I wasn't going to share another quotation quite so quickly, but this one jumped out at me while I was doing a reading for my classroom management class. I've heard it before ... rather famous I believe. And yes, a little frightening!
I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanised or de-humanised.Haim Ginott, 1972