On this dark, rainy Saturday morning and after a good cup of coffee and having gone through my global array of news, I am more focused on the events of this ending of the first two weeks of my semester. As my wife and I were concluding our morning time with God, my mind begin to whirl as some of the events in just this two weeks which, frankly, formulate a spectrum of some really great high points and some really terrible low realities. So this morning will be about reflection but really in reflecting, I will drill into some projection. So the Spectrum of Reflection will hopefully yield a Challenge of Projection.
This week we have witnessed in a political party platform deliver a distinct and very public disgruntlement on the absence of the person of "God" intentionally excluded from the platform. This week, yesterday, a young student of mine was shocked into a horrific reality that his mother had been killed apparently by a drunk driver in a head on collision. This week the world has yet again witnessed the infamous boy from Arkansas dazzle the cameras in the form of Clinton. Who would have imagined someone so rightly trashed while a sitting POTUS would rise to the global status of the Savior of the Party? Only in America, right? This week I have been absolutely thrilled to see the caliber of some really great students as they embrace the work of my teaching methodology, getting their teams organized and beginning to manage the resources of the teams they have been charged to lead. This week I have been awed by what I consider an inordinate number of students dropping classes when, in my opinion and in the opinion of their peers, are of an age and generation that at the first scent of actually having to work and engage, they will simply walk away or cut and run. See what I mean by the Spectrum for many highs and lows in just two weeks and knowing many more are yet to come.
Those that may not know me well or even at all that are reading this cannot know my heart and passion about what I get to do. See, for me, teaching is two interconnected realities; it is first a God-granted ministry that I get to be this close to so many lives many of which are injured in many ways, wounded and hurt and that, even in the heavy lifting of the educational process I use, find a way to get closer to the point of pain in my students. Secondly, this work, this ministry of teaching, is bounded not by a semester but by a lifetime projection. I know that the process, the interface, the heavy lifting is formulating our future thus this work is going to touch the lives of these people but also their spouses, parents and yet unborn children. That reality thrills me but challenges me to be and do my very best at all times either face-to-face, via email, text, a look, a handshake, a pat on the back, a harsh critique; whatever means required to get to the best of each student.
The matter of the inordinate number of students dropping courses or enrolling and then never showing up is very troubling for me for I simply do not understand. I must but reflect on the world when I was their age which was a world of high inflation, a terrible war in Vietnam, a military conscription system that was too many times unfairly executed, a drug culture that turned to a societal cancer we are still reeling from today; that was the world when I was in my late teen years. Today, there is no conscription, which I vehemently disagree with. We are paying young people to fight our wars and protect our shores in a all-volunteer concept. I strongly believe that if you are going to live in this great nation, there should be a price to pay for that gift. But I find more and more a sense of pure entitlement mentality abounding in far too many students. This issue is now multi-generational so as one of my students stated yesterday, if a kid never sees his parents work, have to stive for anything with the government giving it all to them, then why should the student strive for something better; how truly sad!
Shirking of responsibility to the class, to the team or to themselves is far too rampant. I attack that with all I have when I see evidence of that for those that take on that banner are what I call the "20% Club" and they are the ones that impede, slow and frustrate the progress of the 80% Champions. But the projected reality is that if these young folks will shirk, cut and run, avoid today, you can know they will replicate that behavior when they seek to find employment, raise families, be adults. It really is very predictable and that is very sad to me but so true.
I could go on and on but let me move to Projection. I am still greatly impressed with this generation of young folks. I may not personally care for the array of tattoos which scar their bodies and I know that in a few years when gravity kicks in they will regret having done that but that is really not a big deal for me. I did have to smile yesterday as I was observing a many-tattooed student asking questions about some of them, great young man by the way, and he sincerely said, "well Professor Williams, they are all religious .." ... I did have to bite my lip not to laugh out loud on that revelation.
The reality is that the 80%ers will rise up to carry the load of the world and the 20%ers will be the anchors and issues of our tomorrows; Pareto was so right on his theory!
So my Projection for the future; I hope I live long enough to get to see these 80%ers rise to the positions they rightly deserve to control, lead, direct, drive, CHANGE their world for their value systems are strong and growing as they prepare for the journey. Yes, I am encouraged!
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