This quiet, noisy, hometown, backyard, fire-cracking, parading weekend we Americans are celebrating self-evident truths to which we hold, which define us as a people, and which make us quite unique–and great. These truths, as George Will recently wrote, are what we choose to believe, how we dream to live, how we strive to make those ideals become reality, and thereby making them self-validating. In that spirit, I’m going to do something the same and something different. I’m going to talk about one of my self-evident truths which I choose to believe, how I dream to live, how I strive to make it and other self-evident truths my reality.

      Now, this Random Thought and the few to follow aren’t spontaneous as are almost all my Random Thoughts–kinda. The truth is that a while back I spontaneously wrote an introduction to the probably never to be published fourth volume of collected Random Thoughts. It was to be subtitled “Teaching With Passion.” Passionate is how a new-found friend described me. I won’t argue with him. It is one of the essences of who I am. Especially having survived cancer four years ago and a massive cerebral hemorrahage without any crippling effects last year, I am passionate about fervently living a meaningful and purposeful life in all of its personal and professional manifestations.

      In education particularly, there’s something so deadening that sucks the life out of teaching and learning, something so depressing that reduces focus to information transmission and gathering rather than on people, something so bland that is devoid of emotional intensity, something so stagnating that doesn’t stir the creative and imaginative juices. That something is really an absence of something: passion. Now, I’m not talking about being passionate about or dedicated to one’s discipline; I’m talking about being passionate about teaching and being dedicated to each student’s learning. So, I thought why let this reflection go to waste. And, before I go any further, I’m going to give you a warning. I am not going to be purely clinical and intellectual. Instead, I am going to be emotional. I am going to get passionate about teaching with passion by reaffirming my second principle of teaching, the Law of Juice: if there’s no juice in the battery, you’re dead in the parking lot and you’re not going anywhere. Coaches know it. Theatrical directors know it. Orchestral conductors know it. Choreographers know it. Artists, dancers, musicians, athletes, and actors know it. Both educators and students have yet fully to learn it, much less appreciate it. So, here is my take on the importance of passion in education, what I call “Hokey Pokey Teaching,” presented seven parts of bits and pieces. Part I:

                                       You put your whole self in;

                                       you put your whole self out;

                                       you put your whole self in;

                                       and you shake it all about.

                                      You do the Hokey-Pokey,

                                     And you turn yourself around.

                                    That’s what it’s all about!

      Now that is passion! If you’ve ever danced the Hokey Pokey you know what I mean. It’s really an exciting experience. You start with putting your right foot in and out, and then, with your hands held high, you turn all about. Next, you put your left foot in and out, then your right hand, then your left hand, then your right side, then your left side, then your nose, then your backside, then your head, and finally your whole self. I’ve seen people get into it, kick off their shoes, kick up their heels, let their hair down, not worry about what they looked like, not be concerned with what anyone said, and just go for it. I’ve never seen anyone do the Hokey Pokey who didn’t move, laugh, and giggle like a child. In fact, I think to fully enjoy the Hokey Pokey, you have to both figuratively and literally jump in and turn yourself around; you have to find the inner child. The Hokey-Pokey is so great that it lightens the spirit and takes years off the soul–while being just plain fun.

     That’s what it’s all about.

      With that being said, let me say unhesitatingly and unabashedly that teaching with passion, then, is juiced-up Hokey Pokey teaching! It’s all about teaching all of each student with all of me. It’s about taking the risk to put my whole self in. It’s about not worrying about how I may look to others. It’s about every pore in my body saying an unconditional “yes” to whatever and whomever comes along. It’s about being a heart specialist and having a complicated love affair with the beauty within each student. It is about being fully alive. It is about having a defiant optimism. It’s about having a committed commitment. It is about a flirtation and courting with each student that signify that nothing in the classroom goes along as usual, but holds the possibility of always being better than usual and certainly unusual. It is about having a heightened gratitude for life. It is about what stirs my soul, inspires me, motivates me, makes me feel like I’m in totally in harmony with why I showed up on campus. It’s about just picking up a few bottles of champagne and popping them every time I walk on campus. It’s about de-icing with the warmth of my own heart. It’s about knowing that every moment is a golden gateway to new possibilities. It’s about getting off the treadmill. It’s about going on a field trip as an adventurer, an explorer, a learner, and a pilgrim rather than as a disengaged and distant tourist. It’s about going into a classroom being filled with an exclaiming, “God, it feels great to be here.”

      And what am I passionate about? It’s simple, but challenging and demanding. I want to be a life-lifter. I want to be a character chiropractor and align a student’s belief in him-/herself with his/her potential. I want to be a “making the difference” opportunist. I want to be a growth hormone. I want to be a self-discovery catalyst. I want to be a TLC agent. It says in the Talmud that every blade of grass has an angel who bends over and whispers, “Grow. Grow.” I want to be one of those angels who whispers in the ear of each student, “Grow. Become who you are capable of becoming. Grow.”

      I remember once reading–it escapes me who wrote this–that the noblest joy of the senses, the holiest piece of the heart, the most resplendent luster of all good works derives from putting your heart and soul and mind wholly into what you do.

      Hokey Pokey teaching! That’s what it’s all about.

Louis