As I struggled to find my way through the "yellow out" out of this
morning's
pollen storm and fearful of being afflicted with yellow lung, I was thinking of
Tom (not
his real name) and how he finally came through on the "Hollywood Film Festival"
project.
The day of his community's presentation, he wrote in his journal, "Wow. I can
do it like
to said to me all the time. How about that!!" I wrote back, "You want me to be
surprised? I'm not. You're just seeing what I saw all the time. You're no
longer blind
to yourself. Congratulations. Now, keep taking more steps......"
All the times of "you can do it" urging, "you're disrespecting
yourself" cajoling,
"there is no try" getting-in-his-face, and "I'm not going to let you blow it"
eyeball-to-eyeball talks seems to be paying off. He is--or is becoming a
"was"--what we
academics might label as an unprepared, poor, unwanted "doesn't belong."
Well, he wasn't
poor; he just hadn't opened his inner treasures. He was prepared, but just
didn't believe
it and didn't think there was anything there to use. He does belong now,
always did, but
especially now that he's beginning to have hope for and faith in himself. And,
I thought
how often we bemoan having that weed of a student in the classroom and wish
that they
wouldn't "just let anybody in." But, you know, I don't think we should wish
for the
disappearance of such students. Instead, we should wish for the compassion and
be
grateful for the opportunity to help them transform themselves from weeds into
blossoms.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.newforums.com/L_Schmier.htm
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\____/\ \/\
/ \ \__ \/ /
\ /\/
\ \ /\
//\/\/ /\ \_ /
/___\/\ \ \
\/ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains \ /\
_/ \ don't practice on mole
hills" -/
\
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