Fri, 10 Feb 1995
REACHING STUDENTS, II

I'm sitting here this morning thinking with tears running down my face with an inner warmth that is countering the penetrating chill of the morning. I can hear almost every drop of rain that is hitting the tiles on the roof outside my office window. I am having a hard time writing this. I can hardly move. Almost all my emotional energy has been drained. My fingers hurt as they move over the keyboard. Every thing seems to be moving in slow motion. There is dead silence all around me.

I just finished reading and rereading and rereading and rereading about an experience Sharon Jacobson shared with us on another list. She is not just a professional. She is a compassionate teacher in every sense of the word, a human being, in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Georgia. She called her message, "The Hurdler." It touched me. It hurt me. It gladdened me. It stirred my heart. It reached deep into my soul.

As I told Sharon, her story trumpets the human condition. It makes me feel valuable as a teacher. It pronounces the formula for reaching students:

1. notice the unnoticed
2. remember that every student is absolutely unique and invaluable. Just like you.
3. work hard on the often forgotten and neglected waiting list for help
4. before you judge students, first sit down with yourself.
5. before you judge students, first sit down with them.
6. have the courage of faith in who you are and what you're doing. Have faith in the students and what they are dong. If you could see every step of the way and the guarantee the outcome of your efforts, it's neither courage nor faith
7. understand that far more than the intellect, there is nothing that is more driving and stronger than the indefinable, often untapped, hidden, buried human spirit within each us