Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Nurturer or Naysayer

In Nurturing Voices, Sioux share,

“Several of my students discovered their person had been told they shouldn't have the dream they dreamed.”

My husband is a nurturer. Whenever I have a crazy idea that I want to try, he always encourages me to give it a try. He never thinks of reasons why I shouldn’t try it. Of course, he is more logical than I am and when I bounce ideas off of him, he will come up with great questions to help me get the details right. When I try something and it doesn’t work out, he doesn’t say I told you so and instead tries to help me see what went wrong and how to do it better next time.

I confess that I’m not always a nurturer and tend to be more of a naysayer. I think of all the obstacles and reasons why something might not work. All my life I have been afraid of risk.

I do not want to instill my fear onto my students. I want them willing to take risks (that don’t harm anyone or anything). I want them to dream big and work towards their dreams.

My parents always said that if there was a want, there was a way. They were nurturers. They never thought that there was any reason we couldn’t achieve what we set out to do.

My parents couldn’t afford to send me to the college that I wanted to go and they let me know this when I first started talking about college. I wanted to go to a private out of state college since I was in elementary school. I knew that if I wanted to achieve my dream I had to keep my grades up and get scholarships. They encouraged me to do what I needed to do instead of squashing my dream and telling me that I couldn’t go there.

When my students share their dreams with me, I ask them questions. I try to be like my husband and encourage them to explain in more detail. I help them discover ways that they can work towards their dreams. Instead of throwing obstacles in their way, I think of ways to help them overcome their obstacles. I help prepare them to face obstacles that may occur so they can be ready to find their ways around them.

How do you nurture your students so they can work towards their dream? Please share.

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

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