Monday, July 6, 2009

Something That Matters.



I found this written at a wall on the campus of Louisiana Tech. I suspect it was written by a student, not one of the professors (although I might be wrong). Why would someone feel the need to write this graffiti on the wall? What is holding them back?

On Saturday I was on Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma. I saw over one hundred houses that had a market value of a million dollars or more. Is the drive for money the reason that keeps students from doing something that matters? If so, how do we convince students to follow their hearts, not their checkbooks?

2 comments:

John Hadley Strange said...

My comment here also never made it in print. I have found that when I use Firefox on a Mac, and have not already signed into my Google account, the comment never gets posted. So I am training myself to comment only using Safari. Safari forces me to sign in and does not lose the message in the interim.

All of the above is unrelated to my comment.

I am not sure we can "convince" students. Perhaps a kids version of Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk would help. Or a directed discussion after watching it.

But the most effective approach is probably to model that behavior, and the behavior of sharing. Mr. Chamberlain's support of the school in Africa, Mr. Lamshed's haircuts for cancer, Mr. Lamshed's ties for cancer research. (And is haircutting coming to Missouri as well?) So do the debates such as the one of "Which would be worse to be a kid... Was that Jenny's? I have forgotten.

A good question. Let's keep on trying to address it!

Jane Hake said...

I'm having similar problems posting comments- so here I will try again with Firefox instead of IE and see how it goes.

I agree with John, that Mr. Chamberlain sets a great example through modeling.

I see the grafitti as a cry for help. We have students who want to make a difference in the world, but do not realize they have the potential to do so. I think of MLK ..."Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve."

Our students need to know that they can use every and any skill they posess to make the world better. Do you smell a post on service learning coming?