4:00 in the Friday morning. In the Charlotte, NC, airport. Waiting for security to open. Can't wait to get to back to caring for Susie. Thought the place would be empty, but it seems that the whole of North Carolina is about to fly to somewhere at this pre-dawn time. Nothing to do but wait. So, here I am on the floor, learning against the wall, tired from both a lack of sleep and the emotional drain from a full day of presentations yesterday at Rowan-Carrabus Community College Summer Institute that was composed of a 2 1/2 hour morning session I called "Creating that classroom 'AHA moment,'" what turned out to be a working lunch, and a 2 1/2 hour afternoon session I called "K.I.S.S.E.D," and thinking about Barbara's assignment that I have to do before the week is out.
So, let's talk about choosing to care. Because when push comes to shove, the first line of my "Teacher's Oath" is: Give a damn. Don't just say; live it!" And if you don't really care, everything else falls out of place. So, care. Not just to say, "I care," but to acting in a caring way; but, not just to act caring in either an emotionally self-satisfying conditional or unconditional way, but in a way that a student feels truly cared about. In one of those sessions, I was talking, as I so often do, of the impact on our perception of a student, and thus our feeling and thoughts and actions, if we learned to envision an angel walking before each student proclaiming that she or he is created in the image of the Divine as a way of seeing past the outer shell to the inner essence of sacredness and nobility and uniqueness. One professor raised her hand and blurted out, "I care, but why should I waste my time caring when the students don't care? You talk about an angel walking in front of them. Well, for a lot of them it's been replaced by Satan. I'm just cynical. So, if they don't care, I won't! They have to earn my caring. I've got more important things to do." What's more important than sincerely caring? What's more important than caring enough to struggle to get them to care, to change what Carol Dweck calls their "self theories?" What's more important than caring to make a difference in someone's life? What's more important than changing your own "self-theories?" What's more important than caring to make a difference in your own life. I personally and professionally have come to think not much. After all, if you want to create that "aha" moment in the classroom, you have a better chance if you are or struggle to become an "aha" person--every day. That was the crux of my workshop sessions. Nothing worthwhile is easy, quick, guaranteed. Significance isn't achieved without significant challenge; the most impressive results come from plain old dedication, perseverance, and hard work; relish the "hard stuff" and you'll transform the other person, yourself, and each moment into something meaningful, purposeful, valuable, and fulfilling. I mean, what do too many professors expect? Do they really believe it's all about them and not themselves? Do they really believe it's right to play the blame game and not the responsibility game? Do they expect all students to be perfect? Do they expect them to come into class as mini-professors, mirror images of them? Do they expect students to be paragons of academic virtue? Do they focus only in the good students, that is, the "easy ones to teach" or the ones "who teach themselves?" Do they not believe that they can make a difference in a life in need? Do they want try to make such a difference? Do they not care, do they understand, that they have a piece of the future in their hands? Do they not see the hidden and unexpected blessings that are on the way in the classroom? Do they want things to be "easy?" Do they really see "importance" in "easy?" Do they not understand that skills and strengths and abilities are of little consequences without unconditional diligence, commitment, dedication, and perseverance? Unconditional!! Do they not understand the power of faith, hope, belief, and love? To those administrators and professors, and to Barbara, I say, your attitude matters; it really is crucial. I would have them read carefully and slowly the anonymously written lines that I discussed in the two sessions I offered: "No written word nor spoken plea can teach our youth what they should be. Nor all the books on all the shelves. It's what the teachers are themselves." To which I added "technology." Or, have them ponder, as I did, the words of Haim Ginott, "I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration." To be a toxin or serum, to be pathological or therapeutic, that is the Shakespearian question. And, either answer is one hell of a responsibility!! To put it four different ways, we, not the technology and not the technique and not the information, but we, are the most important classroom resource we have. I'll repeat that because it deserves being shouted from the rooftops over and over and over again: we, not the technology and not the technique and not the information, but we, are the most important classroom resource we have. Second, sharing--or imposing--our abilities and talents and accomplishments and know-hows is nothing--NOTHING--compared to helping each of those in the classroom with us reveal to themselves their own talents and abilities and potentials to themselves. And, I'll repeat that as well because it deserves being shouted from those same rooftops: sharing--or lording over--our abilities and talents and accomplishments and know-hows is nothing--NOTHING--compared to helping each of those in the classroom with us reveal to themselves their own talents and abilities and potentials to themselves. Third, if we accept our own fearful and unchanging and atrophying and weakening negative "I can't" or "I won't" or "I don't" fixed mindset, how in heavens name can we offer students the ways and means to transform into a curious, creative, adventurous, changing, growing, fearless and strengthening positive "I can" or "I will" growth mindset? If we accept ourselves as that "dog in the corner," how can we help students come out from their own corners? And finally, in the spirit Jon-Kabat-Zinn, whatever we feel, whatever we think, wherever we go and whatever we do there we are; when things go right, there we are; when things go wrong, there we are. We, we, we! No, as I already told Barbara and the participants in the sessions, we see who we are; we teach who we are. The purpose is in us; the vision is in us; the energy is in us; the conviction and commitment and dedication are in us; the gyroscope is in us. As many problems as there may be in the classroom, as many challenges are there are, there is greater potential and more numerous possibilities. The truth is that perceiving challenge as barrier or opportunity is always our choice, caring or not truly caring is always our choice, choosing to do the hard or easy stuff is always our choice, seeing an angel or a devil before each student is always our choice, setting or casting off conditions on our love, faith, hope, and respect is always our choice; choosing to persist and do whatever it takes is always our choice: teaching is important to us or unimportant, enjoyable or unenjoyable, meaningful or meaningless, not because of how things are or how things go or the techniques and technologies we use, but because of who we are. Our attitude towards each student and teaching in general is a choice of who to be--and who to become. When teaching is important, meaningful, significant, enjoyable to us, we are more enjoyable, more interested and interesting, more engaged and more engaging, more driven and more driving. And, I read constantly in the daily student journal entries, the quality and quantity of our teaching is driven by the quality and quantity of the effort we put into each person that spills over into each student. The real challenge is that if anyone wants to change how she or he teaches, she or he has to change who she or he is. And, that is one heck of a long-haul, rocky challenge. I wonder how many of us are up to picking up the gauntlet. The challenges, unfair situations, less than perfect students do not excuse professors from their responsibility to make a difference. In fact, the situations compel them to act and to create meaningful value. You know, while it’s not our fault that teaching is often so difficult, it is our responsibility to deal with those difficulties, to turn the supposed "ugly" into "beautiful," to see that underneath there never really was ugly, to see the butterfly in the caterpillar. And sure, the pressures are enormous. But, as Viktor Frankl said in his MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING, it is because we cannot change a situation that we are challenged to change ourselves. So, I've come to believe that the effort to truly and unconditionally care in the classroom is not a burden, and we can't run from effort. Want "Effortless" or "Easy?" Those words mean that a person does less, could care less, has less driving desire to make what she or he does matter, and has less fight to make a dream into a reality. Airport security is opening up and people are starting to move. So, I'll finish this up. To those who still give a dissenting "bah,humbug," I say that it doesn't take much effort to be truly caring. What may seem like small gestures of caring are not small; they can have an impact on mindsets, attitudes, outlooks, hopes, beliefs, self-perceptions, and performance. But, if you don't care, you won't really care to be caring. So, here are some more rooftop words that I've said over and over and over again--and will keep repeating to hammer home. Very few people, and that includes me and you, can truly flourish if he or she doesn't care about her/himself or anyone, or feels no one cares about them, values them, notices them, supports and encourages them. So, again, in the words of Leo Buscaglia: "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." 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=18045 or send a blank email to leave-18045-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
