ABSTRACT
Much of this book is directly concerned with how you, as a teacher, handle and influence the feelings of your learners. However, your own feelings as a teacher deserve equal attention. There is no doubt that you can experience some very strong and occasionally very conflicting feelings while teaching. For example: ‘I remember feeling a sense of rising panic. . . . I felt very vulnerable . . . sweat was beginning to seep through my shirt’ (Gilbert 2004: 34). The teacher quoted here is new to his job, but strong feelings do not necessarily diminish as you get older and more experienced. Teacher and author Parker J. Palmer, with 25 years’ experience, encountered a learner who he described as ‘The Student from Hell’ and, in his own judgement, did not handle the situation well. He writes, ‘I left that class with a powerful combination of feelings: self-pity, fraudulence and rage’ (Palmer 1998: 43). While your normal teaching experience is unlikely to provide you with such an overwhelming depth of emotional response, you should be concerned if you do not experience strong feelings from time to time. These may be feelings you will welcome, such as exhilaration, relief and joy. Handling such kinds of strong feelings need not be problematic. It is the other troubling feelings, when you are outraged, shocked, insulted, offended, disappointed or frustrated, that pose more of a threat to the well-being of you and your learners as well as a threat to achieving the goals of the session.
