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?
