MISTAKES

I was doing the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle this morning cursing this distracting and restricting hip-to-ankle harness on my left leg from serious arthroscopic knee surgery.  Part of the puzzle’s solution was a quote from Thomas Edison.  He once said, “”I have not failed.  I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.”  We academics would do well to heed him, to see that failure is not a sign of weakness, that it is not an indication of incompetence, that it is not a black mark on the personhood or professionalhood, that is a mark of strength, and that it is an act of learning.

 We wouldn’t do a damn thing, we wouldn’t try something new, we wouldn’t experiment, we wouldn’t change’, we wouldn’t grow, if we looked for or waited until we could do something so well all the time that we wouldn’t make a mistake or that no one could criticize us.   No matter what we say and no matter how hard we try, none of us is perfect and can be a perfectionist.  We’re all fallible human beings, our resumes and titles notwithstanding.  And, to paraphrase Confusius, our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in learning from, rising above, and going on every time we inevitably fail.  If we could do that, than an “oops” suddenly morphs into an exciting and illuminating “aha.”  Alas, in our academic climate, so few academics learned that, and fewer still have helped students learn that.
Louis

TEACHING AND LOVING

I read something posted by a mid-western e-colleague.  One thing he wrote got to me, “I love to teach because I’m so dedicated to my discipline, but those students…..”

You know, so many people say, “I love to teach.”  To them, as I did with this professor, I ask, “Do you love each student?”  “Are you dedicated unconditionally to each of them?”

You see, loving to teach is one thing.  To unconditionally love each of those to whom you teach is quite another thing.  To be “dedicated to your discipline” is one thing.  To unconditionally be committed to each student is quite another thing.

If your idea of what teaching is all about doesn’t get you to unconditionally believing in, having faith in, having hope for, and loving each student, if each–each and every–student doesn’t matter or isn’t important to you,  if all the students see is your scholarly resume and don’t feel sincere compassionate and caring leadership, you should stop grading yourself on a generous curve and the students on an uncharitable one; you should question yourself, not the students.

Louis