Well, after nearly three weeks of spoiling my West Coast grandmunchkins
rotten, I'm back home. From the fresh, cool, tolerable breezes of the San
Francisco area to the still, hot, muggy, buggy, nearly intolerable air of
Valdosta. Fresh breeze and stagnate air are good metaphors for the
continuation of my serial reflection on Proverbs 4:23 and its meaning for
teaching. This segment, Part VIII, is full of questions. The first one is:
Which shall it be in the classroom? The fresh, uplifting, hopeful breeze or
the dismal sweltering air, the hopeful or despairing?
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the
springs of life."
You know, Kierkegard said, "There are two ways to be fooled. One is to
believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” So,
let me assert two incontrovertible truth: First, just like us, students are
real people. Stereotypes and generalities and labels of them are not. Second,
just like us students want to be noticed and valued. Stereotypes and
generalities and labels of them do not. Yet, too often too many of us are
"fixists" who are fixated with these fixed and false images, who are increasing
deaf and blind to each's unique story, who wish away all that human
wondrousness with flattening and simplifying stereotypes, who snarl and snark
with inflexible generalities, and who thereby widen the chasm of
misunderstanding. Too often our disinclination to be open and to embrace and
to be connected, is not a matter DNA or of so-called "human nature." It is the
result of having them unnaturally "academicized," or "thingified," or
"objectivized" out of us.
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the
springs of life."
That raises the question of what does it mean to be a teacher. My
answer is intimately and inextricably linked to who we are to each students and
who each student is to us. At the core of my is answer is the assertion that
before we can truly teach, we must learn to truly have unconditional faith,
hope, and love. We must treat students as the people they are. We must treat
them the way we want to be treated. We must learn to have emotional connection
for there is a lot of significance for everyone in such empathetic connection.
If nothing else, it makes us better communicators and, more importantly, better
people. Empathetic connection, soldered by faith and hope and love, helps us
to understand, to relate, and to find common ground. It reminds us that the
best way to get what we need and want is to help others get what they need and
want.
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the
springs of life."
There is, then, so much work a passionate faith, hope, and love have to
and can do in the classroom. They deal with the glorious Goridan Knot of human
frailties, flaws, short-comings, fears, disappointments, shames, weaknesses,
fallibilities, accomplishments, confusions, strengths, and complexities in the
classroom. So, we must have an insatiable appetite for knowing each student
We must be amazed at the maze that is each student. Faith, hope, love, caring,
and kindness are not complicated; people are.
I have discovered, as a past student recently reminded me, before we
can truly teach, it is not enough to read each student's transcript. No, we
first must know who is in that classroom with us. To know each student, we
must see and listen to each student; we must imagine what each of their lives
must be like; we must see into each's heart and mind; we must see future
potential and we must imagine who each can become. When we see each student
this way, when show them that we notice, when they know we truly give a damn
about them, it is so empowering. We help each of them to help themselves to
learn how to reach to become the person she or he is capable of becoming and to
make the most of her or him life.
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the
springs of life."
When we enter that classroom, then, we cannot refuse to believe what is
before our noses, however inconvenient it may be. I think it was Xavier Le
Pichon who warned that rigid views are void of movement and commotion needed to
generate questioning, curiosity, adaptation, adjustment, and adoption; that the
view of stereotyped uniformity creates a rigidity that, in turn, creates a
darkness which is more pessimistic, more unwelcoming, more draining, and harder
on all concerned. Unnatural "fixism," as it fights against natural flux, turns
teachers into those inhumane, weeding out gatekeepers. He would argue that
allowing ourselves to be enveloped by such darkness forces us to deal with that
which is not natural and is the source of most frustration, resignation,
pessimism, and even anger.
He's right. Darkness cannot shed darkness: only love can do that.
Disdain cannot banish disdain: only faith can do that. Resignation cannot
transform resignation; only hope can do that. The stagnating air of
indifference cannot push out indifference; only the fresh and relieving breeze
of caring can do that. Pessimism cannot drive out pessimism; only respect can
do that. Weeding out cannot weed out weeding out; only the nurturing kindness
of faith, hope, and love can do that. More questions: Are we aware of the
enveloping negativity such unnatural rigidity imposes on others as well as on
ourselves? Are we ready to solve the mystery of each student who doesn't give
us a direct clue of why what is happening or not happening is happening or not
happening?
Unconditional faith, hope, love--faith, hope, and love that is gritty
and tough--turn on a beautifying light in the classroom where everyone is seen,
accepted, supported, and encouraged unconditionally. They erect a much more
flexible and adaptable structure, with a different, easier, and more respectful
mode of life. Now, that awareness, that alertness, that mindfulness, requires
the creation of a new classroom culture fraught with unconditional compassion
and empathy for each student--unconditional--that comes before and has a higher
priority than any pedagogical and technological considerations.
I will attest from the past 25 years of personal and professional
experience that if we unconditionally are willing to go to each student, walk
along side each them, identify ourselves with each of them, connect with each
of them, embrace them, value them, we will see how it changes both us and each
of them.
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the
springs of life."
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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//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
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/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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