I’ve been experiencing resistance lately. Not as a student, but as a teacher (of sorts). I’ve been trying to get a quite varied group of adults to count to twenty together. I could explain everything to them. I could give them a handout illustrating the purpose and the benefits of the exercise. I could give them all of the rules and regulations (it is a game with far more involvement than simply counting in unison). I could do those things, but that would undermine the exercise itself. That would undermine its purpose. That would, in fact, go against one of my philosophies regarding teaching. So I, instead, ask them every day if they would like to “Count to twenty.” I suffer the confused looks. I bear the burden of their scoffs and blank stares. I wait. I listen. I ask again. I wait some more. I wait longer. I persist. (This is not traditional education. There are no grades. There is no pressure.)
Fear, I believe, is what causes this rift, this resistance. They don’t “know” what it is I am asking them to do. It sounds simple enough to dismiss (count to twenty?), but then they know me well enough to “know” it is more complicated than that, more interesting, and worthwhile. But fear of the “unknown” keeps them from participating (so far), and that same “unknown” makes the exercise valuable. It’s a conundrum. A problematic conundrum. But can it be overcome? I know that it can, and will in time. For what it’s worth, students out there, the best bet is to participate in something fully during your courses. That dumb presentation or stupid topic may, in fact, be a wonderful learning experience that can’t be boiled down to bullet points without losing the impact it will inevitably make. To this day the best single assignment I’ve ever been given was to find every single joke in a play. Monotonous? Yes. Seemingly pointless? Yes. Full of impact and meaningful to what I do now? Absolutely. Sometimes the simple stuff is the most profound. Participate. Do it. Give it your all.