Life learned in a riding school
by Maria Lourdes A. de Vera, RN
The elegance of a black stallion and the enchantment of a white steed is something to marvel. My fascination for horses goes back to my childhood where we used to ride the Kalesa – a horse driven carriage to go to the mausoleum of my Clan. I so wanted to ride the horse but in my Colonial hometown in the southern part of Luzon young girls are obliged follow traditional feminine roles, well, as it used to be. Riding a horse had to wait till I live near a riding school.
I enjoy the sound of the hoofs against the asphalted roads. The din dang of the horse shoe and the metrical rhythm of the gallop is music to my ears.
Horses carry the enigma of power and strength but it needs to be directed towards a particular goal. I come from a traditional Filipino family not only deep in Spanish and Chinese tradition but I am part Spanish and Chinese as well. Each carrying a strong soul expression.
It was like pulling three horses and keeping three diverse powers in one track. Nonetheless, it was an experience of polarities and the strength of characters. A lesson on equanimity between three to four cultures. A balancing act which harnessed the person that I have become.
Teaching lower school children is great fun. As you look at each child, you learn to see the power within. Children have that immense power within. The capacity to create and build is within every child. Harnessing this power into something creative and productive through the arts is a great way of managing children.
Arts refines innate force, defines power then consolidates strength. It has that integrative power. Bringing in and putting into place thinking, feeling and willing.
In school, sports, dance and other physical activities offer a venue to test the limit of their power and strength among boys and between boys and girls.
But in managing your class is not about authority and power. It’s how you harness power. It’s not about obtaining control but achieving control that is deeply rooted in every individual in the class. Authority is not about asserting force over something. It is not how much power and authority a person have. Recognizing what power and authority one already have.
Being a teacher alone carries authority. Learning to use that capacity is in itself magic in the classroom.
