Aloha relationships promote openness, a “wise transparency”. They require attitudes of humility that invite others into our “incompleteness”. I am not saying that we completely expose ourselves; wise limits are needed. What I am saying is that we must create appropriate doorways and windows for people to enter our lives.
Students have an uncanny intuition regarding whether we are being real or not. Aloha teaching communicates an attitude of continuing wonder (because none of us knows everything about anything…ever!). It encourages risk taking, even when the outcome is unknown.
I recall a high school creative writing class taught by a wonderful drama teacher, Dr. Milton J. McMenamin. He energized his writing classes with the joy of anticipation and “Hmm…I wonder…”
He assigned our class the challenging task of writing a play. We were to work in groups, differentiated by interest and ability. He shared with us that he had never done this with another class and was uncertain if it would work. We worked on a monster comedy musical for weeks and weeks. The assignment failed miserably but we learned so much! We were drawn to him and his classroom for lunchtime because of his Aloha attitude of openness, honesty, trust, dignity and respect shown toward us. He impacted us greatly because he opened his life and, with a gleam in his eye, enticed us to enter. How wide will you open your life? How do you plan to communicate trust, dignity and respect to your students, parents and colleagues?
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