To continue my answer to the professor who was disdainful of my raising questions about academia:



	“We both are scholars.  Curiosity is name; questioning is our game.  The quest to find the answers to our queries is the spring well of our research and publication, if not our promotion and granting of tenure.   If that is true in our discipline, should not be true in our teaching of that discipline?  Now, you say that for me to ask questions about ‘wither goest’ Higher Education is an indication of what you call my ‘corrosive attitude.’  My reply is that the efficaciousness in the classroom is identified on three axes.  The first two are associated with the conveyance of our discipline:  information transmission and skill development.  The third concerns the receptor:  the humanity of each student.  The first two are products of questioning in the lab, archive, and out in the field: curiosity, investigation, discovery, and application.  Why, then, is it anathema to raise questions about the third as well?  Stereotypes, generalities, and labels don’t do justice to the human complexity of each student.  



	“You, I, and each student have very real reasons for feeling, thinking, and acting as they do.  Our best teaching strategy is to get through those opaque images of ourselves and them, as well as to help them get through the curtains they drape around themselves, to understand, to address those reasons, and adjust to them.  Boy, do I understand that understanding is time consuming and demanding of our efforts.  But, that is what produces real and lasting results.  It is true in the lab; it is true in the archive; it is true out in the field.  It is no less true in the classroom!  We have to do the work, take deep breaths, and go deep beneath the surface; we have to be willing enough, we have to care enough, to spend the time and energy, to find those deep reasons and address them, if we want to truly get things done.”



	“If we don’t ask questions about the validity of our assumptions, presumptions, and perceptions generated by these fixed and oversimplified images, we are being very ‘unacademic’ by closing off debate with what I call ‘educational correctness.’  However, how are we to understand, rather than assume, what is really going on in the classroom?  How do we care about what is going on in the hearts and minds of those on the receptive side of the podium?  To paraphrase Mark Twain, unbending loyalty to a particular view is not a way to effectiveness.  How can we be otherwise then numb to the complexity of students as individuals and as a whole?  And, if we are numb, how will we know—know—how to respond constructively to improve both the effectiveness of our teaching and the depth of their learning?  Questions.”

 

	“So, as far as at the classroom is concerned, to paraphrase Hamlet, to question or not to question; that is the question.  Disdain for my questioning of academia, or anyone’s questioning, impedes learning about the new research findings on learning and the implications it has for our approaches to and methods of teaching.  If you dismiss questioning, you’ll never pause to understand what’s going on in the classroom.   As both a scholar and teacher, I am a life-long believer in the power of the question to transform beyond the moment of the question.  When I question, I examine my assumptions and perceptions of what I am feeling, thinking, and doing.   Not to question, is like not exercising and still expecting your muscles to be firm and strong.  To me, question and freshness are almost synonomous, for when I ask a question, I force myself to see people and things anew, and face new opportunities and possibilities that may be coming my way; that is, to question is not about condemnation; it is about hope”  



	"When my heart and mind hear and feel a question, they have no choice but to answer.  And, the questions I ask have a powerful impact on my professional, personal, and social lives.  The most basic multi-part question is: what assumptions have I made and what perceptions do I have today?  Are they accurate?  Are they limiting and holding me back?  What is my purpose in this world, and is that purpose related to my responsibilities to each student? The target of any thoughtful questioning reflects what a person cares about the most.  In my case, it is each student.  Questioning is the first step to investment.  The more you invest, the more you’ll be mindful; the more mindful you are, the more you’ll be alert, aware, and attentive; then, you’ll see, listen, empathize, and sympathize more.   The examination of choices, decisions, aspirations, and goals leads to awareness, attentiveness, mindfulness, reflection, investigation, discovery, analysis,  admission, responsibility, imagination, creativity, and action.”  



	“For me, questioning, fends off a passive acceptance of the existing academic culture that emphasizes scholarly research and publication that too often looks upon the demands of classroom teaching as an interference and distraction of scholarly pursuits.  For me, questioning keeps me humble as a reminder of imperfection.  For me, questioning is an investment of my time, energy, attention, faith, hope, and love.  For me, questioning puts all I have into what I love most and releases all my inner creative power.  For me questioning allows me to see, resonate, empathize and understand.  For me, questioning breathes new life in my sense of purpose and keeps the juices flowing.   Powerful and meaningful questions lead to powerful and meaningful feelings and thoughts which, in turn, lead to powerful and meaningful actions.  For me, asking questions is audacious, for it is about transforming the visions of faith, hope, and love in education into flesh and blood; it is about honoring the complexity of student; it is about seeing a student as a person not yet realized and walking with the student into the depths of that experience; 



	“So, I do have a question or two or three or more about Higher Education….”



	More later…..



Make it a good day



-Louis-





Louis Schmier                         		http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org       

203 E. Brookwood Pl                         http://www.therandomthoughts.com

Valdosta, Ga 31602 

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