Learning From the Best

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only thing.”—Albert  Schweitzer

You know what’s wrong with the world today?  People always talk about what’s wrong with the world today.  It’s an easy cruise to board and the smorgasbord of complaints is seductive.  But the rudder keeps you going in circles and you never dock anywhere. 

High school teachers, like their high school students, are quick to join in on complaining about work load, their higher ups and about their peers.  It’s all very high school. I admit I’m not immune to it.  I’m still not past my complaining addiction.  Like our students, I believe I have plenty to complain about.  So let me just take a few moments to act as the cruise line spokesperson and voice a few of these gripes.

CPS (Chicago Public Schools) is a broken system.  We house broken students who come from broken families, and yeah, many broken teachers and administrators.  Doing the same thing harder, like adding forty-five minutes to the school day will not fix that mix. Just this week a student stood in the hall cursing out a teacher.  After leaving school he tried to come back in but refused to be searched.  He was arrested and taken away in a paddy wagon, and only then did the police discover a loaded forty-five in his backpack.  Was that the additional forty-five they’re talking about?   

We are told that relationship is key to effective teaching, yet we are spread so thin.  Many teachers, including me, have more students in classrooms than is legal.  We are asked to take on so many extras that there is limited time to spend with kids inside and outside of class for extra help or mentoring.

Accountability is depersonalized and put on paper.  In a field that is all about relationship, art and passion, we are sorely sidetracked by the required transparency to the masses.  So big!  Yet in my seven and a half years in the same school, I’ve been observed by administration twice and only once has a parent been in my classroom.

Teachers too often live by the “Do as I say, not as I do” rule. Like students, they don’t always listen.  In meetings they work on their Ipads knowing that the speaker will assume they are taking notes or pulling up the document on display.  In a town hall meeting last week for our assigned group of two hundred kids, teachers who should have been asking students to listen to the speaker were instead talking themselves or working on their laptops.  

Do you see how I’ve been circling?  Are you ready to jump ship yet?  Well, I’m ready to put down my megaphone.  Now where’s my lifeboat? 

Oh, here it comes: Every Monday after school I get rescued by the Peace Club.  This group of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors are firmly docked in ideas and action.  Once a week I get to join these friendly, kind, gentle, creative kids who want to do good things.  They decide what they care about and set a plan to make a small contribution in a positive direction.  They don’t complain.  They don’t overthink a problem.  They just design and sell t-shirts to raise money for our sister school in Tanzania.  They want peace for animals so they order posters announcing rewards for reporting dog fighting.  They want people to be more polite in school so they make posters of polite words.  They want peace in their neighborhood so they are organizing a peace rally and activities for a week of peace at school.  They are innocents contributing to peace through their art, their relationships and their passions.  And they are some of the best teachers at our school. 

My teachers in the Peace Club remind me, by example, that time spent on what I can do, no matter how small a contribution, is more effective than complaining and focusing on the huge broken mix.  I, too, can strive to be an example of a kind, gentle and positive human being.  I can strive to have faith that my small contributions can have some influence in the world and I can let go of the outcome.  I can strive to surround myself with the positive teachers instead of gorging on the seductive array of complaints that are real.  Better to feed the positive spirit in me.

I like to feed the positive spirit in the students, too.  I think today I’ll make peanut butter cookies to take to my life boat tomorrow.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1c. peanut butter

1 c. butter softened

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

2 eggs

2 t. baking soda

2 ½ c. unbleached white flour

I’m going to let the peanut butter and butter sit out to warm up, that way creaming them together will be smooth sailing.  Then I’ll stir in brown sugar, then the white.  I’ll add one egg at a time, beat it up a little and stir after each one.  I’ll drop baking soda into the flour and add ½ of this mix to the wet ingredients so stirring is easier.  Then I’ll add the rest.  I’ll bet some of the Peace Club members like chocolate so I’ll dollop one batch without chips and the other with chips onto an ungreased cookie tray, flatten with a fork and cook at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. 

See how I lead by example rather than telling you what to do?  Thanks for attending Cookies 101.

Peace Out!