Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 05:38:32 -0400 (EDT)
Random Thought: Just Some Very Random Thoughts
Went out early this morning. Brrrrrr!! 50 degrees. Rushed back
in to put on my grubbies before I got frostbite. Anyway, as I passed the
snow-capped fire ant hills, lots of small thoughts started whirling
through my head like snow crystals in a blizzard. I guess they were
generated by a whole bunch of things: an electric conference of the
International Society for Exploring Teaching Alternatives, a host of
discussions about different things on the internet, stuff on campus and in
the classroom. Thought I'd share the thoughts I remember. They're kinda
disconnected:
My problem as a teacher will begin when I stop being amazed and
surprised.
I don't think you can boil good teaching down to a science, but
it is governed by the incontrovertible "law of struggle."
I am convinced that good teachers are need more than intelligence and
information and method. I just told an e-mail colleague that I firmly
believe that teachers are very special people. They are what I call
"glory people." They don't get that luster from what they know and they
don't get that grandeur from their teaching technique. No, that majesty
comes from their spirit. They are care-givers, very special people caring
for other very special people--people who are the future. And in so
being, they are people of hope.
As I told a colleague, I do my best teaching outside the classroom.
We cannot separate being a good teacher from being a good person, and
we cannot confuse the quality of being a person with the quality of being
a student.
As I told a "virtual" colleague, "when you focus on the test, the
score, the grade it kinda paralyzes both you and the student."
When we focus on promotion and tenure, on those evaluations, we're
kinda paralyzed.
We should enter class knowing we are doing something we love, not
just doing something; knowing we are where we truly want to be, not
thinking of other places we wish to be; knowing it is important to be there
and that we are doing something important, not thinking there is a more
important place where we can do more important things.
Before you bring ridicule and diminishment and denigration upon
students, bring it on yourself first, and see how it feels. Before you
are quick to lable students whom you don't know and separate them from
each other and yourself, see if you like being stereotpyed, classified,
depersonalized, shut out, judged, distanced, and misunderstood.
Students use a lot of silence when they talk, and it is so easy to
misunderstand their silence. So, I must get to know them, to see things
their way, and read the space between their words and thoughts.
Teaching and learning is a human drama far more than it is an
intellectual exercise and practice of a technique.
As I told a colleague, "it is easy to write "TEACHER" on a label and
stick it to your chest for all to see. But, it is not enough to merely
wear the label. We have to be the label. No, it's not enough to be the
label, we have to live it. And, we must take care to protect ourselves
against the confusion of the wearing of the label with the living of the
label."
Education is not just to help you become a successful person, but to
help you become a valued person and a person of value
We shouldn't just go through a life of teaching, we should grow
through a life of teaching.
We should notice the deep beauty in each student beneath the thin
skin of a grade or GPA or test score, and see his or her capacity to add
beauty to the world
Students shouldn't just go through an academic experience, they
should grow through an academic experience.
I think I grow most from problems and challenges I face when I teach,
from the things that don't work out the way I want, from the discomforts I
experience. On those occasions, I am a real learner far more than a
teacher.
I don't think you can really improve academia by taking popular
positions, by going along to get along and blaming things on the system.
You can't have kindness--much less faith, belief, and hope--for each
student in your face, in your eyes, on your lips, in your body until and
unless it is in your soul.
I work very hard not to let any student leave the classroom feeling
less happy and lesser.
I agree with Einstein, especially after this week: creativity and
imagination is far more important than information.
Is there a difference between being schooled and getting educated,
between having gotten a grade or score and having learned?
When we close the door to the classroom, we should be opening
ourselves to untold possibilities
My enthusiasm, my love, for each student will kindle a fire far more
likely, quicker, and brighter than will my enthusiasm and love for the
subject.
I truly believe we should leave every class feeling "what a wonderful
couple of minutes I just spent with....."
We look at the sweeping glide of a hawk high above and we are stilled
by wonder; we gaze out at the undulating ocean and our emotions are
stirred; We walk among the trees in a wood and our soul is awed; we feel
the power of the wind and we are humbled; we stare at the mountains and
feel spiritually inspired. The true teacher feels those same stirring each
time he or she enters the classroom. The true teacher never is
indifferent to the very human qualities that illuminate the classroom.
The true teacher walks into the classroom with a wonder at life, never
takes the classroom world for granted, never stares blankly at it from an
unnoticed distance, is always, to paraphrase John Muir, of the class not
just in it, a part of the students rather than apart from them.
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