The sum of the parts

It has been two weeks since I left Jordan behind for the summer to spend my restorative break in the United States. But I still have a couple blog entries left in me before I take my summer break from the blog. And with these two weeks cushion of the beginning of summer, it is good to look back over the year, especially about the History and Social Studies Department.

I am stepping down as the Head of the History and Social Studies Department at KA after six years. As the Dean of Faculty, it made good sense not to head an individual department anymore. I did have a habit of trying to poach very good teachers in other departments to join this incredible History gang, and so that probably is not wise in also trying to be Dean of all the faculty! I have loved running the History department, but now I can focus on managing the entire faculty without having a “pet” department on the side.

So, as my last “mandate” as head of our department, I planned our end-of-year gathering in Andy’s garden in Amman a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to celebrate our solid year, bid some dear colleagues farewell, and also put down the gauntlet for a good challenge. I wanted to revive an evening’s activity the department had done in 2008 and 2011.

Let’s have a little trip down memory lane! In 2007-08, the first year KA existed, the tiny History Department read the book called, The Courage To Teach, and one of the things that struck me in the book was this story of Barbara McClintock, a world-famous biologist. Before she died at age 90 she was asked the “heart of her knowing,” and instead of talking about science and all kinds of data-like gunk, she stated, “my relationships with colleagues, my connectedness and community with them,” was at the “heart” of her knowing.

Later in the book author Parker Palmer makes clear that the better we know ourselves, the better educators we will be. “You teach who you are,” he says over and over again. On page 69 of the book, Palmer challenges educators to do something bold and helpful and uplifting: get into groups and tell each member of the group what his gifts and strengths and capacities are. He knows that few faculty groups will actually ever do this, however he urges that it be done and done face-to-face, “if for no other reason than the opportunity it offers to affirm one another as teachers, something we rarely do.”

When I read that in that nascent year of KA, I wondered if that execise could work with us. I almost abandoned the idea, but then one evening in February, 2008 the History Department met at Fatina’s apartment (or was it Yasser’s? or was it Chris Decker’s? I don’t remember the locale, but I remember the rest of the evening vividly. Oh yes, it was in Chris’ apartment with the painting of the Eiffel Tower.) It worked. Then in June, 2011, we did this again at Barry’s house.

In an email last month, I proposed that we tackle this assignment again in our last of this school year.  It is an odd assignment, yes, even a little daunting, but ultimately, it was very rewarding. Barry had said in 2011 that he little sleep the day before this event he was so anxious about it. But Barry blessed the event, even telling some naysayers that you will look upon the evening “with dread” beforehand, and then with “joy and agreement” afterwards.

Here is how the evening would work: each colleague simply goes around the room and identifies the strengths of each colleague and thanks each member of the department for what he or she has brought to the group. It sounds like it is just touchy-feely and something kids might do at camp. But I have found it a meaningful way to affirm and thank our colleagues for the gifts and strengths and capacities they have brought to our department, to our students, and to our school community.

Andy had invited us to his backyard garden in Amman for our end-of-year dinner and send-off to our dear departing colleagues. We feasted on a buffet of Lebanese mezze the roasted meat parade. Then at 8:08 we began in earnest the “assignment” for the evening. Just like my father would do, I monitored the time, checking to see how long the ten of us would spend doing this little compliment-offering session. We finished at 10:33. Wow.

I gave myself an extra challenge this year—I wanted to think about each colleague and then reduce all their strengths/gifts/prowess/skills to one word. Could I find one word that might fit each colleague, and would the one word suit the colleague’s personality and sensibility? Oh, I loved the challenge…and yes, I did it. I wanted to recount, in no particular order what I said about each of these wonderful colleagues that lovely evening in Andy's garden:

·         Andy=Passion

·         Pride=Charlie

·         Joy=Irene

·         Steadfast=Barry

·         Rational=Katie

·         Dogged= Lyman

·         Conviction=Emily

·         Bourrage=Jay

·         Transparent=Fatina

Here is why I felt that each of those attributes perfectly summed up their contributions to our department:

·         Andy     You don’t have to know Andy very long to see and hear about his enjoyment for teaching. He loves it! But I chose the word, Passion, not just for the love angle, but for the biblical Latin angle word that is about passion as a compelling emotion and awe; such feeling is often coupled with suffering. Like most of us, Andy has endured suffering in life, but has emerged with such a contagious emotion about the joys of teaching and it affects us all.

·         Charlie     The word that I associate with Charlie the most is about his self-respect, his honor at where he is from, where he has gone to school, his honor as a historian, his satisfaction with his work in education. This Pride is not about arrogance, but about the dignity and self-respect he has cultivated about his chosen profession.

·         Irene has the shortest word of all my choices, but Joy  is such an unbounding feeling, and it is that boundlessness that Irene exudes in her work, in her friendships, in her faith. There is utter delight and happiness in her teaching, but I would also stress the verb aspect of this word—Irene makes people joyful in all of her pursuits.

·         Barry is not a “showy” teacher so his word should be as solid and unwavering as he is as an educator, friend and colleague. Everything about Barry is Steadfast: he is firm, resolved, faithful, constant and purposeful.

·         Katie had the most difficult role this year a teacher can play ever—she was a first-year classroom teacher. It never gets harder than that, but Katie survived so well because of how Rational she is. She is clear and logical and sensible, and this anchor allowed her to navigate those first-year waters well, and triumph when emotional forces might have brought her down.

·         Lyman     I categorize our new department head as Dogged. In our one year of knowing Lyman, it has become quite clear that he is persistent and tenacious in all the best ways. What great qualities in a leader as he pursues excellence in our department. (He also has dogs!) But this doggedness is about a determination and a will. Those are great qualities!

·         Emily is another of those colleagues that I looked forward to seeing every day. As an educator extraordinaire, I almost chose the word, ‘committed’ for her, but that didn’t seem perfect enough. Commitment is good, sure, but I needed something with a dramatic punch. Conviction! That is commitment with a firm belief, a model belief in what you are doing. That is Emily.

·         Jay      Jay teaches AP Modern European history, among many other courses, and I needed a word that suited his continental interests.  Ahhh…I searched and found a word from the medieval French! Bourrage is the part of the medieval wall that is the stuffing, that important support that holds everything in that wall, in that edifice, together. In our department, Jay is the bourrage!

·         And for Fatina, my colleague of six years, I chose the word Transparent. We think we know what that word means, just like we think we know what Fatina is all about quickly, but it is not the ‘obvious’ part of the definition I like. It is about being clear, and also “admitting light,” and those are the elements of that word that I like in regards to Fatina. Her smile, her wit, her devotion to family and Middle Eastern history brings a light to our department.

After I spoke about each colleague, I distributed a slip of paper with a list of these adjectives for them to see. Look at this list:

·         Passion

·         Pride

·         Joy

·         Steadfast

·         Rational

·         Dogged

·         Conviction

·         Bourrage

·         Transparent

We often joke about being the “best department” in the school, but look at this collection of attributes. Look at this wonderful collection, this list of our parts. I marvel, again, at our department, both doing well professionally and personally. And I am nodding along with Aristotle’s old claim that,“the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Thank you for a wonderful ride, my dear department!