I admit without any embarrassment, when I saw that YouTube clip of
Susan Boyle my
heart pounded, my breath leadened, my stomach tightened, and my eyes poured out
tears.
What a lesson! The lesson is simple: Susan Boyle was not redeemed on that
show; but, she
could be redeeming to so many of us if we can only muster the courage to admit
we have to
learn it.
Think about it. How many of us look adoringly with adulation at those
who have
the riches and fame and beauty and success and importance of a winner's
everything whose
graceless transgressions into arrogance, self-righteousness, irresponsibility,
sex, drugs,
crime, and alcohol reveal they have an inner nothing, and we say, "Wasted!" We
put them
in the spotlight only to find out that out of light, comes darkness. How many
of us look
scornfully--if we notice them at all--at those who have the loser's outward
nothing and
uselessness of failure and poverty and dumpiness and klutziness, and lack of
education,
and plainness, and, then, discover they have a graceful, inner everything, and
we say,
"Wow!" We put them in a dark, unnoticed corner only to discover that out of
darkness,
comes light.
We academics, with all of our degrees, are not above, to paraphrase the
Bard,
allowing the clothes make the person. How many of us, like so many outside
academia,
merely look and hear, but don't see and listen? How many of us look at the
outside and
don't see the inside? How many of us look at gender, skin color, tattoo, body
piercing,
color streaked hair, dress, and believe the student has nothing? How many of
us merely
see transcripts and decide who shall go to the academic left and who to the
right? How
many of us submit to and conform to a multiple of prejudicial stereotypes that
replace the
unique human-ism of each student with entrenched, snap judging honors-isms,
scholarship-isms, GPA-isms, manner-isms, and appearance-isms? How many of us
do a closing
down, head nodding, and eye rolling assumption that so many students are a
nobody "don't
belong" and one of the wasteful "they're letting anyone in," and so few
students are a
somebody worth the time and effort to compete with the needs of research and
publication
and the acquisition of tenure.
I am an avid gardener. I know that very, very little grows in cold and
darkness,
and most everything grows in warmth and light. I know that when I see a rose
as more than
a beautiful flower, when I see it with awe and love, that rose enters my heart
and stirs
other forces in my soul. That is true with my beloved Susan, with our two sons
and their
wives, with our three grandmunchkins, and with each student.
If we see past the outside, if see inside, we will see unheralded
beauty and
dignity. So, I say, "Be damned with those -isms." We have to confound those
depersonalizing and dehumanizing perceptions. We have to see each person we
label
"student;" we have to see the worth of each student; we have to see and admire
and exalt
and trumpet the uniqueness in each student. What we should see and listen to,
and only
see and listen to, the human being inside: the nobility, the sacredness, the
uniqueness,
the essence, the spirit, the soul, the potential. We should be captivated by
each student
and not be distracted or mesmerized by appearance, demeanor, or performance.
We should
always believe; we should always have faith; we should always hope; and, above
all, we
should always love. We always should see that each student is an extraordinary
sparkling
diamond in the rough, not an undistinguished lump of coal. Then, and only
then, will we
reach out to help each dream the dream, to touch, to make a difference, to
change the
world, and to alter the future.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History
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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