Just came in from a youthfully invigorating short walk. I say "short,"
because a shin splint in my left leg has kept me off the streets for about a
month. So, here I am, sipping a cup of hot, freshly brewed coffee, thinking
"it's done.' I've handed in my keys; I've emptied my office; I've donated the
last cases of books to the University Library; I've gotten a new ID; I've
completed the out-processing interview; I've submitted final grades of the
final semester of my 46 year teaching career here a VSU. I am officially
retired. At the moment, it's not a good feeling. I'm not a happy puppy. Now,
however, in reflection, I'm trying to sum it all up. So, during my pre-dawn
walk I found myself thinking back to October, 2008, and I could feel an
uncontrolled smile forming.
It was the Lilly North Conference on Teaching in Higher Education at
idyllic Travis City, Michigan. My good friend, Todd Zakrajek, the conference
director, came up to me. It was the end of a long conference day and I was in
an interesting mood: Susie had just returned from a jovial spending jaunt
through the boutiques, lifting the local economy by several points; I had been
getting myself into the groove for a featured workshop the next day until I
discovered only a few minutes earlier that I had packed student community
project evaluations into my suitcase instead of my presentation stuff. I would
have to go impromptu for 90 minutes the next day. So, I was in a mental and
emotional groping "what the hell am I gong to do" groove.
"I've got room for you and Susie on the wine tour. Want to go?" Todd
asked me. "We're leaving now."
Like he had to ask twice. For Susie he had said the two magic
words--wine tour. For me, it was a needed distraction--I thought. "Oh, by the
way," he added, "at the dinner when the tour is ended, I want you to present a
'five minute lecture you'd give to a person new to teaching." Todd does these
things to people he loves.
"Five minutes? My entire testament on teaching in only five minutes?"
I asked. "You got to be kidding."
"To the second," he smiled impishly.
"I don't have anything. And, if we're going on the wine tour now, I
won't have time to think up something. I'll have to go off the top of head," I
told him.
"Good. Then, it won't be canned and it'll mean something."
"Okay," I sighed, "but I guess that means I can't sample too much wine."
"I knew you would do it. Couldn't turn down the challenge, could you."
he replied in his own inimitable, smirking way.
It was a godsend since it became the core of the next day's
presentation. So, to the best of my memory here is the unwritten "My Five
Minute Testament" in writing. As I look back, it had sprouted out from my "To
Be A Teacher," my "Am I A Teacher," my "Ten Commandments of Teaching," and my
"Ten Stickies," and would grow three years later into my "Teacher's Oath." It
was my Testament then; it is my Testament now; it will always be my Testament:
"Five minutes? Okay. No technology or information or methods and
techniques talk. Just first principles: You are in the people business!
Education is always about the individual human being. The individual human
being is the only reality. "Students" are not; "class" is not; "generation" is
not. "They" is not. Statistics are not. A pie chart is not. A graph line is
not. Don't bury the breathing individual under a lifeless generality. Don't
take the life out of her or him with an inanimate stereotype. Don't reduce
human worth to a one dimensional standardized score, test, grade, or
transcript. Don't perceive these individuals through distorting and blurring
prisms. Don't select them out, those to be nurtured to the right and those to
be weeded out to the left.
Welcome, embrace, include, say 'yes,' to every individual student,
unconditionally--UNCONDITIONALLY--no matter where she or he is on life's road.
Never forget that each person in that room is someone's son, daughter, sister,
brother, niece, nephew, cousin, father, or mother who is entrusted to you.
Burn into your soul the words of Carl Jung: 'You have to put aside your formal
theories and intellectual constructs and axioms and statistics and charts when
you reach out to touch that miracle called the individual human being.'
And a miracle each is. Close your eyes. See an angel walking in front
of each student, proclaiming, 'Make way, make way, make way for someone created
in the image of God.' Let that pronouncement get under your skin; feel it in
your bones; never let it stop reverberating in your ears and pounding in your
chest. Let it be your vision. Let it form your dreams. Let it energize your
imagination. Let it nourish your thoughts and feelings. Let it lay out the
direction in which you're moving. Let it decide the world you live in. Let it
decide how things are going. Let it guide, focus and drive every moment of
what you do.
Trust me, as you bring that image to life, as you constantly think of,
believe, feel, taste, live by, and clearly see and listen to these ethereal
messengers, it makes a difference in how you see, listen to, feel about, think
of and behave towards each student. It makes the classroom so sacred you
almost have to take off your shoes. It makes the classroom a beautiful
gathering of sacred, noble, capable, talented, unique, diverse, extraordinary
"ones." It gives you an intense alertness, attentiveness, awareness, and
mindfulness that become one with your teaching. It morphs each 'human being"
into a 'human becoming.' It transforms those supposedly "devilishly impossible
students" into "angelically" possible; it converts the impossible to reach into
the reachable; it makes the bothering ones too valuable not to be bothered
with. It elevates the 'ordinary' to the heights of the 'extraordinary.' It
turns the routine-ish 'ho-hum' into an exciting 'wow!' It makes you into
nothing other than a 'hopeless hope-oholic,' a 'helpless help-oholic,' 'a
dreamy-eyed dreamer,' a 'restless believer,' an 'insightful visionary,' a
'daring daredevil,' and a 'people-struck lover.'
Do you how important what you do is? Each of those people is a piece
of the future. Lose one, and you've left a hole in the fabric of things to
come. You have a shot to make each person find her or his place, to help each
make her/himself bigger and better, to help each student find her or his true
self, to help each of them to open her or his shut doors, and to help each to
aim higher. You have the future in your hands. Use them to make a real
difference in a real way in the real lives of real people in a real world. Be
there to help each student help him- or herself become the person she or he is
capable of becoming. Let that be your 'why,' translate it into action by
having your 'whats' and 'hows' be in the service of it, and you will never get
old, never get lazy, never get resigned, never get cold, never get distant,
never get hard, never get frustrated never get bitter, never lose your passion,
never become routine, never stop having serious fun, never stop questing and
adventuring, never stop enjoying, never stop. Never! It's hard work, I admit.
But, a vision won't work out unless you work at it, unless you constantly
practice practicing it. The way to do this is simple but oh so demanding:
Care about. Believe in. Have faith in. Have hope for. Connect with.
Respect. Honor. Nurture. Support. Encourage. Empathize. Sympathize.
Honor. Edify. LOVE! LOVE!! LOVE!!! LOVE!!!! Every student! Every day!!
UNCONDITIONALLY!!
And you will, if you don't play the 'I can't get to them all' 100% game
or the 'perfect' game. Remember, to paraphrase the Talmud, touch one student,
just one student--ONE STUDENT--and you have changed the world and altered the
future. And, I guarantee, each time you do that, you will feel a sense of
significance, accomplishment, satisfaction and fulfillment beyond your wildest
dreams. Nothing can match it. Not a book, a conference paper, an article, a
grant, an recognition, a promotion, an appointment. Nothing!"
Whew! I just timed me. I made it: 4 minutes, 59 seconds. If you
want, I'll give you copies of my "stuff."
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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