FORUM | HEAR OUR VOICES 55MYOKEI CAINE-BARRETT: I would say
to follow your heart, because we are all
uniquely equipped. My assumption is that
once you’re already a teacher, everything
you’ve gone through has already shown
you how to fight through a lot of the stuff
we’ve been talking about. You’ll need to
get to a certain point in order to teach,
to understand in your heart and through
your intuition the circumstances in which
you find yourself—rather than looking
elsewhere, you’ll need to go deep into
yourself, find your own strengths, and
learn to rely on those pretty exclusively.
You’ll also need a good support system,
other women just to talk to, to let it all
out. You need the freedom to be abso-
lutely truthful to at least one other person.
And practice a lot, a whole lot. Continue
to deepen faith and practice, and never
stop studying, because the more you
know, the more you will grow through all
of the experiences that you need to have.
PEMA KHANDRO RINPOCHE: I love this
idea of going to other women, having
that support, because it can be so isolat-
ing as a teacher.
MYOAN GRACE SCHIRESON: I agree it’s
important for a young female teacher
to have a peer group to talk with about
some of these things that come up.
Teachers can go off the rails when they
don’t have other teachers to talk to about
what’s bothering them or what’s happen-
ing. I also think, as a psychologist, that
women tend to be a little more emotional
than men, and because of that, we’ve
been taught to suppress our feelings.
We’re considered too emotional, even
hysterical. As a female teacher, as you
enter the fray, when you feel something,
make a note of it, review it, explore it.
Don’t just push it away, saying, “Every-
thing is empty, and I need to be humble,
and who am I?” Really make note of dis-
comforts that are arising. Explore when
you feel like you’ve been put down. You
don’t have to blow up in that moment.
But do stay with it.REBECCA LI: I’m a sociologist, so what
I would say to women teachers is to
understand the gender norms we have in
our society so that you don’t think it’s
me, something’s wrong with me that I’m
being treated this way. Specifically, be
aware of this phenomenon of a double
standard for men and women. Study
after study shows that women have to
work harder—and achieve more—to
maybe be seen as almost the same as a
man in a similar position. Understanding
that has helped me to not take things so
personally.
So many of our ancestors are men, so
the people we draw from as resourcesTEAH STROZER JETSUNMA TENZIN PALMO LINDA PRITZKER DOYEON PARK RUTH KING