Date: Sun 10/19/2003 9:39 AM
Random Thought: On Teaching, Part I
These cool, level streets in Valdosta are a a piece of cake!
They're a far cry from playing at being a Yeti walking the impossible
near-ninety degree inclines of the San Mateo streets. I can focus more on
my thoughts and get deeper into my heart here in the flatlands of Valdosta
than I could on the San Mateo himalayan slopes where I was wondering if my
heart would give out. And if the near San Mateo inclines didn't get me,
our grandbaby did. For three days, Susan and I spoiled her big time.
Nevertheless, like the San Mateo Himalayan slopes and teaching, spoiling
Natalie takes work. At eighteen months, she has more energy than a split
atom. And, we learned why having babies is for the young.
Anyway, whether on the west coast or the east coast, I've been
more than usually pensive the past two weeks or so for about three
reasons. There were the High Holidays when we of the Jewish faith get
reflective as we take an inner journey to improve our lives. I had read
intently Steven Sample's small but powerful THE CONTRARIAN'S GUIDE TO
LEADERSHIP on the plane out to San Mateo, read it more intensely on the
way back from San Mateo, and dug into it for a third time this past week.
I'll probably read it a fourth time in the coming week. And then, last
week I had finished putting together and submitting my post-tenure review
portfolio. I have to admit that I initially felt that at my age and stage
of my profession it was hard for me to take this post-tenure review stuff
seriously. Not thinking much of the formal departmental statistical
student evaluations, for the portfolio I had decided to include the 170 or
so free hand first impressions the students had of me and the class after
a week of classroom community building. I also enclosed about 170
mid-term free hand evaluations by the students of me, the climate and
culture of the class, and how the class was operating. This week, with an
undercurrent of the spiritual impact the High Holidays is still having on
me, with a backbeat of Sample's concepts and words that had initially
touched some sensitive chords chiming louder, and fact that I am
extraordinarily serious about students evaluations, I started closely
reading and intensely listening to the student evaluations.
To my surprise, I found that what I originally did not have my
heart in was getting into my heart. Phrases, sentences, and paraphrase
from the student evaluations began to dance in front of me like sugar plum
fairies. They were like affirming examples of Sample's words. These
evaluations and Sample's words seemed to join in partnership to form
categories that virtually aligned with my sense of purpose, vision, and
mission:
Category 1: An education is not a mere transmission and stuffing
in of information. It is not merely the development of a skill. It is
not merely the preparation for a job. Were an education to be only this,
it wouldn't be worth much and would be a waste of time. And education
must be about a change. It must get into a person and become part of him
or her. It must be a way of growth. It must become a way of living. It
must be transforming.
"He's more than a history teacher; he is a life teacher."
"I've noticed that you try helping each student be somebody to
somebody."
"This class is hard b/c I have to look face to face at some of the
life-long skills I have avoided my entire life....the odd part is that I
kinda like it and feel a sort of relief. I don't have to keep my shoulder
to the door to prevent it from opening and letting others in."
Category 2: Teaching must have, in the words of Sample, a
strategic plan. I interpret that to mean: meaning, mindset, method,
manner. Teaching must follow a progression of purpose, vision, mission,
and character. That is, it must be about a consciously reflected upon
purpose, the "why" in my being, in my heart and my soul; it must be about
an articulated vision, the dreams and possibilities in my mind's eye; it
must be about mission, what I am doing to fulfill the vision that is
anchored in my purpose; and it must be about character, our
internal priorities, about admirable and positive qualities, about valuing
values.
"In the rest of my classes, I ask myself, if I am ever going to
use the material I learn in class, but in your class I don't ever have to
worry about that....somewhere down the line you figured you needed to do
some soul searching and help us to do some soul searching and that it has
to continue until you stop breathing."
"I finally see what you mean when you say that there is a reason
for your apparent madness. I think you think about everything that you
and we do in class. It seems to be laid out precisely and yet with a
flexibility. It's like you yourself are always remembering 'The Chair.'"
"I thought those "getting to know ya" and "how it works" exercises
were crazy. I saw no reason for the 'Words of the Day' or playing the
music at the beginning of class or late and negative fees. Now I see
their meaning and how they play out everyday in everything we and you do."
Category 3: There was the category that said thinking free and
independent, being different, in the words of Sample, being a contrarian,
is the most important character that a teacher can model and can develop
in a student:
"This class gives us the freedom to be creative and the chance to
express ourselves."
"His teaching is very original and unorthodox and he lets us be
original and unorthodox. Heck he forces us outside our comfort zone and
be seen."
"I've never seen him in a comfort zone. It's almost as if he's
most comfortable when he isn't."
"This class has inspired me to be different. And I have learned
to my surprise when I accept being different and allowed to be different,
I can be free to use my imagination and be creative while better
understanding and learning the material."
Category 4: Teaching must involve a combination of the arts of
what I'll call the "art of artful listening" and "artful procrastination"
on the part of both the student and the teacher. It's that "thinking
gray" of which Sample talks:
"You never make snap judgements about us and you don't let anyone
else's judgement influence yours. I've noticed that you just take it all
in, each of us, always hearing and always looking, always talking with
each of us, like a baseball coach at practice after practice after
practice before creating the lineup just before gametime."
"You have such patience because you see each class as part of a
long chain of process and each of us as a work in progress and you know
you don't have to decide anything until it's all over at the end of the
semester. I think that is why you don't grade anything until the final
grade. You want us to look at ourselves the same way."
4. The final category says that character matters, moral and
ethical formation matters, no less than information and skills. The
teacher must become a symbol of himself or herself and be the embodiment
of his or her values, morals, ethics, character. He or she must be a "do
as I do" person.
"You model your Words for the Day to us. You aren't one of those
sermonizing 'do as I say, not as I do" people. You are a 'do as I do'
person. I nearly cried as you nearly did when you pleaded with us about
drinking and your fear you wouldn't see one of us on Monday. You really
give a damn about each of us."
"He's taught me to be free to be different. He's taken me outside
the box and has kept me there--every day--just like he does with himself!"
"You are what we get. You don't try to wear masks and demand
that we don't either."
And then there was the comment, "What are you thinking and feeling
when you come into a class or talk to one of us outside of class? Behind
your ever present smile you seem to see and listen so intently serious.
I want you to give me your answer so it can help me when I become a
teacher." Wow. What a question--from a first semester student. What am I
thinking? In pondering my answers to that question, I have been coming to
some realizations.
Enough for now. Going out to my garden and then watching some
football. To be continued tomorrow morning.....