I received a cryptica one sentence note this morning from a professor in the far northwest. “Louis, you talk about teaching like you’re an addict on a high.” I didn’t know this person. This is the first message I have ever received from her. So, I’m not sure whether I should see a warm smile or a chilly sneer as she typed in her words. It may not a very nice analogy, since it does more than infer an abnormality or an uncontrolled obsession. There is nothing abnormal or uncontrolled in my educational philosophy or practices, or in my life, although my report card is full of “F’s.” I am lucky to have several true “F”riends; I have a loving “F”amily; I have a strong spiritual “F”aith; I keep physically “F”it; every day I have what some would call childish “F”un; every day I meditate by my “F”ish pond in order to keep myself mentally and emotionally “F”resh; I am constantly and devilishly “F”risky with my angelic Susan; I do walk among, tend, and talk with my “F”lowers each day. I am an accomplished “F”ixer-upper who can work with his hands as well as with his mind; I know where I presently am is “F”ine, but I can still grow so much more. And, admittedly my “F”inances aren’t great, but I’m working on them. When you add up all those “F’s” and average them out, I get an “A” for active, and “A” for alive, and a “B” for balanced. Not a bad personal and professional GPA. Doesn’t seem all that abnormal or uncontrolled to me. But, then, that’s me.

And yet, I can understand where that professor might be coming from if she doesn’t understand where I came from. A little over a decade ago, I came to a sudden realization of the truth of what William James said: “….human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.” That is, for things to change, you have to change; and, you can change if you chose to change. Ever since that critical moment, I started making some choices about changing myself and hence changing what I do. I began to learn about learning; I began to find my “why” am I teaching and my “what” do I want and want others to get out of an education; I began to develop a set of articulated life-directing characters and subsequent values; I started to write a song into my teaching instead of continuing to chant a dirge; I started to introduce a dance step into my teaching to replace my plodding along; I started to evolve into a “do” person from a “going-to-do” person; I started to place one foot in front of the other rather than stand where I had been for decdes; I started to become what Zig Ziggler called a “meaningful specific” instead of remaining a “wondering generality.”

Now, understand what I am about to say is my take, and, of course, I’m not asking anyone to accept what I say. I only ask that you stop and think about it. After all, you never know which line is crooked or straight, as Socrates said, unless they lie next to each other.

I started learning almost twelve years ago (and yet is seems like literally yesterday), when I chose to start believing in myself and in each student, I started putting faith at the very heart of my personality and I started changing from a more-often-than-not purveyor of the discouraging negative to a universal propagator of the encouraging positive.

At the core of the negative person such as I subtle was is skpeticism and cynicism. You see it in everything they say and do. There is so little happiness and so much more stress, so little energy and so much underwhelming, so little dreaming and so much wall-hitting. They aren’t “make-it-happen” people. But, if you’re a positive believer, each day is like going into a bakery and deeply inhaling the aroma of fresh bread hot from the oven.

I am thinking more and more that when it comes to teaching, E.I.–Emotional Intelliegence–is so much more important than I.Q. After all, attitudes are ways in which we can make anything happen and we are or become what we think about all day long. It’s your E.I. that determines who you are, where you go, what you do when you come to the wall, and how you handle the hell when it breaks loose! I fully admit that I’m an E.Ier, that I am a strong believer in the driving power of self-esteem, self-confidence, optimism, and what I call “those four little big words:” hope, belief, faith, and love. Sure, I might sigh disappointment; sure, my voice and face may get a sternness; sure, I might have to get in a student’s face or kick him or her in the butt. But, I never stop caring for each of them.

You see, I am a rabid and raving fan of each student. I know each and every life in that classroom is significant; I known each life in that classrom is going to make a difference; I know each life will help alter the future. An authentic caring for each student, an unshakeable belief in each student, a firm faith in each student, a endless hope for each student, a appreication of each student, and, yes, a boundless love for each student will let anyone see the invisible, believe in the incredible, achieve the impossible, and leave a lasting legacy of making a difference!

That’s who and what I am. That is my normal way of living and teaching. And, if that means to this professor that I am an addict, I stand ready to accept the judgement of a life sentence in the classroom for my addiction.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

I been reading a series of messages from students at West Georgia State University on “teachers remembered.” I assume it was an assignment for an education class. This West Gerogia teacher has done this before with students. It’s a good exercise, for it requires that they reflect and seek out those qualities of “teachers remembered” which they may wish to emulate and pass on.

As I read the brief paragraphs about those “teachers remembered” who touched these students, I started asking myself, “Whether we are advising, administering, teaching, counseling, guiding, or doing whatever we are doing on our campuses, what are certain symptoms we experience and express and demonstrate when we feel an inner satisfaction, a belief of service, a sense of mission and purpose, a commitment to something greater than ourselves, an ennobling richness, and a feeling of sacred obligation in what we’re doing?” This is some of what I came up with:

1. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment and each person.

2. No interest in pre-judging or judging any student

3. Accepting of and embracing each and every student

4. Give everything he or she has, and asks the same of each student

5. Lots of persuasion

6. Dwell on students’ strengths rather than moaning about their weakness

7. Lots of expressions ofappreciation

8. Lots of encouragement

9. Constant connectedness with each student

10. Frequent attacks of smiling hearts

11. An uncontrollable urge to be kind

12. Not interested in coersion

13. Believes in the power of love of, faith in, belief in, and hope for each student

14. Always questions with a “why” and “who are you”

15. Allows things to unfold to the needs of each student rather than resisting and manipulating to his or her own wants

16. Constant patience

17. Ever seeing and listening, ever mindful and sensitive and attentive

18. Never looks for the ideal situation or want students who are faultless

19. Wants to make a difference and believes the world can be changed because of him or her

20. Always has an eye on the future understanding that each student is the future

21. Doesn’t wait for students to be friendly and civil; models tact, courtesy, respect, honesty, civility.

22. Models a reverence and deep respect for the inherent dignity and worth of each student

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

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–

I just had a teacher ask me, “What do you think is the most important part of being a teacher.”

To be honest, I don’t have an answer. I don’t know what THE most important part of being a teacher might be. I do know what the most important part of being a teacher is for me. It is keeping ablaze that burning desire to learn.

I don’t mean learning about my subject. That’s the least of it, and the easiest part of being a teacher. I mean learning about myself, about each student whom I serve, about others around me. In this age of high speed access to information, we must be wary that we don’t get swept up in undervaluing the need for the skills of reflection, pondering, and rumination. I am my own raw ore and I am my own smeltering plant. As I challenge my prejudices, as I question my preconceptions, as I ruminate on my perceptions, as I ponder my biases, as I reflect on my fears, as I think about my negatives, as I destroy my idols, I can help others help themselves do the same.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–