Be love, now. Be faith, now. Be hope, now. Be empathy, now. Be compassion, now. Be all these things, unconditionally, now. Respect life and every life, now, for it and they are so short. We don't have an language in academia to talk about this kind of unorthodox thing. To most academics "A Teacher's Oath" is cause for eye-rolling, dismissal of utopian puff and fluff; it's hallmarkish, new agey, touchy-feely; it's academically uncool; it's non-quantative; it's immeasurable; and, it's "unassessible." For me that is sad, for too many of us academics have given up the search for personal meaning as we aim to fit in, belong, submit, and be controlled by "the system." Rather than figure out what we're each about and develop a personal vision that gives a special sense of purpose to teaching, that endows a sacredness to what we do as teachers, we enclose ourselves in cells others have constructed for us. The sadness is that when we do that, we not only compliantly and submissively grovel and kiss up, we deny our "onlyness," the unique space only each of us stands in; we empower a fearfulness and powerlessness; we remain in the valley of darkness and can't walk to the sunlit top of our inner mountain where that little voice in our heart and soul resides.
It is not what the Oath is or says, it's what the Oath does. The Oath shouldn't be an anomaly, for the only people who make a difference are the ones who are crazy enough to believe they can, and push both themselves and students. I guess I'm one of the insane. To me the Oath is, in the words of Peter Senge, the way to personal mastery; it comes from within; it is the sense of why a person is alive; it is the fundamental soul of a teacher. And, the outer layers of my pedagogy come from the core of my being, from responding to people and circumstances with my heart. I don't want to be just a credentialist, a transmitter of information, a tester, a grader, an assessor, a developer of critical thinking. We are supposed to be good at being human. Teaching and learning are not about information or technique or method or technology or assessment. They're a holistic "and," a blending of knowledge, pedagogy, technology, and people. I start with putting loving and caring into people; then comes the method, technique, and technology, driven by a desire to do something meaningful and significant. I want to help students become their own learners, their own questers, their own thinkers, their own deciders, better persons. I want to democratize access to learning so students would not have to be dependent on a priesthood of intellectuals and professionals. It is more often than not the exercise of classroom love; I hope it is my defining character, and I want to communicate that love through how I use the methods, techniques, and technologies. It is tough and challenging. To truly live teaching is to take full responsibility for living teaching. And to do that, means to exercise that responsibility with love in every moment. It means we have to touch the deep value of our selves; it means the less we think of tenure, promotion, research and publishing, the more we think of people; the more we think of people, the more we will put into teaching; and, the more we put into teaching, the more powerful and meaningful and significant will be our efforts. Now, I realize that my real job is not to conform to what others think, not even students, but to know and to help students know that life's goal is to find our unique way, our unknown path, and thereby to find a way to transform from enslaved ass kissing to embolden kicking ass. That means, at the end of the day, teaching is done with the heart; it's the Oath that sets my heart on fire, and at the heart of the most effective teaching tool anywhere is a heart on fire that ignites other hearts. If that be insane or crazy, so be it. It's the way to help each student help her/himself become the person she or he is capable of becoming, and thus to make her or him a better person and this world better. Make it a good day -Louis- Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org<http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org/> Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.com<http://www.therandomthoughts.com/> Valdosta State University Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ (O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ / \ (C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \ /\ \ //\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/ \_/__\ \ /\"If you want to climb mountains,\ /\ _ / \ don't practice on mole hills" - / \_ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14125 or send a blank email to leave-14125-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
