As a teacher, I always feel like I can't possibly teach all of the things I want to teach in a course. When I don't teach certain things, there's this nagging fear that students are missing out on potential or even, necessary learning.
I've written and spoken at length about the need for shifting learning to the control and responsibility of the learner. For a teacher, this means letting go. When a student designs their own inquiry project, inevitably I can identify many things that were "missed." This focus on what could have or should have been accomplished creates an uncomfortable tension: it's this big Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).
What if this fear is misplaced though? In the context of adding something to another's life, of developing a young person's sense of self and possibility, what matters (most)?
When you look deep into the eyes of another human, of a student, what do you see? We know that relationships are at the core of effective teaching and learning, and yet I don't think we spend enough time looking at what this "relationship" means. What if we should be fearing that we're missing out on speaking our own truths and seeking them out in others?
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Relationship requires a meeting of beings. It's who I am with who the other is. We become more fully who we are in relationship with each other. We come into our identity through interactions with others.
As a midwife, Elisabeth Lesser says she "caught a glimpse of that worthiness, that sense of unapologetic selfhood, that unique spark" that she calls "soul" when she looked into the eyes of a newborn. As adults, she says we develop ADD, authenticity deficit disorder.
In her TED talk, she identifies three lessons learned from midwifery, I think also apply to teaching. "One: uncover your soul. Two: when things get difficult or painful, try to stay open. And three: every now and then, step off your hamster wheel into deep time."
What might that look like?
Chen Miller, a school teacher in Israel demonstrates what it means to see and embrace the soul of a child:
And then there's the wisdom of Fred Rogers, the decades long host of the children's show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away."
How do we put our personal authenticity ahead of acting out the traditional construct of "teacher"? (Pause for a moment and think about the process and context for something you learned recently. Did it look anything like the way learning is typically constructed at school? Should they be so different?)
When I talk to some teachers about empowering students to follow their own interests for learning, a common concern is "the curriculum." How will the curriculum "get covered"? How did you match what the students learned with an existing curriculum? Ah, the FOMO.
Now, I certainly value knowledge. Knowledge is created when one gathers and makes sense of information and makes connections to previous knowledge and experiences and develops questions for further inquiry. There is something bigger we are missing first.
What we too often miss out on is the "soul," the "who," the Identity of the unique individuals in our midst. This requires the engagement of our hearts, our emotions. If we should fear missing out on anything with our students, it's that we weren't truthful with them, that we didn't show up with our full selves, that we didn't see the core goodness, the potential and possibility in each student, and work to grow it in them.
Fred Rogers showed how to give an expression of care to each child, ending his show by saying, "You've made this day a special day by just being you. There's no person in the whole world like you. And I like you just the way you are."
If you have FOMO it should be the Fear Of Missing Others.
Who did you SEE today?
I've written and spoken at length about the need for shifting learning to the control and responsibility of the learner. For a teacher, this means letting go. When a student designs their own inquiry project, inevitably I can identify many things that were "missed." This focus on what could have or should have been accomplished creates an uncomfortable tension: it's this big Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).
What if this fear is misplaced though? In the context of adding something to another's life, of developing a young person's sense of self and possibility, what matters (most)?
When you look deep into the eyes of another human, of a student, what do you see? We know that relationships are at the core of effective teaching and learning, and yet I don't think we spend enough time looking at what this "relationship" means. What if we should be fearing that we're missing out on speaking our own truths and seeking them out in others?
Relationship requires a meeting of beings. It's who I am with who the other is. We become more fully who we are in relationship with each other. We come into our identity through interactions with others.
As a midwife, Elisabeth Lesser says she "caught a glimpse of that worthiness, that sense of unapologetic selfhood, that unique spark" that she calls "soul" when she looked into the eyes of a newborn. As adults, she says we develop ADD, authenticity deficit disorder.
In her TED talk, she identifies three lessons learned from midwifery, I think also apply to teaching. "One: uncover your soul. Two: when things get difficult or painful, try to stay open. And three: every now and then, step off your hamster wheel into deep time."
What might that look like?
Chen Miller, a school teacher in Israel demonstrates what it means to see and embrace the soul of a child:
Teachers, headmasters, educators, your thoughts and words that you use about a child will at some stage become the thoughts and words that the child thinks about himself.Here is her story.
And then there's the wisdom of Fred Rogers, the decades long host of the children's show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away."
How do we put our personal authenticity ahead of acting out the traditional construct of "teacher"? (Pause for a moment and think about the process and context for something you learned recently. Did it look anything like the way learning is typically constructed at school? Should they be so different?)
When I talk to some teachers about empowering students to follow their own interests for learning, a common concern is "the curriculum." How will the curriculum "get covered"? How did you match what the students learned with an existing curriculum? Ah, the FOMO.
Now, I certainly value knowledge. Knowledge is created when one gathers and makes sense of information and makes connections to previous knowledge and experiences and develops questions for further inquiry. There is something bigger we are missing first.
What we too often miss out on is the "soul," the "who," the Identity of the unique individuals in our midst. This requires the engagement of our hearts, our emotions. If we should fear missing out on anything with our students, it's that we weren't truthful with them, that we didn't show up with our full selves, that we didn't see the core goodness, the potential and possibility in each student, and work to grow it in them.
Fred Rogers showed how to give an expression of care to each child, ending his show by saying, "You've made this day a special day by just being you. There's no person in the whole world like you. And I like you just the way you are."
If you have FOMO it should be the Fear Of Missing Others.
Who did you SEE today?