Day: August 24, 2015

I remember the excitement I used to feel as a student walking into a classroom on day one. I’m a guy, so my first tingle of excitement was about meeting all the new girls walking through the door. Hot on the heels of wanton desire was the urge to learn something new and applicable to my life. I wanted to be everything when I was a student. I went through so many majors and minors that by the time I finally got into a teaching career it turned out I could teach a bunch of stuff.

Once I became a teacher that excitement shifted. No longer about them girls, my excitement for day one turned into seeing all the faces and hoping to find reflected in them that same urge to learn something applicable that I felt as a student. Honestly, I don’t see that flicker in every face. More and more I get the disinterested stares of the caged student and I wonder why they are here.

Still, that flicker does exist for many and it is those that drive me to be truly good at what I do. I recognize the role a teacher has in the classroom. It isn’t to stand up there and deliver content, but to ignite the imagination and educational desire of each new student that walks through that door. Because we live in an information age, the role of the college instructor has shifted. Most students are savvy enough to figure something out if they really want to. Look at any video game and you’ll find that it always starts with a decoding–a period in which the user must decode the controls and learn how to apply physical response to on-screen cues.

The game provides the motivation to learn in the same way the instructor must provide positive motivation for student engagement and success. This is the lesson we new breed of instructors still struggle to accept.

NOTE: I woke up to find this post sitting on my desktop. In all the excitement of preparing for the first day of class I neglected to hit the publish button…

 

I believe the new American story starts with, “Nobody ever thought I was good at everything…” I came by that feeling after watching a series of commercials that focused on individuals from different walks of life who’d failed at everything they’d tried until aided by one lending startup or another or even just decided to focus on leisure (seriously, a beer dude said he sucked at working so he made a beer and sold it). The general idea behind this is that we are all successful on the inside and no matter how much we fail we still have within us the ability to succeed.

Thats the good version.

That is the version I desperately cling to. However, I fear that this message is going to be misconstrued as, “doesn’t matter if you screw up. You’ll get it right when you’re ready.” I can see how the two might get confused. Teaching at a Community College I run into a large volume of students who feel like its okay to screw things up for a while and not give a dang about what they are doing until the decide that it is time to turn it on and be heroes.

Not everyone has that switch. Often success is the result of long term planning and persistent hard work. I fear this specific message is lost to the masses who are tuned in to ‘think not’ TV.

 

Some Thoughts

1. At one point there were five members of the Cromartie family in the NFL. There are still three. That’s some serious familial dedication to the sport.
2. Yesterday’s post made no friends… Not surprising. It is a difficult truth. I stand by my statement that a sport must stand on its own. Cheer does not exist in the absence of other sports. Who would you cheer for?