Can't sleep. Susan's on my mind. She's hurting. Don't want to go to China and leave my "angel in disguise." Struggling not to be a hypocrite and live the Johnny Mercer's lyrics sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters in 1945: "You've got to accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative; And latch on to the affirmative....You've got to spread joy up to the maximum; bring gloom down to the minimum...." That's also how we help students learn that it's okay to make mistakes and how critical it is to learn from those mistakes. Of course, we have to learn that ourselves. Until we do, there will be little or no joy in Mudville. And, until there is joy, there won't be much of a life, few eyes open to opportunities, little enthusiasm, lots of negativity, lots of misery, and less achievement--much less meaningful achievement.
Let's talk about the students, but really also talk about ourselves. It's actually a matter of how students see themselves. I read their daily journals, about 120 a day; I talk a lot with a lot of them; I read their body language and facial expressions. I help many of them with their academic and non-academic issues: the relentless pressure to perform; the mistaken belief that "grades oft proclaim the man;" backs against the wall; cramming; sleep deprived; afraid; holes burned in dreams; on the defensive; harried; subserviently insecure; lots of "cowardice" and little boldness; in a frenetic race; feeling they have no life; wasting time and energy worrying; senses on full alert as if some predator is in the vicinity about to pounce on them. It all goes under the name of FEAR! They so often are fighting against themselves, discouraged, making themselves miserable, and undermining their own potential. Think I'm exaggerating? Not if you read student journals every day as I do.
It doesn't have to be that way. The secret is to catch the positive energy that transforms stumbling blocks into stepping stones. But, how? How do we help push forward rather than hold back? There's the rub, as the Bard would say. Teresa Amabile talks of helping to generate "positive feelings." Carol Dweck' offers insights into "the right kind of praise" and the need to foster a "growth-mind-set." Ed Deci's offering is autonomy, ownership, and connection. Daniel Goleman's suggestion is to help students develop their "social intelligence" and "emotional intelligence." Martin Seligman talks of boosting resilience. Richard Boyatzis requires we become "resonant leaders." Mihali Csíkszentmihályi wants us to help students learn how to go with what he calls "the flow."
They are all slices of the same pie: getting to the soul of education, running a humanistic institution that knows it's in the people business, teaching to the whole person we call a student. The latest brain-based research is attuning us to the larger reality. We're all learning from the latest "brainology,'--or, we should be--that the brain it is like a muscle—the more anyone exercises it, the stronger it becomes. Every time anyone works hard and learns something new, the brain forms new connections that, over time, makes that person "smarter." That is, intellectual, social, and emotional growth and achievement is largely in anyone's hands. These few prominent researchers I've mentioned, then, all agree in one way or another that three qualities can turn adversity into advantage. The first is boundless hope. That is, a positive perspective on ourselves and others; don't think of any mistake as final; think there is more to come; don't take making a mistake personal; don't let making a mistake be a discouraging, momentum stopper. Second, don't waste the mistake. Reflect on it in order to discover the lesson within and let that knowledge be a guide to later and better efforts. And finally, persevere. Try, try, try again; just be wiser each time. Make no mistake; it's easier said than done, for habits formed over years generally don't disappear overnight.
Yet, if we can start doing that for ourselves, if, to paraphrase Aristotle, we can help students start entertaining a mistake without accepting it, if we can help them listen to a mistake without losing self-confience, if we can offer such "roadside assistance," we will have helped start developing our and their social and emotional intelligences in order to "accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative." I know. It's a lot of "ifs." One last "if." If we have the faith, hope, belief, and love, as Rumi said, if we can "Borrow the Beloved's eyes," we'll "look through them and you'll see the Beloved's face everywhere." Then, "things you have hated will become helpers." That's what we need to do; that's what students need to do. When that happens, that's when the magic begins and miracles start occurring.
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta State University
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