Desired: Breeze

Recently, I found myself in a situation in which my personal need for breeze was dramatically highlighted. It is true that we all desire breeze, but in the situation which I refer to, it hit me that our need for breeze is not uniform and our reaction to a lack of it or too much of it is markedly idiosyncratic.

A few members of the group that I was a part of quietly accepted the lack of breeze entering the inadequately ventilated room in which we were supposed to be mentally engaged and productive for several hours of two days. Quiet acceptance was the exception. The majority of my colleagues vociferously expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of breeze which they pointed out would heighten their discomfort and make the task we were engaged in completely onerous.

Before long, we were shifting rooms, shifting furniture and vying for a place closest to the windows. Our attitudes were significantly different; determined by our perceived or actual need for breeze. Our desire for breeze, I mused, was yet another aspect of our uniqueness.

Over the next few days, I thought of what a remarkable and generally unappreciated blessing breeze is. Certainly, breeze is an emphatic revelation of God's creative wonder.

As I pondered on the idea that there are so many dimensions to my individuality, I started to think of the idiomatic expressions involving breeze and the positive symbolism of breeze in the English language. I am sure we could list several of these expressions. In all of them "breeze" has one element- ease. Because I am an educator and certainly because I was correcting Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) English A examination scripts at the time, I mused that, from the perspective of a student, "breeze" was absolutely desirable because every student's desire is to be able to say on completion of an examination, "That was a breeze" or "I just breezed through that paper".

My musing continued over a period of days. I moved from thinking how desirable breeze was and how much we all appreciate ease of effort in every situation to how counterproductive too much ease and comfort could be. The last thing a teacher wants is to make her lessons so easy that her students are not challenged and they become bored and lazy. In life, we need breeze but too much breeze for too long could hinder progress.

The dangers of heavy wind, gales, cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes - whatever bulldozing system we experience in the various regions of the world - are well documented. The average person prays these away but covets gentle blowing breeze. These ferocious systems, though, actual and symbolic, play a role in human development while a gaily blowing zephyr, desirable as it is, could lull us into sleep at an inopportune time and rob us of opportunities to progress.

Extending the idea of me, as an educator, providing symbolic breeze for my students, I thought of how important, how very critical it is to make the experience of learning one of ease but not provide so much ease that my students are lulled into a state of academic stupor. When I teach, I don't want my lessons to be gales of frustration blowing my students over, eroding their confidence and destroying their self esteem. I want to provide just enough breeze to keep them happy and comfortable, eager to keep on trying and developing their sense of efficacy.

As I reflected on the performance of the students whose responses I examined, I concluded that for some students, school, particularly  that English A examination, was clearly a breeze; but, for too many of them the experience was bending, twisting and chilling- totally undesirable. Some of these students needed very little to help them succeed in school but, evidently, many of them required more dedicated and specialized support to guarantee their success. Sadly, their need for breeze was not met. Some people can function admirably and perform perfectly under adverse conditions; others need a more enabling environment to flourish. Each person is unique and until educational practice truly mirrors this axiom, students will continue to leave school completely winded.

I am applying the symbolism to the context of teaching but it can be applied to any arena of life and every role we perform. What kind of experience do we provide for those we have to deal with? As parent, teacher, coach, administrator, doctor, pastor, politician, explorer or reporter, we need to regularly assess whether the experiences we provide are refreshing and enabling, or whether we are guilty of ripping away essential pieces of the people we are supposed to serve.

Remember, too, that the force of wind that uproots one tree or rips the roof off of one building might just bend the branches of another tree or raise the galvanize from the beam of a roof. People do not uniformly relate to experiences but whatever their individual needs and reactions are, we all have one thing in common. We all desire a certain amount of ease, I mean "breeze", to keep us happy and functioning at our best.