Faithful Learning in World Languages

Teaching- An act of Hospitality

By: Fred Garner (Spanish Teacher and World Languages Department Head)

Students trickle into my Spanish classroom after morning break, often sullen and quiet in stark
contrast to the ebullient din emanating from the lockers just outside. The warning bell sounds, and
the noise slowly dissipates until the final bell announces the beginning of third period. My students,
already showing signs of being mentally sapped and sated, wait passively for yet another class to
begin.

Not all classes start like this, but this group can feel depressing at times. The bell triggers in them a
Pavlovian response to class-time: fun is over, time to learn. As I survey the room, I wonder where the
joy of learning has gone. Where did the eagerness and passion of their kindergarten days go? How
can these students go from mirth to apathy simply by stepping over the threshold into my
classroom? In response, I defiantly set a goal: I will make each student smile at least once before
class is dismissed. Its a small thing I hope for them a gift of levity in a system that often reinforces
emotional detachment as a necessary starting point for serious academic pursuits.

In his book The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer claims that good teaching is an act of hospitality
toward the young. Looking over the disassociated expressions of my students, I feel the irresistible
call to wake them from their slumber, to bring them alive as I am alive and Spanish is alive, to
rekindle the oft-espoused yet ever-elusive love of learning that seems but a distant memory for
these high-schoolers. So I welcome these teenagers (foreigners and strangers, perhaps?) as best I
can into my classroom.

Hospitality by definition requires much of the host. As I interact day-in and day-out with these
students of another time and place as my own, I cant help but wonder how good a host I truly am.
On the worst days, my lessons fall flat and my students remain detached and passive, uncompelled
by the invitation to join in. On the best of days, however, the laughter rings out loud and long to the
annoyance of nearby classrooms as we trip and stumble through the richness of the Spanish
language. When that happens, we leave with hearts full, eagerly awaiting the next time that we
student, subject, and teacher are all together again.

The Pauline admonition to the Romans to practice hospitality (among many other things) sits at
quite a historical and cultural distance from my classroom at Rosslyn Academy. Nevertheless, I do
strive to welcome student and subject alike into my classroom, facilitating meaningful, engaging, and
joyful interactions between us. To do so, I believe, is not only a valid application of Pauls command
but also a small reflection of the life-giving hospitality showered upon us all by the triune God
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Parker Palmer for inspiring many of the thoughts presented here. I
cannot recommend him and his book, The Courage to Teach, highly enough to anyone involved in
education.