As this professor exemplified, academics and emotion have a rocky
relationship. As a result, academia is a tough culture in which to talk of
faith, hope, and love. Those three words are hard for some academics. It's a
culture that traditionally says paradoxically with great emotion that emotions
have no place in the Ivory Tower. Instead,it emotionally tells you that you
must--must--be emotionless, cold, distant, impersonal, disengaged, and
rational. It's all encapsulated in the word, "objective." So, too many
academics don't know what to do with or want having to do with the persons they
feel and judge to be a "waste of my time," "I've got better things to do," the
"poor," the "unprepared," the "don't belong." and the "they're letting anyone
in." They ignore them, say painful things, belittle them, and do everything
they can to weed them out. With that attitude, they are failing the students,
as well as themselves. What they don't want to understand is that not
according these students an honorable dignity and disregarding them makes
matters only worse. It causes them see themselves as different in a way that
devalues them, that strips them of faith in themselves, hope for themselves,
lowers their self-esteem and self-confidence. And, as the research shows,
lowers their performance levels.
"I understand," I explained to her, "that when I talk of faith, hope,
and love it sounds so alien to a lot of academics. It did to me at first way
back in the 1990s. To some, it sounds like being a weak, ineffective,
sentimental, 'hallmarkish' push over. To still others it's a rabid invasion of
an anti-rational, emotional, and subjective pestilence. But, as Thicht Nhat
Hanh said, we human beings 'inter-are' creatures who have a hard time
flourishing when we feel invisible to, disconnected with, and isolated from
others.
"I have found that faith, hope, and love actually augments academia," I
explained, it doesn't undermine it. The research done by the likes of
Rochester's Ed Deci, Standord's Carol Dweck, Harvard's Teresa Amabile, UNC's
Barbara Fredrickson, Harvard's Daniel Goleman, UC's Sonja Lyubomirsky,
Chicago's Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and host of others tell us that faith, hope,
and love help create a whole new mind and heart. Daniel Goleman calls it 'EI--
emotional intelligence' and 'SI--social intelligence.' To that I added my own
'HI--hospitality intelligence' and 'KI--kindness intelligence.' They positively
create positive people, positive feelings, positive thoughts, positive
experiences, and positive results. Faith in, hope for, and love of are a
positive audacity that nourish, that provide the impulse, that infuse the
energizing juice to take bold actions, that instill a resiliency, that
strengthen self-esteem and self-confidence, that help each student help herself
or himself become the person she or he is capable of becoming, and can
consequently improve performance."
"Permit me," I asked this professor, "to quickly let you in on a few
little, big secrets I've learned about learning from both educating myself
about the latest research findings and decades of experience in the classroom.
I'll just list them and explain later if you wish me to:"
"First, don't get stuck in sameness. Each day is a new adventure.
Each day is unique. Each day is a challenge filled with opportunities and
possibilities. You never step into the same class twice, even if the course
number is the same. Change is the only constant, every moment, every day,
every term. The one thing that never changes that is that the end of the day
you, others, and things will be different than they were when the day began.
So, you never step into the same class twice, even if the course number is the
same. And, you never deal with the same person twice, even if her or his name
is the same. Dealing with that change is how we and they learn, grow, and
change.
"Second, no one can leave her or his 'trash' at the classroom
threshold. What occurs outside the classroom and inside each student deeply
impacts what goes on inside the classroom. And, if we are truly concerned with
what occurs inside the classroom, we must be equally concerned with what goes
on outside the classroom and inside each student."
"Third, as educators, we are in the people business, as much as, if not
more, than in the information transmission, skill development, and
credentialing business. We have to heed Thomas Edison's assertion that the
mind and heart of people must control what they create. We, therefore, have to
insure that we are graduating good people as well as good students who can live
the good life as well as secure a good living."
"Fourth, persuasion and trust and respect always trump authority.
Students will listen when they are inspired, not when they are demeaned and
scolded. Brute attitudes will be met with subtle or overt brute resistance and
intransigence. At best, you'll get resentful, submitting, or reluctant
compliance to get a passing grade, but not dedicated commitment to learning."
"Fifth, to the question 'how much faith, hope, and love am I supposed
to show?' There is no metric for them, or for caring, kindness, support and
encouragement, for empathy. So, the answer to the question 'how much faith,
hope, and love am I supposed to show,' is 'You show and do as much as you can
or wish.' It's as simple and complicated, as easy and hard, as that."
"Sixth,, it is wrong to banish discomfort. To paraphrase, a quote I
gave you earlier, 'Teaching begins at the end of your comfort.' Discomfort is
when you learn the most about yourself, others around you, and the crafts of
teaching and learning; when you're always on the move, journeying, never
completely satisfied and fulfilled, always on an adventure, always renewing
yourself; when you know your best today is never your best since you can be
better tomorrow. Discomfort, then. insures that the proverbial grass doesn't
grow under your feet and your stone is constantly rolling preventing a
gathering of moss. The paradox occurs when the time will come, then, when you
will be comfortable with discomfort."
"Seventh, there is a toll on having negative attitudes towards
students. They throw spontaneity, imagination, and creativity out the window
with a resigned 'what's the use.' Excitement devolves into droning on and on
rote. It's becomes like hiking up a steep hill while carrying the weight of a
heavy pack on your back. Exhaustion and burn out, the research finds, is not
the result of overwork; it is the result of 'underjoy,' 'undepurpose,' and
'undermeaning.'" Faith, hope, and love are at the core of resilience and
sustainability. They make you into a 'kindness iconoclast,' an informed and
reflective activist in the service of each student, conscious of the human
complexity in the classroom, honoring the dignity of each human being in the
classroom, acknowledging the unique of each person, dealing with that
complexity and individuality in supportive and encouraging community, walking
the lifelong road of innovation, and bringing new realities to the classroom. "
"Eigth, it's no fun not being noticed, being rendered invisible, much
less feeling disrespected. Your attitude makes a hell of a difference not only
you, but on students as well; it exerts a powerful influence on both you and
each student; it has an enormous impact on how the day unfolds; and, it's yours
to control."
"Ninth, each time you see those uplifting angels walking before eat
student pronouncing 'Make way. Make way. Make way for someone created in the
image of God,' you always come back to a mindfulness fraught with awareness,
attentiveness, alertness, and otherness. You cannot help to choose to be
anyone other than an unconditional devotee of the SLM movement. That image
will make a difference in how you see each student, how you listen to each of
them, how you feel about and think of each of them, how you behave towards each
of them. You'll see the sacredness, nobility, uniqueness, a unique potential
of each student. Unconditional faith, hope, and love rises each day in you to
serve them. You will find ways to get each student to believe in, search for,
discover, and tap her/his inner uniqueness. It will make a difference in
deciding whether each of them should be your top priority. then, you will
sruggle to find ways to get to know them in order to tailor yourself to their
needs.""
"And finally, Be patient and humble. There's truth in that warning
adage about Rome not being built in a day. Faith, hope, and love require a lot
of is called 'sweat equity.' They take time and energy. They demand
perseverance and endurance. They demand constant strength and courage. There
are no magic tricks, no quick solutions, no easy answers, no sure-fire manuals,
no guaranteed technology. And, that is scary."
"Enough for now."
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 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
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/ \ / \
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ / \ /\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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