We teachers use all kinds of “tricks” to get students to do the things they have to do to jump through the academic hoops. But, the trick is not merely to be a trickster who gets students merely to do those things without apparent reason or to forces them to do things without explanation or even threatens them with tests and grades to do things. The real trick is to instil in them a desire to come to class and to engage in their own learning.

Of course, as my good friend, Rick Garlikov rightly observes, the subject matter is so often taught–presented or transmitted are better words– in rather narrow, deadening, parroting, uninspiring ways that make it tiresome and/or difficult for most students to learn in any interesting, exciting, meaningful or desirable way. We talk a good talk of the “wonderous world of learning” as we lead students down the forbidding levels of Dante’s inferno. Most students hate a subject because previous teachers have sucked the life and meaning out of it leaving behind a dead cadaver of meaningless facts whose sole importance is to be memorized for a test or written up for a paper and be forgotten as quickly as possible. When most teachers see students busily writing copious notes, they say to themselves, “What a good day. I am lecturing great, they are learning what I am teaching.” But in reality are we really John Lockes writing on the students blank tablets while the students are writing and doodling on their tablets? I wonder. More often than not, we are so ignorant of who the students are and of the fact that they–just as we did when we were students–approach academics so differently from us, we have so often inadvertently academically waterproofed their minds and hearts against intellectual and emotional seepage. I have found that when most students say, for example, “I hate ….” or “I’m no good at….”, they really mean, “I hate the way such and such subject has been taught.”

When we prepare a course, most of us solely focus on organizing subject content, preparing lectures, scheduling office hours, developing reading lists, formulating assignments, formulating quizzes, tests and exams. I think there is more. I am ultimately after motivating, engaging and stimulating ways for students to learn how to learn and become their own learners, ways that helps the material be meaningful and interesting to the students, ways that in a creative and imaginative and interest-stirring manner grabs them so that they can grab the subject and absorb it and retain and let it become a part of them, ways that gives the subject a meaning in their lives. I want to use ways in which the students acquire both an intuitive feeling and desire for the subject in particular and learning in general. I don’t want the students to be assaulted, but embraced; I don’t want them threatened, but charmed; I don’t want them to be bored, but excited; I don’t want them to engage in combat with the material, but to hug it endearingly. I want the students to use the material, want to use it, enjoy using it, and thereby understand its utility in their lives and those of others.

I think students, most of us for that matter–we academics call it research–learn best by actively and engagingly and meaningfully doing something rather than passively listening and being spoken to. I think I have more than a formal body of information to transmit. I teach searching, seeing, getting involved with the subject matter, getting involved with themselves and others, integrity, creativity, imagination, originality, responsibility, possibility, self-awareness, cooperation, questioning, self-worth, authenticity, risk taking; to let the people in the classroom see what they are capable of doing by doing. It is doing that they learn these things, and that are convinced of the significance of these things. In my class, I never lecture. I don’t give quizzes, tests, or exams. Students do, engage, discuss, experience, venture, discover, present.

It is not an easy way to teach, but I have found that it is a lot more meaningful way to learn. You know as well as I do that true teaching, good teaching, true learning do not just happen. As I recently said, nothing is magical, nothing is automatic; nothing is instant; nothing runs itself although at time others may think so. Sometimes it looks like we sometimes play it by ear, not worry about theories and abstract constructs and just walk into a classroom and make it all happen. Sometimes all people see is the flexibility and openness but not understanding either the structure or the method to the apparant maddness. It is a lot of work –takes a lot of time and sometimes pain–to live care and love; it is a lot of work to reflect, articulate, activate; it is a lot of work to prepare, design, deliver, evaluate content and intent; it is a lot of work to get to know each student; it is a lot of work to keep track of the individual progress of each student; it is a lot of work to link theory and practice and the individual. Good teaching is a demanding, complicated art. Good teaching is hard work. Good teaching is a lot of work. I sometimes think you have to be part fool, part romantic, part hero, part seducer, part trickster, part dreamer, part realist, part architect, part construction worker, part artist, part circus performer–and work hard at somehow balancing each of those parts every step of the way for each student as would an aerialist walking a tightrope–hoping you get across this time without falling off the highwire.

Though it is a lot of time-consuming and energy-draining work,it is an enjoyable and exciting and engaging way both to teach and to learn. Learning generally goes better because the students generally teach themselves as they do the doing thing.

My challenge, then, is to intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually seduce themselves, to their too often hidden abilities and talents, their to often lateant potential, and the subject. I do so by being passionate about them first, and then the subject. I create an atmosphere of a supportive and encouraging family in the class so they do not feel alone in the crowd, do not feel like an isolated island in a foggy ocean.

When they say they can’t write because they have heard that so often, I use projects that show them that they can write and poetically express themselves; when they say they are shy and can’t do anything in front of people, I use projects to wean them off their reticence; when they say they are ordinary, I devise projects that lure them into the extraordinary with laughter and fun and excitement; when they say they are scared, I conjure up projects that bring out their fearlessness; when they say they are not creative, I lead them into seeing the presence and force of their imagination.

How do I do that? Well, in one of my moments, playing on the seed of an idea I got from an e-mail associate, Guy Bensusan at Arizona State, I came up with what I call, the “‘S’ence of Learning in Community”:

START OFF WITH A BELIEVING “YES”–
STUDENTS, ALL STUDENTS,
ARE UNIQUE
ARE CAPABLE,
HAVE ABILITY,
HAVE TALENT,
AND HAVE POTENTIAL
SIT THE STUDENTS DOWN IN GROUPS
SET UP THE PROJECT
START THE STUDENTS OFF
SHOW EXAMPLES
SQUASH THEIR IDEA OF DOING IT FOR A GRADE
STRESS IDEA THAT THEY’RE DOING IT TO LEARN AND GROW
STRETCH THEM
STRETCH YOURSELF
SHED THE UNIFORM OF THE SAGE ON STAGE
SELECT THE CLOTHES OF THE WATCHFUL GUIDE OFF TO THE SIDE
SILENCE THEIR QUESTION, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”
SURRENDER YOUR CONTROL AND ASK IN RETURN, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”
SUBSTITUTE THEIR WAY FOR YOUR WAY
SING OUT–AND MEAN IT–“LET’S HAVE FUN AND ENJOY!”
SEND THEM OFF
STEP OUT OF THE WAY
SWEAT IT OUT
SWALLOW AN ANTACID PILL
STUDY THEIR BODY LANGUAGE AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
SHOW FLEXIBILITY
SIGNAL YOUR CONFIDENCE IN EACH OF THEM
SANCTION THEIR BELIEF IN THEMSEVLES
SUBTLY ENCOURAGE THEIR SPIZZERINCTUM (LOOK THAT ONE UP IN A DICTIONARY)
SKILLFULLY PROMOTE COOPERATION OVER COMPETITION
STIMULATE THE BUILDING OF TRUST IN THEMSELVES AND AMONG THEM
STIR THEIR SELF-CONFIDENCE,
SELF-RESPECT,
SELF-ASSURANCE,
SELF-REGARD,
SELF-ESTEEM
SILENTLY REJECT THEIR “I CAN’Ts”
SCOFF NOT;
SCORN NOT;
SNEER NOT;
SNICKER NOT;
SCOLD NOT;
SWEAR NOT;
SUPPORT LOUDLY ALL THEIR “I CANs”
SMILE AT ALL THEIR ATTEMPTS
STICK TO YOUR GUNS
SWEAT IT OUT
SUCK ON MORE OF THOSE ANTACID PILLS
SUGGEST IT’S OKAY TO TAKE RISKS
SIT ON YOUR HANDS
STRUGGLE TO STAY OUT OF THE WAY
STIFLE THE URGE TO JUMP IN
SEW UP YOUR LIPS
SUPPRESS THE INCLINATION TO SCREAM, “DO IT THIS WAY!”
STAVE OFF THE DESIRE TO BLURT OUT, “YOU’RE WRONG!”
STAND BACK AND LET THEM BECOME THEIR OWN DISCOVERS AND LEARNERS
STAY NEARBY
STAND ALERT
SQUIRM A BIT
SWALLOW STILL ANOTHER ANTACID PILL
SIT UP AND NOW WATCH
SURPRISE!!
STARE IN AMAZEMENT AT THE RESULTS
SAVOR THEIR HIDDEN AND SELDOM USED CREATIVITYf
SOAK UP THEIR HIDDEN AND SELDOM TAPPED IMAGINATION
SALUTE THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH
SPARKLE WITH OBVIOUS DELIGHT AND SATISFACTION
SWELL WITH PRIDE
SHOUT OPENLY A “YES!!
SLING A TOOTSIE POP IN THEIR DIRECTION.
SEE!
STUDENTS, ALL STUDENTS,
ARE UNIQUE,
ARE CAPABLE,
HAVE ABILITY,
HAVE TALENT,
AND HAVE POTENTIAL
STAND AND APPLAUD THEM
SLUMP DOWN EXHAUSTED IN THE CHAIR
SIGH WITH RELIEF
SUCK SATISFYINGLY ON A TOOTSIE POP
SIT UP
SIGH
START SCHEMING FOR THE NEXT PROJECT

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

Happy July 4th!! I have to admit, however, that my firecracker is pooped! It’s 5:15. I just did my six mile jaunt on the darkened Valdosta streets. It was not, however, an easy walk this morning. I found out why. The temperature is 81 degrees! Humidity is 96%!! The heat index is 94 degrees!!! And the sun hasn’t even broken the horizon. I’d call it a sauna out there, but I think a sauna is really cooler than these ovens of the south Georgia summer. Heck, even the few mosquitoes that were crazy as I to move around had sweat towels around their necks and were accompanied by an oxygen-carrying rescue squad!

As I slooshed along the soft, melting asphalt, struggling not to be like Brer Rabbit, I was thinking about an e-mail message I had received yesterday. “Louis,” this mid-western professor wrote, “I thought I would give some of your techniques one try to see if they would work. They didn’t. I’m going back to what I know works best.”

I sometimes think we professors go into class as if we were praying. When we want something to change or to change something, when we want to try something new we read about in an article or heard about at a conference, we scream out impatiently demanding, “Lord, I need this NOW!” Or, “Lord, give me this NOW!” Or, “Lord, do this NOW!” Or, “Lord I want it this way Now!” We so want things to be easy and instant: just open a package, pour out the contents into a pan, add a cup water, nuke for a few minutes, stir once or twice, and SHAZAM, without any mess or fuss, without slaving away for hours and days, we have a chef’s delight or mom’s home cooking. We want successful attempts now, first time around, guaranteed, 100% effective, with as little effort as possible. After all, most us don’t include teaching in our academic definition of work. We’ll sweat buckets over running and rerunning an experiment; we’ll go into the ring and box for rounds with interpreting a document; we’ll go the full match wrestling with a sentence in an article, conference paper, or grant proposal. But teaching? So few of us grunt and groan about it.

So, if we don’t get instant results, like this professor, we walk away with a smug, false self-satisfaction, loudly proclaiming righteously, “Okay, I’ve tried it. I’ve given it a change.” But, have we? Really? Did we give it enough time, effort, thought, adjustment to really see if it works. Did we follow that adage: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again? Things don’t change just because someone’s going through a lot of motions and/or making a lot of noise. When all is said and done, it is more of the persevering “done” than the superficial “said” that makes things work.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–