winnowing 2: not necessarily deciding

So another way my student teaching experience is proving useful has to do with my attempt to become more open and less judgmental. Many teachers, myself certainly included, get an ego boost from feeling that we "understand" kids, are "empathetic" and "in tune." Well, whenever I would talk with my cooperating teacher about particular students, we would have completely different perceptions of what was going on with them. I spent some energy being angry that my cooperating teacher was so wrong. Then I spent some energy feeling stupid that I was so wrong. Finally what I'm coming to is that maybe that was just a particularly vivid manifestation of the fact that we never really know, do we, what is going on in their little heads--we have no idea--and everythign else is just ego. So I can release a desperate (and so obvioulsy futile) sense of needing to correctly diagnose and treat (i.e. control) all students' problems for them--wow, what a relief. There are a lot of things I can do for students, but reading their minds is not one of them. Instead of judging what is going on with them, I can just stay open, in the present, and listen. Maybe that will be more helpful anyway!