My Speech to the CTA (May 4, 2006)
My Speech to the CTA (May 4, 2006)
Mauro
Bressi
Edward R. Murrow
Thank you
for this kind honor.
I think it
is safe to say that when any of us looks back to discover how we came to take
our life’s journey, we invariably find we were inspired by a teacher.
Teachers, whether in life or in books, are hardly incidental to our
development. My inspiration went by
the name of Socrates. When I read his words at the age of 16, I was drawn deeply
into his search for wisdom and virtue. And,
of course, I fell in love with learning, with the wonder of all things.
I realized
then that there was no more important journey to take in life than that which
would bring me to wisdom and virtue. And
because the journey would take a lifetime and require a lot of learning, it
occurred to me that the best way to make that journey was in the literature
classroom, where I could remain a student of life. I became a teacher of English.
Essentially,
therefore, my students and I study and learn together with wisdom and virtue as
our guiding principles. The ideas
are simple, I tell my students. Wisdom
is knowing the right thing to do. Virtue
is doing the right thing. In wisdom
is found everything vital: truth, justice, reason, faith, and so on. In virtue is found everything good: honesty, compassion,
generosity, etc.
But the
fulfillment of these two ideas is far from simple. Despite the thousands of years humans have been teaching and
learning, we have not yet seen the general attainment of wisdom and virtue.
I do not know whether this amounts to the shame of humanity or is
testament to an eternal conundrum.
I do know
that our only hope for enlightenment on such mysteries is and will always be in
the classroom, peripatetic or sedentary as it may be. Although I sometimes feel like Don Quixote on his quest for
the impossible dream, I realize there is no other dream that counts for a
teacher.
We live in
a time when ignorance and barbarism, in the world and in America, threaten to
bring about another dark age. Morris
Berman makes this very clear in his recent book. I am proud to say I am a teacher who, like Socrates, holds
high the banners of wisdom and virtue in an effort to withstand the worst that
may come.
It means a
great deal to me that I have been distinguished in that effort by the Catholic
Teachers Association. Thank you.
Mauro
Bressi
Brooklyn HS of the Arts HOME