Spirit is at the heart of a meaningful education. Spirit is the spark of life that resides within every human being; it is the connection to the fabric of all life and to the source of all creation, and it is the essence of what it means to be a human being. Spirit is a gift from the Source, what some people might call the Creator. My first awareness of the significance of spirit began in my childhood home. There the foundation of my own practice as a teacher began.
A Mother's Lessons
My mother taught me about the spirit of my family ancestors as well as about those people of my African heritage who had overcome insurmountable odds to succeed in life and to excel as human beings. When I was quite young, she read poetry or Bible verses to me and made me memorize various lines. At mealtimes, I recited a Bible verse before I was allowed to eat, and I had to show my knowledge by varying the verses. I couldn't use "Jesus wept" at every meal.
This training was supported by my grandparents, who influenced my Bible verse recitations. My father's father was a Pentecostal minister. My mother's father was a deacon at the First Virginia Avenue Baptist Church where I attended Sunday school and church services and where, at age 5, I was baptized. The Word was very important to me. It was the power of the Word and the spirit that moved me as a 5-year-old to declare my belief.
My mother loves poetry, Negro spirituals, and old-fashioned gospel music and hymns. Her favorite poets are Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, but she has a broad repertoire because she is a reader and a writer. She reads everything and writes stories about our family.
My mother taught me everything I needed to know to become literate, slowing me down when my thoughts or my mouth ran ahead of my knowledge. She allowed me to sit in on adult conversations as long as I inconspicuously listened and didn't try to "act grown." She listened carefully to my everyday speech. When I said "pitcher" for "picture," she corrected me. When I said "you wrong," she replied, "I hope you know it's 'You are wrong.'" She taught me to talk.
I learned to read and write from my mother. She began by reading to me when I was very little—the newspaper, Bible stories, fairy tales, folktales, poetry. She used both phonics and whole language, the approaches that educators argue over today. She moved from part to whole and back. She sounded out words and had me practice and write them; she showed me the same words in newspapers and books and made me write them down. When I read aloud to her, she corrected mispronounced words. She was my teacher, and she was able to teach me because I loved her and because she knew what and how to teach.
Honoring My Heritage
Everything my mother taught me was sustained by my elementary school, Virginia Avenue School in Louisville, Kentucky, across the street from our church. My principal, Mr. Lincoln, had been my mother's principal. The walls of the school were covered with beautiful black-and-white portraits of famous African Americans—statesmen Ralph Bunche and Frederick Douglass; poets James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Langston Hughes; educator Mary McLeod Bethune; liberationists and abolitionists Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman; and musicians Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson. On a daily basis, Mr. Lincoln reminded us who we were, where we came from, where we could go, and what we could become. My parents and my teachers infused a unique spirit in me at an impressionable age.
Embedded in my family and school life were the principles that psychologists have identified as significant to the development of African Americans—aspects of soul like emotional vitalism, resilience, spontaneity, natural tendencies, rhythm, and spirituality (Hale-Benson, 1986; Nobles & Goddard, 1984; McElroy-Johnson, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1994). This environment formed me and affected my practice as a teacher.
Building My Practice on My Past
My early educational experiences—at home and at school—prepared me well to face a class of 8th and 9th grade students at a junior high school in Oakland, California. I did not expect my assignment to be especially challenging because I was an experienced teacher at all grade levels. But the environment at this school was different. The student body represented a number of different cultures, and the students did not demonstrate much respect for their own cultures or for the cultures of their classmates.
During the first two weeks of the school year, my students showed little interest in class assignments, especially in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They found following simple instructions difficult and could not easily quiet down to read. They could not speak about class work and assignments but were constantly involved in personal discussions of social life and gossip; they could not write neatly or produce anything beyond purely scribbled pieces of writing. They had little understanding of English grammar or of the writing process.
The students appeared belligerent and lazy, but my experience as an educator told me that their attitudes came from low self-esteem and an uncertainty about their ability to do what was required. Taking a lesson from my mother's example, I attacked the problem on the affective front, building the students' self-esteem and positive attitude for learning, and on the cognitive front, building their skills. I saw the essential need to rebuild their spirits.
Positive Attitude for Learning
I talked with my students about the purpose of education and asked them to share their thoughts. I learned that I needed to convince them that I would respect, listen to, and assist them; that they could succeed in the academic environment; that they each had something to say, possessed skills, and had valuable prior knowledge; that the environment would be safe and predictable; and that I could be trusted to be fair, interested in each student's achievement, and true to my word.
After two weeks, I understood that my students were underachievers because of a history of lowered expectations. I began to reach them by giving them the knowledge that all human beings can learn anything if they are willing to work. I presented examples to inspire them. I talked about Malcolm Little who renamed himself El-Hajj Malih El-Shabazz Omowale (in Yoruba, Omowale means "the child is back home") to reflect the gains he made in knowing who he was. He took the name Malcolm X when he converted to Islam after spending time in prison, where he learned to read and write. Students read from his autobiography and discussed his experiences and reflected on their own. They saw how his views changed when he traveled to Mecca and began to grapple with the reality of humanity; and they saw how his name changes reflected his inner spiritual and intellectual changes.
Students began to understand that we are all capable of looking for our highest selves and creating high standards. I gave them many examples of individuals who struggled to move through emotional and physical barriers to reach their highest attainment. We read about Juan Diego, the Indian peasant whose spirituality was the force behind the shrine built for La Virgen de Guadalupe, and about Siddhartha Gautama, who left behind his warrior Brahmin caste to find the answers to human suffering and became the Buddha. I chose my examples from the cultural heritage and ancestry of my students.
I established high expectations and a simple standard: Nothing but their best was acceptable. At its center was my understanding that all my students had something to contribute. Because I believed that they all could learn, I taught the students to believe in themselves.
At the beginning of the school year, many of my students pushed past me into the classroom without a word. I decided, therefore, to greet them at the door, encourage them to acknowledge my presence, and exchange pleasantries. I expected them to mirror my behavior. Because I promoted the importance of culture and personal spiritual affirmation, I chose an African greeting in Yoruba, the language of Africa's largest ethnic group, followed by one in Spanish, and I attempted a Cambodian greeting as well. My point was to show that all people must be acknowledged and welcomed. The greetings expressed the need for human warmth in all cultures. After I offered the Yoruba greeting, "S'alaafia' ni?" (Is everything OK?), the students responded with "A dupe o. Se daadaa ni?" (We are OK. How are you?) This greeting served as common ground because none of them knew the language. In addition, the message of peace was embedded in their consciousness.
I taught my students affirmations to help them cope with life and to build their self-esteem. Most were simple statements created on the spot: I am able. I am intelligent. I am a good person. I am a loving person. I can succeed at whatever I set my mind to do. After thinking about these statements, students shared their thoughts by talking with one another or by writing in a reflective journal. In addition, I used proverbs, such as this one from the Ashanti: You must act as if it is impossible to fail.
After introducing students to the greetings and wisdom from their cultures, I spoke of the need to respect and honor our ancestors, families, nationalities, and cultures. This talk illustrated that every one of us is important to someone. At the beginning of the third week of school, I asked students to write down the name of an ancestor or someone they loved and who loved them and wished the best for them. Whenever they had doubts about whether they were meeting the highest standards in their behavior or in their assignments, they reflected on what this person might say.
Knowledge and Cognitive Skill Development
Like my mother, I realized that self-esteem and achievement must grow together and support each other. Just as she encouraged my spirit while fostering my intellect, I focused on building my students' knowledge base in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while encouraging their inner growth. And once again, what I learned from her teaching influenced my own practice.
I began by requiring students to give their full attention to whoever was speaking. During the first months of school, I gave short five-minute talks about materials we were studying, cultural pieces, and literary pieces. Students took notes to write a reflective piece about what they learned. They read these pieces to one another and gave feedback.
In addition, I used music with lyrics as an excellent way to develop listening skills. I modeled good listening by being a good listener. We discussed the different levels, from surface listening to in-depth listening that reveals the meaning or the deep feeling behind the words or sounds.
I focused on mainstream American English in the classroom while acknowledging my students' bilingual nature. Because the students' speech patterns reflected features of the African American language, I used daily oral language exercises as well as direct instruction to help them study and compare both forms. Students viewed videotapes of speakers of both languages. They role-played situations in which they used both standard English and African American speech and discussed the appropriate use of each language. I dealt with Spanish in the same way by pointing out the nature and benefits of learning English as a second or third language.
I modeled mainstream American English in my own speech by demonstrating the enunciation of words, the personal presence needed to get the listener's attention, the appropriate modulation of the voice, and the eye contact needed when speaking to others. Students took turns speaking to the entire class. They became so confident that they began to support and encourage as well as correct one another. I recited poetry, and I had my students memorize and recite poetry.
Students read books selected from the state's core curriculum, such as Farewell to Manzanar (Wakatzuki-Houston, 1983 ), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou, 1969), The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964), and The House on Mango Street (Cisneros, 1989). In addition, we all read books of our choice for 15 minutes, silently, each day in class, and students kept reading response journals. I also read aloud every day.
I established a five-step writing process for essay writing: prewriting, first draft, revision, second draft, and publication or final draft. The purpose was to teach the ongoing quality needed for achieving excellence in writing and in everything we do. It is the process of life, which involves a willingness to examine continually what we are doing and to change. Since life itself is a process, writing exists as a metaphor for it.
Sacred Symbols, Cooperative Spirit
As part of encouraging a sense of spirit in the classroom, I helped students develop their ability to discuss meaningful topics in large or small cooperative-learning groups. By the second grading period, the small groups developed "sacred symbols" that exposed more of the students' personal aspirations and desires. Every student performed an oral presentation of his or her symbol to applause and support from the entire group.
I have seen powerful changes take place in my students. I can affirm the power of the motivation to learn and to be successful. I strongly believe that other educators can practice looking back as I have done to connect with their past, with their ancestors. One gem that I discovered as I looked into my past is the sterling spirit that my mother described to me in her words and demonstrated to me through her actions, the encouragement she gave me, and the support that I received from my father and my grandparents who formed for me a community of learners. Spirit is, indeed, the heart of education.
