My altering self-examination for the past fifteen years has been obviously
challenging, uncompromising, unrelenting, sometimes cutting, certainly penetrating, truly
releasing, ultimately redemptive and freeing. Strange as it sounds, as I searched for and
discovered my own vices, I searched for and discovered the virtues in others. It always
comes back to the same thing: go deep enough and there is a hard bedrock of truth. It has
been a journey from solely focusing on scholarly competence and reputation in my
discipline to an expanded vision that includes teaching in a way of being attentive to the
contours of student lives being lived and seeing both the marvelous and sacred in each of
them. The practice of teaching must be full of generosity and empty of ego. Ability,
knowledge, authenticity, even intentions, unless tempered by empathy and caring, aren't
enough. Caring about, or loving, each student is what gives value to whatever it is we do
in and out of the classroom. In a fast-paced, complicated, and ever more demanding
academic culture it is easy to become self-absorbed and consumed with our own problems
involved in pursuing our careers, acquiring reputation, and attaining tenure. However,
there is one place, professionally, where we should put our self-centered concerns aside,
find the time for, and profoundly touch our deep humanity. That place is where students
dwell.
As I recently told some academics, the fact that the greatest surprise among the
overwhelming majority of students is the surprise that occurs when a professor cares about
them as human beings reveals how many of us academics commit the ultimate sin of academia.
That sin is the one of inadvertence, of not being attentive, not being truly alert, not
being quite awake to those in the classroom with us. It is the sin of missing the
breathless moment of life and not living with acute awareness, unremitting empathy,
unconditional caring, and boundless love.
To avoid committing that sin, so many of us say, with the best of caring
intentions, that we want to motivate students. If truth be told, we can't!! So, we
shouldn't waste our time asking, "How can I motivate students?" Now, on the other hand,
if we want to create an environment in which students are afforded the chance to motivate
themselves, that we can do!! Then, we should ask, "How can I create the conditions in a
classroom within which students will motivate themselves?" "How can I help students help
themselves to change self-defeating patterns of irresponsible and even unethical and
immoral behavior as they stagger through the stresses and pressures of their academic and
personal lives?" "How can I help each student feel welcomed in the classroom?" "How can
I help each student shed her or his feelings of aloneness in the classroom?" "What
conditions do I have to create for each student so that she or he will have the
opportunity to focus and persevere and strive without short-circuiting her or his
physical, emotional, spiritual, and moral well-being with self-induced anxiety,
corner-cutting, and outright cheating?" "How do I help a student instill in her- and
himself confidence, ignite passion, encourage more risk-taking and accepting of failure,
and expanding the areas--beyond written papers, tests, and preformed discussions--in which
she or he may achieve and be successful?"
Mind you, these are questions that are easy to ask. They are questions that are
not easy to answer. These are questions whose answers are still harder to live, for it is
the nature of those in authority to assert authority. Too many academics, ignoring the
conclusions of Carl Rogers and Edward Deci and Teresa Amabile, if we know who they are and
are familiar with their work, think we can "do" something to a student. That is, we can
motivate or we can teach. And, too many of us believe we can do it by the pressure of
enticement or threat, and control. We crack down, impose stringent discipline, lure and
entice with bonuses, make students buckle down, threaten, and force students to behave
through reward and punish with grades. Extra credit here, a point taken off a grade
there. It doesn't work. We know it doesn't work. We lament that it doesn't work. And
yet, we don't really wonder why that easy, tough, and reassuring answer of cracking the
whip or icing the cake doesn't work. Usually, our response is to play the blame game
rather than the responsibility game: "Students today are irresponsible." "Students today
aren't committed or dedicated." "Students today just don't......." In fact, if we look
closely we'd see that rigid authority exercise displayed in the offering of the carrot or
the wielding of the the stick more often than not worsens rather than lessens the
problems.
The problems as I see them are three fold. First, disbelief is the wind that
blows out your candle. You have to believe there is something of the marvelous and sacred
in each student. You'll prepare the flower bed, plant seed, and nurture them only when you
believe flowers can bloom. Second, it is not about what you do, but how you do it.
There are no magic words. If you want convince a student to motivate her- or himself,
motivate yourself. Students will believe what they see, not what they hear. That is,
action, living your words, is the only expression students will listen to. If you set out
to cheer, encourage, or inspire as many students as you could to help them help themselves
strive for their unique potential rather than merely transmit information motivate
yourself to be cheerful, supporting, encouraging, and caring. Good gestures mean so much
and cost so little that there is no excuse for not giving them away more often. A
compliment, a bit of advice, a cheerful hello or a warm smile can start a chain reaction
that lights up hitherto darkened lives like a Broadway neon sign. Niceness can change
lives, yours and theirs. To love and to live that love is the real magic. Third, it is
not so much getting a student to choose between "have to" and "want to" as it is how to
get them to choose to merge the two "to" into one.
The solution to these three problems is really, then, a matter of how to transform
forced reluctant and fearful compliance into volunteered dedicated and excited commitment.
You have to let students learn in a way so that they are in charge of their intellectual,
emotional, spiritual, and moral growth. Students will more likely be more motivated and
successful when they understand and accept and apply their own unique strengths and
overcome their weaknesses. That's a tough solution, though. It's really tough to put
into action. I've found that so many, us and the students alike, are afraid of losing
something known and comfortable and safe by changing than we are motivated by the risky,
unknown, and yet potential advantages of changing. Yet, it's so crucial to begin. Things
happen and opportunities appear most often when we're moving, not when we're standing
still.
Let me give you a clue how to start putting that answer into action. As I told a
few people recently, there is so much of the homelessness in each of us, much less in each
student. And our awareness, empathy, seeing, and listening creates a sanctuary for those
aimless and drifting parts. Students' definition of success, what they really are seeking
is not solely focused on getting the grade though they themselves think it is. It's far
more than that, and both they and we kid ourselves if we think it's not. That is why, as
far as students are concerned, their most meaningful, memorable and lasting experiences
almost exclusively occur outside the classroom. That's why their lasting memories of
their college experiences seldom have anything to do with the classroom material or
experience. Whether they know it or not, they reveal in their journals almost to the
person that achievement and success, what they are seeking, really seeking, is an
understanding that is defined by having good friends, positive family relations, being
noticed, being heard, receiving kindness, being cared about, being appreciated, being
well-regarded, being loved, being respected. They seek self-approval, self-respect,
physical and mental well-being, spiritual contentment, self-actualization, and an overall
sense of meaning to their lives. In other words, they want a satisfying, meaningful,
rewarding, and significant life, not just a grade or an honor or making a living.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History : www.newforums.com/L_Schmier.htm
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ \
/\
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\ \_/__\
/\"If you want to climb mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole hills" -
|
