I'm still in a "Susan Boyle-ish" mood; I'm getting into the groove as I
get myself
psyched up for a two day workshop on collegiate teaching at Lethbridge
University; as a
cancer survivor, I'm still feeling the warmth and humanity of all those smiling
and
cheering students on the front lawn of my campus last night who gave up their
precious
study time for upcoming final papers and exams to give their love and time for
the Cancer
Society's Relay For Life; and, so, I'm about to get myself into trouble. But,
I've been
hearing and reading, as I always do at this end-of-term time, many a sighing
getting-ready-for-the-end-of-the-semester-paper-reading-exam-giving-final
grade-compilation-crunch comments from my head-shaking colleagues here on
campus and
across the internet world. So, having gotten into my protective suit of
Kevlar, here
goes.
So many of us academics just love to pretend that they're so clinically
objective,
that the physical and academic appearance of students don't matter and don't
influence
their thoughts, feelings, actions, or judgments. Well, the truth is that they
do. We're
all human, and there isn't an objective bone in our body. When it comes to
academics far
too many of us are crotchety, intellectual, and academic snobs. We turn our
backs and let
so many students drown in an ocean of "they're not worth it," "what's the use,"
"they let
me down," "they can't," "they don't know how," "they don't want to," "they're
disappointing," "in my day," "when I was a student," etc, etc, etc. It's always
something, and I'm not sure most of it is either nonsense about appearance or a
reflection
of our disinclination to devote the demanding time and effort to the needs of
students
away from the demands of our precious research, publication, and quest for
tenure or
promotion. So, the academic culture is the height of ambivalence between
proclaimed
objectivity and lived subjectivity, from the rare adoring surprise when one
minute a
"don't belong" demonstrates she or he does and turning away with disdain just
as easily
the next minute when so many seemingly prove that they don't. For so many of
us,
struggle, overcoming, improvement, growth, progress, process, and change in a
student
aren't enough; raising an F or a D to a C or low B isn't enough; being a
consistently "C
student" isn't enough.
So many of us want academic novae; so many of us want students and their
transcripts to look the intellectual part. We adore and reward the academically
drop-dead-easy-to-teach-wow 10s; we ignore and shun the
down-and-dirty-got-to-work-hard-at-ugh 2s, 3s, and 4s, and tell them to drop
dead. Most
us want students to have an academic "sizzle" that we can brag about in our
annual
evaluations and institutional reports. Achievement is in GPAs, titles,
scholarships, and
recognitions. It is not in a student's struggle to find a way or to find her
or his way.
After all, isn't that why so many of us are impressed with those students who
have the
adjective, "honors," or this and that "scholar" describing them? That stuff is
easy to
"market" in both academic and non-academic circles. So many of us just don't
go for the
challenging or resisting intellectual and academic ugly ducklings, and don't
believe there
is a swan lucking inside them. So many of us aren't inclined to nurse the
fallen
sparrows.
Don't so many of us so often make that first impression, snap judgment
correlation
between appearance and talent, transcript and potential, grades and learning as
so many of
us once did--and regrettably sometimes still do--with skin color, religion,
ethnicity, and
gender? Don't so many of us find it easier and less demanding to hone
accomplishment in
the already accomplished than to prospect for, dig for, haul out, sweat over,
cut, and
polish the raw stone into a gleaming jewel? And when students don't live up to
the
mythology of our correlation, when they have frumpy transcripts or shabby
appearances or
drab performances, we more often than not "dis-" them; we engage in ways so
that they are
disheartened and disillusioned; we act in ways so that they are disrespected,
dismissed,
disenfranchised, disregarded, disengaged, and dis-just-about-everything-else;
they're
treated as academically and intellectually unworthy, unkempt, unnoticed,
unwanted,
unclean, unglamorous, unfashionable, unattractive, uncouth, unfortunate,
unknown and
un-just-about-everything-else.
But, in all of this, who is unattractive? That struggling student? Or
us? Who
should be ashamed? That beseeching student? Or us? Who is breaking the
promise? That
promising student? Or us? Why can't each of these students dream? Why don't
we allow
them to dream? Why don't we help them follow their dreams? Why don't we help
them
achieve their dreams? Instead, too many of us engage in the academic version of
abuse,
derision, demeaning, laughter, smirking, mocking, weeding out, grinding into
the dust; we
direct energy away from our heart and soul, and too often sap theirs. Pogo was
right. We
are our own enemy.
We need the courage to split the sea of smug; we need the courage to
treat each
and every student as a sacred some body; we need the courage to have goose
bumps when we
engage with each student; we need the courage to sustain our wonder of each and
every
student; we need the courage to maintain our euphoria for each and every
student; we need
the courage to draw out stirring creativity and imagination in those "don't
belongs;" we
need the courage to find talent and ability in those "they're letting anyone
ins;" we need
the courage to develop the raw and unique potential in the unlikeliest of
people.
It would help if each day we all read and lived John 7:24 and, my
favorite
biblical passage, Micah 6:8.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/
\ /\
//\/\/ /\
\__/__/_/\_\ \_/__\
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" -
---
To make changes to your subscription contact:
Bill Southerly ([email protected])
