A Scary Realization

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The beginning of the academic year is just a couple of weeks away. No depressing “yuks” for me, only rising “wows!” I just finished reading Daniel Goleman’s PRIMAL LEADERSHIP and portions of Peter Senge’s FIFTH DISCIPINE for the umpteenth time. They have accentuated the feelings I always get at this time of the year. As happens each year, while the juices are staring to flow and the excitement is starting to bubble, I come to a tempering, sobering, and scary realization: more than anyone else, I am the decisive element in the classroom. More than anyone else, I create the conditions that directly determine the student’s ability to work well. I affect how students will feel and therefore perform. I am the authority figure, the classroom leader, the pacesetter, the role model, the weather maker. It is my personal attitudes and approaches, my assumptions and presumptions, my daily moods that create the climate in the classroom. Like it or not, conscious of it or not, actively or passively, as a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a student’s life miserable or joyous.

I can be sour or sweet;
I can be pathelogical or theraputic;
I can torture or inspire;
I can care less or care;
I can manipulate or persuade;
I can dictate or persuade;
I can discourage or encourage;
I can obstruct or open the path;
I can diminish or elevate;
I can bore or excite;
I can creat disonance or harmony;
I can curse and condem or bless and edify;
I can be of diservice or serve;
I can grind down or lubricate;
I can be clueless or be clued in;
I can be disinterested or interested;
I can humor or be humorous;
I can be cold or empathize;
I can be deaf or listen;
I can be blind or see;
I can be distant or near;
I can disconnect or connect;
I can disrespect or respect;
I can disbelieve or believe;
I can create hopelessness or hopefulness;
I can humiliate or hold sacred;
I can sneer or cheer;
I can be unaware or aware;
I can insensitive or mindful;
I can hurt or heal;
I can ignore or notice;
I can beat down or be upbeat;
I can hiss or applaud;
I can create crisis or eliminate crisis;
I can heighten or diminish;
I can de-humanize or humanize;
I can devalue or value each student.

It is my choices that decides on which side of each “or” I stand. How well I manage my moods and attitudes affects students’ moods and attitudes, and influences how well they each will perform. That is no small burden. It’s both scary and humbling.

Make it a good day.

–Louis–

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About Louis Schmier

LOUIS SCHMIER “Every student should have a person who wants to help him or her help himself or herself become the person he or she is capable of becoming, and I’ll be damned if I am ever going to let one human being fall through the cracks in my classes without a fight.” How about a snapshot of myself. But, what shall I tell you about me? Something personal? Something philosophical? Something pedagogical? Something scholarly? Nah, I'll dispense with that resume stuff. Since I believe everything we do starts from who we are inside, what we believe, what we perceive, and what we do is an extension of ourselves, how about if I first say some things about myself. Then, maybe, I can ease into other things. My name is Louis Schmier. The first name rhymes with phooey, the last with beer. I am a 76 year old - in body, but not in mind or spirit - born and bred New Yorker who came south in 1963. I met by angelic bride, Susie, on a reluctant blind date at Chapel Hill. We've been married now going on 51 years. We have two marvelous sons. One is a VP at Samsung in San Francisco. The other is an artist with food and is an executive chef at a restaurant in Nashville, Tn. And, they have given us three grandmunchkins upon whom we dote a bit. I power walk 7 miles every other early morning. That’s my essential meditative “Just to …” time. On the other days, I exercise with weights to keep my upper body in shape. I am an avid gardener. I love to cook on my wok. Loving to work with my hands as well as with my heart and mind, I built a three room master complex addition to the house. And, I am a “fixer-upper” who allows very few repairmen to step across the threshold. Oh, by the way, I received my A.B. from then Adelphi College, my M.A. from St. John's University, and my Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have been teaching at Valdosta State University in Georgia since 1967. Having retired reluctantly in December, 2012, I currently hold the rank of Professor of History, Emeritus. I prefer the title, “Teacher”. Twenty-five years ago, I had what I consider an “epiphany”. It changed my understanding of myself. I stopped professoring and gave up scholarly research and publication to devote all my time and energy to student. My teaching has taken on the character of a mission. It is a journey that has taken me from seeing only myself to a commitment to vision larger than myself and my self-interest. I now believe that being an educator means I am in the “people business”. I now believe that the most essential element in education is caring about people. Education without caring, without a real human connection, is as viable as a person with a brain but without a heart. So, when I am asked what I teach, I answer unhesitatingly, “I teach students”. I am now more concerned with the students’ learning than my teaching, more concerned with the students as human beings than with the subject. I am more concerned with reaching for students than reaching the height of professional reputation. I believe the heart of education is to educate the heart. The purpose of teaching is to instill in all students genuine, loving, lifelong eagerness to learn and foster a life of continual growth and development. It should encourage and assist students in developing the basic values needed for learning and living: self-discipline, self-confidence, self-worth, integrity, honesty, commitment, perseverance, responsibility, pursuit of excellence, emotional courage, creativity, imagination, humility, and compassion for others. In April, 1993, I began to share ME on the internet: my personal and professional rites of passage, my beliefs about the nature and purpose of an education, a commemoration of student learning and achievement, my successful and not so successful experiences, a proclamation of faith in students, and a celebration of teaching. These electronic sharings are called “Random Thoughts”. There are now over 1000 of them floating out there in cyberspace. The first 185, which chronicles the beginnings of my journey, have been published as collections in three volumes, RANDOM THOUGHTS: THE HUMANITY OF TEACHING, RANDOM THOUGHTS, II: TEACHING FROM THE HEART, RANDOM THOUGHTS, III: TEACHING WITH LOVE, and RANDOM THOUGHTS, IV: THE PASSION OF TEACHING. The chronicle of my continued journey is available in an Ebook on Amazon's Kindle in a volume I call FAITH, HOPE, LOVE: THE SPIRIT OF TEACHING. There a few more untitled volumes in the works..

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