Dean Poling
Several years ago, Dr. Louis Schmier felt compelled to write an essay. Writing was nothing new for the Valdosta State history professor. He’d written books, such as “Valdosta & Lowndes County: A Ray in the Sunbelt.”
It was how he wrote this essay and what he did with it that was different. This essay also signaled the beginning of a journal chronicling his evolution as a teacher.
This essay signaled an epiphany.
Schmier was preparing for a trip. It was the night before. A thought hit him. The urge to write struck him. And Louis Schmier wrote. Immediately. Quickly. No worry about grammar, spelling or syntax. He wrote his thoughts but, more importantly, perhaps, Schmier wrote his gut feelings.
He did not edit the piece or rewrite it. He didn’t even save the essay for himself, but Schmier did send it to a couple of colleagues on a computer system used by a few academics.
Technology has progressed in the past 15 years. What Schmier once used to send his “Random Thoughts” to a couple of colleagues has become the Internet with his essays now reaching thousands of Web users around the world.
But Schmier’s collection of “Random Thoughts” also charts the progress of a teacher during the past 15 years. The essays chronicle how Schmier moved from one way of thinking and teaching to a completely different way of teaching.
“I’ve become the guide on the side and not the sage on the stage,” Schmier says.
Recently, a collection of his essays from his Web site (therandomthoughts.com) has been compiled into a third book, “Random Thoughts III: Teaching with Love.”
Collected from his “Random Thoughts” entries from 1996-98, the essays are bursts of creativity, inspirations, epiphanies, doubts, questions, and tough self-examination. A regular power walker, Schmier puts in an average of five miles every other day, often hours before dawn.
“That’s my time,” Schmier says. “I comb my brain with The Washington Post crossword puzzle. I walk. ... That’s my ‘just to’ time. That’s when things percolate. I see metaphors and connections. ...”
If some thought or idea or reflection happens to “percolate” on a given morning, Schmier sits at his computer and “I pound out a ‘Random Thought’ in about 15 minutes and then I send it to about 20,000 people.”
Schmier is amazed at how his “Random Thoughts” have captured the interest of so many readers through the years. As the Internet came into being and more people discovered it, more readers discovered “Random Thoughts.” He is scheduled to travel in May to China and has readers who contact him from across the globe. Schmier kept adding people to his e-mailing list while recipients often forwarded the essays on to more readers.
Still, initially, Schmier did not save his essays; however, some readers were saving them. Schmier learned this when publishers contacted him wanting to publish his “Random Thoughts” as book collections. He hadn’t pursued such publication, but some of his readers had.
Schmier finally agreed, when publishers agreed that he would only have to make minimal corrections to the original texts. He hadn’t allowed the contrivances of writing to hamper the message of the essays in their original form and didn’t want such contrivances surfacing once compiled in book form. He now collects his work on the Web site and he runs spell check before sending them, but that’s about the extent of his re-editing his work. Instead, he focuses on the journey.
Increased interest in his essays almost wrecked his journal. He wrote “Random Thoughts” for himself, as a chronicle of his journey, and shared them with people who may or may not want to read them. As more people read them, though, these readers began making demands. When would the next one arrive? Why not discuss this? How about a book? Criticism also accompanied his writings, everything from readers who felt he should clean up his style to vociferously disagreeing with his points.
Schmier almost scrapped the project, but then reasserted the original intention of the essays: his journey when he felt compelled to write about his journey.
And always he kept an eye on the goal of improving himself as a teacher.
The overriding message of Schmier’s journey: “I want to be that person who helps others help themselves to become the person they are capable of being.”
This mission statement may surprise anyone who had Schmier as a teacher prior to 1990. Schmier admits he had a dual reputation then. He was a premier lecturer and speaker in the classroom, and his students often viewed him as a no-nonsense taskmaster. Schmier took pride in these attributes. He basked in the glow of a well-received lecture. He never personally attacked students, but he was strict in his approach in dealing with students. Schmier saw his teaching career as being about himself.
In 1990, he had his epiphany which also inspired his early “Random Thoughts.” His teaching career wasn’t so much about himself as it should be about his students.
“I stopped wanting to be important,” Schmier says, “and started wanting to do important things.”
He had viewed teaching as handing down information from the mountain. Now, Schmier sees teaching as walking up the mountain with students, helping them along the way, taking them by the hand and guiding them if necessary. He remains demanding of his students but he’s put himself in the position of helping them meet the demands of his classroom.
Schmier’s “Random Thoughts” are often direct reflections on teaching. The preface of the third book is by a teacher. Yet, in presenting what Schmier says is not “THE truth, but MY truth,” by a person who is willing to share his inspired moments as well as his doubts, “Random Thoughts III” is a book with thoughts that any reader, no matter their profession, can apply to their career and lives.
The beauty of “Random Thoughts” isn’t so much that it chronicles the transformation of a teacher but that it is a journal chronicling the transformation of a human being.
http://www.therandomthoughts.com
DR.LOUIS SCHMIER regularly writes essays on his life and his evolution as a teacher. These essays have been collected in a third book, ‘Random Thoughts III: Teaching with Love,’ released late last year.
Random Thoughts
Dr. Louis Schmier’s ‘Random Thoughts III: Teaching with Love’ is available through amazon.com or by contacting Schmier by calling 242-3049.
The Internet site: www.therandomthoughts.com
The first two volumes may also be purchased via Internet or by calling Atwood Publishers, (800) 606-3766.
