I am currently listening to Bob Goff’s book Everybody Always, and I began to feel somewhat convicted with my own actions towards my students. His book encourages people to love everyone always, and that love, instead of criticism or correction, is what individuals need. Sounds like an uplifting message, which it generally is, until the book hit me hard in the first 7 minutes.
The idea sounds simple and great. I agree that we should love everyone. What struck me was when he said he wasn’t doing a good job of loving everyone. He helped out neighbors, co-workers, friends, and anyone he knew. Loving those people is easy though. He realized he was avoiding people that were “hard to understand or looked different than [him].” Hard to understand people sometimes “creeped” him out, so he avoided them. However, he soon realized loving them first was most important. Engaging people different from him was not easy, but that difficulty is why showing them love was important.
After hearing the first 10 minutes, I started thinking about my law students. I am not “creeped” out by any of them, but some of them are difficult to reach. Many of us talk about the hardest students to get into our office are the ones who need help the most. I find that statement to be partially true. I have many students who need help that show up to my office consistently. They are the ones that are easiest to help. They are willing to put in the effort to improve. I constantly send them additional practice questions, set up meetings, and review their outlines. Talking to them around campus is easy. They are the ones it is easy to love.
My concern is I don’t reach out enough to the students who need it that aren’t showing up. Similar to many of you, my schedule is packed. I have more meetings and classes than hours in the day. When students don’t respond to my initial few attempts for practice or feedback, I may not seek them out as much. They are the ones that Bob would define as difficult to love. His advice would be to continually seek them. The difficult to reach students are the ones we can have the biggest impact on.
We all have a huge impact in our students’ lives. We help many struggling students. The question we may need to ask is are we having an impact on students who are difficult to reach? Would one more email get the student in our office? Could a simple hello or wave in the hall make a difference? Continually seeking out students who aren’t showing up makes a difference. They may not show up until the summer before the bar exam or may never show up, but reaching out to show support may be all they need to continue on their journey because they feel our love.
(Steven Foster)
