The dark, pre-dawn air hung heavy. It was damp, clammy, warm.
Everything was
blurred by a slight, enveloping fog. As I longed for the calming effect of the
starry
sky, I thought how in academic certainty can be so fog our senses. And, I
thought of
another word for Kenny to add to our DICTIONARY OF WORDS FOR GOOD TEACHING.
Fog. Now,
when we think of fog, words like "uncertain," "lost," "adrift," and "blurry"
probably jump
into our minds. But, when you're in a fog, when you realize you're in a fog,
you are
forced you to lose your complacency, to heighten your senses, to put your
antennae on full
blast, to squint your eyes and look more intensely, to perk up your ears and
listen more
closely, to become acutely aware of your surroundings, to focus your awareness,
and to
concentrate your otherness. In a fog, if it's not heads up, it'll be bump into
or fall
down. So, I've found that when it comes to students it is only in a fog that
you can hope
to see, listen, feel, and think crystal clear. Let me tell you what I mean as
I turn the
relationship of fog and certainty upside down.
So, I ask, "How many of us academics live in a house constructed of the
often
deafening, blinding, distant, numbing, and clinical bricks of certainty, and
objectivity?
How many of us allow those bricks to create a barrier between us and each
student, as well
as between us and ourselves? How many of us are swept along by such currents of
presumptuous certainty as "in my day" and "student today are?" How many of us
so often
pretend that the personal context and individual circumstance don't exist, that
they exert
no effect on either us or the students, and consequently are of no concern to
us? It's
what I call a fog of certainty that can only be dissipated by the breezes of
uncertainty.
I recently told someone, "As I read each student's daily journal entry,
as I read
each single word the students write on the whiteboard each day at the beginning
of class
about how they feel, when I face each student, I am faced with the acknowledged
knowledge
of not knowing enough about the individual life of a student that is impacting
on her or
his performance. I can clearly see that I don't have a complete and certain
picture that
a preconception, generalization, presumption, or stereotype suggests I have.
When I see
each student, I see difference. I see a different perspective. I see a
different life.
No one is without heritage; no one is bereft of experience; no one is devoid
of conscious
and subconscious memory. Every person is an alternative life to my own.
Every one has a
unique personal history. It is the basic American principle of diversity:
every person
is a unique, noble, sacred individual. Each person has different alloys of
strengths and
weaknesses. Each person lives differently, walks different roads, has different
experiences, calls on different memories, has different approaches to life,
gets sick
differently, has different needs, has different ailments, has different senses
of the
future, carries different amounts of baggage, has different opinions, totes
different
types of baggage, and heals differently. Each person dreams differently, copes
differently, risks differently, fears differently, believes differently, manages
differently, remembers differently, experiences differently, enjoys
differently, pains
differently, and suffers differently. Each person looks and sees, hears and
listens, and
thinks and feels differently. To think that none of this comes into play each
day, to
deny the fact of individual identity, to ignore the truth of individual
experience makes
us vulnerable to the most pernicious dehumanizing effects of opinion,
presumption,
assumption, perception, and stereotype."
Only when we realize we are groping through a fog of certainty, can we
hope find
our way out into that clear air of uncertainty. Only then, will we make the
Herculean
effort to see and listen to and get a feel for each student. In the end, if
you don't
love the true mystery and diversity--and challenge--of it all, you'll miss the
humanity of
it all. And, I'm not sure we can really get the real education job done if we
don't care
about, deal with, and take into account this very human equation.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
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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