A couple of day ago, I was having a conversation about caring for students with Kim Tanner, the very caring director of VSU’s Access Office. I count her as a long time good friend and colleague of mine. She’s probably one of the most caring people on our campus. Our conversation, already reading some “heavy [...]
Well, it’s only been a week into the new semester and I’ve heard the bemoaning and seen the smileless “if only” pouring out from some of my colleagues’ mouths and warping their faces. That’s sad. In fact, if you watched PBS’ “Declining By Degrees,” you’d see that “if only” is probably the biggest problem we [...]
Well, with the last day of my summer hiatus from campus, this is the last of my beginning semester “rat-a-tat-tatting.” I feel myself temporarily running out of ammunition. Anyway, last night at dinner I was introduced to some people as a professor at the University. Invariably, they asked me “what do you teach.” My answer [...]
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out into the torrid darkness. It was 5 am and the temperature was hovering at 81 degrees with a humidity of 88%! That turned my sharp rat-a-tat tatting into soupy slosh-slosh-slosh sloshing. As I squished down the dark streets of Valdosta, feeling that I was slowing turning into a [...]
I told you a bunch of quickies have been rat-a-tatting in my head and heart. Here’s another: Over the decades, and recent studies, particularly those of Daniel Goleman and Teresa Amabile and Richard Boyatzis, have borne out my observations, I have noticed that students who feel powerless, unnoticed, unsupported, disconnected, unwanted, abandoned, unloved, isolated, inadequate, [...]
Good morning. You know, I never heard or saw Steve denigrate a student in word or deed. That got me thinking yesterday after receiving what I would call an unkind, bloopering message about a student. The teacher reveals her/himself by nothing so clearly as by two things. The first is by the “there’s-no-harm-in” jokes she/he [...]
Times are apassing, as they say. My good friend and colleague of many decades, Steve Childs, has retired. I will miss him and I could write an ode to him for being a good person and what I call a “charismatic teacher.” Maybe later. Meanwhile, semester classes are beginning next Monday although I’ll have to [...]
We were in the emergency room at Jacksonville Beach last Friday night. Susan, while trying to scale the Everest of a Ford Expedition to get into the back seat, slipped on the running board, lost her grip, slammed into the door latch, banged up her back muscles, and probably cracked a rib or two. Anyway, [...]
It was the time of the canonical hour of Lauds when night moves to day and darkness to light. It is truly for me, like the sun, a time to rise and shine, to dive deep into the miracle of that which is life today. The first gleam of light of this tranquil time is [...]
