A Christmas Card

I just received a message from Melinda. Very few of you know about Melinda. She had been in one my classes as I had begun my journey from professor to teacher. I had shared the story of her transformation in a Random Thought almost six years ago to the day. She and I have remained close friends. She had transferred to the University of Georgia and had graduated as an education major, and I have been something of a distance mentor to her. She is now a caring teacher in a Massachusettes school system. She is so excited. And I am so happy for her. All term she had worked with a struggling student to succeed. She had devoted many after school session to helping him focus, never let him go unnoticed, constantly encouraged him when he faltered, constantly applauded him when he didn’t, and always reminded him that he is capable. She found ways to keep this student’s hope alive, to work for his transformation, to believe that change was possible. She just received a Christmas card in which the student had written, “Thanks for giving me a second chance.” She ended her message with a teary, breath-catching and spine-tingling “wow!”

I told her to preserve that card as a sacred object of her teaching, to place that student at the beginning of a career long “hope list” detailing changes in students. More important, I told her to keep it as a constant reminder of the lesson she was just taught, a lesson we all should learn well, without which there would be no “hope list:”:

There is a joyous music of teaching. Teach with
its special rhythm, with its special tempo: the
heartbeat of the student.

Let me and Susan take this opportunity to wish all of you a joyous holiday season and the best for the coming “almost” millenium.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

There Are Guarantees

Up real early. Couldn’t sleep much. Couldn’t walk any. A cup of hot tea sweetened by a touch of wine at my side. Thinking a lot. Feeling chilly.

They tell me that ’tis the season to be jolly. Well, this morning I don’t feel very holidayish, and it has nothing to do with this cold that has the symptoms of a low-level flu bug which has been wracking my body for the past five days. No, my yule log is burning very low because yesterday I had to give Gwendolyn–not her real name–a failing grade as I had promised last spring semester I would do if she didn’t live up to the promise she made to herself–and to me. She was sincere about keeping her vows and worked hard at the beginning of the semester. But, it wasn’t to last. Slowly she began to walk away. Her step quickened into a run, and finally she disappeared. This time there was nothing I could do but be a helpless by-stander. By the end of the semester she had disrespected herself and let herself down; she had disrespected her triad members and let them down; and, least of all, she had disrespected me, who had taken the risk and had given her a secret second chance, and let me down. She had betrayed us all, above all herself. I know she had not intended for this to happend. Maybe she wasn’t yet strong as she thought to win the war between faith and fear that waged within her, or maybe she wasn’t fully prepared to fight the battle between her head and heart, or maybe her hopes and dreams were not yet bright and soothing enough to overcome dark memories and painful experiences, or maybe she didn’t yet have the endurance to continue resisting the tug of distant and personal outside tidal forces.

That’s all I’m going to say about Gwendolyn. But, she has reminded me once again how I always have said and have heard others say that there are no guarantees. Now that I think about Gwendolyn, I and they are wrong. I know of two guarantees, 100 % guarantees:

First, if you want to make a difference in someone’s life, if you want to reach out and touch a student, if you are caring enough give all of you, if you are daring enough to take the risk for something to happen, I guarantee 100% along the way you will experience mistake, annoyance, sadness, disappointment, dejection, rejection, betrayal, failure, hurt, maybe even anger;

Second, if you cheat the student–and yourself–because he or she hasn’t gotten all of you so you can avoid the difficulties and disappointments and hurts along the way; if you fearfully withhold your heart, keep at a safe and disengaged distance, stone-wall yourself, brace yourself; if you look protectively at a student as you hope he or she is or wish him or her to be and not caringly and understandingly as he or she really is; if you don’t take the risk to reach out and make a difference, then I guarantee 100% nothing will happen.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

Advice on Teaching

I received a message from a young teacher-to-be. He was scared. He was going into his first classroom. He wanted advice on how to teach. What could I tell him. I was gratified by the request, but I don’t really like to give advice so much as I share myself. After all, I know myself best and others least. This is what I told him I do, and I’d like to share it with you:

Want to be there with every fiber of your being. Teach each and every student. Reach out and touch that other human being, one at a time. Stop looking for pat answers, for such-fire formulae, for the one way, for guarantees. There aren’t any. Trust your instinct.

Scared? That’s okay. You should be. I am. Every day. What you are doing is important.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–