Dignity by Donna Hicks is the 2012 Educator's Book Award winner as announced at the International Convention in New York City. Her remarks on the experience of meeting 2000 women educators make every member proud to be in DKG and proud to be an educator.
Should Beta consider a chapter read and discussion?
From Donna Hicks' blog:
Educators Embrace Dignity
JULY 27, 2012 BY DR. DONNA HICKS
Nearly 2,000 women from around the world gathered in New York this week for Delta Kappa Gamma’s (DKG) bi-annual convention. The organization, which started in 1929, is a society of women educators dedicated to promoting professional and personal growth and excellence in education. I attended the convention because my book, Dignity: The Essential Role it Plays in Resolving Conflict, was selected for the DKG Educators Book Award. While I have received other awards for my book, this one was particularly poignant.
I have never been in a situation with a room filled with 2,000 women dedicated to the pursuit and advancement of knowledge. They were all there because they love teaching, they love seeing the lights go on in their students’ eyes when they learn something new. They love that they may make a difference in the lives of those they nurture and inform. They are committed to the idea that ignorance is societies worst enemy and they do what they do, not for the recognition, but because they know it is a powerful way to create change in the world.
I had so many conversations about dignity while I was there. Teachers know dignity from the inside out. I had a brief encounter with one woman who said that the first thing she does with her students (she works in an economically deprived area) is to bolster their dignity. She said she might not have used the word before hearing me talk, but she knows now that she is helping them restore their sense of value and worth long before she starts her formal instruction with them. Her basic message was that they need her care and attention before they can feel safe enough to open themselves to learning.
What I felt most strongly after my time with these women is that the dignity approach I have taken in my work has its foundation in self-knowledge. If we don’t help our students recognize that they are worthy, no matter what; no matter how badly someone has treated them, we are not doing our job. Letting them know that dignity is part of our DNA, but it is just as vulnerable to being injured as the rest of our bodies.
Helping students realize that no one can take away their dignity—it is always in their hands—is a first step in healing their early wounds; dignity wounds that create so much self-doubt. Getting them to recognize that because someone treated them badly doesn’t mean they are bad; it means that something bad has happened to them.
My time with the women reinforced the idea that the Dignity Model is an educational approach that has healing qualities. I resist the idea that it is “therapy” because I am sharing knowledge with people that embodies a truth about them, no matter who they are. And the truth is that every one of us is born invaluable, priceless and irreplaceable. This knowledge not only has the potential to set us free, but has the power to rehabilitate our aching humanity.
Published Wednesday, 6th July, 2011 | By Susan AKA Peacefull
This is an excellent paper from Harvard University, written by Dr. Donna Hicks. It includes a detailed outline/description of her model.
When I experienced conflict and was not treated fairly or with respect (stonewalling), definitely my dignity was deeply offended. So I ask people, even if you don’t agree with someone or don’t like them, please treat every person as you would want them to treat you, with dignity and respect. Don’t allow any person to suffer for any length of time, you do deep damage to them. So many disputes are left unresolved and the person suffers the rest of their lives. The end of the paper speaks of an apology, interestingly it is to gain your own dignity. So many these days don’t say sorry just avoid or ignore the issue. In the future dignity will be a fact of life and we will never violate others, as we will see them as ourselves.
Live in peace and dignity. I send you a smile.
the book, DIGNITY is available at Amazon in hardcover and Kindle formats or at Barnes and Noble in hardcover and Nook formats.
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