Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

What if who you see when you look in the mirror is not who others see when they look at you? Not only that, what if each person who looks at you sees a different image? Do you want to think about that for a minute? Seriously.  Step forward a little more, what if you see someone who looks different every time you look? I'd probably advise you to limit the looks to once daily. 

Why? What's the accepted definition for insanity? Hmm. You probably wouldn't comply though. I don't even always follow my erudite advice.   Not only because mirrors surround me---bedroom dresser, bathroom, rearview mirror, compact---but because they've taken permanent residence in my mind.  Just as surely as a legally binding contract, the mirror shines.  

As a newly-hired public school teacher somehow, maybe intuitively, I sensed the primordial aspirations of my students.  With fervor, I set about experimenting, designing, and testing methodologies for developing, planting self-esteem seeds, and influencing preset mindsets.   Somehow (and I hadn't learned any of it in college "Methods" coursework) together, we engaged in a building project.  My students and I began with limited external resources:  low expectations, erratic academic achievements; debilitating poverty; and scant hope.  

It didn't happen for us as it did in "Jack and the Beanstalk."  No magic beans on the West Side of Chicago. Nor did it happen overnight. We took up challenges we weren't able to fully describe.  In the process, though, invisible qualities like persistence; a "can-do" conviction; stamina, and possibilities sprang up like weeds in a city's streets.  Obvious and invisible changes happened. Students, who had been stamped capriciously as learners with no value, as disposable, out-of-sight, out-of-mind dregs, transformed! Now, they peeked out like crocuses in early spring.  Like early spring tulips, they grew tall, strong, and sturdy.

Now, when these same students looked at myriad, societal mirrors, they saw dreams, not distortions. I say unabashedly, I (and they) witnessed miracles.  No matter that at-home mirrors reflected different, defeated images.  They knew, believed, and now saw through different lenses---at school, or anyplace learning occurred.  That's the priceless value of learning.   They could do it, they discovered, and they shone every day in the week!

I trust decads later, they still gravitate toward mirrors that reflect who they really still are!  At another time, I'll chronicle my quest to learn how to look clearly through my personal mirror.