I'm starting to put on my Lilly conference game face and getting myself in the groove. Reading David Brook's column in yesterday's NY TIMES (11/15) certainly helped. It was timely since it fits in with what I was thinking about. Curious, for my Holocaust course, I have been reading Daniel Goleman's VITAL LIES, SIMPLE TRUTHS and Max Bazerman and Ann Tenbrunsel's BLIND SPOTS. Added to that I was pouring over Teresa Amabile's article, "Inner Work Life." Brooks' column and these three--two of which he refers to--are pertinent to the meaning of the Oath.
We academics are human. Unfortunately, we far too often deny our humanity; we far too often cocoon ourselves in our disciplines; we far too often cloak ourselves in our scholarship; we far too often concentrate on the belief that we are solely rational, thinking homo sapiens; we far too often pride ourselves, maybe almost inflate ourselves with an arrogant air of superiority, as being unemotionally and disengaged "objective." But, we are human, and degrees, titles, positions don't invalidate that simple truth! For human beings, there is no such thing as "objective." We, like any fellow human being, never see; we perceive, and it's through the lens of perception that we best serve our "selfs." Yet, we too often deceive ourselves that the lower order of emotion only distorts the higher order of reason; we too often accept the fallacy that there is no interplay between cognition and emotion; we so often deny the research which finds that thoughts, feelings, and action are very tightly intertwined; we too often assert in defiance or ignorance of the neuro-scientific research that emotion and cognition are in separate cubbyholes rather than interact in very complex ways; and so, we don't want to understand how what Teresa Amabile calls "inner work life" is crucial to what I call "outer work life" of both academic and student; we too often deceive ourselves into believing we are above what is called "motivated blindness," "normalcy prejudice," "bystander syndrome," and/or "blind spot-ness," that is, we believe of ourselves and students what is in our interests to perceive and believe, and what is emotionally satisfying to accept; we process the facts we like; we inflate our virtues; we deflate our vices; we follow the ways we want to act rather than the ways we should act. When we deny our humanity, however, the danger is that far too often these self-deceptions, these perceptions, are in conflict with simple truths. And the truth is that the professor with the longest scholarly resume or the greatest renown, in the spirit of the Greek tragedies, may also be the most one dimensional, least engaged in the classroom, least caring of individual needy students, and have the most disconnected experience with students while the seemingly most unprepared, quietest, most unmotivated, most disinterested students may just have unique as yet untapped potential waiting to be mined with caring, faith, and love. So, we should dare to understand that when anything happens on both sides of the podium, it triggers interacting cognitive and emotional processes, each feeding the other, each validating pre-existing perceptions, affecting motivations and performance. For me, then, literally taking the Oath each morning is a tool to counter any tendency to be conditionally caring, to fight off the onslaught of temptation to compromise by vision. In some ways, the Oath is an intervention, for it is a recognition of the sins that lurk disguised in our "normal," "average," "blind spots," and "vital lies." It's a reminder of the quicksand that can suck me down into rationalizations to justify weakening my sense of service. Struggling to keep it in the forefront of my mind and heart each day, struggling even more to live it each day, helps me to come to terms with my humanity; it asks me to put my heart and soul into teaching as well as mind and body; it makes such I am driven by a sense of dedication and obligation to follow a philosophic code, to live in a code of honor, to abide by this Oath is a way of keeping my spirit aloft. 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=14208 or send a blank email to leave-14208-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
