How to Train Your Optimism

19 February 2015

“This is Burke. It is 12 days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It is located solidly on the Meridian of Miserable. My village.”

         This is how the honest, frank, direct Hiccup starts off the movie How to Train Your Dragon. While it may be an accurate, the tone of which he addresses the audience portrays his contempt with it. He goes on to explain about the biggest problem being the local pests: “You see most places have mice or mosquitoes, we have dragons.” While he admits that “most people would leave,” he also recognizes that leaving isn’t going to solve the problem and that  “. . . we’re Vikings. We have stubbornness issues.” The village of Burke is hard, but it isn’t bad.

While I’ve been accused of being “excessively optimistic” by a fellow PCV, I’d be lying if I let that that be my only portrayal. I’m not always optimistic. I get frustrated, discouraged, disgruntled, fed up, whatever. You’ve been there. I see my students’ semester grades and criticize myself for them. I start comparing myself to others and the assumed expectations I’ve established for myself. But I need to take a step back and remember Gobber’s ill-placed but accurate advice to Hiccup: “The point is: Stop trying to be something you’re not.”

I’m not a miracle worker. I can’t get all my students to pass when many barely know their letters. I’m never going to be the expected, perfect person I wish could describe as myself. But what am I? I am the teacher that goes to school early, even when students don’t show up. I am a native English speaker who knows little Tigrigna. I am the twirler of children. I am the eater of cabbage and carrots and guavas who buys from people who call my name. I am the try-er of new ideas and the rearrange-er of the textbook to make it fit my students better. I am the listener to friends, young and old, telling me about their days. Instead of trying to be something I’m not, I need to keep being me. 

    

Yes, I try things that aren’t conventional. I don’t lecture for 30 minutes of a 42-minute class like other teachers tend to. I make my students give me authentic work each and every class. I hold them to high standards, because I know they can do it, if they take the step. Many don’t take that step. They come late or miss class. They don’t do the homework. They don’t ask questions. Again, Gobber comes in with wisdom, stating “You can’t stop ‘im, Stoick. You can only prepare ‘im.” While he is referring to Hiccup, the same holds true for students. I can’t stop my students from following cultural standards of skipping school after break. I can’t stop them from playing football after school instead of doing homework. I can’t stop them from taking tests and being scared of the results. What I can do is prepare them. I can prepare them for the tests. I can prepare homework and hold them accountable for it.

   

          “What are you going to do about it?” Astrid asks Hiccup.

         “Eh, probably something stupid,” he shrugs.

         “Good, but you’ve already done that.” Is her calm reply.

         “Then something crazy.” He lights up and takes off.

         “That’s more like it” she comments.

         Some of my lessons have been stupid. Lack classroom management at the beginning was stupid. Having only one assignment last semester for 10% of their grade and knowing that students were going to be absent was stupid. But, crazy works. Crazy is bringing in food to teach superlatives and comparatives adjectives to student, but they didn’t forget it. Crazy is making dry erase boards out of old sleeves of plastic to have students practice editing on. Crazy is redesigning a semester to have multiple assignments and short tests to better understand students and prevent even the frequently absent individuals from getting a 0 on their assignment grade. Teacher have called me crazy (in the nice way) for bringing in so many visual aids, making students move about the room, and trying to teach most of the period in English. This semester is going to be about trying new and potentially crazy things in class and out of it.

    

“This is Burke. It snows 9 months out of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies or parrots, we have dragons.”

         This is how Hiccup concludes the movie. He still acknowledges that life is rough (Hmmmm, but there was no hail or snow throughout the movie). However, this time, instead of concluding about the biggest upset, he focuses on the positive. Instead of seeing his town, his place, his life as worst than others, he shows how it is special, unique, different. That’s what being optimistic is about. Not ignoring the negative, but rather acknowledging the good in a heap of pessimistic aspects.