The Random Thoughts of Louis Schmier

Someone just asked me two “why” questions.  The first was why I read the HBR; the second was why I go “all these same old Lily Conferences on College Teaching year after year after year where it has to get repetitious and tiresome.”

I told her, “First, let me take both questions as a whole which will answer each at the same time.  We live in a world that naturally never stops changing.  Yet, so many, too many, academics unnaturally never start changing.  The top level teachers never stop learning how to better their teaching.  Yet, so many, too many, academics never start learning how to better their teaching.  What I am saying is that we academics who proclaim ourselves to be purveyors of change resist changing; we who claim to expose students to new ideas won’t expose ourselves to new ideas about teaching.  We who ask students to think differently won’t think differently about the prevailing assumptions, the routines, conventional wisdom that have defined and restricted teaching to lecture, test, grade.  We who want to broaden the vision of students have a barrel vision when it comes to teaching.  We are just not learning fast enough, if at all, about new discoveries about learning.”

“At best, to apply Clayton Christensen’s concept of ‘sustaining change,’ says, they will accept new ideas or technological innovations only to the extent that they shore up; that is, what is safe and known and well within their comfort zone because it improves or seems to improve and/or seems to validate what they are already doing. ‘Sustaining change’ safely tweaks and comfortably hones, no more. So. your real questions should be first, ‘Are we “boots-on-the-ground” classroom “grunts” learning and applying at the same fast and furious pace that cognitive and neuro researchers are learning about learning?’ Second, ‘Are we experimenting with and applying what the latest brain-based research says we should?’ And third, ‘Can we learn, truly learn deeper and more lasting, from the familiar “same-ole” people in the comfortable, and safe “same-ole” places, using the reassuring “same ole” ways?’  Yet, that’s what we are inclined to do, isn’t it:  rest and rely on the “same ole?”  It’s that adage of the pot teaching the kettle black.  We love to do that, especially with these back-slapping, ‘Little Jack Horner’ teaching awards.  You know, my body of 71 years has been getting wrinkled, but I’ll be damn if I’ll let my spirit get aging crows feet.  So, as my emotional, spiritual, and mental botox, I’m always striking out for unknown territories, venturing deep into strange realms, and stretching my horizons with a freshening, challenging, opportunistic “let’s see what’s out there.”  And, you know, I so often find myself as the Cheshire Cat, when uttering my ‘no, I won’t any longer’ becomes a silent ‘yes, I will now’ and my spoken ‘yes, I will’ becomes my unspoken ‘no, I won’t.’”

“Now, to your specific questions.  Doing new things and thinking new ideas require that I expose myself to new things, to new discoveries, ideas, ruminations, and applications.  A lot of times that means changing what I think from whence all that newness comes.  That’s not thinking outside the box so much as it is getting into a bigger box.  So, as far as the HBR in concerned, I think some of my best sources of challenging, new ideas about the classroom, come from those places that are unrelated to my discipline of history, areas such as psychology, religion, communications, philosophy, the arts, sports, industry, and medicine to name a few; for me, some of the best places to redesign my teaching techniques come from the strangest places at the strangest times in the strangest ways; that is, those places outside the Ivory Tower such as the business world which at first glance have nothing to do with the classroom, but on a second, longer and deeper thought have everything to do with what goes on in the classroom.”

“As for why do I go year after year to the Lily Conferences On College Teaching, none of them get ‘repetitious’ and ‘tiresome’ because there’s nothing that ‘same’ or ‘old’ about them.  To the contrary, for me they are exhilarating, exciting, discovering, renewing, refreshing times that get my juices flowing.  But, I think that is because I really go, as I once told a dear friend who recently died, Bob Grossman, for community.  By that I mean I go to these conferences because they’re not conferences.  They’re experiences; they’re retreats; they’re family gatherings.  I work hard not to be a loner, to find and encounter and tap smart and experienced people from who I can and do learn.”

“I go to these conferences to connect; I go for support, for encouragement; I go to be reminded that I am not alone.  For me, each of these conferences is a community where hugging friends and family, teachers and learners are indistinguishable, where I never leave without realizing that we learn a heck of lot more and a lot quicker together than we do alone.  When I go to these conferences, when I look and talk with my two non-academic professional sons and their professional wives, I never fail to realize that the creme-de-la creme teachers, the cream at anything, are the most insatiable learners and daring practitioners.”

“Hope I’ve answered your questions.”

Louis

Judy caught me Friday morning as I was heading to class and asked me, “Dr. Schmier, I always remember our class; it was about history and life lessons; and, after taking away the pressure of getting grades, you made learning enjoyable and meaningful.  So, since I’m now an ed major, and have to write a paper on best teaching practices, I thought you.  Here’s what I need from you.  What is your one best teaching practice?

“Just one?”

“Just one.  It’s your issue paper on teaching.  Just like we had to do for history in your class with that Issue Template.  From all that you do, and all why you do what you do, what is the one thing that is at the center of it all?  Got to have your write-up Monday.”

“Monday?  Give me a break!  It’s championship football weekend!  And, I’ve got to show ‘Schindler’s List’ to the Holocaust class.”

“You’ve got Saturday,” she replied with an impish smirk.  ”You always said not to accept excuses from yourself.  So, no excuses.  Monday.”

I thought a long while. Nothing quite right came to me.  Then, I went out real early this morning:  4:45 am.  While walking in the dense, sauna-like fog this pre-dawn morning, I saw the light of a street lamp piercing the murky blackness.  That light gave me my answer.  This is the answer I’ll give the student, although I’m not sure her prof will accept it.  Nevertheless it has become central to me:

What is the teaching practice that is the core of everything I feel, think, and do?  It’s a carved out space for meditative reflection.  That’s my best teaching practice.  Its like slipping away to a health spa and basking in soothing, relaxing, warm waters..  It recharges my batteries; it tunes up my heart and mind.  It deeply cleanses and nourishes my body and soul.  Meditative reflection is the ultimate soul foodYou see, the moment I say to myself that I don’t have the time to check myself out, to make sure I’m living true to who I am and true to my unique potential, and to see if I am still on course, is the time to make the time.  So, I make the time before I make the excuse that I don’t have the time, and I have never regretted one second of it.  That time is invaluable, for I am my own light in the darkness; it’s when I can make sure of my purposeful and meaningful ‘why’ of it all; it’s when I can step out of and free myself from fear, resignation, anxiety, confusion, arrogance, anger, disappointment, and sadness; it’s when I can get in step and follow question, curiosity, learning, wonder, awe, creativity, imagination, caring, fulfillment, accomplishment, meaningfulness, satisfaction, and significance; it’s when I can accept, handle, and learn from my inevitable ‘oops.”  It’s a leg in an inner journey.  Otherwise, what I do and who I am would be something like having works without deep faith, without eternal hope, without lasting belief, without unconditional love, without purposeful vision.  Meditative reflection for me is an ever-continuing questing process, realization process, a renewal process, and more than once an ‘ah, well back to the drawing board’ resilience process.

You may ask ‘why.’  Well, for me there are four reasons.   First, yes, meditative reflection is spiritual.  But, ‘spiritual’ isn’t something intangible or unreal; it isn’t something that is anti-intellectual, fuzzy, touch-feely, new age. It gets to the what and who lies beneath the shallow facade of our costumes, titles, positions, resumes, renown.  It’s what is the most real in us; it’s how we deal with ourselves; it’s how we deal with people and circumstances; it’s the core of genuine connection. It’s the energizing, driving, and directing ‘why’ of all my ‘what’s’ and ‘how’s.’  Meditative reflection for me means my body relaxes and is ready for meaningful fun and joy; my heart opens and is ready for sincere feeling; my mind clears and is ready for empathy; my soul energizes and is ready for unconditional sympathy.  When my meditative reflection is working, I can almost feel ‘the force,’ a ‘core to core’ connection, and all of me is ready for life.  Second, I believe it is as important, if not more, to love a lot as to think a lot.  By that, I mean the most important thing is to think a lot about what I love a lot:  what do I really care about; what matters to me; who matters to me; what do I want to learn about me; what do I like about me; what kind of person to I want to be; what’s sacred to me; what does ‘the good life’ really mean to me; what do I cherish; what do I take pride in; what is significant to do; can I still be trusted to take on the sacred trust that is teaching; and on and on and on. It’s all in a poem I wrote a long time ago I called, ‘You Tell Me What You Do; You Don’t Say Who You Are.’   If, besides my wife of 45 years, I don’t make sure about what best stirs me to love, if I don’t make sure that teaching is still loving what I’m doing and doing what I’m loving, I’ve strayed off the path.  What I am saying is that reflective meditation maintains my compassionate presence, for all of us who care about others have a sacred responsibility to constantly make sure our heart is in the right place.   Third,  I always want to make sure that what I do is actually about the people it’s about, the students.  I want to make sure that while I’m in love with my doing of teaching, I’m never disinterested in loving the people doing the learning.  And finally, as a part of the first three, I guess part of it is the old athlete in me; I look at having a healthy attitude, a healthy outlook, a healthy perspective, a healthy performance, as well as a healthy body as something inside-out.  People say your body is a temple that is not to be desecrated.  Well, that is true of my spirit, my attitudes, and my emotions, as well.  And, I have to invest sweat equity in all of them.  After all, health is harmony and balance.

You know, at those times I’ve learn to navigate my difficulties with grace, to see beyond immediate situations to greater meanings, I have an inner peace and joy.  When I am at peace with myself, when I feel connected to something larger and beyond myself, I have healthier behaviors.  I feel healthier, think healthier, see healthier, listen healthier, and so I do healthier.  By healthier I mean being less addicted to being important, to being famous, to being the center of things, to being tenured, to be promoted, to be appointed to, to be in control of.  I’m a flower gardner.  If something is awry in the garden, I don’t look at the plants and blame them for being weak; I look at the soil, at the available water, at the sunlight, at the devouring pests, at myself.  Every day, every feeling we have, every thought we think, every decision we make, everything we do depends on the proper nourishment of our physical and spiritual organs, and on whether our inner moral compass says we’re still heading true north.   So, we have to check that compass.  I do that a few times a day:  early in the pre-dawn morning hours when I’m on my power walks, in daylight time before each class, and early in the pre-dark evening with a glass of red wine, a bit of cheese, and especially my wife’s soothing presence.

Hope this works for you.  It does for me.

Lousi

Rainy outside.  No walking this morning.  It’s also kind of stormy on my computer.  That professor just won’t let up.  I thought sharing the experience with the UPS driver would serve, to paraphrase my friend, Patrick White, who so simply but eloquently put it, “the teacher reminded of his influence….the servant reminded of his potential good effect and feeling the effect of the implicit or explicit judgment of others and the questioning of myself (Am I doing what I suppose to do?  Am I making a difference?).”  But, no, instead she lashed out at me, as a “threat to academia with your touch-feely talk of the dominance of emotion that underlies your attacks on traditional lecturing and testing.  The classroom is a serious place.  It is not a place for the hokum of subjective sentiment!”

This is how I replied, “I have to admit that getting to know each student, establishing lines of connection with her or him, learn each’s story, is the best and most important part of teaching.  This week I learned of a student’s continuing struggle to deal with lupus and keep her head above water.  Another student is being dominated by her controlling and quasi-abusive boyfriend.  Still another is caught between divorcing parents.  A fourth student is battling manic depression and drug addiction.  And yet another is in a straightjacket of self-disbelief.  And on and on and on it goes.  To paraphrase the famous closing line from old TV series, NAKED CITY, “There are a horde of stories in the naked classroom.”

“There’s humanity out there beyond the podium that impacting on achievement and with which I believe academics must deal, be empathetic to, and be sympathetic of if they really are interested in student achievement.  And, so, I also admit that I am asserting to a ‘lecture-happy,’ ‘test-happy,’ ‘information transmission-happy,’ and certainly ‘grade-happy,’ ‘it’s not my job’ academia that cognitive psychologists and neuro-scientists are pointing out that pedagogy, collegiate or otherwise, should be revamped; that academics have to take into account what the jargon calls the “affective realm,” if what they think and feel and do has any chance to jibe with the latest research on effective learning.  These findings tell us that students, not to mention us, just don’t deeply and lastingly learn concepts or retain information very well by having someone who Andrea Kay says should not be confused with Pericles, who is usually not versed in public speaking or communication skills, and who drones on and on; that lectures and agonizing-crammed-for tests are largely a waste of time; that the fear-ridden, stress-ladened process of taking tests and getting grades mitigates against lasting learning; and that the current commonly used pedagogy puts the eyes on the prize of grade getting rather than on learning.  If that be threatening, I am truly sorry for that, for I don’t mean to be.  I ask you to pause and look into my heart and spirit, into my optimism, into my empathy, into the unconditional faith, hope, and love I pour into each student as I help her or him learn to pour all that into themselves.”

“For fear of being accused of shameful self-promotion, I am about modeling.   I am about who I am and what I do, not about what others think I do or want me to do.  So, let me tell you who I am not and who I am about, that is, just what I do not model and what I do model.  It’s a kind of a partial inventory of being a teacher.  First, who I am not.  I am not some arrogant, bratty kid harassing a host of babysitters; I am not an uncaged, uncontrolled, uninformed bull in the proverbial china shop; I am not a sophomoric, fuzzy fog of aimless ‘feel-goodness;’ I am not a euphoric, detached dreamer prancing around the classroom spreading a shower of pixie dust; and, I am not as thin as a sheet of paper.”

“As a teacher and human being, I am about sincerity and authenticity.  I am about loving what I do and doing what I love.  I am about realizing that teaching is the best thing I can do to invest in each student’s life, to help her or him invest in her or his own life, and to make a difference.  I am about making the classroom learning experience memorable.  I am about helping students feel different about themselves.  I am about being demanding.  I am about caring.  I am about tough love.  I am about shortening distances with smiles and laughter.  I am about always living my uplifting and positive ‘word for the day,’ which this morning is ‘playful.’ I am about being serious, about having fun at learning and enjoying challenge, about having serious fun and serious enjoyment.  I am about bringing out the best parts of each student, the parts that regrettably are far too often rarely seen and are.  I am about service and selflessness.  I am about listening, not merely hearing; seeing, not merely looking.  I am about helping each student acquire the courage, inner strength, responsibility, self-esteem, self-confidence, courage, perseverance, commitment, and strength for the future.  I am about overcoming fear of failure.  I am about never surrendering and about being resilient.  I am about helping each student know she or he can face anything thrown at her or him.  I am about both today with its promises and tomorrow with its next promises.  I am about people.”

“I am about what I call “five word” education.  I am about making the classroom relevant to a student’s life, what I call the “why” of learning; I am about providing information, what I call the “what” of learning; I am about training ‘skill set,’ what I call the “think” of learning; I am about developing students’ acumen, what I call the “do” of learning; I am about welding together the cerebral and soulful, what I call the “feel” of learning.  I am, therefore, about developing creativity and imagination.  I am about addressing and instilling character of strong moral and ethical values.  I am about exemplary behavior toward and respectful consideration of others.  I am about irrepressible spirit.  I am about breaking restricting barriers of aloneness and strangeness, building bridges of connection, and forging supporting and encouraging community.  I am about empathy, sympathy, and compassion.  I am about purpose and relevance and meaning in my and students’ lives.  I am about honing people and communication skills.  I am about taking risks, failing, learning from those failures, getting up, and taking more risks.  I am about learning about, reflecting on, and experimenting with what cognitive scientists lately have been saying we should if we are to help students receive both life credentials in general and professional credentials in particular.  I am about integrating the use of technology, but not merely for technology’s sake.  I see myself taking a step here and a step there, far more as a surgical instrument than as a blunt force weapon.”

“With all this that I’ve said, what do you want from me?  Do you want me to say that because it has always been done this way, that it was good enough for me and therefore good enough for my students, and that I should lecture-test, lecture-test, lecture-test, never mind the assertions of cognitive scientists and neuroscientists that such a pedagogy generally is ineffective in the long run?  Do you want me to focus on grade-giving and grade-getting, rather than on deep learning? Do you want me to reinforce the pressure-cooker fear of getting a bad class grade as opposed to instilling an exhilarating life-long love of learning.   Do you want me to say that grades reflect learning, and that they and GPAs predict future performance when they don’t?  Do you want me to ignore the complex and complicated humanity in each of us by concentrating solely on what we call cognitive intelligence to the detriment of recognizing the involvement and impact of what is called emotional and social intelligences?  Our brain, the neuroscientists tell us, is not compartmentalized that way. Human beings, and students are human, are not one dimensional, flattened, inanimate cardboard images.  They are much more than merely Homo Sapien.  They’re complicated and complex 3D intellectual-emotional-social entities living in a 3D inside/outside themselves and inside/outside the classroom world.”

“I mean, if I were a biologist, would you have me teach biology by ignoring the discovery of DNA?  If I was a physicist, would you want want me to pursue my discipline as it was before Max Planck and Albert Einstein?  If I was an astronomer could I develop a curriculum void of discussing quasars and black holes?  If I was a physician, would you want me to practice medicine with snake oils and leeches instead of vaccines, antibiotics, and T-cells?  You know, it’s only recent that we have had much research in education that is discovering techniques that actually work.  I’m struggling to follow what the cognitive scientists and neuroscientists are saying, have been saying for decades, about effective learning.  Have you read and pondered Graham Gibbs’ 1981 ‘Twenty Terrible Reasons for Lecturing’ which was way of ahead of its time and is presently being supported by the research on learning?  Have you read of Peter Senge’s personal mastery and shared vision in his 1990, “The Fifth Discipline?”  What of Ed Deci’s, 1995 “Why We Do What We Do” whose concept of intrinsic motivation was largely ignored and is now in vogue, Howard Gardner’s 2004 “Changing Minds” who talks of the difficulty of teaching something new and gradually changing attitudes and behavior, and, Richard Boyatzis’ mindfulness in his 2005 “Resonant Leadership?”

“One last ‘I am about.’  I AM about routine and tradition, but I much prefer to routinely step forward, to follow the investigative, adventurous, and spirited tradition of change and vibrant growth.”

Louis

Brrrrr!  Bundling up time.  Went out at 5:00 am.  It was in the very low 30s.  Yet, it was dark outside, but I felt a light inside.  The outer chill, which I really didn’t notice, was countered by inner warmth on which I was concentrating.  You see, this morning I went on a pilgrimage that was deeper than usual.  Now, I believe that my entire life a pilgrimage, a journey of great spiritual, moral, personal and professional significance.  My simple walks on the streets and inside myself are anything but simple.  They’re significant micro-journies that are a part of that macro-journey.  I walk with the intense, meditative intention of encountering meaning, with quests for new awarenesses of possibilities, with an openness to new wonders, with an acceptance to the mystery ahead of me.  As I walk, I always feel the movements of my body, the swing of my arms, the gait of my legs, the expansion and contraction of my chest, the sounds of my breathing; I am sensitive the sounds and movements, and sometimes the smell, of things surrounding me.  This morning, as I was dancing with the landscape,  I felt a particularly deep feeling of gratitude.  I was thinking about a message I had received last week from a student who was part of my experiment in the Holocaust class last semester.  She had written:  ”This may sound weird but the class made me sentitive more than I thought. I just wanted to write to let you know of the impact the Holocaust class had on me….over the break we went to Jacksonville to meet some family for lunch at the Contemporary Art Museum. While touring the musuem I saw a drawing/painting of the Holocaust. As I was taking a picture my 10 year old niece wanted to know why I was taking a picture of it. She did not think it was pretty. She then noticed the shoes in the painting. She asked why are there shoes and an oven?  Anyway,it became a teachable moment for me whereas before  the class I would have looked at it withoout really stopping to notice much less taking almost a half hour to explain and point out the meaning of things in the painting to my niece. So your class has reached others who are not even college age.”

I came back from my walk during which I compose a fictitious conversation with an imaginary colleague.  It is really a dialogue with myself, a renewal of my vows.  It goes like this:

“You just talk of it being enough to just touch one student, but I can’t believe that does much.  It is only one UPS driver.”

“It did a heck of a lot for him.”

“I don’t believe it’s worth all my time and effort.  You’re advocating inefficiency.”

“As Yoda might say, ‘And that is why you can’t.’  I’m advocating effectiveness.  Look, negative thoughts and assumptions drive negative experiences, positive ones drive positive experiences.  Depends on what you’re looking for.  Assumptions guide your perceptions, and your perceptions determine the way you respond to each situation and person. You just have to have an intense awareness to make sure those assumptions are not working against you and others.  Get a new set of assumptions like I started doing after my epiphany in ’91 and the same old situation looks completely different. I suddenly saw and still see a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities where I once could only find barren barriers.  I found myself changing things as I let go of my old debilitating assumptions; I felt more purposeful, meaningful, and empowered as I chose new ones.  I walk around with a dance in my step, a twinkle in my eye, and a smile on my face.  I feel–and act–like an ‘experienced teenager.’  I believe that it’s my demeanor–often impishness–which leads people, especially students, to being surprised about my physical age.  You have to have a feel for the diverse shapes, colors, textures in each classroom; you have to read the amalgam of conversations emanating from their faces, bodies, and eyes; you have to be a consummate people person; you have to have a rich repertoire of social encounters and experiences to draw on; you have to have an empathy and sympathy for those who are suffering drawn from a personal contact with personal setbacks; you have to be resilient when things don’t go the way you want; you have to know how challenging it is to change things; and you have to accept that while you cannot change the world, you can affect your world which, in turn, will indirectly change the world.

“But what about all of my colleagues who tell me that I’m wasting my time, that I’m being non-professional, and should focus on the scholarship in my discipline?”

“Why can’t you have two intertwined disciplines like those high and mighty mission statements say our institutions have?  I just think that people who say you’re not doing much by concentrating on teaching are talking more about themselves than you.  They should just get out of the way of what you’re accomplishing.  After all, you’re not in their way.  To me, vision means you have to follow your north star.  Significance is about having a sense of service, that it’s about them, not you.  Purposefulness is about having a perspective that goes beyond the class and campus.  Taken together they act as a shield against distracting asides and diverging immediacies.  Going alone isn’t the name of the game.  Safety isn’t the name of the game.  Security isn’t the name of the game. Vision, meaning, purpose, significance are the name of the game.”

“Do you really think you’ve changed and altered anything?  It seems so senseless and useless, so meaningless, and so futile. I mean how much do you really think you do?”

“There’s that UPS driver a couple of weeks ago for starters.  Then, there’s that pharmacist at CVS who last week, as I filled Susie’s prescription, who told me that the class, five years ago, gave her the inner strength and confidence to defy her parents’ insistence she enter the family accounting firm and to follow her dream of becoming a pharmacist.  Now, here comes the student from last semester’s class.  That’s only three, but it’s enough to keep me going; they keep me believing.

“Are you bragging?”

“Sharing.  Celebrating.  Modeling.  Maybe even beckoning.  Certainly asking you to think about, if nothing else, proverbial but very real ripples.  You want only earthquakes?  You know, the ground does not have to quiver to do something that’s earthshaking.  You want guarantees, remember this:  touch one and you ultimately touch all; change one thing and you eventually change everything.  It may not be immediate, dramatic, obvious, remembered, or even known; but, we each touch and shape so many lives of so many around us in so many hidden, unexpected, and ways.  Don’t get frustrated with what might be slowness or smallness or ‘hiddenness.’  In reality, believe you’re planting one acorn today.  Tomorrow it will be a mighty oak.  The day after it will shed it’s own acorn.  The next day each acorn will grow into an Oak.  The day after than there will be a vast forest, and the landscape will be changed.  What we do is a continuation of chain reactions of feelings, attitudes, values, actions that started long ago.  You know, I am today the direct result of all those paths I’ve walked and crossed; my story is written in those countless and hidden words and gestures and actions during my 71 years of yesterdays.    Senseless?  Useless?  Meaningless?  Futile?  Not on your life!  I prefer positive words “purposeful,” “meaningful,” “marvelous,” “significant.

Touch one student and you’re one of those paths impacting on the course of someone’s tomorrows.  Touch one student near you and you will touch others far from you in time and space.  That’s earthshaking.  That’s shattering.  That’s the guarantee you want.  It’s that ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ and ‘Back To The Future’ thing.”

Louis

It’s been in the news lately:  the long range impact of teachers.   So, what’s new?  Let me briefly tell a true story of something that happened last Tuesday morning before this study hit the headlines, and that shows the new news of a teacher’s impact, while true, is really old news.  It was one of those “in the strangest place, at the strangest time” place and time.   Susan and I were driving home that morning from Atlanta after spoiling rotten our California grandmunchkins for two weeks..  About mid-way between Atlanta and Valdosta, we stopped at a McD for a pitstop.  While I waiting for Susan, a UPS driver, who had delivered a package to the store’s manager, walked by me.  He took a few steps, stopped, turned, and said, “You Dr. Schmier?”  I told him I was.  He then told me that he had been a student in our class his first semester at VSU way back in 1997.  After recovering from my surprise, we chatted for a few minutes.  With a self-demeaning look on his face and tone in his voice, he told me that he had not listened to me and let his lack of self-confidence get in the way of graduating from VSU’s business school as anything better than a “not-so-hot” student and “wound up as ‘just’ a UPS driver.  It’s no big deal.”  Those words, “just” and “no big deal” suddenly sent my antennae sky-high and imprinted a seriousness on my smile.  I looked at him with a different expression.  Here’s part of our brief, unexpected conversation:

Before I could say a word, he said somewhat apologetically, “I know what you’re going to say about what I just said.”

“What I am I going to say?” I asked

“That I was never ‘mediocre’ and what I am doing is a big deal.”

“Well?”

“I guess that’s true.”

“‘I guess?’ Doesn’t sound and look like you believe it.  You’re being defensive.”

“I know, but other people….”

I cut him off.  ”Forget ‘other people.’  Stop listening to them!  You don’t have to prove anything to anyone other than yourself.  You want proof of why you should stop defending yourself?  You want to know why you should stand tall?  You want to know why you should ignore anyone who looks down on you or dismisses you. including yourself, because you’re ‘just’ a UPS driver?  Think about this.  What you’re doing is a big deal.  You’re playing a vital role, a vital role, in society.  You’re forgetting UPS’s motto.  What would have happened to everyone’s festival smiles if you hadn’t been delivering holiday gifts?  Where would this or any other business be if you didn’t deliver packages such as the one you gave to the manager?  Where would HSN, QVC, the whole of the online business, and my wife be if you people didn’t deliver our orders?  How would my wife and I have our daily glass of wine if our monthly wine club order wasn’t delivered by a UPS driver?  Where would your wife and kids be if you didn’t have this good paying job?  You don’t think all of this makes you and what you’re doing important?”

“Didn’t think of it that way.  Always the teacher.  You know, I wasn’t wild about being pushed in your class with being in a community and relying on others, writing journals and issue papers, and doing projects.  But, I want you to know, a lot of times I’ve thought of you, especially when I got down on myself, through all these years, while I was at VSU and after, and not feeling I was as good as you said I could be, much less a success, and that I found thinking of you was a ‘pick-me-up.’   Until now,  I really didn’t know why you of all people would pop into my head in such times.”

“Why?’”

“Maybe because you were the only one who noticed me in class, talked to me, believed in me, and once said I was ‘a somebody’ who was as good as anyone else, and I really wanted to believe that I’m doing something ‘in spite of’ being ‘just’ a UPS driver.  I would say to myself,  ’No, he believed in me.  So, I’ve got to believe.’  That has kept me going.”

“‘In spite of?’  There’s no ‘in spite of.’  You know being important, or being a success, is not only about having a a GPA, a particular job and salary, or driving a special car or living in a type of house.  Being successful is so much more than that.  It’s doing what you love and loving what you do for others.  I’ll tell you this, I’ll guarantee it, when you take to heart what we’re saying, when you honestly believe that you are more than an insignificant ‘just’ or a meaningless ‘in spite of,’ and truly believe that you are important and what you do is important, when you stop being embarrassed and apologizing for working for UPS, when you respect yourself and what you do, when you realize how much you are serving others, you’ll feel a meaning and purpose to what you do and who you are; you’ll be at peace with yourself and be a heck of lot happier than you now appear to be, and everyone around you will respect you and be happier.  And, if they are not, that’s their problem and screwed up values, not yours.  You are somebody.  And, don’t let anybody take that away from you;  nobody can without your permission and cooperation.  So, stop letting them do that.  Do you hear what I’m saying?”

“Yes, sir.  This is so weird.  I feel like I’m back in your class with it’s life lessons, and now I’ve got this unexpected chance to say ‘thanks,’ twicde.   So, ‘thanks, and thanks again.’”  And with a twinkle in his eye, he finished our conversation with a “Boy, you’ve given me a lot to think about and talk over with my wife, but right now I’ve got to run and make my deliveries–and be ‘important.’”

“Thank you for your gift of ‘thanks.’  You made my day.”

“We made each other’s day.”

I agreed.  We hugged and then shook hands, “Keep in touch,” I said as I gave him my e-mail address and cell phone number.

“I will.”

I hope he does.  What a way to start off the new year and get ready for a new semester!  A couple of take-aways:  first, when engaged or submitting to assessment, remember we are futurists, and do not always know–students don’t always know–the impact we have; second, as the rabbis says, if you don’t unconditionally believe in, have hope for, and love each student, you don’t really believe in, have hope for, and love any student;  third, we have ended a formal festive holiday season of lights, Kwanzaa lights, Christmas lights, and Chanukah lights.  But, the light should burn and last longer than a few weeks.  Light is a symbol of creation, a symbol of life, a symbol of truth, a symbol of hope and faith and love, a symbol of beginning, a symbol of goodness, a symbol of generosity, a symbol of empathy and compassion, a symbol of exposing and banishing darkness.  So many students need light to be brought into their lives; and we need to be the light to brighten up their way–and maybe our own way.  That is our true task; that is our daunting task; that is our purposeful task.  We should lighten up our classroom and struggle to insure that the power of light lasts beyond a term.  In fact, we should struggle to increase the power of that light as time goes by, one day at a time, not by information, credentialing, testing, or grading so that it will not go out after a holiday celebration or an academic term is over.  No, we should do it by our spirit that surrenders to the deep gratification of sincerity, the satisfaction of purpose, the joy of meaning, and the fulfillment of significance; a spirit that see’s education is about people, not merely about information or skill sets or research and publication or acquiring promotion and tenure.  In the strangest places at the strangest times.  In a McD for a pitstop.  With an ex-student I haven’t seen or heard from in nearly fifteen years.  Strange.  I don’t ask.

Louis

I came up with this special money-saving holiday gift idea on the plane from San Francisco to Atlanta.  It’s not really a Louis Schmier original.  I got the idea from my California daughter-in-law, Terri.   So, this is my New Year’s gift certificate that I will give to each student–and to one and all of you:

GIFT:                  My unconditional respect for you; unconditional faith in                             you, belief in you, hope for you; unconditional empathy                               and sympathy; unconditional support and encourage-                                   ment; unconditional compassion, all necessary time and                             effort, and, above all, unconditional love for you.

COST:                 Free

VALUE:             Priceless

AMOUNT:         Limitless

EXPIRATION:  Twelfth of Never

Louis

“You say you’re a ‘realist,’ this professor fired back.  ”I say you are not!  Is it realistic that you don’t lecture or give tests?  What do you do to give them a grade?  You’re an out-of-touch romantic if you believe that students will learn anything without lectures, tests, and grades.  Where’s their motivation otherwise?”  After a few more less than nice sentences came the defensive attack, “And don’t tell me how to teach!  I don’t even need your advice!  I’ve been in the classroom for twenty-five years. I know how to teach….”

I answered, “In the light of the latest research on learning, it is realism to ask if there is a mismatch on our campuses between what professors do and that the recent brain-based science of learning knows they should do.  It is realism to ask whether there is a basic contradiction on our campuses;  that is, too many professors are forward-looking when it comes to their discipline, are backward-looking when it comes to teaching.  It is realism to question the long-held supposition of the ‘if-then,’ ‘carrot-and-stick’ contingent reward and extrinsic motivating force of tests and grades.  It is realism to ask whether Taylorism and Skinnerism are outmoded.  It is realism to ask whether tests and grades motivate students to learn or only motivate them to get grades. It is realism to ask if learning is synonomous with scores, grades, and GPAs.   It is realism to ask, as Carl Rogers did a long time ago, whether we really can motivate or even teach others, or whether we merely facilitate their own motivation and learning.  It is realism to ask whether we academic are in the ‘people business’ as well as the ‘information transmission business.’  It is realism to ask if we professors should be nurturers or weeders.  It is realism to ask if there is more to a higher education than professional credentialing.  It is realism to figure out how to apply the finding of Carol Dweck’s ‘mindset,’ Carl Rogers’ ‘student-centered learning’ and ‘unconditional positive regard,’ Richard Boyatzis’ ‘resonant leadership,’ Haim Ginott’s ‘congruent communication,’ Peter Senge’s ‘personal vision,’ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s ‘flow.’ Robert Brooks’ and Sam Goldstein’s ‘resilience,’ Teresa Amabile’s ‘progress principle,’ Clayton Christensen’s ‘disruptive change’ and ‘sustaining change,’ Ed Deci’s ‘intrinsic motivation,’ Daniel Goldeman’s ‘emotional intelligence’ and ‘social intelligence,’ Leo Buscaglia,’s ‘love,’ Howard Gardner’s ‘multiple intelligence,’ Martin Seligman’s ‘authentic happiness,’ and I can go on and on and on.

It is realism to have a strong perception that you can significantly influence but not control what happens in someone else’s life.  It is realism to understand, as Haim Ginott said, you have the power to create the climate in the classroom, to be a pathological or therapeutic influence.  It is realism, then, to exercise “Tender Loving Care” in order to create a “Therapeutic Learning Classroom.”  It is realism to know that aloneness, loneliness, and strangeness are education hazards.  It is realism to know that supportive, encouraging, empathetic, kindly, friendly, believing, hopeful, and loving connection can provide educational nourishment.  It is realism to know that a sense of purpose can increase the potential for success.  It is realism to know that autonomy and ownership can increase achievement.  It is realism to know that serious fun and meaningful enjoyment are the antithesis of debililtating boredom, not work.”  It is realism to struggle with using all this new-found knowledge.

It is realism to acknowledge that learning is a process of unlearning for both professor and student.  It is realism to have a strong perception that you can control what happens in your life.  It is realism to assume responsibility rather than assign blame.  It is realism, as Kristen Neff said, to possess “self-compassion.”  It is realism to exercise a strong sense of self-control rather than surrender it to others and/or to some entity called “the system.”  It is realism for us to replace our own negative or stagnant “fixed mindset” with  a positive, dynamic “growth mindset,” and show students the way to do the same.  It is realism to have a true, reflected upon, articulated purpose.  It is realism to follow a sincere and honest path rather than faking it.  It is realism to have a true passion.

“As for telling you how to teach, I plead not guilty.  I even plead not guilty to giving advice.  All I’m doing is relating what the hard sciences are discovering lately about learning, what the ramifications might be for our current approach to teaching as well as our teaching methods, how that knowledge has changed what I feel and think and do, and how I apply those findings.”

“Let me ask you.  Why are so many of us academics, who thunderously tout objectivity, so doggone defensively subjective?  Why are so many of us seemingly afraid of venturing into new ideas?  We should be more frightened by the hold old ones have on us!  Why do we continue to breed sacred cows instead of slaughtering them?  Why does the loud mooing of these herds drown out the latest neuroscientific discoveries about learning with mistaken habits, myths, beliefs, excuses, tradition, and ignorance?  Why is it that the emphasis on education as a “people business” has been condemned as “soft” and “peoplely” when while it is people oriented, it has never been soft.  And, why is it that when the supposed “soft, peoplely stuff,” is hardened by the hard scientific evidence in response to the call for “hard evidence,” it is still not enough?  Why are the results of such studies cast aside with a host of rationalizing and defending and excusing and rejecting “I’ve been teaching for X number of years” or “In my humble opinion,” or “I believe” or “It has been my experience?”  Or, worst of all, there is that student sacrificing excuse, “I don’t have tenure.”

“Applying Clayton Christenten’s concept of “sustaining change” to academia, the only facts about teaching and learning most academics accept as true are those they already subjectively recognize and accept, which are emotionally satisfying and self-serving, which seem to validate what they are already doing, and which they perceive as comfortable and safe; other facts, when cited to contradict their private truths, feel the full brunt of sarcastic condemnation as “touchy feelly” or “dreamy” or “feel good” or “peoplely” or “fluff” or “non-professional” or “subjective” or whatever.  Again, it seems so contradictory that so many of us proclaim ourselves to be “objective” while subjectively disregarding objective scientific findings.  Whatever the reason, all they are doing is reflecting their academic “it’s always been done this way” or “this is the way I’ve been taught and look at me” outlook.  Most people just don’t want to or can’t tear down what they help build and in which they live.  Yet, the inability to renovate creates a resistance to change and stifles creativity, experimentation, innovation, and adaption–and excitement.  That’s why my ex-governor, Zell Miller, a history professor, astutely observed that it’s easier to change the course of history than a history course.”

“I’ll continue this discussion if you wish, maybe with a focus on Clayton Christensen’s concept of ‘disruptive change’ and ‘sustaining change.’  But, right now I’m off for two weeks of rotten spoiling of my two California grandmunchkins.”

Let me wish you and your’s a deeply sincere merry, happy, and all that stuff.

Out of the blue came a one line e-mail from a professor whom I didn’t know:  ”Your Teacher’s Oath!  You’re an impossible idealist,”

“You’re wrong,” I replied, seizing on the opportunity she presented me.  ”I don’t like that word, ‘impossible.’  It’s such a stagnant word that has no place in a dynamic and ever-changing world.  It sets off an unnatural ‘can’t-won’t-don’t’ static chain reaction.  Remember Luke Skywalker, when asked by Yoda to use the power of The Force to raise the star fighter from the swamp?  Luke said, ‘I can’t believe it.’  Yoda answered, ‘That is why you fail.’

No, I believe. Twenty years ago, in the autumn of 1991, which turned out to be the springtime of my life, when I had my epiphany, I enlisted the help of an apostrophe.  I started struggling to change a disbelieving and weakening ‘impossible’ that was stopping me into a believing and invigorating  ’I'M possible’ that would urge me on.  I had written it down.  I had taped it above my computer so I saw it each day.  I had said it to  myself at the beginning of each day:  ’I'M possible;’ ‘I’M possible;’ ‘I’M possible.’

But, I saying it was the easy part; learning to live it was the demanding but meaningful part.  And, believe me when I say that it was a long hard struggle, it was.  Sometimes it still is.  I learned that just last week when I momentarily faltered and a colleague from Georgia Southern caught me and lifted me up.  But, I have found that belief and faith and hope–and lots of love–are the stuff that magic is always–always–made of.”   So, I am a determined ‘possible-ist.’  As I tell students and myself, ‘Impossible things are done everyday.’”

“Now, as to being an idealist.  Guilty, with explanation.  I call myself am a ‘realistic idealist.’  My sons call me a ‘romantic realist.’  Sure, I’ve got my head in the clouds.  But, I keep my feet on the ground.

Look, I believe in and live my vision; I believe in and live my Teacher’s Oath.  I believe each student has a unique potential. I believe in my ability to touch students.  I have unfading belief.  I have endless faith.  I have unbounding hope.  I have unconditional love.  They’re what drive me.  They’re what keep the juices flowing, They’re what make teaching novel and interesting. They’re what keep me determined to overcome whatever seems insurmountable at the time.  They are what make teaching interesting, enjoyable, sustainable, meaningful, satisfying, significant, and fulfilling.   They’re what keeps teaching for me fun.  They’re, among other things, what keeps me young at heart.”

“But, I don’t overestimate me.  Unrealistic goals and expectations are a formula for frustration, anger, resignation, disillusionment, sadness, and failure.  Living and working in the South all these decades, however, I have come to have ‘true grits.’  And, the only unrealistic games in town are the ‘perfection’ game, the ’100%’ game,’ and the ‘I don’t have to change’ game.  Now, I’m committed to this never-ending journey knowing I will never totally ‘get it’ and will never ‘get there.’  As I told a dear colleague recently, the second I think I’ve ‘got it,’ I’ve lost it; and the moment I think I’ve ‘gotten there,’ I’m lost.  But, hey, I’m a reasonable guy.   So, I don’t underestimate how tough and demanding of time and effort it is to live my vision.  I know it’s not a piece of cake.  I know I’m swimming upstream.  I know learning on both sides of the podium is a process of unlearning.  I know I’m taking on and trying to help students unlearn twelve years of school habits, as well as demands and pressures imposed by parents and others.  I know I’m taking on colleagues who, knowingly or unwittingly, reinforce those habits with which students come to us.  I know there are no magic wands, no instant tricks, no sure fire recipes, no guarantees, or no fix-it manuals.  I know I can’t focus on being ‘good,’ only on ‘getting better.’  I know it takes sweat equity, a lot of sweat equity.  I know it’s worth my time, planning, reflecting, experimenting, efforts, persistence, perseverance, commitment.  I know I have to constantly engage in an emotion, mental, and social workout to build up and maintain my will spiritual muscles.”

“Now, I know there will be setbacks.  I know I will make mistakes and things won’t always work or work out with everyone, everywhere, all the time.  But, I give myself a break.  I don’t beat myself up.  I know I am not perfect and things never go perfectly.  I know I have to have patience to learn, especially from my screw ups.  I have to constantly self-reflect, self-evaluate, try new methods, experiment with new technologies, risk failure.  I extract knowledge from the times things don’t succeed.  I know not to tempt fate and respect limitations.  I know nothing will work perfectly, all the time, everywhere, with everyone.  In fact, nothing works perfectly.  Period.  I know I can’t, as you say, ‘get to them all.’  But, I know this.  So, I don’t stress over it.  Nothing will change if I anxiously focus on ‘I can’t’ or ‘I won’t’ instead of ‘what if’ or ‘I can,’  if I don’t change, and if I am not the model of the change I wish to occur.”

I do know I have to practice ‘awareness,’ ‘otherness,’ and ‘attentiveness.’  I do know I have to be pushed, pulled, and directed by ‘purposefulness’ and ‘meaningfulness’ and ‘service.’  I do know that if ever I think it’s easy and effortless, I won’t make the effort;  if ever I think I can do this in my sleep, I will be sleepwalking, I will be adrift, I won’t be ready for what’s ahead, I’ll lose my edge, I’ll get complacently flabby, I’ll lower my antennae, and I will increase the odds of screwing up things.

‘Impossible?  No.  Idealist?  Sure, but someone must have said that reality is ideals come true.  That’s true.”

Louis

So, we should dare to understand that when anything happens on both sides of the podium, it triggers interacting cognitive and emotional processes, each feeding the other, each validating pre-existing perceptions, affecting  motivations and performance. For me, then, literally taking the Oath each morning is a tool to counter any tendency to be conditionally caring, to fight off the onslaught of temptation to compromise by vision.  In some ways, the Oath is an intervention, for it is a  recognition of the sins that lurk disguised in our “normal,” “average,” “blind spots,” and “vital lies.”  It’s a reminder of the quicksand that can suck me down into rationalizations to justify weakening my sense of service. Struggling to keep it in the forefront of my mind and heart each day, struggling even more to live it each day, helps me to come to terms with my humanity;  it asks me to put my heart and soul into teaching as well as mind and body.

I am driven, then,  by a sense of dedication and obligation to follow a philosophic code, to live in a code of honor, to abide by this Oath is a way of keeping my spirit aloft.

Louis