Passion:

intense, driving feeling or conviction; a desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept. (From Merriam-Webster)

In the course of his op-ed piece, “Where the Bar Ought to Be,” New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes about his interview with Deborah Kenny, the creator of highly successful charter schools in Harlem, NY.  According to Herbert,

She’s gotten a great deal of national attention. But for all the talk about improving schools in this country, she thinks we tend to miss the point more often than not.

There is an overemphasis on “the program elements,” she said, “things like curriculum and class size and school size and the longer day.” She understood in 2001, when she was planning the first of the schools that have come to be known as the Harlem Village Academies, that none of those program elements were nearly as important as the quality of the teaching in the schools.

“If you had an amazing teacher who was talented and passionate and given the freedom and support to teach well,” she said, “that was just 100 times more important than anything else.”….

“I became obsessed with how to develop great teachers,” she said. … “We’ve created a culture that brings out the passion of the teachers and they bring out the passion of the kids.”

Where the Bar Ought to Be (Bob Herbert, New York Times, February 22, 2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/opinion/23herbert.html

We share Kenny’s obsession and have a deep passion that motivates all we do to support faculty (and learner) development. But we so rarely talk about passion. Kenny specifically mentions it three times in the course of Herbert’s short article. We’re sure we’ve got it but are wondering why it so rarely gets discussed in the context of all we do. We do often hear from Learning to Learn Camp and Teaching Institute participants about how our passion is contagious and motivating…but not in many other contexts. In other words, we do passion, but don’t talk about it much.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are several references to passion in the Faculty Guidebook; we think those sections are well-worth sharing:

Issues in Implementing Effective Teaching Practices: Attitude of the Instructor: A key factor in student success is the attitude of the instructor. An instructor’s enthusiasm can motivate students. Moreover, nonverbal communication can also send signals to students. An instructor’s facial expressions, energy, and intonation are as important as what the instructor says. When instructors take time to reflect on the passion they feel for their discipline and the way they communicate this to others, explicitly and implicitly, they can dramatically improve their teaching effectiveness. (From 3.3.1 Overview of Effective Teaching Practices) Elements of Faculty Commitment: Most faculty are committed to their discipline and to their course content, but this alone will not result in shared commitment. A faculty member must also show passion for student learning, create a mood of trust within the learning environment, challenge student performance, and believe in the unlimited ability of students to grow as learners. Faculty must convince students of their commitment to student growth and to student success in the course and beyond. Students must know that faculty have their best interests at heart. (From 3.1.6 Obtaining Shared Commitment)

The bottom line is that passion matters. If it is important enough to matter in the context of faculty development, teacher success, effective teaching, instructor attitude, and faculty commitment, perhaps we need to talk about it more. So let’s start. Where is your passion for what you do in the classroom? What aspects of teaching and learning are you passionate about? How important is your passion to what your students do in the classroom? Or is passion overrated? Or maybe underrated? Share your thoughts and we'll offer them in the next issue of Reflections!