{"id":1564,"date":"2011-09-21T12:40:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T16:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2011-09-21T12:40:48","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T16:40:48","slug":"the-buddhas-in-the-front-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html","title":{"rendered":"the Buddhas in the front row ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>True confessions: I actually don’t have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don’t let the students put the chairs back after class. ‘Everyone,’ I tell them, ‘should sit in circles. You can see<\/em> each other.’ (They think I’m just being nice to them, not realising I mean<\/em> it :))<\/p>\n

But in every class, there are students who are front-row mentality. Even when they sit across from you, to your left, to your right. Sometimes you have a couple of them — vocal, articulate, and often wrong. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I’ve learned beginner’s heart from my students — especially the front row ones — more than from any single person I know. Something there is about my students that helps me learn how to be more\u00a0 thoughtful, more reflective, kinder and more accepting.\u00a0Buddhism — and many other religions — teaches that every person you meet is a teacher, a Buddha. Someone from whom you can learn, if you just take the time. I wish I could bring that attitude beyond the classroom, but I suppose I’ll have to settle for what growth I get :).<\/p>\n

When a student makes a dumbass comment (and yes, they do :)) about one of the ‘isms’ — race, gender, class, religion, gender preference, etc. — I can stop, catch my breath, figure out how to best share with that student what my black, brown, cream, male, female,\"\"<\/a> trans-gendered, wealthy, barely managing, Muslim, Wiccan, atheist, Christian, gay, straight, bi- friends (you get the picture) have helped me understand. This doesn’t always happen with even my family. And it certainly doesn’t happen when I read politicans.<\/p>\n

When South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, for instance, says that her assertion that unemployed workers are on drugs (well, 1\/2 of them, according to her) was based on faulty information, I want to throttle her. How damaging! She ‘trusted’ someone, didn’t check out her source, and she’s the governor?? Passing around this kind of wrong-hearted (and just plain wrong) stereotyping??<\/p>\n

But when a student says s\/he believes what a parent\/ preacher\/ bad source said, I tread more softly. We talk about agendas — who has them, how they differ from bias and downright misrepresentation. At least initially, I listen more than rant. \ud83d\ude42 I try to understand why s\/he has said what rang false, what was hurtful to someone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So why can’t I take that kind of open-mindedness and listening into the other areas of my everyday life? Why can’t I try to understand the creepy guy on the bus yesterday, who went off on a rant about drug users who are on unemployment (he believed Haley :()…? I suspect it has to do w\/ what I see as the sacred trust of teaching (yep — I really do think teaching is a sacred trust….like the ministry, or medicine, or parenting… each of which it resembles :)). No teacher has the right to browbeat a student — even if s\/he says that Rudolf Hess was just following orders (and yes, one of mine did). You have to meet them where they are, and proceed w\/ love from there.<\/p>\n

So today, on World Gratitude Day, I’m grateful for my student teachers. \ud83d\ude42 For what they teach me daily. About compassion, about listening, about reflection and waiting a minute and just being a nicer person. For the two former ones who came by yesterday, just to see me and talk (because we miss you…<\/em>). For the ones who ask me to recommend them, knowing I have seen them at their best many times. For the ones who challenge my assumptions, force me to grow outside my comfort zones.\u00a0 For the ones who realise how much I love them, and love me — at least a little — back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True confessions: I actually don’t have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don’t let the students put the chairs back after class. ‘Everyone,’ I tell them, ‘should sit in circles. You can see each other.’ (They think I’m just being nice to them, not realising I mean it :))…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15,113,43,1],"tags":[11,1181,1187,1197,194],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-compassion","category-metta","category-teaching","category-uncategorized","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-teaching","tag-world-gratitude-day"],"yoast_head":"\nthe Buddhas in the front row ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"True confessions: I actually don't have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don't let the students put the chairs back after\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"the Buddhas in the front row ~ - Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"True confessions: I actually don't have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don't let the students put the chairs back after\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-21T16:40:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2011\/09\/i-love-my-student-134x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Britton Gildersleeve\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"the Buddhas in the front row ~ - Beginner's Heart","description":"True confessions: I actually don't have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don't let the students put the chairs back after","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"the Buddhas in the front row ~ - Beginner's Heart","og_description":"True confessions: I actually don't have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don't let the students put the chairs back after","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html","og_site_name":"Beginner's Heart","article_published_time":"2011-09-21T16:40:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2011\/09\/i-love-my-student-134x150.jpg"}],"author":"Britton Gildersleeve","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html","name":"the Buddhas in the front row ~ - Beginner's Heart","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2011\/09\/i-love-my-student-134x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-09-21T16:40:48+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-21T16:40:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#\/schema\/person\/b4348bfbe2223c0ec325db830aa95f52"},"description":"True confessions: I actually don't have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don't let the students put the chairs back after","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2011\/09\/i-love-my-student-134x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2011\/09\/i-love-my-student-134x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/the-buddhas-in-the-front-row.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"the Buddhas in the front row ~"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/","name":"Beginner's Heart","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Britton Gildersleeve","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/#\/schema\/person\/b4348bfbe2223c0ec325db830aa95f52","name":"Britton Gildersleeve","description":"Britton Gildersleeve is a 'third culture kid.' Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. She is (still) working on her beginner's heart ~","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/author\/brittongildersleeve"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions\/1704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}