Saturday Sayings: Listen to Your Heart

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To my knowledge Roberto Bahruth is not famous throughout the world, but he is brilliant, and he taught me a few things while I was earning my Masters ten years ago.  Psycholinguistics and Reading was an engaging class, but I don't remember too much about the psycholinguistics part or the reading part for that matter.  I remember, "Teach to the heart as well as the head."  

What will my students remember about my class ten years from now?  Will they remember all the reading, writing, and math we did?  There's certainly nothing wrong with remembering those things.  I'd like to think it's been a memorable year of blossoming in all those areas, but my hope is that they remember all the times when I said, "Listen to your heart."  It became one of my favorite sayings this year.  I can't remember the exact moment when it came to me, but I know it arrived at the right time and stuck around until the very last day.  (I have a feeling it will forever be part of my classroom mantra.)  It turned into something that often went like this:  "Listen to your heart.  What does it say?  Would it ever tell you to _______ (fill in the blank)?"  It was often accompanied with a little tapping on my chest and sometimes, in those one-on-one moments, a little tapping on theirs as well.  They always knew what their heart was saying.  They just didn't know they were supposed to listen or at times didn't really want to, I suppose.  I pray I've given them practice to have ears to hear and the desire to listen.  Maybe this is pie in the sky, but ten years from now when one of my students is in a sticky situation, I pray they can hear Miss McMorrow's voice and feel the warmth of my hand on their chest.  "Listen to your heart."