This is a long one, but I think it's worth the read, and believe it or not, I relate it back to teaching.
As you may have figured out, I'm a big comic book affectionado. It kind of goes along with being a Star Wars / Lord of the Rings / Star Trek / All Things Shiny and Geeky kind of person. My office drips with superhero paraphernalia. My students give me superhero gifts. yadda yadda yadda.
My favorite hero for the last couple decades has been the
Flash. His book is usually a good read, because the writers have to take it up a couple of notches to keep things interesting. After all, the guy just runs really fast. The writers, however, always made sure that he kept his seat at the
Justice League table with honor.
Well, recently I think my focus has been shifting to Green Lantern. There's been a lot of excitement in the
Green Lantern corner of the comic universe. DC Comics just finished a major
GL story arc where they killed off (and resurrected) a good portion of their superhero population. There's also a big GL movie in the works, set for release in June of 2011.
Hence, I've been reading a lot of GL lately. well, may not a "lot" despite being such a comic-head, I don't actually read them. I don't have time - not with a full time teaching gig and a 5-month old at home. But one of my students has been loaning me his GL paperback collections, and I've been sucking it down.
I always thought that GL was a was weird hero. The
original character was a guy who fashioned a magic ring out of the metal of a meteorite... like .... who came up with
that idea and what were they
smoking?
The second installment featured not one but thousands of Green Lanterns - all part of a galactic police force, each carrying
a power ring, considered to be the most potent weapon in the universe. The cool part - the ring is only as effective as the strength of the wearer's will power. That means the ring isn't a fix-all gimmick - the fortitude of the hero still is vital. The stupid part - all superheroes must have a weakness. They decided that Green Lantern's should be the color yellow.
Excuse me? They guy's weakness is
a color? Well, it was the 60s - considering that
Adam West was Batman, and the Superman mythos included things like
Krypto, the Superdog... I guess that kind of falls in line.
But I never gave the GL's much thought - at least until now. As it turns out, the modern GL writers have been busting their butts to try and explain the yellow-weakness in a way that doesn't sound totally stupid. By the 21st Century, they were calling the weakness a result of a "yellow impurity" in the ring's power. But then they came up with something better:
They expanded the GL mythos to include the idea that there is a universal "emotional spectrum" in which each emotion is represented by a color: green = will power, yellow = fear, red = rage, blue = hope, orange = avarice, purple = compassion, violet = love. Consequently, each color of the spectrum manifests an energy (utilized by the rings) that forms the basis of the individual corps, or organizations that champion the essence of each color. Never mind that will power isn't exactly an emotion - the important thing is that will power and fear are usually in direct conflict with each other - when one wanes, the other builds. Hence, the battle between green and yellow. (And wouldn't you know it, but GL's
arch-enemy has a similar ring that uses yellow energy)
The color yellow, then, represents a psychological block whereby the wearer of the GL ring may prevent him/her self from functioning at full power (or at all) on account of his/her fears. But the Lanterns who manage to recognize this and overcome their fears can also overcome the "yellow impurity." Hence, they can no longer be beaten to a pulp by a yellow club - or trounced by a yellow-skinned villain. But falter slightly, and they could be impaled upon a banana-tipped spear.
Nicely done - Good job, DC writers! Way to retcon some sense into an idea that was retarded to begin with.
So what does this have to do with teaching?
As you may know if you're one of the
few who read my blog, I've been doing some reflection this year... particularly regarding my inability to confidently manage my 4th period class. I brought up the idea that I have anger management issues. I've been dodging the statement that perhaps my classroom management just sucks. (Something that I did not want to admit after 12 years of teaching - Rookies are allowed to suck. Veterans who suck are just bad teachers)
And before this gets to be yet another post where the Maestro crucifies himself before his readership... be assured that yes, I do recognize my qualities that make me an excellent teacher. (One of them, oddly enough, being the ability to see the areas where I suck).
But perhaps it isn't
anger management that's the issue. Maybe the real problem is fear. Why do I blow up at my 4th period class? Probably because I know that what I'm really afraid of is that I
don't have the power to control them. Why am I such a laid back teacher? Maybe because I am afraid that I lack the strength to hold students to higher standards. Fear of impotence is probably one of the most common teacher afflictions. In fact there are other fears that have been hounding me since year one: fear of losing the affection of my students, fear of losing the respect of my colleagues, fear of having to stand up to angry parents, fear of being discovered as a fraud.
No, I don't think I'm a fraud, but the fear is there. I once heard from a friend of mine that a common thought amongst PhD candidates is that someone will discover that they are phonies. The underlying fear: "I really can't do this, I'm only pretending to - and some day someone will notice."
So maybe... if I can face my fear and overcome it - I don't
have to be an angry teacher
or a weak teacher. That sounds like a tall order: after all, I have never counted courage as one of my strengths. But one of my students recently reminded me of what John Wayne said - "Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway." Or as Hal Jordan put it himself "It isn't true that the Green Lanterns are
without fear; they have to overcome it every time they use the ring."
This is going to take some work, but at least it feels like another step in the right direction. It seems to me that it isn't a single decision to be courageous, but a continuous process of deciding to be courageous in individual instances. To be sure: Flash is still the hero I love, but Green Lantern is the hero
I need.
- In brightest day, in blackest night,
- No evil shall escape my sight
- Let those who worship evil's might,
- Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!
