I interrupt my response to the professor who disowned me because I
asked “too many” questions about the Ivory Tower. I had received a message
from another professor, one sentence of which read: “You call yourself an
‘enthusiast.’ How did keep yourself fired up without burning out? What
specifically did you do? I teach four sections of the same class over and over
and over. I feel myself getting bored and flaming out. I am afraid of
crashing.”
“First, your premise is wrong. It’s autumn. Go outside and look at
the bare trees. Do you see the unique complexity of each tree’s branches that
were hidden beneath the summer foliage that made every tree look alike? Though,
like you, each term I taught sections of the same numbered class, as you say,
‘over and over and over for years,’ but I remembered by Heraclitus: I never
stepped into the same class twice, for it was not the same class. The students
were different from day, from class to class, from term to term. And, I was
not the same person. That is, underneath the identical number, each class had
it’s own uniqueness and complexity; it had its own gathering of unique and
complex, and ever-changing individuals. To me, each section of the same number
class, each day, had it’s own personality; each class, each day was a new and
exciting—and scary—‘I wonder’ adventure. But, I never played the ‘perfect’ or
‘100%’ or ‘best’ or the ‘numbers’ game. I accepted my imperfection. I let an
‘ooops’ lead me back to the ‘let’s see’ drawing board. I was always studying
about the latest research on teaching and learning. I was always changing what
I was feeling, thinking, and doing. I was always changing and tweaking
according what I was learning about learning. So, I never gave up when things
didn’t always work out or I didn’t reach a student. But, I never let that get
to me; I never let up; and I never gave up. I didn’t try to be a door suddenly
thrown open to let in the blinding light. A crack of light at a time worked,
for I never knew upon whom the crack of light would shine. As I always
reminded myself, all I had to do was to touch one student—just one student—and
I changed the world and altered the future. I followed Mother Teresa’s dictum
that she didn’t tend to the masses; instead, she loved one person at a time and
tended to one person at a time.”
“What I am saying it that I didn’t allow my attitudes to flatten my
attitudes. I didn’t allow my attitudes to go stale. I stayed away from the
ruts of mindless repetition and thoughtless rote. Nothing ‘yellowed’ in the
classes. I constantly studied and applied my studies. I became what the
psychologist, Julius Segal, called the ‘charismatic adult’ to myself,
banishing the draining ‘yuk’ and ‘ho-hum’ of stagnant and paralyzed ‘learned
helplessness’ and seeking the invigorating ‘wow’ and ‘aha’ of ‘learned
optimism.’ I become a student of Carol Dweck’s ‘growth mindset.’ I learned,
applied to myself, used in the classroom, and lived outside the classroom with
a mindset that I had derived from studying Carol Dweck’s ‘mindset,’ with
Barbara Fredrickson’s ‘love,’ Gregory Berns’ ‘iconoclast,’ Martin Seligman’s
’learned optimism,’ Richard Boyatzis’ ‘resonant leadership,’ Daniel Goleman’s
‘emotional intelligence’ and ‘social intelligence,’ Sonja Lyubomirsky’s
‘happiness,’ Angela Duckworth’s ‘grit,’ Albert Bandura’s ‘self-efficacy,’
Bernard Weiner’s ‘attribution,’ and a host of others All this put me in
control of teaching. No one mades me do anything. I didn’t surrender myself
to anyone or anything. I didn’t go into the classroom according to someone
else’s expectations. I always remember my Rumi: ‘Let the beauty of what you
love, be what you do.’ So, I consciously nourished and cared for my spirit. I
became a ‘prisoner’ of unconditional faith, hope, love, caring, kindness,
respect for each student. I didn’t let a lab or archive or tenure or title, a
publication or grant or conference presentation, have priority over each
student. I came to believe, fundamentally, in the full-bore power of person
to person, human to human, heart to heart transformation. I did’t believe
information to person or technology to person has the same power. However, I
could’t help students get a positive attitude unless I establish a caring and
trusting relationship with each of them that offered a sense of belonging and
worth. To do that, I saw people as living people, not as stick-figured
stereotypes, generalities, labels, or categories; and, I saw individuals as
what I call ’sacred ones,’ not as people;’ and I had to find a way to get to
know each of them beneath their surface foliage.”
“In Higher Education we tend to look at what Booker T. Washington
called the ‘talented tenth,’ which we make far more satisfying that gazing at
the other 90 percent. It makes us feel less complicit with an almost
disdainful ‘anyone can do it’ while disinterest persists. While that may
soothe our psyche, and we don’t have to gnash our teeth or feel inadequate,
it’s educationally unacceptable. When, however, you recognize the worth of
each student, you let go of the urge to simplify, to look for sure formulas,
magic tricks, and easy answers; you begin to appreciate the fact that life is
complex under the ostensible foliage; and, just as life is complex, the lives
in that classroom are complex; and, then, those impersonal generalities,
labels, stereotypes, and categories melt away. And, you begin to see that
students are not numbers, objects, or ‘its.’ You begin to see a class as a
gathering of ‘sacred ones;’ and, each ‘one’ is too valuable to lose without a
fight.
I went on to say, “All this means, you’re not talking about the
classes; you’re not talking about the students or colleagues. Like Rumi,
you’re talking about ‘who you are.’ We cannot reach out to touch a student
unless we reach in to touch ourselves, and be open to be touched by a student.
We can serve others, but we must serve ourselves as well. We can energize and
inspire others only if we find the energy and inspiration within ourselves, and
let them inspire us. We should settle only if we settle for more from
ourselves. We should make our teaching a monument to true worth, value,
meaning and purpose. That means, as someone said, don’t walk in shoes that too
small for you. Realize your power is in yourself, but your riches riches are
not. But, they have be dynamic, for you can’t be content with being selective
and having faith, hope, and love for only a select "honors" or "outstanding"
few. So, my simple answer is in the form of some questions: ‘Who are you? In
what direction is your mental and emotional momentum going? Are your thoughts
and feeling helping or hindering you? If you see negative forces around you,
you'll find them and they'll be a drag on you. If you positive scenarios,
you’ll find and they’ll uplift you. It always begins at home. Your thoughts,
your feelings, you actions, your effectiveness, your results are influenced by
your mental and emotional outlook. We always have personal control in our
lives, and we have to admit to the responsibility to exercise or to surrender
that control. I’ll quote Viktor Frankl, ‘Everything can be taken away from a
man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in
any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’”
"Let me offer you the guiding words of the psychologist Haim Ginott to
which I have referred so many times over the years that I’ve lost count: ‘I’ve
come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the
classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily
mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to
make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an
instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is
my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated and
a child humanized or dehumanized.’ It’s our choice, then, to be pathological
or therapeutic. Which give you joy, happiness, meaning, accomplishment, and
fullfilment? Now that is tough. Teaching is tough. But, once you understand
teaching is not a breeze, and you accept that, it doesn’t matter if teaching is
demanding.'”
“A few last things before I give you a listing of my beliefs and
attitudes that directed me. We always say students have to learn to experience
the disappointment and frustration that occur from life’s inevitable problems
so that they can grow up to be successful, resilient, and self-reliant
adults.things. The same it true of us. We can’t avoid skinned knees while
teaching; we can’t overprotect ourselves from mistake, much less challenge,
with a backing off ‘I can’t’ or 'It’s not me.' Whether we know it or not,
wanting teaching to be easy and risk free undermines our self-confidence in the
face of challenge. If we don’t pick up the teaching gauntlet, when we allow
challenge to become an obstacle rather than an opportunity, we sure aren’t
modeling much for the students. Instead, we throw ourselves into a ‘do as I
say, not as I do’ posturing. And, the student know it! You, me, all of us are
human; we are ’afflicted’ with imperfection. We should embrace our own
imperfections as well as those of others. That means we have to be prepared
for those inevitable ‘didn’t work.’ So, the questions are whether we use those
disappointments as a blessing or curse, and how do we give ourselves the gift
of coping successfully with those setbacks.”
"Being hopeful and being ready for the setbacks are contradictory. It
anything they are complimentary. That is, it’s important to have and model a
resilient mindset, to use an “oops” to find another or better way to “aha.”
You have to realize the personal control you have. That is, it’s it okay to be
disappointed, but don’t let go of hope in the face of possible or actual
disappointment, and don’t let disappointment have the last word. Understand
reality; you know you can’t just focus on yourself and your dreams; you also
have to take into account possible obstructions because they involve others
over whom you don’t have control and may be obstructions to the instant
fruition of your dreams. As Leonard Cohen might say, you just have to learn to
take the risk to feel, think, and act the way you’d like to be. And, if you
do, you’ll have a better chance of finding that you have the courage and
strength to be the way you feel, think, and act. I did—eventually after a long
rocky journey.”
“Now, what specific attitudes did I acquire that constantly fired my
afterburners and prevented a depletion of my inner fuel?”
Later.
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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