Humility

Is it o.k for a teacher to be wrong? I believe that almost everyone would answer yes to that question. Nobody is perfect and sometimes even when you think you are right, you are wrong. You would hope that the teacher is almost always right, but sometimes they are not. Therefore what important is how the teacher handles the humility after of being wrong.

I remember very clearly the last time I was wrong. I was in the car with my mom and my sister and a song came on. I had the song on my Ipod and knew it very well. At the end of the song my mom said "wasn't that nice, she was singing about her mother" and I responded that no she wasn't, "she was sing about her father." My sister jumped in and took my moms side. I was so confident that she was singing about her farther I almost started crying because they would not believe me even though I swore I was right. The lack of confidence they had in me even though I owned the song and heard many times was very upsetting. However later that day we looked up the music video and it had her mom in it. I was humiliated. I was so confident I was right that it was a punch to the stomach when I realized I was wrong. The important thing, however, was that I did realize I was wrong. Part of me wanted to storm of to my room and not even face my mother and sister who I am sure were gloating, but I didn't. I acknowledged they were right, and apologized. Luckily the did not rub it in my face to much after I said I was sorry and the mistake was soon forgotten by them. 

Looking back at the whole silly ordeal I wish I had been open to their opinions more about the song. However, I am not that upset that I stood by what I thought was right. I truly would have bet money that I was right. I think as a teacher if you are confident about something stick to it, but if challenged be willing, like I did, to look it up. If you are wrong act gracefully and admit to it.  It is hard as a teacher to balance confidence and genuine humility. It is o.k to be embarrassed, but make sure you are not to ashamed to admit you were wrong. I think if you handle it in the right way your students, like my sister and mother, won't give you to much crap about it. If you are confident, like I said go with it because many times you will be right. Be willing if challenged to look something up, because you never know if that small chance that you are wrong could occur.