Yeah, I know, Im sharing a lot lately. Its still partly the
hangover from
the Lilly-South conference on collegiate teaching, as well as the occurrence of
another
strange, you-just-dont-ask confluence. This time it was a rich conversation
about
attitudes towards students happening at the same time I received an unexpected
message
couple of days ago from an ex-student who contacted me from out of the blue
after 39
years. His words hit me like a proverbial bolt of lightning. I must admit, I
dont
remember the student, the situation, or my words. Ive read his message over
and over
again, pondered it over and over again, eyes tearing up over and over again,
breathing
heavy over and over again:
I just finished reading some of your Random
Thoughts
and wanted to pass along my thanks for your thoughts and for a discussion with
me in 1971.
I began VSU in the fall of 1970 just after returning home from a tour in
Vietnam with the
Navy-a very confusing time. I had absolutely no idea of what I wanted or where
I was
going.
During a very lackluster 2 semesters at
VSC, you
pulled me aside and confronted me about a very poor-quality paper I had turned
in. That
has always stuck with me and always motivated me.
I finally joined the Air Force in 1972,
determined to
chart a course and achieve something. Over the years I became an AF Master
Instructor,
finished my BS degree in 1978, and retired as a senior master sergeant. After
retirement
in 1995, I became a Director of a Discipline Alternative School here in Texas,
completed
my M. Ed., and earned principal and superintendent certifications. I am now the
principal
at the Gainesville State School--Texas Youth Commission. We work with the most
challenging
students in Texas. (I will read more of your thoughts and welcome any
suggestions to reach
these kids).
Your discussion with me is a deep part of
what I have
done to excel in the Air Force and in education.
Now, Im not tooting my horn. Its just that his words should
remind us that
without a deep sense of awareness and otherness--and perhaps not even then--we
sometimes
just don't know the impact--therapeutic or pathological, curative or toxic--we
have, or
don't learn of it until decades later. The point is that we should never
forget that "you
just don't know," and how do we assess that with whatever instrument. Think
about it.
All these years, I was within him and whatever I said he kept as an encouraging
whisper in
his ears. Its also that his words reinforce what I had told some colleagues a
few days
ago as part of that rich exchange. This is what I said to them:
I have said over and over and over again that we educators are in
the people
business. That means education is a human issue. It's about human life, human
hopes,
human dreams, human futures. At least, for me, there is nothing impersonal,
detached,
abstract, theoretical, or cold about issues dealing with real people. We can
fool
ourselves into believing that our job is just to teach a subject, to transmit
information,
and to develop critical thinking skills. But, if we use those thinking skills
we'd
realize that no action by a teacher is impersonal and no attitude is detached.
Our
teaching is determined largely by the attitude we bring into the classroom to
each
student, that is, by the way our hearts and minds look at each of those human
beings in
the class with us. Like it or not, by gesture or word or glance, by display of
concern or
disinterest or disdain, by inclusion or exclusion, we touch students' lives.
We open or
close minds and hearts and souls to what's out there by whether we're in the
"ugh zone" or
the "ho-hum zone" or the "wow zone." We foster or shatter dreams. I am not
loyal to any
educational structure that puts labels on students or places them into a box.
I have
reservations about an educational structure that excludes or culls out. I have
a deep,
emotional, unswerving commitment to an educational structure that affirms and
respects the
dignity of each student, to an institution of acceptance and inclusion, that is
dedicated
to the principle of individual cultivation and even reclamation, and that has an
educational approach that provides standards of opportunity to develop each
student's
unique potential to achieve no less than academic standards.
You know, I read student daily journal entries, about 180 every
weekday. I
have been doing this since I first instituted journaling in the fall term,
1996. In a
very unscientific way, I've learned a lot about students. In this case, it's
been brought
to home over and over again that students are far more likely to perform best in
respectful environments, in situations where they are respected as individuals.
After
reading thousands of daily journal entries, Ive concluded that students don't
want to be
respected as a ploy just so they can get better grades. They don't want to be
respected
just because of their grades and GPAs. They want to be just respected; they
want
unconditional and positive regard just because of who they are as individual
human beings.
Respect is the most powerful route any of us can take to reach out and touch
each of them.
So it is around respect for each student that I have fashioned my vision, my
philosophy of
education, and the structure of my classes. It is around unconditional
respect, faith in,
belief in, hope for, and love of each student as an individual that I have
structured
working, living principles governing what takes place in my heart and soul, in
my
emotions, and in my attitude. They determine the depth of my awareness of each
individual, the intensity of my sense of otherness, the extent of my sense of
service, and
simply how I behave and why and what I pedagogically do in class. Why not.
The three
most powerful tools in our pedagogical kit are not technique or technology.
They are
attitude, attitude, attitude: our attitude towards ourselves, our attitude
about our
purpose, and our attitude towards the students. So, I on the plane back from
the Lilly
conference in Greensboro on Super bowl Sunday, I wrote my academic version of
the
Hippocratic Oath of dong no harm. Im going to call it, A TEACHER'S OATH.
"Oath" has a
weightier feel of commitment while "rules" has a feel of mere compliance.
Here's my newly
fashioned oath that's already taped above my computer and is going into my
syllabi
beginning this Fall semester. Place your right hand on your textbook, raise
your left
hand and repeat after me:
I swear by Athena, Goddess of Learning, Métis, Goddess
of Wisdom
and Thought, St. Gregory the Great, Patron Saint of Teachers, and St. Thomas
Aquinas,
Patron Saint of Students, and all the wise rabbis of the Talmud I will fulfill
this oath
and covenant:
I will give a damn about each person in the class! I
will care! I
will support! I will encourage! I wont just mouth it, I will live it! Each
day,
unconditionally!
I will teach to nurture, not to weed out. I will greet
and
embrace and accept each student. I will not greet anyone with the expectation
that he or
she will fail. I will not treat anyone as dumb and unwanted. I will treat
everyone as
capable and belonging here. I will greet each person knowing she or he has a
unique
potential to be cultivated. I will greet each person knowing that she or he
can learn,
achieve, and succeed. I will have faith in, belief in, hope for, and love of
each person.
Each day, unconditionally!
I will treat each class as a "gathering of sacred
ones," of
diverse, individual, noble, and very special human beings. I will treat each
person with
equal dignity and unqualified respect. I will not let anyone go unnoticed; I
will not
allow anyones face to get erased;
I will not let anyone go nameless; I will not place
anyone in the
background; I will not place anyone in the shadows of the corners; I will not
shun; I
will not ignore; I will not belittle; I will not demean. Everyone will start
with a clean
slate; I will not judge anyone by the ring in her belly button or the tattoo on
his arm or
the clothes she wears or the whispers of other people or a GPA or the accent of
their
speech or the color of their his or her ethnicity or his religion or her gender
or his
sexual preference or whatever else;
I will never be negative. I will be upbeat, offering
nothing less
than praise and/or positive, constructive critique. I will focus on each
student and her
or his learning, and worry about my teaching later.
I will be there to help each student help herself or
himself
become the person she or he is capable of becoming.
And, nothing will mean a thing if I dont help each
student help
herself or himself become a better person and live the good life.
I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my
honor. And if
I keep this oath faithfully each day, may I enjoy a life
overflowing with fulfillment, meaning, purpose, accomplishment, and
satisfaction,
respected by all in all times; but if I swerve from it
or violate
it, may the reverse be my lot.
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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