Leadership
and Humility
Teaching
Experience:
Lita
Blanchard currently works as school social worker at Winthrop High School. She
has been a social worker for over twenty years. In addition she has taught a
variety of subjects in adult education and special education programs K-12.
Jay Franzel currently works as a special education teacher at Winthrop High
School. He has been teaching at-risk students for eighteen years, grades 6-12
in several alternative and special education programs. In addition he has
taught Freshman Composition as a graduate student at SUNYB and Jewish studies
at several synagogue Hebrew School programs.
Over
the years, we see more and more children who lack good role models. We
are not merely speaking about families where a parent who is abusing
substances, is violent or otherwise abusive. There is a spectrum of poor
role modeling that includes more innocuous cases of inconsistent and or overly
controlling or passive adults as well. Wherever on the spectrum this
lack falls, it creates a serious void in a child’s life. As teachers,
we are called upon to fill this void, an insurmountable task. This is
not to say that there are no exceptions to this rule, rather it is important
to be realistic about what we can do change this very serious and growing
problem. It is very easy for teachers to overreact to this problem at
either extreme: that is by attempting to overreach oneself attempting to fill
a gap one cannot fill, or on the other hand, by becoming cynical, apathetic or
sarcastic in the face of such relentless need. We have been told that “it
takes a village to raise a child”, but the truth is that providing the
“village” for our kids is an impossible task for teachers. As we try
to effect positive changes in youth, we must understand that family
inadequacies, economic restraints, social deterioration and teachers’ own
limitations all come into play in our schools. We need to keep these
forces in perspective as we do battle with them.
In general, a major part of an adolescent’s job is to push limits and
question authority. This stage of development not only assists a teen in his
or her quest for autonomy and independence; it also serves to help our youth
in becoming free and creative thinkers. However, we often view this
acting out behavior as purely pathological and so we do not allow our teens
the freedom to move through this vital stage of development. This is not
to say that when an adolescent misbehaves we should not assign reasonable
consequences, but rather that we must be careful not to oppress them as they
work toward adulthood. We need to be cognizant of our role as models for
our youth and in doing so be careful not to overreact by holding it against
them for exhibiting normal behaviors, which frankly many of us exhibited when
we ourselves were teens. It is helpful, actually imperative, to not view
adolescents as having something wrong with them when they are actually right
on schedule. (It may not be our schedule but it is, and certainly should be,
theirs.) Teens venture through adolescence with thinking processes
that are relative to them, not us. The teen brain is not yet fully
developed and so they are sometimes incapable of portraying the thought
patterns which adults possess and too often expect of them. As helping
adults, we often have expectations of teens that they are not ready to
deliver. And while is true that teens often make mistakes, it is very
important that we don’t hold these failures against them. After all, they
are struggling to find their way down the path to adulthood, not an easy
endeavor for any of us.
The spiral of disappearing positive role models and the negative behaviors-
apathy, violence, rudeness, dishonesty, etc.- that this engenders in our youth
is resonating throughout our society. We hear about the need for higher
standards, harsher penalties, and more accountability. We hear a great
deal about which people and what forces are to blame. We find many
adults wanting to hold more accountable than what we actually model for them.
If we want to be successful mentors, we must avoid this kind of dishonesty by
role modeling the behaviors we expect from our youth. There is a growing
sense that we need to “clamp down” harder when that may be
counter-productive. As Edward Deci, describing the results of years of
research and experiment writes: “It is forever being said that people need
to be controlled more, that they need to be told what to do and held
accountable for doing it. But nothing in these experiments has given
credence to that view as the typical condition of life. Of course, limit
setting is important, but an over-emphasis on control and discipline seems to
be off the mark. It represents a demeaning depiction of human
experience, and it’s primary function may just be to provide certain people
with an easy rationalization for exerting power over others” (Why We Do
What We Do, p. 34).
The notion of “clamping down” comes at a time when our society probably
will not win any medals for its ethics in general. Although there are
certainly many positive and productive elements at work in our culture, it is
also a time of much strife. The family structure has changed drastically
in the last 50 years or so, not always in a healthy way for our youth.
The divorce rate is very high, many struggle with economic problems, and the
level of violence continues to grow daily. In many ways we offer our
youth an angry and stressed society. The point here is not to highlight
the negatives of our culture, but rather to understand what our youth must
cope with every day in addition to the challenging job of growing physically,
mentally and emotionally through adolescence. We cannot assist in this
process if we don’t understand where teens are in their respective
development.
So what do we do? First, we must honestly role model that which we
expect from our youth. If we fail to do this, then we, as teachers, have
failed at a very elementary though crucial task. For instance, if we
want our youth to be able to accept criticism, we must accept it first.
We need to avoid hostile as well as passive-aggressive stances when our teens
challenge us. We need to present ourselves in a quietly assertive and
not antagonistic manner. Beyond that, we must listen to kids actively,
not passively when they are interacting with us. That means making and
maintaining eye contact, thinking about what they are saying rather than
planning our next sentence and allowing them the space to complete their
thoughts before we interject. It is not always easy to do this but if we
expect kids to listen, so must we.
It is our experience that students will often listen to one another before
they listen to adults. One thing teachers can do to capitalize on this
is to either support or develop an active peer helper or mediation program in
their school. In our school, counselors screen and train interested
students to work with other teens in conflict situations. These peer
mediators sit down with the students and guide them through the resolution
process by first identifying the problem and then finding mutually agreeable
solutions. Once they reach an agreement, all those involved sign a
contract outlining future actions. This process empowers students to
actualize many of the behaviors discussed above, on their own. Our
students dealt with more conflict resolutions than any other school in our
state and very few of those escalated after the completion of the process.
This highlights the importance of teachers providing ethical leadership while
modeling faith in the students’ ability to be autonomous and positive at the
same time.
As educators, we have learned to speak the right language to our youth.
We preach the importance of respect, responsibility and ethics. In the
next breath, however, we may say something out of anger and then not
apologize. We don’t always take responsibility for our own actions
while we hold them accountable for theirs. We must maintain
self-awareness so that we do not manipulate our youth by saying one thing and
doing another. If we act hypocritically, kids learn to mistrust adults
and therefore become cynical, hypocritical or caustic themselves. These
are not the lessons we have been charged to teach them.
It is a constant balancing act for teachers to teach while they are so often
called upon to parent, to discipline while remaining nurturing and to be
objective in a subjective world. We need to model critical along with
conforming stances to society. After all, we want our students to think
independently and act ethically, especially when they are surrounded by
influences that urge them to do otherwise. An overly conformist,
non-critical posture allows for the excesses seen in such regimes as Nazi
Germany. We want students to be creative and individual but, on the
other hand, we must promote public service and the value of conforming as well
so that our students will not find themselves closed out of jobs, community
roles and a productive place in society. Along with maintaining our own sense
ethical awareness, we should promote structures and activities, whether formal
or informal, that will expose students to healthy role models and
opportunities for constructive actions within the community. Two years ago, we
invited a service learning coordinator to speak at one of our staff meetings.
This helped lead to our school’s procuring a grant to help institute a
program last year.
The rapid growth of global technology, for instance the internet, media and
corporate influence, makes ethical behavior more urgent than ever before.
Individual decisions, such as we have witnessed in Chernobyl and Enron, may
now affect millions of people. Earlier in this essay, we talked about
the impossibility of teachers completely filling the void that a lack of
positive role models leaves in many kids today. This is not to
understate the impact and abilities of teachers, but rather to acknowledge the
magnitude of the problem. If we look back at some of the world’s most
ethical and productive activists such as Gandhi, King and Mother Theresa,
however, we see the influence that individuals who role-modeled that which
they expected had upon our world. To us, this implies that we teachers,
collectively, can make a huge difference in the lives of children. In
order to accomplish this goal, we must blend leadership with humility.
Questions
Regarding the Required Reading
1. I
find the young boy with the telescope quite unusual in the coherence and
consistency with which he addressed both concrete things (stars for instance)
and the abstract/symbolic workings they might seem to represent. I have rarely
encountered students able to move so easily and spontaneously between such
varied fields (astronomy, current events, theology) all the while returning to
a consistent theme, in this case global ethics. While I have encountered
students with similar reasoning abilities, I find myself returning to this
boy’s age and apparent spontaneous presentation, along with his continuously
viewing his subject through the lens of the cosmic impact of ethics in our own
lives.
2. I
have often observed young children engaged in some level of ethical
introspection. Much of the “teachings” that adults consciously strive to
deliver are concerned with “good and bad” alternatives that children are
often trying to process. In addition, children are trying to sort out the
various behaviors of both peers and adults that they observe, often through
the prism of “good and bad.” They do not take this issue for granted, as
adults often will. I agree strongly when Coles points out the relevance here
of many stories we read or tell our children as well. The Bible, Robin Hood,
and various myths and fables form a conceptual framework of ethical concern
that my daughter, for instance, continues to engage as she moves toward middle
school, one that I continue to engage as my hair continues to thin and go
gray.
3. I
strongly agree that morality can be taught in all kinds of classes (though I
prefer to say that morality can be “discussed” or “engaged” rather
than “taught.”) As an Alternative and Special Education teacher, I have
taught a wide variety of subjects in which ethics often surface in our
discussions. In Health class, for instance, I structure the class around what
I call the Five Gates: Emotional, Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and
Interpersonal. The last two, especially, often bring up ethical issues, along
with the most authentic participation from students. Examining literature of
the Holocaust or Civil Rights Movement often leads to widespread discussion of
prejudice and the morality of our own behaviors. In writing class, I sometimes
have students write about ethical dilemmas wherein there may be no clear-cut
moral choice. For instance, we may take a scenario wherein you have witnessed
a peer break a school window and you are questioned about it. You are torn
between the ethical value of honesty about what you know versus loyalty to
your peer. Which becomes primary? I will ask students to generate their own
moral dilemmas to discuss or write about. This often leads to deeper student
participation, often around the ethics of friendship and relationships.
History is rife with events that seem to cry out for moral examination: the
African slave trade, treatment of Native Americans etc. Similarly, Ecology
often leads to moral issues around industrialized society and the environment.
I try to bring these subjects into the students’ own backyards as much as
possible: Moral discussion is often my agenda but I do not force my viewpoint
upon students or demand ethical statements that they are not inclined to give.
4. Please
see #7, below.
5. Rather
than try to define courage, I will say that courage often involves the
willingness to
act on behalf of what one thinks is ethical in the face of clear risk or
potential loss. I have a
student who has an interest
in and aptitude for caring for the elderly. He actually was harassed,
to some degree, for pursuing this work, by
some peers, by his father (a heavy equipment
operator) and, especially, by his older brother
(a marine). He did not let this stop him from
continuing the work and, later, earning his CNA certificate. I think
this took both courage and
perseverance.
6. The
discussion on courage that took place in a fourth grade class period is
extremely impressive. I was particularly moved by the second student’s
comments: “I see them being afraid that they made a mistake … they
didn’t know what to expect, and they were out there on the ocean…” Wow,
that fourth grader seemed to go right to the heart of an event obscured by
time and the mists of romanticized versions of history. I thought the truly
profound discussion that followed swung on the hinge of that student’s
insights: The class (and those of us reading along) was transported into the
event at hand and therefore able to put themselves into the existential
(rather than literal/historical) situation at hand, bringing their own beliefs
to bear upon it. In thinking of a time when my class engaged in a spontaneous
moral analysis, I find myself thinking of a discussion of Solzhenitsyn’s A
Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Somehow,
in discussing conditions in the Gulag, students began talking about whom,
among themselves or their acquaintances, would best be able to survive in such
a world. This led to a probing analysis of the ethics between the prisoners
themselves, and, when survival is at stake, what compromises we might be
tempted to make with our own sets of ethical beliefs.
7. A
good person here is one who sees ethical behavior as an ongoing struggle,
requiring constant self-examination. This requires the humility and
self-awareness needed to examine one’s own moral uncertainties, dilemmas and
shortcomings. Since we are all subject to temptations that lead us to act
unethically at times, and to rationalize such actions afterwards, moral
awareness as opposed to moral certainty is stressed. This ties into the
“moral witnessing” described in the boy’s reaction to A Bronx Tale.
The boy “had figured out how continually we are challenged morally.”
8. In
these cases, the teacher should intervene, but exactly how depends upon the
students, setting and behaviors involved. The teacher should intervene in a
way that truly helps rather than exacerbates the situation. We have both a
short term and long term goal at stake: In the short term, we want to stop the
disruption. In the long term, we want to foster a sense of values among our
students that works against this sort of destructive behavior, one that
promotes the “Golden Rule” among ourselves and our students.
9. In
promoting student responsibility through interactions within the community I
don’t think the Foundation is giving teens too much credit. Brownlee notes
that “the brain’s capacity for growth through adolescence may also
indicate that even troubled teenagers can still learn restraint, judgment and
empathy.” Structures that provide teens with opportunities for responsible
autonomy, good role models, and constructive activities (so long as they do
not set teens up to fail) promote the growth that Brownlee alludes to.
10. At
present, I am not familiar with the Foundation’s pilot projects. Based upon
the nature of the readings and essay question, however, I would certainly be
interested in learning more about such projects and consider participating in
one.