At 05:08 PM 12/7/2003, Christine wrote:
> Hi Rebecca, Chris Jones, Nessa, Mark, and All--
Better late than never. An interesting discussion to say the least.
I'm perhaps in a skewed position. Although I taught for one semester at a
very elite New Jersey State College, The College of New Jersey, renamed
from Trenton State to avoid making it sound like the maximum security
prison, my most recent experience (this sounds like a CV) was last spring
as an adjunct in composition at two community colleges.
Comp is not as boring as it sounds. We asked the students to read,
discuss, and write about the assigned readings, and to produce a final
portfolio of writings based on instructor corrections and comments.
I don't know how to discuss student curiosity without referring to the
slack-mouth phenomenon, the spiritual yawn. In the community colleges, at
least, the students fell into three groups. One: the over-35 students who
were not always 100% good writers but paid attention to the material, asked
challenging questions, and worked at their writing. There was a
19-year-old woman in one of my sections who also fit that category. Two:
the students who sat there, handed in assignments, but said nothing to
contribute to the interchange. Three: the students who were openly bored,
hostile, and whom you wished would cut class. These were often the ones
who'd vanish in time for the final exam and portfolio review, receive an
Incomplete, and not bother to finish the work: their grade therefore went
to failure. Not a word, not a sound, not a "why'd you fail me?" Life
lived as a giant shrug.
"Maybe it was you, Ken." No, because other instructors shared their
stories with me, and they were mostly alike: an inexplicable lack of giving
a damn about anything. It wasn't the "rumor of war" that diverted or
distressed them: aside from a PAW reading in February last year, the campus
seemed apolitical and the students had nothing to say.
I am really at a loss to define what Chris meant by a sense of
irresponsibility because I saw lots of it. Maybe it all channeled into
Brookdale Community College:-). Maybe what he means is a sense of homo
ludens, a sense of playfulness? The kids--because the students were mainly
in their late teens/early 20s--seemed dour and focused, but it's hard for
me to figure out the object of their gazes. Its was not on the work they'd
chosen to do by going back to or staying in school.
Ken
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth
Wolman
http://www.kenwolman.com
"i had not really expected to find any of the art world populated with
ex-murderers fascists green berets and now i know that you can find
anything in the art world and they can even become prophets' -- David
Antin, "Tuning"
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