What It Is About Teaching That Makes Me Happy

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4:55 a.m. 79 degrees. I had opened the door and stepped out into the darkness. I thought I was hitting a wall someone had built during the night. The quiet air was awash with water. Maybe we’re beginning to feel the first subtle effects of Ernesto. I drew strength and energy to struggled through the dark heaviness, from thinking about two questions a first year student, an aspiring teacher, threw at me in her journal last Friday

“Dr. Schmier, you don’t know it but I’ve been watching you in and out of class….So, I have two questions for you. What is it about teaching that makes you always so happy and what does teaching mean to you.”

Interesting questions aren’t they. Certainly reflective questions that can cause you to pause. I told her to give me the weekend to think about them. After yesterday, Tuesday, I have the answers for both. Let me take the first one first.

To answer that question, I want to briefly talk about a student I’ll call Samone. It’s not her real name. She is a real person, a daring and courageous person I might add. She didn’t know it until yesterday. Let me backup. In an early journal entry she said in no uncertain terms how nervous she was about being in this class. She had heard that she would have to get up in front of class and do lots of things. She was scared. She labeled herself as a very shy person who didn’t like to get up and do things in front of people. But, she ended her message, with a wish she wasn’t way, but was resigned to the fact that she was.”

I replied by saying that because that’s the way she has have been and presently is doesn’t mean that’s the way she has have to be, especially if she didn’t like being who she was. I reminded her about what I said about having had cancer; that it was okay for me to have had fear, but I had to fight not to let the fear have me and stop you. I asked her what would happen if she took the risk to slowly start breaking the habit of thinking that she was shy and struggled to choose to think differently of herself, especially in this class where we’ll be forging a supportive and encouraging community.

I left it at that and didn’t say or write another word about it. We spent the four classes on the first phase of breaking barriers, building bridges, and forging community with a bunch of what I call “getting to know ya” exercises. Yesterday, we entered the second phase by starting to lay down the four operational principles of the class that rested on community. This semester I’m experimenting with changing the order of the exercises. I started with an exercise I call “The Story” that I have normally saved until last. I’ll just say that I use it to place the material of the course and the lives of the students in historical context and to it some meaning and purpose. It has been nine years since I’ve written about “The Story.” It’s a silly story with not-so-silly meaning and with semester long impact. I always hope that something resembling noisy “organized chaos” will erupt. To recap, I hand out this four sentence story accompanied by eleven short questions to which the choice of answers are: true, false, unknown. The instructions are simple: “Read the story and answer all the questions. Everyone in your community must reach a consensus for all the answers. But you’re not finished. In some manner, shape, or form of your choosing, EVERYONE in the class must reach a 100% consensus for ALL eleven answers.” Then, I stand back without uttering a word or making a gesture for the students to discover that the simple story and simple answer are anything but clear-cut and simple.

Invariably, things start slow and quiet as the student read the story and initially answer the questions. Then, slowly, the silence is broken by murmur. The murmur grows into rumble, and rumble explodes into movement and sound. Students getting out of their chairs; they squeeze between the chairs, move chairs, climb over chairs; they’re walking around, bumping into, bending over, kneeling; they were arguing, talking, debating, even shouting; they were persuading, being persuaded, talking, listening, not listening, being sarcastic, being disengaged, leading, following: “Let’s keep it simple….” “But, we don’t know…” “This is not as simple as he said it was.” “Do we know anything?” “Look….” “No, you look…” “If you read….” “You can’t read….” “You’re reading into….” “Just read what it says….” “You have to infer….” “This is dumb…..” “I don’t like confrontation…..” “How do you figure that….” “It says that….” “It doesn’t say….” “Who cares….” Answers were erased, cross-out, rewritten, kept, defended, questioned, attacked; fighting raged over a word; struggles ensued with a phrase, confrontations were held over a meaning; heads nodding agreement, heads shaking in disagreement; voices rising into shouts, in annoyance; arms moving and flailing in all directions; feet stomping; faces smiling, frowning, laughing, becoming wrinkled and puzzled, getting tight and serious; quiet students becoming; vocal students becoming silent.

Then, I saw it happen. Samone slowly, almost painfully, got up out of her chair. There was anxiety in her eyes. As she slowly went to the front of the room, I silently said to myself, “Go girl!” She stood there for a moment. I wish I could have spoken a soft supportive “Just do it.” She took a deep breath, and shouted the class to order. “Hey, listen up. Let’s go over these questions together. For the first question, our community got…..”

After an hour of struggling to maintain some resemblance of organized chaos, Samone led the class to reaching a 100% consensus of the answers.

At this moment, the purpose of the exercise is not important. Perhaps that is for later. What Samone achieved is my answer to what it is about teaching that makes me happy.

Samone wrote in her journal, “You could probably tell how nervous I was cuz (sic) my hands were shaky, but I figured since u (sic) told me to just not be shy that I should just get up in front of the class and go for it. And I did. I am so proud of myself….”

I wrote back a simple, “Great job. I knew you could do it. Now, you see you can….Keep on walking.”

So, as an answer the first of this future teacher’s question, I wrote her:

You ask what it is about teaching that makes me happy. Well, I have my own yardstick.

It’s for me and only for me to define. I don’t allow others to define happiness for me. If I did, I wouldn’t truly experience it; if I let them lay out the path, I wouldn’t be following my road; if I allowed others to dictate what my dreams should be, I’d never reach them.

The only way to reach for my dreams, to follow my vision, and to achieve happiness, as I define it, for myself is to choose what has real meaning and purpose, and significance, for me as a teacher.

You want to know what, then, tickles the sweet spot in the deep part of my soul? Let’s see. Being significant, being effective, changing things, learning new things, having a ‘let’s see what happens approach, being imaginative and creative, having the courage to risk changing, influencing things, being flexible, being adaptable, making things happen, making a positive and lasting difference, being authentic, and, most important, being able to be in the service of others.

Being in the service of others. Having an impact on others, not just on myself, is rewarding. Being significant is satisfying. Making a difference is fulfilling. Just think of it. It is a sobering–and humbling–responsibility it is to realize that we teachers each can be the instrument of making a difference in someone’s life; that our courage, empathy, love, support, encouragement, compassion, belief, and creativity can set into motion attitudes and actions that can only make for a better person and therefore a better world. That realization turns any woeful sighs I might have into joyous songs.

Now some of you may think that what Samone did was small potatoes. You’d be wrong. And, I made sure she didn’t diminish the importance of what she did. As I told her, “Don’t let you or anyone else let you think you took ‘just’ a small step. There is nothing small about it. Any step that is part of a great journey is great, and you have just begun a great journey of self-discovery.”

For me, then, what appears to be the smallest, plainest, simplest moment can be fertile ground for the most extraordinary happiness.

One small step for Samone; one giant leap for the world. A lot of happiness for me.

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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