As the school year gets underway, one of the most challenging and frustrating events is academic recovery amid the sacred listening to which we are all called. For students, teachers and administrators, this can be a very stressful time. Some students may have experienced academic losses, whether from the lack of stimulation and reinforcement, changes in family or from the simple passage of time.
Every educator is called to be a sacred listener, while meeting their legal responsibilities, such as presenting lessons, leading learning and meeting the real demands of that academic learning and progress. It is easy in the days of instruction to be so busy presenting lessons and calculating gains and deficits, that sacred listening can end up on the proverbial “back burner.” Assessing such gains and deficits takes time and can seem overwhelming. Even more overwhelming is developing plans for both recovery of lost information as well as presenting new material.
Not every student will have spent the summer or part of it reading books and strengthening academic skills. Lack of academic stimulation over a three-month summer can result in a loss of previously mastered skills and learning. One of the best ways of assessing student achievement is to listen to one’s students carefully while still challenging them with “old” material at the same time new learning opportunities are presented.
Sacred listening has been defined as “listening patiently without judgment while recognizing the inherent worth of the speaker.” (Carl Greer, The Art of Listening) This may mean listening to the story of the arrival of a new baby or a grandparent who has moved into the home the student occupies. It may mean listening to what is not being said. A student who responds to a question about what he or she did over the summer that was fun with, “Nothing. Grandma moved in and we spent the summer getting her settled,” or “my uncle was released from prison and came to live with us,” are ways of a student letting the teacher know that the summer was not an idyllic break, but rather may have presented unanticipated stress.
Other students may not have had life or family-altering experiences, but there have been money pressures or a strained marriage or change in custody arrangements. Perhaps Dad has a new family and doesn’t spend as much time with the student as he previously did. Maybe Mom has a new significant other who is claiming her time and attention. Maybe that significant other has children who enter into the equation.
Brighid Murphy defines sacred listening as, “At its core, sacred listening is about creating a space of deep listening and presence. It’s about being fully present without judgment or agenda and holding space for the deepest truths and vulnerabilities to emerge from one’s own body, heart and soul.” Murphy further suggests that sacred listening does not come quickly or without effort. She cautions that many of us are ‘fixers” and so we may look for a quick solution rather than a well-considered, prayed over response.
Sacred listening calls for us to let go of our agendas to embrace the needs of another.
Virtually everyone—child, adolescent or adult—can tell if someone is truly attentive or simply going through the motions while otherwise occupied mentally.
Every student needs attention and concern, particularly the ones who may least appear to want that. Every student has a right to receive adequate, if not outstanding, instruction. These are basic needs and establish the basis for our legal responsibilities as educators.
So, the following list of questions may be helpful:
What do I think is/are my primary obligation(s) as a teacher?
Do I pray for my students? The other students in the school? Their parents and siblings?
Do I pray with my students?
Do I take time for prayer? Do I pray for myself?
Do I make myself available to students? When? Is my availability a priority for me?
Do I try to interact with students’ parents?
Can I commit to listening, as well as to talking, to students and parents?
Am I willing to ask for help from other teachers and my supervisor?
Am I up to date with my own education? If I need to take courses or participate in continuing education, have I planned to do that?
Do I prioritize my family and family obligations while planning adequate time for my professional responsibilities?
Am I proud to be a Catholic school educator and do I share that pride with my family, friends and fellow teachers?
It is certainly true that the summer is a time when learning can be forgotten or shoved into a remote corner of one’s brain. It is the teacher’s obligation to navigate academic recovery for his or her students. Students have a responsibility for academic recovery, and their parents have an obligation to assist them in reviewing and assessing learning. Teachers are the captains of their recovery ships. It is their responsibility to encourage and support students, while also challenging them to review and assess past learning and troubleshoot for themselves as they identify areas of learning that need review or strengthening.
Sacred listening calls for us to
let go of our agendas
to embrace the needs of another.
Every student does not have the same support system as his or her peers. Being able to identify special learning needs is an important task for teachers. Some students have special remedial needs. Other students need to be challenged to do and learn more. Navigating this continuum can seem like a tightrope act. It requires navigating academic subjects and learning, watching for academic and social stones along the way, gathering lists of academic supplements and resources and challenging the students who can do more while encouraging the ones who are doing the best they can. Such is the duty of all who are called to be Catholic school educators. . . a profound and beautiful calling.
Sister Mary Angela Shaughnessy, SCN, JD, Ph.D.is a Sister of Charity of Nazareth and a nationally recognized expert on the law as it affects Catholic schools and Church ministry.Angie.Shaughnessy@lmu.edu
