So, how does passion work in me and work for my teaching? Although I
have a "steady as it goes" course, I am prone to passionately use passionate
words like "excited," "turned on," and "on a high" to describe myself at those
times when I am around students. That's one of the situations when I feel most
alive. Anyway, I have a free-floating unease about me, a kind of restlessness,
and a discomfort with status quos. I feel quite comfortable living in a state
of "organized chaos." I follow my "let's see" and "what if" spirit guides.
Curiosity is my name; experimentation is my game. I am constantly reinventing
myself. You'll find no moss on my constantly rolling stone and no grass is
growing under my constantly moving feet. I excitedly dance with serendipity
and deliciously hug surprise. I don't fight inspiration. I just take what
comes and go on walking along that audacious road.
My teaching involves disciplined exploration as well as unstructured
play. I am by no means a conformist. Maybe, I'm a contrarian at heart. I've
learned that to make a difference I often have to be different. I've learned
that the classroom is a constantly continuing adventure only if I'm always
seeing constantly changing students with new eyes. Where others forlornly
sigh, "students nowadays," I see the promise of opportunity and potential. I
look for promising alternatives and struggle to bring out potential and convert
it into actual. I tend to take the condom off the classroom rather than
practice safe teaching. When I go on campus, it is with an "okay, here we go; I
don't know where we're going with this; I'm going to let it develop as I go
along." I value risk over safety. I value creativity over productivity. I
value lasting effectiveness over immediate efficiency. I value spontaneity
over predictability, excitement over order, an inner freedom over authority,
earned respect over entitled authority, student ownership over my deed to the
class, challenge more than control, being off center more than on dead center,
being off-the-wall more than pinned to the wall as a wallflower. I operate
from the assumption that there is always an opportunity to change things, that
there's a chance I just may help someone become a better person and thereby
make for a better world. It's not just a "to do" on the list of things to be
done. It's not to be filed away and mentally checked off as "done." A passion
is an empowering "doing." It's a nurturing, cultivating, growing. I am not
afraid of being wrong or of making a mistake. I value learning and improving
from being off the mark and any mistakes I may make. I value being fired up
rather than being a dying ember. I am a "quester." In the spirit of Pablo
Picasso, I am always seeking to do that which I have not done or cannot do in
order to learn how to do it. To enter other worlds is the only way to expand
my world.
When I talk about my experience of teaching with passion, I'm never
promoting myself. Rapture in teaching is always in community, connection,
relationship with, and, above all, in the service of others. And yet, I freely
admit that I am selfish. Selfish is a much maligned word. It's gotten such a
bad rap as a cardinal sin. If I were to carve some teaching commandments in
stone, however, one would say "Thou Shalt love each student as you love
yourself." That means that I must first make peace with myself, love myself
before I can make peace with and love students. That is not being egotistical
or narcissistic. It means if I have self esteem, self respect, self regard,
self acceptance, I'm more likely to be likeable, less likely to get depressed,
more likely to love life, more likely to have an acute sense of both awareness
and otherness, and certainly more likely to love people around me.
I think the highest form of selfishness is to give of ourselves to
others so that we may broaden our understanding and confidence, so that we may
reach inner security, serenity, purpose, meaning, and fulfillment. The richest
reward in teaching comes from helping others with no thought of reward. We
cannot get unless we give, and we cannot give unless we have something to give.
If you are not willing to serve students, you will not be a class act in
class. If you walk into the classroom as if you're entitled, if you shy away
from sharing yourself with students who need you, if you prefer to be somewhere
else, you'll likely get frustrated and see students as an intrusion. However,
if you have faith, have hope, believe, and give, the riches of the teaching
coffers will never be empty and will be yours for the taking.
That's what it's all about!
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier
http://therandomthoughts.edublogs.org/
Department of History
http://www.newforums.com/Auth_L_Schmier.asp
Valdosta State University www. halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\
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