So you know in January I did the Daniel Fast. I came out of it with new healthy habits and a renewed inspiration for my job. In fact, I was inspired to cause a revolution. Well how's that going?- one may ask.
Let me start with the good news- My fast-related health habits have stuck with me, just as I had hoped- During the week (green smoothies, Cliff bar nuts seeds/, salad and a sensible dinner) I keep this up most days but not all. I generally splurge on weekends. Using the principles, I've learned through Sacred and Fit, I am now at my goal weight and find it fairly easy to maintain. I don't feel like I'm on a diet. I don't feel deprived at all. In fact I feel more energetic. Most importantly, the small incremental health habits that I have incorporated over the last 2 years, have spilled over to other areas...which was what led me to pray about my job.
I started out praying for my students and how to be more effective at teaching them but during the fast, something shifted. While in prayer during the last week of the fast, I heard the words "Teach what?" I understood I was to focus on something deeper than Neuroscience. I am just now finding out what that is.
When I came back from accompanying my brother at the Cancer Center in Houston, classes had been in session for almost three weeks. I had been communicating with my students over the internet, via the course website. I was regularly emailing my students and posting assignments. During the first week, I noticed the number of students who didn't even open the website (majority of the class). By the second week, a little more than half had at least checked in but most of those had not done the posted assignments. When I returned on the third week with my plan to start where the website assignments had ended, I found that the students were not at all prepared.
Well, one could think, it was because they weren't use to the online format or that the type of distance instruction didn't lend itself to the subject matter. No wait, there's more.
When I returned I heard so many complaints, so I opened up all of the assignments again during week 4 and asked students to complete them. These assignments allow students to use their notes and open book and mainly serve to make sure they are keeping up with the reading. I also allow students to take the online quizzes as many times as they want within a prescribed time period, to encourage mastery of the material. Last week (week 5) I computed grades and found that nearly one third of the class has earned under 70%. This is a class of college seniors who plan to graduate in May, 2012. My class has a departmental requirement of a C or better.
After class I asked to speak to each of the failing students,
Q: "Is there a reason for your current grade?"
A: I didn't go online because I work; I didn't go online because it is too much trouble; I didn't go online because I can't really read it from my phone; I don't have the book; I don't really care for the class; I figured I'd get to it eventually and lost track of time; My home internet sometimes goes out and I can't stay on campus because I have to get my daughter from daycare; I can't afford the book and the library (where the book is on reserve) is too loud....
In January, I thought that I was fasting to for my health and fitness, or to support my brother, but now I see the truth. THIS situation was the ultimate purpose of the fasting and prayer. How to be love in the face of this and not immediately judge and criticize? How to see my students as God sees them? How to have a servant's heart? How to start the revolution?
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Radical Teaching and Revolution: Lessons from the Fast
During the time in Houston, with my brother, I had the rare gift of "down time." Even though I would never want to have down time in a Cancer Center, it served a valuable purpose during my month of the Daniel Fast. In addition to keeping my mind focused on serving my brother, I had time to pray about my job. Don't get me wrong. I love my job. But in the grand scheme of things, I know that what I teach is just necessary for the degree. Ultimately, knowing about brain mechanisms is not valuable in the lives of my students. It won't make them better people.
Last fall, I had begun to question the entire point of higher education as I read more about the housing crisis and the highly educated people that profited from it. I read about the tactics used to entice people into buying homes that they couldn't afford. I read about re-financing schemes targeted at minority communities that had people losing homes that had been paid off. I read about these highly educated people who were only concerned with making more money for themselves and I began to question the value of an education.
My students believe that they need an education to get a "good" job. By the time they take my course, they are seniors and the class represents one of the final hurdles of college life. In the last two years, I have learned that most of my students don't want to learn to know, they want to learn in order to pass. Given this situation, I focused my fasting and prayer on how to be a better teacher. The answer came in a question of two words "Teach what?"
Perhaps, the reason my undergrads took issue with my teaching over the internet while I was in Houston was because there is something vital and necessary that can't be delivered via Skype. "Teach what?" Perhaps, I am doing more in the front of the room than describing neurons. Like, last semester, when I began every class with a breathing exercise. I needed those three minutes to orient and focus myself. Once I asked myself, what if Jesus was sitting in each of these chairs, then how would I teach them.
What if Jesus IS sitting in each of those chairs?
If I truly recognized God in each of my students then perhaps, I could convey that knowledge to them. If they knew themselves in this way perhaps they would enter life after college fully prepared to use their faith in helpful and creative ways to serve humanity.
Perhaps in the cultivation of self-discipline, that is essential and necessary for a faith-filled life, they would also place a ceiling on their desires- not ever needing to horde or borrow, eating healthfully, making wise use of time.
Perhaps in creating a life fueled by faith, service and self-control, my students would become so successful at what ever they were doing, they would ultimately realize that love is the principle thing...that education without love is destructive and dangerous.
The answer to my prayer- Teach what?
Teach students to see the God within them. Teach Truth. Teach Self-Discipline. Teach Love. Teach Peace, Teach non-Violence.
Q. What would happen if I and every one of my students became such a teacher?
A. Revolution.
Last fall, I had begun to question the entire point of higher education as I read more about the housing crisis and the highly educated people that profited from it. I read about the tactics used to entice people into buying homes that they couldn't afford. I read about re-financing schemes targeted at minority communities that had people losing homes that had been paid off. I read about these highly educated people who were only concerned with making more money for themselves and I began to question the value of an education.
My students believe that they need an education to get a "good" job. By the time they take my course, they are seniors and the class represents one of the final hurdles of college life. In the last two years, I have learned that most of my students don't want to learn to know, they want to learn in order to pass. Given this situation, I focused my fasting and prayer on how to be a better teacher. The answer came in a question of two words "Teach what?"
Perhaps, the reason my undergrads took issue with my teaching over the internet while I was in Houston was because there is something vital and necessary that can't be delivered via Skype. "Teach what?" Perhaps, I am doing more in the front of the room than describing neurons. Like, last semester, when I began every class with a breathing exercise. I needed those three minutes to orient and focus myself. Once I asked myself, what if Jesus was sitting in each of these chairs, then how would I teach them.
What if Jesus IS sitting in each of those chairs?
If I truly recognized God in each of my students then perhaps, I could convey that knowledge to them. If they knew themselves in this way perhaps they would enter life after college fully prepared to use their faith in helpful and creative ways to serve humanity.
Perhaps in the cultivation of self-discipline, that is essential and necessary for a faith-filled life, they would also place a ceiling on their desires- not ever needing to horde or borrow, eating healthfully, making wise use of time.
Perhaps in creating a life fueled by faith, service and self-control, my students would become so successful at what ever they were doing, they would ultimately realize that love is the principle thing...that education without love is destructive and dangerous.
The answer to my prayer- Teach what?
Teach students to see the God within them. Teach Truth. Teach Self-Discipline. Teach Love. Teach Peace, Teach non-Violence.
Q. What would happen if I and every one of my students became such a teacher?
A. Revolution.
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