Rainy outside. No walking this morning. It's also kind of stormy on
my computer. That professor just won't let up. I thought sharing the
experience with the UPS driver would serve, to paraphrase my friend, Patrick
White, who so simply but eloquently put it, "the teacher reminded of his
influence….the servant reminded of his potential good effect and feeling the
effect of the implicit or explicit judgment of others and the questioning of
myself (Am I doing what I suppose to do? Am I making a difference?)." But,
no, instead she lashed out at me, as a "threat to academia with your
touch-feely talk of the dominance of emotion that underlies your attacks on
traditional lecturing and testing. The classroom is a serious place. It is
not a place for the hokum of subjective sentiment!"
This is how I replied, "I have to admit that getting to know each
student, establishing lines of connection with her or him, learn each's story,
is the best and most important part of teaching. This week I learned of a
student's continuing struggle to deal with lupus and keep her head above water.
Another student is being dominated by her controlling and quasi-abusive
boyfriend. Still another is caught between divorcing parents. A fourth
student is battling manic depression and drug addiction. And yet another is in
a straightjacket of self-disbelief. And on and on and on it goes. To
paraphrase the famous closing line from old TV series, NAKED CITY, "There are a
horde of stories in the naked classroom."
"There's humanity out there beyond the podium that impacting on
achievement and with which I believe academics must deal, be empathetic to, and
be sympathetic of if they really are interested in student achievement. And,
so, I also admit that I am asserting to a 'lecture-happy,' 'test-happy,'
'information transmission-happy,' and certainly 'grade-happy,' 'it's not my
job' academia that cognitive psychologists and neuro-scientists are pointing
out that pedagogy, collegiate or otherwise, should be revamped; that academics
have to take into account what the jargon calls the "affective realm," if what
they think and feel and do has any chance to jibe with the latest research on
effective learning. These findings tell us that students, not to mention us,
just don't deeply and lastingly learn concepts or retain information very well
by having someone who Andrea Kay says should not be confused with Pericles, who
is usually not versed in public speaking or communication skills, and who
drones on and on; that lectures and agonizing-crammed-for tests are largely a
waste of time; that the fear-ridden, stress-ladened process of taking tests and
getting grades mitigates against lasting learning; and that the current
commonly used pedagogy puts the eyes on the prize of grade getting rather than
on learning. If that be threatening, I am truly sorry for that, for I don't
mean to be. I ask you to pause and look into my heart and spirit, into my
optimism, into my empathy, into the unconditional faith, hope, and love I pour
into each student as I help her or him learn to pour all that into themselves."
"For fear of being accused of shameful self-promotion, I am about
modeling. I am about who I am and what I do, not about what others think I do
or want me to do. So, let me tell you who I am not and who I am about, that
is, just what I do not model and what I do model. It's a kind of a partial
inventory of being a teacher. First, who I am not. I am not some arrogant,
bratty kid harassing a host of babysitters; I am not an uncaged, uncontrolled,
uninformed bull in the proverbial china shop; I am not a sophomoric, fuzzy fog
of aimless 'feel-goodness;' I am not a euphoric, detached dreamer prancing
around the classroom spreading a shower of pixie dust; and, I am not as thin as
a sheet of paper."
"As a teacher and human being, I am about sincerity and authenticity.
I am about loving what I do and doing what I love. I am about realizing that
teaching is the best thing I can do to invest in each student's life, to help
her or him invest in her or his own life, and to make a difference. I am about
making the classroom learning experience memorable. I am about helping
students feel different about themselves. I am about being demanding. I am
about caring. I am about tough love. I am about shortening distances with
smiles and laughter. I am about always living my uplifting and positive 'word
for the day,' which this morning is 'playful.' I am about being serious, about
having fun at learning and enjoying challenge, about having serious fun and
serious enjoyment. I am about bringing out the best parts of each student, the
parts that regrettably are far too often rarely seen and are. I am about
service and selflessness. I am about listening, not merely hearing; seeing,
not merely looking. I am about helping each student acquire the courage, inner
strength, responsibility, self-esteem, self-confidence, courage, perseverance,
commitment, and strength for the future. I am about overcoming fear of
failure. I am about never surrendering and about being resilient. I am about
helping each student know she or he can face anything thrown at her or him. I
am about both today with its promises and tomorrow with its next promises. I
am about people."
"I am about what I call "five word" education. I am about making the
classroom relevant to a student's life, what I call the "why" of learning; I am
about providing information, what I call the "what" of learning; I am about
training 'skill set,' what I call the "think" of learning; I am about
developing students' acumen, what I call the "do" of learning; I am about
welding together the cerebral and soulful, what I call the "feel" of learning.
I am, therefore, about developing creativity and imagination. I am about
addressing and instilling character of strong moral and ethical values. I am
about exemplary behavior toward and respectful consideration of others. I am
about irrepressible spirit. I am about breaking restricting barriers of
aloneness and strangeness, building bridges of connection, and forging
supporting and encouraging community. I am about empathy, sympathy, and
compassion. I am about purpose and relevance and meaning in my and students'
lives. I am about honing people and communication skills. I am about taking
risks, failing, learning from those failures, getting up, and taking more
risks. I am about learning about, reflecting on, and experimenting with what
cognitive scientists lately have been saying we should if we are to help
students receive both life credentials in general and professional credentials
in particular. I am about integrating the use of technology, but not merely
for technology's sake. I see myself taking a step here and a step there, far
more as a surgical instrument than as a blunt force weapon."
"With all this that I've said, what do you want from me? Do you want
me to say that because it has always been done this way, that it was good
enough for me and therefore good enough for my students, and that I should
lecture-test, lecture-test, lecture-test, never mind the assertions of
cognitive scientists and neuroscientists that such a pedagogy generally is
ineffective in the long run? Do you want me to focus on grade-giving and
grade-getting, rather than on deep learning? Do you want me to reinforce the
pressure-cooker fear of getting a bad class grade as opposed to instilling an
exhilarating life-long love of learning. Do you want me to say that grades
reflect learning, and that they and GPAs predict future performance when they
don't? Do you want me to ignore the complex and complicated humanity in each
of us by concentrating solely on what we call cognitive intelligence to the
detriment of recognizing the involvement and impact of what is called emotional
and social intelligences? Our brain, the neuroscientists tell us, is not
compartmentalized that way. Human beings, and students are human, are not one
dimensional, flattened, inanimate cardboard images. They are much more than
merely Homo Sapien. They're complicated and complex 3D
intellectual-emotional-social entities living in a 3D inside/outside themselves
and inside/outside the classroom world."
"I mean, if I were a biologist, would you have me teach biology by
ignoring the discovery of DNA? If I was a physicist, would you want want me to
pursue my discipline as it was before Max Planck and Albert Einstein? If I was
an astronomer could I develop a curriculum void of discussing quasars and black
holes? If I was a physician, would you want me to practice medicine with snake
oils and leeches instead of vaccines, antibiotics, and T-cells? You know, it's
only recent that we have had much research in education that is discovering
techniques that actually work. I'm struggling to follow what the cognitive
scientists and neuroscientists are saying, have been saying for decades, about
effective learning. Have you read and pondered Graham Gibbs' 1981 'Twenty
Terrible Reasons for Lecturing' which was way of ahead of its time and is
presently being supported by the research on learning? Have you read of Peter
Senge's personal mastery and shared vision in his 1990, "The Fifth Discipline?"
What of Ed Deci's, 1995 "Why We Do What We Do" whose concept of intrinsic
motivation was largely ignored and is now in vogue, Howard Gardner's 2004
"Changing Minds" who talks of the difficulty of teaching something new and
gradually changing attitudes and behavior, and, Richard Boyatzis' mindfulness
in his 2005 "Resonant Leadership?"
"One last 'I am about.' I AM about routine and tradition, but I much
prefer to routinely step forward, to follow the investigative, adventurous, and
spirited tradition of change and vibrant growth."
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
Department of History 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" - / \_
---
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