On Teaching: ASSERTIVENESS

I would like to develop more assertiveness in my classroom. Poking around in my dictionary this morning, I found an intriguing definition and history of the word which may help me formulate my approach to encouraging the growth of this quality, both in me and in my students. One definition says that being assertive is simply “stating or expressing positively”, as in “He asserted his innocence”. Certainly I want to encourage this in my classrom – the ability to express who we are in a positive and strong manner. The definition doesn’t imply brashness or aggressiveness: it simply suggests that people like my students and I should be able to confidently show our true selves each moment in the classroom. What I found especially interesting is the history of the word “assertive”. It apparently derives from the Latin word for “join”, suggesting that a person who is assertive – who expresses in a positive way who he or she is – is doing so in order to “join” more completely with the rest of the human family. When my students and I are assertive, we are stating in a forceful manner that we do, indeed, “belong” – in the classroom and everywhere.