Posted: 2 years ago

In just finishing the spring semester, I am asked, "Why do you teach here? You could probably teach anywhere." The assumption is that the classroom at a two-year college is somewhat different than the Ivy League or Rice or Stanford or....etc. My answer is two-fold: 1) I teach at Lone Star College-Kingwood because I was able to make a deal with the department of fine arts (the dean) where I can get off for three-weeks during the semester to go on Fulbright Scholar grants to exotic places (for me) while they can use my work with Fulbrights as public relations, and 2) a classroom is a classroom is a classroom...students are students are students...etc. If Plato could sit in an orchard and teach, anyone who calls themself 'teacher' can do the same. Anyway, the world is my classroom and when my students understand that, they are ready to live in the twenty-first century ON THEIR OWN.

I will share with you "why I teach the young." It is to open doors. TO KNOW IS TO GROW. John Keats talked in a letter about the "darkening chamber of maiden thought," a place where doors open and only become light when we mature to enter them. My classroom is that chamber (in truth, our lives are that chamber.) I give a final assignment, after the student gets his or her grade, so that I get "brutally honest" statements about: a) what the student came into the classroom with as knowledge about art, b) what they gain in the classroom, and c) what they might take with them in later life that could help them find their own path of enlightenment.

Here are a few: "I didn't know anything about Modern Art or Art Appreciation. Here I am, feeling uncomforable, thinking I'm going to fail this course, because I don't know anything.... Professor Kagle came in the class excited and ready to "rock and roll." Everyone is looking at him wondering why such excitement and it was eight o'clock in the morning....In our last assignment, the research paper, I found that I am surrounded by art....Even when I lie down at night, I am laying on art."

"My view of art has definitely changesd during this course....I am now always noticing the architecture around me and it is really neat....Over all, art appreciation has opened up my eyes to see art all around me."

"I dropped out of high school and that is always in my mind. It is always holding me back mentally. I assume I can't do things that people with more years in school can do. Now I know that is just not the case. I can make an A and I can write essays that people want to read. I feel the abilities that are so far down bubbling to the surface....I knew I appreciated art before this class. That was no big surprise. The big surprise is that this art class appreciated me. You are right, we can be brutally honest now but all that comes to mind is "Thanks" and I hope to keep in touch. One of these days I am going to wow you!"

Those are typical, except the last one which is exceptional, and those are why I teach the young (in heart as well as years)!

Joe 

Posted: 2 years ago

Hi Joe,

Nice post!  I, too, am a teacher, and find that I get so much energy from my kiddos.  I teach language - Japanese at a high school - and it is a particular joy to help American teenagers develop a little tact.  One can't handle Japanese without it, after all.  8^)

Keep inspiring!

Rushton 

Posted: 2 years ago

John Keats saw learning as "the darkening chamber of maiden thought," that is, a place where doors are opened but to dark chambers which become light as you enter them. Then more doors open and they too begin to light as you step into the inviting space. I see teaching as the guide into these chambers. It is up to the student to walk in and find new chambers and new lights going on, but it is the teacher who may, at times, open the doors for the student to pass through.

This is an example- an email from a recent student:

You have made an outstanding impact on my life, and I appreciate that more than anything. I never hoped to come into this class and gain as much as I did, not only about the history of art, but about myself and the world around me.  The knowledge that I will use outside of class is just as important as the factual information I learned inside the classroom. I'm also grateful that you as a teacher acknowledged my honest and sincere participation in class. I try very hard in every one of my classes, but I was so much more motivated in yours because I knew that you saw just how much I truly desired to learn and succeed."

This email was sent to me on the day of my birthday. What a gift for a teacher. Better than the polished apple! It is why I teach the young.

Posted: 2 years ago

Thanks Joe, While I've found that you can teach an old dog new tricks, it is the young we must teach.

Jack  Selway, Founder, Rotary Global History, Pueblo, CO, USA

Posted: 2 years ago

They teach me more each day, then I am able to teach them.  Their questions have so much directions, and grasping of what they are seeking, that I end up with the REAL questions.  Who are the people really learning? Young minds from very little to students at university are challenging the world.  That is whey we grow!

Carol Anderson

Posted: 2 years ago

The people really learning are those with "open minds" who allow ideas, images and feelings to enter and roam around for a time. That is not to say that those ideas stay a lifetime (because if the mind is really open then other ideas, etc. comes in and the mind expands.) We are not just cabinets for storage in the 21st century (although some storage is necessary.) We are sorting arenas where the collage of modern living is fitted and refitted until it makes a pattern that seems to work for that one special individual. Then we try it in the real world against hard facts and situations. These "open minded" individuals have no age. It is just that the young are somewhat clean slates where the world writes. The creative teacher does not etch his ideas upon that slate but helps to clarify the chaos of ideas that gather there.

As the song goes, "Careful on what you say, children will listen. Careful of what you wish, wishes come true." When we teach the young, we can have a point of view but it must be balanced with other points of view so that "when children listen" they hear the answer to: "Is it this way or that?" with the answer, "Yes!" Basically you are saying as the teacher, "You have learned to ask the right question. It is up to you to find the answer for yourself. The teacher's job is to narrow the choices, not give you the dogma of answers. When you know all that I can give you, then you are the teacher of yourself."

Yes, Carol, we as teachers learn as we teach. Without filling the tank with the fuel of incoming ideas (from students, actions, books, stories, etc.) there can be no growth in teaching the young (the teacher's job becomes static and flat.) We must remember what Freud said about the adult: he or she is the culmination of rings of age and experience around the inner child. All of us can be children again by tapping into that inner core. The teacher of the young must reinvent him or her self from time to time. The teacher must learn to teach as the action of teaching takes place- it is a dynamic partnership and sharing of learning. The roles at times reverse if the chosen teacher is open to the student and visa versa.

Joe 

Posted: 2 years ago

One more point and I will go to bed: It is interesting to me that Rushton teaches Japanese in a high school. It took me a long time with my island students at the University of Guam to see how the study of Japanese conditioned these young people in their thinking patterns. Japanese is a "Subject-Object-Verb" language and culture, whereas English is "Subject-Verb-Object" orientation to the world. We in the West are much better at jumping to the end of something and then quickly making an action (a decision.) Change is slower in an island culture where any action can change the whole culture on that island. Therefore you get the subject and the object together in your being, as a Japanese trained islander, and then make an action. It is true in judo, flower arrangement, folding paper, etc. It is true in language. To understand the structure of Japanese is to begin to understand the actions of the citizens of that culture. We can learn from learning something about the language that is spoken and written. Therefore I believe that James Joyce was correct, "The East will shake the West awake." We have much to learn about the East.

Joe

Posted: 2 years ago

Dear Joe and all,

One huge benefit of online communication is that those who engage in it have the chance to fashion what they say before it is actually said.  The quality of a discussion like this one, in which someone like Joe has the chance to convey not just information, but also powerful feeling, gives us all more of an opportunity to peer into another's heart and share our own hopes and insights with those who also care about the beauty and improvement of the world.

One huge benefit of teaching is that we who devote ourselves to it have the opportunity to spend real time getting to know students and maybe, if the stars align, share a perspective or question that gives a student the chance to hope for something greater than the self-oriented flotsam we swim in daily.

I do not consider my work as a teacher any greater or lesser than that of others, but I do feel that I am profoundly blessed to be doing something that I care about and that is never, ever boring!  In that I so often have the chance to trade thoughts with young people, I even believe that I am constantly learning what any organization, including Rotary, needs to know in order to best serve our communities near and far for years to come.

A couple of times a year I set aside our 'normal' content in order to let the students ask any question on their minds.  They write their questions on index cards (without their names), they are collected and given to me, and I then read each question and give my best answer.  My feeling here is that too many of these kids have things that weigh on their hearts without someone they can go to and just say, "I've really been thinking a lot about (insert almost anything here).  What should I do?"  I let them know that I don't know if my answers will be helpful, but that I can promise I'll try my best.

Some of the questions are ones you'd expect.  "There's this girl I like, but I don't know how to tell her."  "My parents want me to become a lawyer, but it's not what I want.  How do I tell them?"  "Should I go to the prom?"

Fairly regularly, though, one will flatten me with its insight, pain, or hope.  My favorite was one that a student wrote almost ten years ago: "What is the role of humility in a strong person's life?"  It's a question that still makes me think about the world we live in and the people I interact with.

I see Rotary as a group that celebrates a particularly powerful brand of humility in its emphasis on service.  When do I serve others well?  When I'm inspired to act.  When am I inspired to act?  When someone gives me something powerful to think about.  When does that happen best?  When someone engages in a conversation where powerful thoughts are fashioned and shared.  As in this forum.

I hope this post isn't too much, in its length or in its stream of consciousness.  8^)  Thanks to all of you in RECSWUSA for creating an environment where one has the chance to put something like this out there for others!

Rushton

Rushton Hurley

Rotary Club of Santa Clara (California, USA)

Posted: 2 years ago

No, Rushton, it was not too much. It did reveal much about your passion for teaching. I found it most enlightening.

The last few days I have spent time with my grandchildren, soccer practice and playing school with Erin, age 8, the teacher, and Matthew (her brother age 4) and myself as students. I play the most stupid student that I ever had in 45 year career as an educator. It paid off yesterday.

Erin gave me a poetry book called "Poetry Rocks," created, written and illustrated by Mrs. Garcia's class at Coulson Tough Elementary School. As the publisher wrote at the end, "This project was a collaborative effort by your child's classmates and your child's teacher. The students learned a great deal about the publishing process while they improved their vocabulary and writing skills. Plus, being a young published author gives a sense of pride and accomplishment." The publisher is out of Topeka, Kansas (Nationwide Learning Inc.) Erin had two illustrations (the one at the end of the book was an imaginative, color-filled one that said, "Poetry is out of this world." Then it had stars marked, "Love," "Laugh," "Live," and "Dream." Of course, she presented me the book because she had written and illustrated a work about me, called "Grandpa Joe." Here is her writing:

Funny, weird, kind and playful

Dad of Sam (my mom)

Cares about chocolate and me

Who feels silly

Who needs a rest

Who gives donuts to me

Who fears poison ivy

Who would like to see a famous artist

Resident of Kingwood

Just think, I now have an eight-year old published author as a grand daughter. The school is special for making this possible for a third-grade class of diverse children. Interesting what can be done if you give children a chance, work with them and believe in them. Mrs. Garcia is special too that way.

Joe

Posted: 2 years ago

What Joe has written about his granddaughter brings back memories! Like Rushton and Joe, I was in the teaching profession for many years, starting my teaching career teaching in the public schools 3 or 4 years, and ending my career as a university professor and administrator.   After 44 years of teaching, I retired in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.  I guess as I look back, two wonderful teachers inspired me to take up the profession.  I had a first grade teacher that, like Ms Garcia, inspired me to get involved in literature by allowing us to explore the world around us through simple, basic poetry.  Then, in high school I had a wonderful senior English teacher who brought literary characters to life, and taught us that literature should be a part of our lives.  She engendered in me a deep appreciation for our literary past as well a deep desire to explore new worlds through literature.  This led me to explore the possibility of dedicating my life to trying to inspire younger generations in the same way that I had been inspired.  There is absolutely nothing more rewarding than reaching out to young people and seeing the effect that your teaching has in their developing minds as well as in their lives as a whole.  I offer my deep respect and admiration for Joe and Rushton for being the ideal master teachers whose love and devotion for what they teach is perfectly evident.  I only wish that I could be a student again and be a participant in one of their classes.