The thermometer had reached nearly 100 degrees. The mosquitoes and
gnats were
smarter than I. They were buzzing only in the shade ready to ambush any sane
person who
got out of the searing sun. But there I was, like some mad dog or Englishman,
working on
my front flower garden during the near superheated noonday sun. I was on my
knees,
pulling the choking quack grass that had grown to hay-like proportions during
my jaunt in
China. The sweat was watering the coreopsis. A car pulled up. The horn gave
an
abbreviated beep to catch my attention. I looked up. A young woman leaned out
the
drivers' window. "Hey, Dr. Schmier, I just saw you. Its been a long while. I
want you
to know I made it! I graduate this week! It's taken a while, but now it's
time for a
'yeah for me,' don't you think?"
I smiled and waved. I hadn't seen her in years. Let's call her
Karen.
Honestly, at first I didn't remember her name, but I remembered her. She had
been
constant struggle: married at sixteen, single parent, middle twenties, three
children,
full-time job, little sleep, no relaxation, constant legal fights with her
wayward ex,
meager financial resources, but lots of critical family support and
encouragement. I rose
from my knees, walked to the car, and had a congratulatory chat for a while
with her.
Just before she drove off, she said, "You know, I haven't seen you in a few
years, but I
still look at all those 'Words For The Day' you had put on the whiteboard each
day that we
talked about for a few minutes at the start of class. I don't know why, but
for they
lasted long after class ended. I think about them a lot. They've really got
me. You
wouldn't believe how much and how often they've helped me all these years. I
used them
when I got real low and needed a shot to get on a 'motivation high.' My
all-time favorite
taped to my bathroom mirror is, 'attitude is everything; so pick a good
one--and live
it.' Now that I think about it, I was just wondering if you would find the
time in the
next few days to send me a few simple 'words for life' as a graduation
present." She
wrote her e-mail address on my damp palm. Then, with a sudden "Well, gotta go
and study
for my final finals. Let me hear from you. Love ya.," she pulled away from
the curb.
I stood there as her car turned the corner. Not being on campus
this summer,
I didn't realize until just then that graduation is upon us once again. I
looked at her
e-mail address and started wondering about with what besides her diploma is she
going out
into their future. We say we have prepared the students for this moment of
celebration.
That may be true, but we also call graduation is a commencement. Have we truly
prepared
them for what is to commence in the unknown moments to follow?
Our educational system has proclaimed it has a mission. That
avowed mission
glowingly worded in every campus mission statement is to prepare students for
life. "For
life," what does that really mean? For me it means the dual mission of
training for
skills and educating for character. Unfortunately, all too often "for life"
has taken on
a meaning in the classroom that focuses on just one band of the spectrum. It's
as if our
educational system has birthed little more than a series of white collar
vo-tech schools.
It's as if we care more about how much will be on the student's tax returns and
in their
IRAs and checking accounts than whether the student will be around as a
contributing
member of society tomorrow, next week or month or year. We lecture to their
minds, but so
often fail to talk to their hearts. And, I have said over and over and over
for the last
fifteen years, at the heart of an education is an education of the heart. To
"prepare
students for life" should include all the colors of the broad spectrum of
learning.
"For life," then, must mean more if no other reason than there's
more to life
than merely content transmission, passing a test, getting a grade, and
acquiring the
proverbial "critical thinking skilled" necessary to skillfully deal with the
content of
discipline. We academics have to treat students less as simple sponges and
future
diplomas and more as complex and complicated people. We should engage in a
conscious and
continuous search for the heart of each student, not merely for the mind. We
have to be
concerned with the social and emotional learning as well as the intellectual and
technical. I have found it's a no brainer. Caring about each student as an
invaluable
person and loving each student as a sacred human being is far more important
than any
information we give the students. Students cannot become the gifts to
themselves and
others if they don't learn to connect with their hearts.
Each semester, in my syllabi for the nearly two hundred first year
students, I
explicitly talk with the student about two curricula. The first deals with the
content of
the material as well as those "critical thinking skills." The other deals with
social and
emotional skills, with helping students learn to manage themselves, to care
about
themselves and others, to cooperate with others, to encourage and support
others, to
persist, to motivate and inspire themselves, to tap their untapped potential,
to focus, to
resist temptations and pressures, to listen to others, to respect others and
other points
of view, to cooperate with others, and to get alone with others. Subject
courses end,
but the course of life goes on far beyond the limits of the term, classroom and
campus.
We have seen time and time and time again, that becoming a good person,
acquiring a caring
heart, having the wisdom to know right from wrong, being disciplines to do
right even when
it's costly, inconvenient, or difficult is far more important than knowing a
formula, an
equation, a date, or not to split an infinitive. It was Thomas Edison who said
while it
is the mind that creates, it is the heart and soul that control, guide, and
give meaning.
All too often we academics only ask "What can the teacher do to affect the
future
livelihoods of the students?" We should also ask, "Who can the teacher be, not
only to
her/his students but to her/himself as well. That is, are the students our
neighbors?"
A caveat. What I am talking about is not a one-shot, one-time
lesson,
one-area, one-person deal. You just don't put your thumb into a one-time
academic course
and then pull it out saying "what a good educator am I." None of them is
enough to bring
about permanent and deep learning. We each have to keep it alive, fresh,
iterated and
reiterated; we have to make it an expectation; we have to constantly remind and
never
forget. We have to weave it into our conversations and actions; we have to
integrate it
intimately into each of our courses. We have to model it each moment. We have
to make it
an integral element in faculty development and peer mentoring.
So, what call do I wish she, as well as each and every graduate,
would hear
and heed as they walk across that stage to receive their diplomas? What's
their purpose?
Why are they here? What really fulfills them? What really, sincerely, makes
them happy?
The answer to all these questions is not found in what they do. The answers
are in who
they are and why they do what they do. What they value, what and whom they
love are the
true answers and the true determinators of what they do. The fuel that drives
them and
their ability to steer their ship, however essential they may be, isn't as
important as
the rudder that sets their courses.
She wanted a few simple words. I'll give her what she wants. But,
she knows,
from her favorite "Words For The Day," words are easy to come by; they are easy
to read,
easy to hear, and easy to roll off our tongues; but, there is nothing simple or
easy in
the spiritual discipline needed to listen to them, heed them, and live them.
So, here is
my graduation gift to her, my own simple "Words for Life" that taped on my
bathroom
mirror:
"Micah
6:8--every
day."
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.newforums.com/L_Schmier.htm
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ \
/\
//\/\/ /\
\__/__/_/\_\ \_/__\
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" -
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