We all need a time and place, a secret spot in our soul, where our dreams can safely go.   Mine are usually in a pre-dawn walk.  Not this cold mid 20s morning.  It’s about 6:00 a.m.  I’ve been up since 3:45.  I had to help Hope (Woo Kyoung Hee), the Korean student who had been staying with us for the past month while she was taking intensive language instruction at the University, finish packing and get to the airport for the beginning of her journey home.  I couldn’t sleep when I got back to the house.  So, before I started reading student journals and issue papers, I just sat in a chair in the dark living room, slowly sipping a delicious freshly brewed hot cup of coffee, and thought. I was thinking about a rich discussion I’ve been having over the past few days with a bunch of neat collegiate faculty developers about attitudes towards students. 

             Those exchanges had sent me re-read a bunch of experts, particularly Carl Rogers.   He said it in his On Becoming A Person, Client Centered Therapy, A Way Of Being, and The Freedom To Learn.  How little we listen, he said.  How much we talk.  How much we look with our eyes.  How little we see with our heart and soul.  How much we know our discipline. How little we know each student.  How much we are inauthentic.  How little we truly know ourselves.  How much we seek to and think we control.  Yet, how little we can actually control.  How much we believe we can motivate.  Yet, in truth, how little we can motivate.  How much we believe we teach.  Yet, how little we can actually teach.  How little most of us know really about learning.  How much we pay attention to information transmission and skill development; and, how much of it we structure and supervise.  How little thought we devote to emotional and social development needed to properly use that information and those skills; and, how much all of this is ignored, unsupervised, and haphazard. 

             Now, I respond constantly to student journal entries; I write the “Words For The Day” on the whiteboard; we relate these pithy sayings to the people of the period of history we’re engaged in; I respond in class to the “How I Feel Today” single word the students write each day on the whiteboard.  With all of this, I really have not found that I successfully can impose values, ethics, or attitudes or behaviors on a student.  I have not found that I can motivate a student.   I certainly know I cannot do it by the threats or enticements of subtracting or adding points to a numerical grade.  I certainly know I cannot do it by spanking a student with words or looks or tones. If I thought otherwise, I’d be creating a breeding ground for frustration, resignation, anger, retreat and surrender.  But, I do believe being an example of unconditional respect, of being kind and considerate, of being the embodiment of support and encouragement, of being an unconditional believer in each student’s unique potential, of being understanding of the sling and arrows of outrageous fortunes they experience, of not casting aside students’ feelings as irrelevant and insignificant, not only reminds me of my vision, not only connects me with my purpose, not only connects me with each student, not only energizes me, but gives me a far, far better chance of getting students to ask and answer, “What does he see that I don’t?  Why does he believe in me when I can’t?” 

             Respect and empathy, these are the deep connections of trust; these are the core conditions for learning.  I know students feel deeply appreciate simply being respected and understood – not evaluated, not judged, not graded, not threatened; just simply understood from their own point of view, not mine, and respected as sacred, noble, invaluable, unique human beings.  So, I submit that if you want to be effective and want students to learn, start with connection by meeting the student on a person-to-person basis.  Be authentic, by being a real person without a front, a costume, or a facade.  Be accepting by prizing each student as an imperfect human being, by honoring her or his person, feelings, situations, and views.  Be empathetic by standing in a student’s shoes, by understanding the student’s inner being, by having a keep sense of otherness that is all about them and not about you, by having a sensitive awareness of the way the process of learning seems to the student.  Learn to do this every day and the chances of that student learning shoots off the charts. 

             I also know the persuasiveness of example has a far, far better chance of acquiring more true followers than reason or command or imposition or threat.  It’s like Mother Teresa said, “Let no one come to you without leaving better and happier than before. Be the living expression of love, faith, hope, empathy, and kindness; let them be in your body, face, eyes, sound, and smile.”  It’s that simple–and that challenging.  If you can do all that each day, if you live each day using your unique energy to serve a meaningful and positive purpose, if you can feel the vision and be the living fulfillment of it, I guarantee you will know what a joy and a privilege it is to be able to make a positive difference in someone’s life.  And, I know, once you have felt that joy, you will not want to stop, your load will feel lighter, your pace will quicken into a delightful dance, and you will make your world and the world around brighter with each buoyant step you take. 

             No, my wealth is not in my tenure, salary, or resume; it’s in my vision, my sense of purpose, my meaning, my significance, and the feelings of a job well and mission accomplished when they all mesh with what I do.  And, no economic downturn can drain that account.

Louis