Personal and Professional Development for TESOL Teachers
Fromm believed the great paradox of modern life was this: people crave freedom, yet fear the responsibility that freedom demands. In response, they retreat—into systems, hierarchies, labels, and roles that offer security at the cost of authenticity. TESOL teachers know this tension intimately.
In humanistic teaching, creativity is foundational because language itself is creative. Every sentence a learner forms is an act of risk-taking and self-expression. When instruction becomes reduced to test preparation, we mute the very capacities we claim to nurture: voice, imagination, identity.
Yes, in many places, climate change has already moved into the neighborhood. And as teachers, as materials developers, it means something to stand in front of a classroom built on land that is slowly, visibly, and measurably disappearing. To treat climate awareness as just another thematic unit between “Shopping” and “Sports” is not only poor pedagogy—it is a dereliction of responsibility.
A reflection on how John Dewey’s experiential learning philosophy and the Dada movement’s creative rebellion inform humanistic, self-actualizing approaches to TESOL and Dogme ELT.
Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Those words, simple and graceful as they sound, have extraordinary weight in professional life—especially in education, where trust, empathy, and perception form the unseen scaffolding of every classroom and workplace.
