We do love to label, don't we: Boomers, Gen-Xers, Me Gerneration,
Greatest Generation, Millenials. Now it's Globals and Selfies. In our piety
towards labels, in our rush to demystify, we hand over to certain petrified
stereotypes a certain control over us. There is a certain power in labeling,
in the labels themselves, in speaking a word, in using a word intentionally as
something alive and real. The labels focus our attention; they place our
energy; they shape our expectations. The way we understand the classroom is
very much based on what we can see of the classroom, and what we see is
determined by the labeling. And, worse of all, the labeling implies the
impossible: we know all there is to know. We treat these "theory of all" so
that they allow us to say one size doesn't fit all when it suits us while we
suit everyone with one size when it suits us.
Yet, the labels are an impossibility as a matter of principle. They
don't include everything that can be included. They are so superficial and
outward. They're incomplete. They're a cheap imitation. They're limited
conceptions of the human condition. They devalue indsividuals. They take a
complex and robust life and see it through the distortions akin to Alice's
looking glass, and create a world that distances itself from it's own heart.
They reveal that we far too often are most comfortable with lifeless,
impoverished, unimaginative, undervaluing, identity eclipsing, inherently
stale, flat placards rather than with dynamic, fleshed out human intricacy,
complexity, and diversity.
There are interesting people out there and they deserve all the
attention we can give each of them. And, if label we must and if labels are
freighted, let's change not the weight but the freight. Use them to imagine
our academic contemporary world differently from the existing tradition. Let
us use them wisely apart from the conventional wisdom. Let them have the
emotional power of respecting, welcoming, embracing, and loving. So, if there
be such a power in naming, as there is, let's use them to be therapeutic rather
than pathological, to smile rather than sneer, to build up rather than tear
down, to create a healthy climate rather than a poisonous one, to elevate
rather than demean, to be passionate rather than resigned, to be hopeful rather
than pessimistic, to close rather than to distance, to support and encourage
rather than ignore needs, to engage rather than disengage, to empathize rather
than be unfeeling, to communalize rather than balkanize, to nurture rather than
weed out, to shimmer rather than dull, to embrace rather than push away, to see
rather than turn a blind eye to, to listen to rather than be deaf to, to light
up rather than darken. Let's transcend the barreling shells. Let's dive
beneath the surface of stereotyping and generalizing into the depths of
individual uniqueness and true diversity.
Let us name each student instead "individual sacred human being." Name
each professor instead "individual sacred human being." Name each administrator
instead "individual sacred human being." Name each staff member instead
"individual sacred human being."
The heart is a strong muscle. I am proposing a vigorous exercise plan
for it. If you say that name enough, over and over and over again, day after
day day, you'll heed your better angels rather than be turned by your lesser
demons. The eye of your heart will open. You'll see untold secrets. You'll
have untold understandings. You'll taste unimagined goodness. You'll feel the
undreamt-of beauty. You'll have insight to the innumerable unique potentials.
Then, you will slowly change. You will change who you are; you will change
how you feel about yourself and others; you will change what you believe;
you'll change what you do. You'll appreciate, celebrate, support, encourage,
believe, have faith, hope, and love. You'll never act as a spent force. And,
the world around you slowly will change. Trust me. I know from the personal
experience of having been there until 1991 and am now here since.
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
/^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__
/ \ / \
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ / \ /\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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