualify for the National Honor Society, run a five-minute mile, date my best friend and be a successful Varsity track athlete. I am happy to report that I did achieve all of those goals. The interesting thing about goals and achievement is that it’s not the goal itself that changes you. Rather, it is the journey. To achieve the listed goals, I had to learn the skill of time management and how to prioritize my school work, athletic training and the time I could spend with my girlfriend. Time management and prioritization are two skills that still serve me well today as I learn to become an educator. I consider them things that I will model for students as a mentor figure.

By setting goals, we also discover what we are made of inside. For example, I discovered during my athletic training that I am a very patient and resilient person. If we fast forward to my time as a graduate student, I discovered that I was capable of earning a 4.0 grade point average. Now in-stead of aiming for a 3.5 grade point average, I want to see how long I can keep my 4.0. Maybe I will graduate from the education program with it. The important thing is that I have learned to collaborate and use the resources available to me. In other words, I know that I’m surrounded with teachers, former teachers and aspiring teachers who would be happy to help me on my journey. I have discovered the importance of asking for help. This is how I have developed the philosophy that there is no reason not to do well at anything you do. The answers to your questions can always be found somewhere. At this point, our discussion about goals and achievement is a great transition into the idea of winning. The word “win” appears even larger than most of the other words on the page. Rest assured winning here carries two meanings. First, the traditional definition of being the best of the entire pool of competitors at a given task, skill or job. Second, it means simply achieving a goal and achieving victory over yourself. The biggest personal example of this can be found during my college track career. In the sport of track, it’s always great to win a race by being the first person to cross the finish line. In my opinion, it is even better to complete the distance in a faster time than before. During a college race at Vassar, I finished second, but I broke my own Mount Saint Mary 400-meter school record by three tenths of a second. In life, it is far more important to better yourself than beat someone else. However, when someone else is better than you, it can be helpful by pushing someone else out of their comfort zone.

If we apply these ideas to the classroom, we will notice that it to can be a competitive environment conducive to self-improvement. I often find myself eager to achieve a higher grade than my colleagues. As I watch them teach, I am often consumed with the desire to be a better and more skilled teacher. Win or lose, I know that I will emerge as a stronger teacher by aspiring to be better than my colleagues. This is where some of the other ideas come into play such as “rise above yourself”, “dream”, “be a force to be reckoned with” and “don’t be afraid.” If we don’t’ get past our fears, we will never achieve our goals. The best personal example I can provide of getting past fear is how I am currently moving past my fear of failure. My abilities as a competitive runner have slowly eroded as life took its tole. On top of that, I became discouraged each time I failed to run a satisfactory time. Now, I have chosen to accept that the only way I can ever become as quick as I was is to accept that I’m not in the same condition. But, if I work hard, I can get there again. When I started college, I couldn’t accept that I wasn’t earning A grades as I consistently did during high school. I decided when I started graduate school, that I wasn’t going to be afraid anymore and now I have achieved even higher grades than I believed I could.

The next main idea present in my manifesto is subtly scattered across the page. The idea is to avoid becoming defined by your career. I do not aspire to become Matt Soltis the elementary school teacher. I plan to become Matt Soltis, friend, volunteer, artist, mentor, athlete, educator, husband and father. Having interests and hobbies that make me happy outside of a job make give me more to bring back to my classroom. For example, if I am an art teacher, I bring my unique skills as an artist/art conservator. It means that I will bring raw enthusiasm which will inspire my students to learn. You can’t be all about business as a teacher because the students will sense it and they will reflect the same attitude about learning. Also, employment by itself is no indicator of success. Rather, it is the love of your friends, students and family. This leads us into my final thought about how love is everywhere and binds all of us together.

Love is the key to everything. It is the energy that moves the circle of life and to make my point relevant to education, it is the reason children learn. It is also what educators put in to teaching. That is why only educators with a true love for teaching and their students will become a permanent fixture in the hearts of students even long after the professional relationship has ended. Only educators who put that kind of loving energy in to their classroom are remembered. We choose to become educators because we love the idea and the importance of education. If we reflect briefly back to my observation about how love powers the circle of life, we will notice a similar circle of wisdom turning in our classrooms. Our generation of teachers will pass on skills, knowledge, values and virtues. Next, our former students will attempt to pass on the same knowledge, skills, values and virtues. The difference is how each generation makes mistakes and teaches from a different perspective. Our careers as educators begin and end with love.