I was on facebook this morning and someone shared a link to an article about teachers becoming digital panhandlers because we have campaigns on sites like DonorsChoose or gofundme to get supplies for our classrooms.  The person who shared the link was offended by the article title.  He found it to be incredibly demeaning to his wife who is a teacher and to teachers as a whole.  That was his perspective.

I read the article, and my perspective is entirely different.  Yes, he did call teachers digital panhandlers, but the article was not offensive or derogatory.  Instead it laid the facts out very clearly, and drew attention to the lack of school funding.  If schools were adequately funded, teachers wouldn’t need to resort to this “digital panhandling” to fund their classrooms.

The gentleman and I went back and forth essentially agreeing to disagree, but it really got me thinking about perspective.  It’s amazing how people see things differently, and we would all do well to remember that our view isn’t the only view.

Another woman commented that she donates her stipend checks right back to the school.  Stipends are checks people get for doing extra things like coaching.  I commented to her that I thought that was great, but I had to use mine to live on.  She immediately thought I was attacking her and thinking that she was independently wealthy, and she quickly disabused me of that notion.  Again perspective, I was honestly complimenting her for being able to do that, but from her perspective, I was attacking or judging her.  I think most of you know that’s not my style.  I was just impressed that she could do that, and sharing my own donorschoose campaign for people to see.

How we see things is influenced by our past experiences.  How other people see things is influenced by their past experiences, and we would all do well to remember that.