I often think that the prime directive for me as a teacher of writing is akin to that for a physician, which is this: do no harm.
Interpretation
As a teacher, one should prioritize the well-being of students and avoid causing them harm in their learning process.
In this quote, Chang-Rae Lee emphasizes the responsibility of teachers in nurturing students' growth without inflicting harm. Similar to the medical profession's commitment to 'do no harm,' educators should create a supportive and safe environment that fosters learning, creativity, and self-expression, thus highlighting the moral imperative to protect their students emotionally and intellectually.
In practice
During a parent-teacher conference, to explain my approach to fostering positive learning environments.
And it occurred to me that in this new millennial life of instant and ubiquitous connection, you don't in fact communicate so much as leave messages for one another, these odd improvisational performances, often sorry bits and samplings of ourselves that can't help but seem out of context. And then when you do finally reach someone, everyone's so out of practice or too hopeful or else embittered that you wonder if it would be better not to attempt contact at all.
We read and remember certain writers because they offer distinctive voices and perspectives, because they've given themselves over completely and passionately to their obsessions while vigorously ignoring everything else.
I don't feel uncomfortable in America, but every once in a while, I'm reminded that people don't see me the way I see me. It doesn't change my life, but it gives me a consciousness about it.
We have hopes and make plans, and if they are dashed or waylaid, we naturally rationalize and redraw the map to locate ourselves anew. Or else we brood and too firmly root. Very few can step forward again and again in what amounts to veritable leaps into the void, where there are no ready holds, where little is familiar, where you get constantly stuck in the thickets of your uncertainties and fears.
For if there is ever a moment when we are most vulnerable, it’s when we’re closest to the idea of the attained desire, and thus farthest from ourselves, which is when we’ll tread through any flame.
With languages, you can move from one social situation to another. With languages, you are at home anywhere.
to read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another, from one action to another, from one level of a text to another. The text unveils itself before us, but never allows itself to be possessed; and instead of trying to possess it we should take pleasure in its teasing
I had a lot of really terrible advice early in my writing career, and I cheesed off people without even knowing it, all the while thinking I was implementing good advice. Well, what can you do about it? Next.
Because it is correct to make a priority of young people, taking care that they turn out as well as possible.
People who graduate are more resilient financially, and they weather economic downturns better than people who don't graduate. And, throughout their lives, people who graduate are more likely to be economically secure, more likely to be healthy, and more likely to live longer. Face it: A college degree puts a lot in your corner.
Give a man a fish, feed home for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed for a lifetime.
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