Wed, 28 May 1997
Subject: Random Thought: At the End of the Term
I just came
in from a pre-dawn walk. Well, it wasn't really a walk.
With the high humidity hanging around after yesterday's
thunder storms with the weight of a wet bath towel, it
seemed more like more than a few struggling strides in a
pool. Anyway, it was a hard walk, a struggle of a walk.
My weather forecasting, arthritic neck was acting up
because of the low pressure; my muscles were tight and
achy; my attitude sucked. I really didn't have it today.
But, it was nevertheless a good walk though by far not
one of my best. And I thought that the real quality of my
walks are not when I feel good and they are good, but the
quality of the walks when they are bad and I feel yukky. As I suffered and
endured and persevered, that thought got me to thinking
about a request for some kind of motivating statement an
e-mail colleagues to get her through as the term winds
down. I had rattled something off, but wasn't really
satisfied with what I had offered. I was sincere, but it
had the taste of pablum.
I think I
would tell her now that it seems to me that our teaching
is like my walk this morning. Teaching not about the
quality of our good teaching when our game is on, but
about the quality of our bad teaching when our game is
off.
Our love
of people, our committment to those who are thrown in our
way, our passion for and good feelings about teaching are
not really defined by those "good times" when
things are easy, when you can do it in your sleep, when
you're loose and in the groove, when they are going
great, when you're alive and fresh and "on,"
when everything is running smoothly and on all pistons,
when techniques are clicking, when you've got it and the
students are "getting it," when we want to hug
and kiss the students, when all is well with the
classroom. No, good teaching is really about the quality
and committment and passion and feelings of our
"bad" teaching. It's about how well we do
during those times when things are rough, when you're
dragging and off and don't have it, when you're tight and
out of sync, when nothing seems to be working, when the
students aren't getting it and don't seem to want it,
when you want to spank and shake them, and when you want
to chuck it all.