In this age of ever increasing focus on quantitative assessing, vocationalizing, and credentializing of the collegiate experience, I think we ought to stop, take a deep breath, and reflect on just what is an education and if there is more to it than all this?  Isn’t that the proverbial $64,000 question that has been asked since the days of Thales?   Here’s my take on it.  Now, I have to admit that I am still pushed by strong tail winds of optimism and idealism of the sixties; I have to admit that the belief that little ole me can make a big difference has become deeply ingrained in my head, heart and soul; I am convinced that little ole me, like each of us, as Gandhi said, can change the world and alter the future.  Is that being flighty, dreamy, touchy-feely, pollyanna-ish, or camelot-ish?  No, not in the slightest.  After over a half century of historical study, I’ve learned one thing:  all human achievement is little more than dreams made to come true by those individuals who stretched and reached so that their feet remained on the ground while their heads soared into the clouds.

So, I think an education merges the themes of life, growth, and service:  love, faith, hope, respect, determination, drive, daring, persistence, commitment, dedication, resilience.  It is about instilling each day that excitement of being a humble adventurer, less sure about everything, less satisfied with everything, never arriving, never having got it nailed down, always on the move, always curious about everything, always looking and asking, always trying out something, never fearing mistake, never afraid of looking foolish in the eyes of others–and always giving to others.  You see, I firmly believe that an education is not just for people to get a job; the job of education is more for people to transform themselves and change the world.

So, I think an education is exposing yourself from the best to the worst of things humans have felt, thought, dreamed, and done, and then doing several things with that exposure.  First, becoming multi-dimensional, to mix the technological with the humanistic, the intellectual with the spiritual; the practical with the artistic, the professional with the personal and social, the rational with the romantic.  Second, learning to balance between the safe and secure on one hand, and the bold and the risky on the other.  Third, understanding that to “win” no one has to lose.  Fourth, seeing challenge as opportunity rather obstacle.  Fifth, finding the fun, joy, and learning in every experience.  Sixth, deciding which of those things to which you are exposed you will struggle to bring  into how you are living and what you are doing so that you can follow your heart, give your love, and act to bring life to your dreams.   And, then,  as you embrace them, follow them, live them, and fulfill the beautiful destiny that is to become who you truly are capable of becoming add to them for posterity in order to make your own ding in the future.

Getting an higher education is to understand that life is not about just getting by.  Life is about reaching ever higher.

Louis

Zhengzhou, May 23:  Diary, a Chinese student asked me what is the most important thing she as a student should be taught by a teacher.  “Isn’t it facts to learn?”  I thought for a moment and answered, “No!  It’s what I call ‘the Three “Ls.”‘”  She looked at me.  I knew she didn’t understand.  So, I continued.  The most important thing I can do as a teacher is to help someone learn how to live a life driven by questions, to have endless curiosity about how everything fits in together. That’s what my ‘Three Ls’ mean:  ‘Life-Long Learning.’  That’s what life-long-learning is all about.  And, that is the most important thing I, as a teacher,  can help a student learn to do.”

As my semester begins, I interrupt my China diary once again with something that, for a variety of reasons I won’t mention, just came to me as I walked the dark streets, seeing clearly in the dark with my glasses-less 20/20 vision.

Medical institutions house expensive technology and scores of trained medical professionals for the purpose of providing medical healing the sick and injured.  I’ve been in too many hospitals as both patient and visitor that were anything but hospitable.  Cold indifference, chilly decor, insensitive attitude, smileless matter-of-fact behavior, professional aloofness, even a bothered sneer or glare, were unfortunately more common than warm consideration, compassion, and sympathy.  Ignoring or belittling patient or family stress, worry, nervousness, fear, and uncertainty, sends the message “we treat diseases and injuries, not people.”  Too many hospital personnel, who exercised such a professional haughtiness of the expert, do not understand that they’re in the people business.

Yet, two weeks ago, I spent three days going in and out of a Tallahassee medical unit getting eye lens transplants.  It was a “wow” experience!  Not just for the great technological medical treatment I received, but, more importantly, for the great people treatment I received.  I was an apprehensive camper until I passed through the office entrance doors to be greeted with a free coffee bar and a soothing decor, as well as reassuring assurances and support that quickly quelled my nerves.  The people in the doctor’s office and the outpatient surgical hospital were hospitable, acting as warm people rather than cold professionals.  All they consciously said and did was marked by a sincere welcoming, embracing, and generous cordiality that created a pleasant, comfortable, and comforting environment.  Cold demeanor, straight faces, and uncaring “we’re doing you a favor” behavior that I had experienced in other hospitals had no place.  They had been replaced totally by considerable smiling, consideration, empathy, compassion, and sympathy.  Everyone quietly listened with resounding respect.  Everyone patiently and respectfully answered our questions with deep understanding.  Everyone honored our anxiety.  No one was too busy or too bored or too preoccupied for me or Susan.  They never gave us a hint that both our physical and emotional needs were irrelevant or annoying or interfering distractions to them.  Understanding that they were in the people business, they cared about and caringly treated the people they were caring for.

Now, institutions of higher education house expensive technology and scores of trained academic professionals for the purpose of providing educational care for the yet do be informed, skilled, and transformed. Too often folks in providing this educational care, blaring meaningless mission statements to the contrary, seem so uncaring, so busy, so bored, or so preoccupied with their needs that the critical emotional and social needs of students are treated as irrelevant or annoying or interfering distractions.   All but the most assertive students are intimidated into smileless, passive, fearful, and stifling “what do you want” obedience and compliance by the Damocles swords of tests, grades, and GPAs hanging over them.  The resounding message too often offered in word, facial expression, body language is either “I’m too busy with my scholarship and pursuit of tenure and promotion to bother with you” or “It’s not my job to hold your hand or help you deal with your problems” or “Stay out of the way; it’s my job to deal with information transmission and skill development, not with people.”  And, then, we wonder why students are surprised when they encounter a professor who really notices them, respects them, honors their pains, and tends to them as human beings.  And, we wonder why there is no traffic jam on that “extra mile.”

Last week, as the University geared up for the beginning of classes, I experienced this juxtaposition of concern and care.  One conversation involved the most persistent and self-centered question in academia: “What do I have to do to get tenure?”  In the other conversation with Kim Tanner, the head of the University’s Access Office, the most persistent and urgent was, as it should be throughout the campus, not to mention in all of life: “What do I have to do to serve others?”  I know, in an academic world increasingly dominated by unapologetic selfishness and fearful quest for job survival, recently described as that recession-proof “guarantee of a job-for-life” called tenure, this idea may seem quaint and outdated. Yet, after brain storming with Kim about how to make adjustments for a blind student who is going to be in my heavily visual-oriented Holocaust class, and getting hit by a exciting and solving “wow” bolt of lightning, I can attest that when we believe, as does Kim–and as do I–there is no greater joy than working for others and serving others rather than just being there for ourselves, the classroom becomes a sacred place of celebration.  For those who have a grand vision of their purpose and value and significance, striving to be of service, to make a difference in someone’s life, teaching is not only a noble thing to do, it’s the best way to lead a truly fulfilling and significant life.

I know it’s tough to continuously deal with the anguish and demands of inexperienced and self-centered students who think their needs, concerns, issues, and problems are the most important things in the world.  I know that the pristine atmosphere of within the Ivory Tower is being polluted by an uneducational assessment obsession.  I also know that it’s takes an inner herculean strength because most of our institutions of higher learning are two mouthed.  Out of one side they so blithely write such flourishing words and so easily mouth the proverbial talk about their emphasis on time and energy consuming teaching, on creating supportive and encouraging programs that serve students, on developing creativity and inventiveness and individual initiative, and on helping to transform students into proverbial “life long learners.”  On the other side of their mouth, however, they do the proverbial walk, a pounding walk, about their emphasis on demanding time and energy consuming grant getting and research and publication needed for tenure and promotion while further uncaringly stripping students of their individuality by throwing them as a herd of nameless and faceless cattle into corrals of super and super-duper sections.

I have found, however, an irony in these positions.  Students are far less likely to be lethargic, indifferent, antagonistic, and/or exploitively litigious towards a person who doesn’t just mouth “I care,” but who acts caringly; who they feel has notices, hears, and cares about them; who respectfully treats them as the sacred and unique persons they are.  So, I think loving, decent, compassionate, kind, and respectful is not only the right thing to be and do, but the smart thing to do.

The bottom line is that in hospitals there is no loss of effectiveness by being interested in making people feel better as in making patients get better.  So, too, in classrooms and on campuses there is no loss of effectiveness by being interested in making people feel better as in making students get better educated.  To the contrary, for just as patients will tend to heal faster and better when they feel better, so students will tend to learn faster and better when they feel better.

I wonder what it would take to make that a norm both in our medical and educational institution.

Louis

Zhengzhou, May 24.  Diary, I had lunch with that same student I mentioned before.  We kind of hit it off.  Anyway, in the course of our conversation about teaching during which I told her about my educational philosophy and how I teach, she asked me if I was a spiritualist.  “You sound so much like a Daoist or a Zen Buddhist.”  I answered with a “yes, I’m a spiritualist, but only partially.  I’m also a a rationalist, that is, an intellectual, and a social person.”  Her face twisted with confusion.  She then asked when and where I was each of them.  I answered calmly and quickly, ” I’m all of them, all the time, everywhere, in all things.”  She continued with her quizzical gaze.  Then, she said, “But you are a professor.  How can you be all of them?”  I softly replied, “We all are.  We’re all human beings.”

You see, diary, as I then explained to her, in the academic world around me the focus is so much, almost solely, on intellectuality, that critical thinking and scholarly research and publication stuff.   Nothing wrong with that, but it’s a flattened image of what we really do and who we really are that ignores the three dimensional nature of our lives.  Most academics argue that spirituality, which they often solely associate with religion, has no place in the academic workplace.  They so often think we come to work only with our minds and leave our hearts and souls at the edge of the campus, that thinking is a higher order than feeling or perceiving.  So, these researchers or wannabe researchers often tend to ignore the findings of recent neuro-scientific research, consciously waving aside with a “it’s not my job” or “I don’t have the time” such things as virtue, community, uniqueness, inclusiveness, kindness, hope, belief, fear, love, respect, creativity, imagination, attentiveness, otherness, awareness, fulfillment, empathy, sympathy, courage, trust, integrity, meaning, significance, purpose, vision, and transformation.

And so, it helps define the priorities and clarify visions that have a virtue of its own.   The moral measure of those actions is how the students most in need are noticed, helped to be heard, have their needs honored, and are served.   In reality, spirituality is an essential understanding that of our total way of living; it is a vital awareness that pervades all aspects of our lives.  Heart-sets and soul-sets are as important as mind-sets.  They all matter!  They aren’t divorced from each other.  They come in a set! They’re can’t be broken up.  They’re all intertwined, influencing and being influenced by each other.  I’ll just say for now that they all have a “real world” practical consequence.  Diary, didn’t someone say “A house divided cannot stand?”  Well, I say a person divided cannot fully function as a human being, and strive to become who she or he is capable of becoming.

Louis

Zhengzhou, May 22:  Diary, this will be short and sweet.  “I’m resigned to just go along even though I don’t want to.  I have no choice,” a colleague forlornly told me about a situation at his college….”Oh, sure you do.” I empathetically but empathetically softly answered, “if you’re willing to pay the price.  Besides, don’t you realize that you’ve already made the choice by choosing to accept that you had no choice?”  You know, diary, thinking about that conversation, over the past twenty years I’ve become aware of the simple fact that everything in life is a matter of choice.  I’ll just say that each of us chooses the way we deal with the people, forces, and influences dancing around us.  We each come to countless crossroads each day; we each make choices in every moment, in every word, in every thought, in every feeling, and in every action.  We have to accept the responsibility of paying the price for each choice.  No one makes us do or be anything.  And, you know what, diary, willing or unwilling, there is always a price to pay for making a choice because every choice involves giving up something to get something.  Diary, I know from personal and professional experience that there’s always a price, sometimes a heavy price, to pay for speaking up, standing up, and taking a stand.  But, diary, everyone should understand that there is a dearer price, a much darker price, a Jebez Stone price, to pay for not speaking up and staying seated on your hands.

Louis

Doggone, it’s hot, humid, mosquitoey and gnatty down here in South Georgia:  temperatures hovering around 98-100 F with heat factors of 105-112F.  It’s downright spiritually toasty down here, melting you into becoming one with nature.  And, talking about hot, back to my China diary:

Zhengzhou, May 21.  Dear diary, over the past twenty years, I have been realizing how important it is to be an enthusiast of and in life, not to allow any day become just another ho-hum day, to pull myself up when I’m feeling myself getting down, to smelt the valuable ore of whatever-may-come opportunity into precious purpose and significance and fulfillment, to make each day an empowered one–a good day.  Everyone, particularly we academics who are in a “people business,” must be conscious of the fact that she or he affects the lives of others around us.  We must know that we each touch someone, who in turn, affects another, who affects still another, often reaching far beyond what we would ever know.  So, I’ve learned that the purpose of life is to be honorable, responsible, empathetic, compassionate, supportive, kind, encouraging, fun-loving, humble, and respectful.  It is to be significant, to count for something, to stand for something, and to make a difference for being here at all.  Cancer and a massive cerebral hemorrhage have taught me especially that if you are interested in fulfilling life’s purpose, to matter no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead, making full use of your time and energy. Embrace it totally with both arms, hug it tightly, love it deeply, and, above all, become intensely passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. Even red hot isn’t good enough.  White hot is the only thing to be.  That’s how I feel about teaching.  That’s how I feel about my Susan.  That’s how I feel about my sons, their wives, and our grandmunchkins.   That’s how I feel about my dearest friends.  That’s how I feel about everything I think, feel, and do in life–and about life itself.

Louis