The topic of fear among our students is very intriguing. Our instincts are to protect them from fear, to always make them feel safe and nurtured. In a literal sense, yes, we should do everything within our power to keep our students safe from harm, whether it manifests itself as a third party, or stems from what we're directly doing in our classrooms.
Here's where things get interesting: how do we address what students fear?
"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." - Franklin Delano Rooselvelt, 32nd President of the United States
When faced with a difficult research task or concept, I tell my students that in order to become fearless, they need to fear less. What frightens students, and most people, I'd imagine, is failure. I know that's true for me. For students, this often comes as a result of receiving failing grades, a polarizing phenomena best left explored in a different post.
However, I always reassure my students that because I don't grade them when I co-teach a class, they have no reason to fear failure. Instead, they only need to be afraid of fear itself, because that is their only obstacle in achieving success. We all know that "success" takes different forms for individual students, so being able to overcome this fear and harness that strength to become fearless are the first steps needed for us to teach and live our mission in my library: to create competent, confident and independent users of information and technology.
To some degree, I believe that fear is a good thing. It teaches us humility and can keep us grounded when faced with adversity, affording us an opportunity to make decisions, make mistakes, and learn.
How do you address what students fear?
When thinking about "fear of failure," I always come back to this quote:
ReplyDeleteOur deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine. We were born to make manifest the glory that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Above edited quote from Marianne Williamson
http://goo.gl/12xq0e
Thanks for the comment, Paul! I hear you, and am all for idealism in education, as it combats negativity. I definitely get hung up on the "removing kids baggage" part. Maybe it's me, or the inconsistent role of "librarian" I play in kids lives, but I just don't see this panning out in the "fly by" classes I co-teach 2-3 days at a time, 2-3 times a year. In the scenario described above, I also worry about egocentric and self-involved kids, because I see how destructive that is in my upper-class, suburban school everyday. It makes me identify with the humble, blue-collar ethic in many of our kids who are hard-working, but don't demand a spotlight for shallow endeavors. Maybe just a rant, and not entirely an argument, but there's some point I'm trying to get at here :)
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