Oh, That Problem Student

Well, Spring has sprung. Most of us in the States have sprung an hour forward. The azaleas and dogwoods and Japanese magnolias have sprung. The amarylis, coreopsis, roses, stokesia, and dandylions are springing up and trumpeting Spring. Green leaves are springing from bare sticks and peeking out from the cool ground. Noise of blowers and mowers and saws mingle with the songs of the birds and the hums of the bees. So many of us here in South Georgia have been smitten by the gardening urge and bitten by mosquito surge.

It is a time of cleaning, raking, sweeping, planting, transplanting, pruning, pollenating, mending, thinning, mowing, edging, weeding, mulching, and feeding. Following this agrarian drive isn’t just an proverbial bed of roses! It is a noxious time of spritzing with repellents as a defense against the aerial attacks by armadas of mosquitos. It is also a time of gamey sweating, for it is a time of arduous bending, lifting, and hauling. It is a time of smelly liniment, for it is a time aches and pains, It is a time of bandaides and greasy ointments, for it is a time of cuts and bruises. It is a time of ground in grime in clothes and skin, for gardening, contrary to the immaculate images of Martha Stewart, it’s a down and dirty business

I bring this up because a teacher wrote me a woeful message about a “problem student.”

“Having ‘problem students’ is such a grind,” he moaned after he described his predictament. “When they’re in my classes, all I can think of are a bunch of four-letter words. I just wish,” he sighed, “that they wouldn’t….”

Among his lengthy wish list of “wouldn’ts” were: they wouldn’t bother him, wouldn’t be in his class, and he wouldn’t have to deal with them.

Haven’t we all written such a wish list to Sant? Haven’t we all been academic Jiminy Crickets wishing on that star? Sometimes, I have. And yet, I don’t think we really should want those wishful wishes answered. When I look deep, deep, deep into my garden, I can learn so much more about my classes. One lesson is that if we didn’t have a Winter, would the Spring be as pleasant to us? The second lesson is that fate of my garden rests my dedication, imagination, commitment, creativity, and perseverance. A third lesson is that problems are challenges, and challenges are opportunities. They are solvable. It takes some dreaming, some imagination, some loving, and a lot of patience. A fourth lesson is that the aromatas and colors come with a price. They consume time and effort. It requires attention and maintenance day after day after day. Want it easy and cheap? If it is, we won’t appreciate it; we won’t hold it dear; we won’t value it; we won’t take pride in it. Those challenging things we experience for ourselves, in our minds, in our bodies, in our souls, are the things which are truly real and meaningful for us. The more we actually taste the challenge of the “problem student,” the better that taste will become, and the more lasting the taste will be.

After all, teaching is no different than anything else in life. It isn’t a super highway, brightly lit, replete with guiding road signs. It’s more like a treking through a wilderness. I think you’d get more satisfaction after an arduous hike along a difficult mountain trail than after an easy drive on an Interstate in a comfortable luxury car.

And, so it is with those “problem students.” I think they are to our teaching creed what exercises are to our muscles. Sure, they put us to the test. Sure, they make us strain. Sure, they make us sweat. Sure, they tire us. And sure, we can moan and groan and mutter. In the long run, they tighten, toughen up, strengthen, define. And, we’re healthier and hardier for it.

A friend of mine, once sent me a hypothetical want ad for any teaching position. It went something like this:

Personalable, enthusiastic, motivated, inspiring,
dedicated, persevering, loving person needed.
Individual needs to care sincerely about individual
needs of others and have a keen sense of what true
service is. Pay isn’t so great. Benefits are.
Benefits include reaching out and touching others,
making a difference in the lives of others, changing
the world, and altering the future.

We all should use and model four-letter words all the time in class. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. The four-letter words I am talking about are blessings, not curses: “love,” “hope,” “soul,” “open,” “hear,” “give,” “care,” “kind,” “know,” “good.” They are the stirers; they are openers; they stir and open the heart and then they stir and open the mind and finally they stir us up and make us open. They are mindful thoughts and actions of belief, faith, reaching, touching, connecting, greeting, understanding, sympathy, empathy, and transformation. They must be learned and modeled, learned and modeled, learned and modeled again and again and again day after day after day. If these words are in our hearts, if they are in our thoughts, if they are in our feelings, if they are in our vocabulary, if they are in our actions, we can bring about problem-solving miracles.

How we think about a “problem student,” then, is probably more important than that problem student. How we think determines whether we choose to let those problem students grind us down or polish us up.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

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About Louis Schmier

LOUIS SCHMIER “Every student should have a person who wants to help him or her help himself or herself become the person he or she is capable of becoming, and I’ll be damned if I am ever going to let one human being fall through the cracks in my classes without a fight.” How about a snapshot of myself. But, what shall I tell you about me? Something personal? Something philosophical? Something pedagogical? Something scholarly? Nah, I'll dispense with that resume stuff. Since I believe everything we do starts from who we are inside, what we believe, what we perceive, and what we do is an extension of ourselves, how about if I first say some things about myself. Then, maybe, I can ease into other things. My name is Louis Schmier. The first name rhymes with phooey, the last with beer. I am a 76 year old - in body, but not in mind or spirit - born and bred New Yorker who came south in 1963. I met by angelic bride, Susie, on a reluctant blind date at Chapel Hill. We've been married now going on 51 years. We have two marvelous sons. One is a VP at Samsung in San Francisco. The other is an artist with food and is an executive chef at a restaurant in Nashville, Tn. And, they have given us three grandmunchkins upon whom we dote a bit. I power walk 7 miles every other early morning. That’s my essential meditative “Just to …” time. On the other days, I exercise with weights to keep my upper body in shape. I am an avid gardener. I love to cook on my wok. Loving to work with my hands as well as with my heart and mind, I built a three room master complex addition to the house. And, I am a “fixer-upper” who allows very few repairmen to step across the threshold. Oh, by the way, I received my A.B. from then Adelphi College, my M.A. from St. John's University, and my Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have been teaching at Valdosta State University in Georgia since 1967. Having retired reluctantly in December, 2012, I currently hold the rank of Professor of History, Emeritus. I prefer the title, “Teacher”. Twenty-five years ago, I had what I consider an “epiphany”. It changed my understanding of myself. I stopped professoring and gave up scholarly research and publication to devote all my time and energy to student. My teaching has taken on the character of a mission. It is a journey that has taken me from seeing only myself to a commitment to vision larger than myself and my self-interest. I now believe that being an educator means I am in the “people business”. I now believe that the most essential element in education is caring about people. Education without caring, without a real human connection, is as viable as a person with a brain but without a heart. So, when I am asked what I teach, I answer unhesitatingly, “I teach students”. I am now more concerned with the students’ learning than my teaching, more concerned with the students as human beings than with the subject. I am more concerned with reaching for students than reaching the height of professional reputation. I believe the heart of education is to educate the heart. The purpose of teaching is to instill in all students genuine, loving, lifelong eagerness to learn and foster a life of continual growth and development. It should encourage and assist students in developing the basic values needed for learning and living: self-discipline, self-confidence, self-worth, integrity, honesty, commitment, perseverance, responsibility, pursuit of excellence, emotional courage, creativity, imagination, humility, and compassion for others. In April, 1993, I began to share ME on the internet: my personal and professional rites of passage, my beliefs about the nature and purpose of an education, a commemoration of student learning and achievement, my successful and not so successful experiences, a proclamation of faith in students, and a celebration of teaching. These electronic sharings are called “Random Thoughts”. There are now over 1000 of them floating out there in cyberspace. The first 185, which chronicles the beginnings of my journey, have been published as collections in three volumes, RANDOM THOUGHTS: THE HUMANITY OF TEACHING, RANDOM THOUGHTS, II: TEACHING FROM THE HEART, RANDOM THOUGHTS, III: TEACHING WITH LOVE, and RANDOM THOUGHTS, IV: THE PASSION OF TEACHING. The chronicle of my continued journey is available in an Ebook on Amazon's Kindle in a volume I call FAITH, HOPE, LOVE: THE SPIRIT OF TEACHING. There a few more untitled volumes in the works..

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