I’d like to make six quick points off the bat. First, most classroom
professors were not intensely trained as future classroom teachers; they were
intensely trained as future research and publishing scholars. Second, despite
the herculean and dedicated efforts of so many Teaching and Learning Centers,
the classroom generally hasn’t caught up with the science on learning. Third,
the findings of such scientific research on teaching and learning does not
predominately focus on methodology or technology so much as it centers on
emotion and attitude. Fourth, and foremost we need to feel; a required change
in attitude requires a change of both mind and heart. Fifth, good change comes
slowly and arduously; nothing magical and quick and easy about it. And
finally, the academic research and publishing culture does not generally
support such change or even emphasis on the classroom, lip service to teaching
not withstanding
The overwhelming number of professors, supposed purveyors of change and
growth, are stuck in an unchanging time warp. Think about it. How many
teachers have written such findings as that of the neuroscience of
unconditional and non-judgmental “awe,” with its mosaic of faith and hope and
love, into their classroom plans? Not many I bet. How many have ignored such
research. How many have castigated anyone who sought to apply its lessons as
“coddling,” “soft,” “touchy-feely,” “new agey,” “non-professional,” and even
“unprofessional?” I can attest personally the number is quite a few. To these
naysayers, I would say, that no one steps out of academia when “awe-full” is
the foundation of their teaching; “awe-full” just puts each person in a
different setting; “awefull” just shifts the center of our being.
I’ll shout it from the rooftops: the unconditional focus of awareness,
alertness, attentiveness begin with an unconditional faith, hope, and love
anchored in unconditional state of “Awe-full.” “Awful” is selective. It’s
segregating. It restricts the vision to how it is, much less to how it could
be. “Awe-full,” that too often lonely place, on the other hand, gives us an
expanded peripheral vision that includes how it should be and how it could be.
“Awe-full” doesn’t ignore the difficulty of getting into the fray. It doesn’t
play down the struggle to help others see and reach out for their potential.
It does, however, endow a meaning to that arduous effort. And, that purpose,
in turn, creates a joy in rising to the challenge to doing what we ought to do.
Ultimately, then, the question is: what kind of attitudes are we each going to
take onto the campus and into the classroom.
Now, I understand, I really understand, when someone abides by creaky
“awful,” that it is easy to get into a throwing-up-your-hands funk, to get
into a head-shaking walk away, to get negative, to become frustrated, to get
disconnected, to get cynical, to lay blame. But, the stereotypes,
generalities, and labels that lead us to “awful,” are in themselves awful, for
they serious miseducate us, crate false images, and lead us to errant
expectations. As the great historian Jakob Burkhardt said, “Beware of the
simplifiers.” I would say beware of those whose views explain everything. We
have to see, understand, and accept the complexity, the subtly, and the nuanced
of what it is to be a human being. It is the faith, hope, and love inherent
in “awe-full” that keeps us imaginative and creative and alive as the strident
shrill and anger of “awful” does not. “Awful” is the surest way not to
understand each student. The truth is that whether we surrender to “awful” or
continue to fight with “awe-full,” we are reflecting a state of our soul that
has little or nothing to do with any student.
The greatest hindrance to teaching, the surest way to a
misunderstanding and rejection of any student, the guarantee that we will not
ecstatically notice the intensity of life in the classroom, is our acceptance,
with an air of self-righteousness and aloofness, of deprecating and blinding
concepts, our accommodation with denigrating and deafening stereotypes and
generalizations, and our unquestioned approval of debasing and numbing mental
labels. We constrict ourselves by describing students according to our
imprudent concepts, expectations, and perceptions of students we impose on
them. We’ll never be free until we teach with the radical amazement that
“awe-full” is, until everything and everyone is incredible, until no one is
ever treated casually, until we accept that everyone has a unique potential.
The truth is that we have to discard the impersonal stereotype, generality, and
label if we are to see each individual student and have insights into her or
him. And, insight, to paraphrase Abraham Herschel said, is the beginning of
perception that disallows any student to disappear from our view.
Ultimately, the question really is, for all of us, is: what is at
stake? My answer is the future, the future that lies in the life of each of
those sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and even fathers and mothers.
Whose life, then, I ask, does not matter?
More later. Meanwhile….
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
/^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__
/ \ / \
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ / \ /\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected].
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=51400
or send a blank email to
leave-51400-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
