Louis Schmier is a history professor in the Department of History at Valdosta State University in Georgia. He regularly writes a random thought and shares with the POD listserv. I wanted to share his thought today because it really hit home with me as to the gravity of the situation we face as educators and something to reflect on from time to time to calibarate our approach to teaching and learning.
I was reading student journals this early morning. As I read of what seemed like a debilitating epidemic of manic depression plaguing our campus as the semester comes to a harried close, something struck me. How often do we think, do we loudly assert, that we know students. But, in truth, almost all of us know them only in the most disengaged, distant, disconnected, abstract, generalized, stereotypical, or anonymous way. This means we usually do not know them at all; we don't give a face or name to learning; everyone is a blur; we don't see the stories of individuals with varied personalities and assorted experiences and different talents, subject to diverse and contesting social, personal, and family pressures, torn by disrupting forces of transformation; we have only the dimmest understanding of what each of these people are like much less what they are going through; and we usually aren't drawn deeply below the surface into the people business of education. It all too often makes the entire process none too real.
I plan on reflecting on this thought for some time to come. It really hit home with me as it made me face the fact that I have become more jaded toward students over the years and taken a more black or white versus grey perspective on my approach to dealing with students.
1 comment:
I think this is true for education as a whole we can statistically separate the class into A,B,C students. I have even been in classes where the teacher as acknowledge this and set bell curves on grading. We can predict who will fail and I submit can make that happen as well (self-fulfilling prophecy)!? I reflect on my education from H.S, undergrad, an grad work and realize a huge difference of invested interest in each of these educational paths in my life. Each one as general and individual teachers has a different investment in me. Example H.S little to no investment=no relation to teacher. Coach on the other hand wanted a winning team so he spent time with me to make sure I was improving. Undergraduate= Most teachers had no idea who I was even or if I was even there. Most I would say knew me by a 4 digit code sitting in my auditorium 500 seat class. Some handled it well others it was just passing time. Graduate major professor wanted something from me a publication. School wanted something from to graduate to increase there overall stats (not sure on this but schools get more for MS and Doctoral Grads then BS). So who knew the pressures I was under I would say two: my Coach and Major Professor all others are where more or less a stumbling block in the road to me achieving my goals. So the real question to the random thought is what are we? An influencer for the students that will take merit in are teaching? Or just another stumbling block in there to reaching their potential?
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