I love "you just don't ask" serendipity. I was at a confluence of
three events this morning. The first event was a question posed by a student
yesterday, whom I'll call Mary. She threw a challenging assignment at me. She
is thinking of becoming an ed major. She came up to me after class on
Wednesday and said, "Dr. Schmier, in one sentence define what it is to be a
true teacher, a true teacher. I'll give you until Friday morning, 5 am ." So,
I was wrestling with that as I was slammed with this student's journal entry.
I figured that citing Micah 6:8 and telling her that she had to live a life of
"M68ED" (Micah 6:8 Every Day) is not only breaking her rule of one sentence,
but it's too abstruse. Then, last night, Susie and I watched an episode of
"Criminal Minds." It's one of those masterful shows that I initially I hate to
watch but which ultimately just sucks you in. It always starts and ends an
episode with a profound quote. This time, it quoted Lewis Carroll. Then, at
about 4:30 this morning I was "slammed," and I mean "slammed," by a long,
student journal entry that had been laying in my mailbox since 3:45 this
morning. To call it "heart wrenching" sounds so cliche. To say it brought
more tears and deeper breaths than Max' entry sounds so trite. But, no one,
not even someone with a hardest of hearts, or screaming at the top of his
voice, "This is not my job," could not get torn up, however momentarily,
reading this one. For a moment, I had a flash of a pity party with a brief
"Why do I put myself through this?" When I finished reading it, I just closed
my eyes and rested my gently shaking head in my right hand, grimacing and
biting my lower lip in more than sadness, and whispering an angry 'shit' or two
to myself. It ranks up there with the toughest entries I ever read over the
past 16 years. For a moment, I had a flash of a pity party with a brief "Why
do I put myself through this." It lasted only a second or two. Then, after a
tear drop or two, a few heavy breaths, and some more silent cursing, I regained
my composure. I know. I'm being more than a tad cryptical, and I'll leave it
at that.
But, it all came together and I made deadline. I sent my response to
Mary's assignment at 4:58 am this morning: "One sentence? What is it to be a
true teacher? A true teacher, a deep teacher? It's to be a human being, but
I'll let Lewis Carroll, of what you know as ALICE IN WONDERLAND fame, give you
the one sentence you want. 'One of the deep secrets of life,' he said, 'is
that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.' To which I
will add, 'and as a 'true' teacher there is a price you have to be willing to
pay for being unconditionally in the service of each and every student.'" How
true. How true. I need Susie.
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 /\ /\ /\ /\
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(O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ /
\
(C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \
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//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
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mountains,\ /\
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hills" - / \_
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