The longer I have navigated the classroom, the more I’ve come to embrace the old saying “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Throughout Scripture we also see that God looks at the heart—our motives and thought life—as more important than our behaviors.
I have found it helpful to reflect on the aspirational “so what” of my lecture content, my assignments, and even my moments of hard feedback or interventions. How can I frame each of these elements of my teaching and advising to be student-centered, developmental, and even “redemptive” in some way?
I Became Safe
In wrestling with this idea, I have landed on the phrase “cheerful rigor.” It is my way of synthesizing two pictures of Jesus: the one who attracted children and sinners because he was full of joy, and the one who carefully taught important truths with great earnestness.
One of the long-term benefits of a cheerful rigor approach—and of sharing this approach with my students—is that I believe I became a “safe” professor. Not a therapist, but one who would show support and solutions. This has allowed me to be in some tough and tender moments.
She Got the Tattoo Anyway
One day a student came into my office to discuss absences. Her eyes were already wet from holding back tears. She disclosed that her dad had recently passed and she had been going home often.
The twist in the story was that she wanted to show me the tattoo she had gotten to remember him. She noted that he disliked tattoos, but she got it anyway. She shared “I showed it to him so I could get to hear him yell at me one more time.” We laughed, cried, and figured out a humane path to make up the work so she would be prepared for the upcoming courses in the major.
Demonstrating love and accountability and making my “heart” clear to students is, for me, a way to represent the Kingdom of God in my classrooms.
