I was reading student journals this early morning. As I read of what seemed like a debilitating epidemic of manic depression plaguing our campus as the semester comes to a harried close, something struck me. How often do we think, do we loudly assert, that we know students. But, in truth, almost all of us know them only in the most disengaged, distant, disconnected, abstract, generalized, stereotypical, or anonymous way. This means we usually do not know them at all; we don't give a face or name to learning; everyone is a blur; we don't see the stories of individuals with varied personalities and assorted experiences and different talents, subject to diverse and contesting social, personal, and family pressures, torn by disrupting forces of transformation; we have only the dimmest understanding of what each of these people are like much less what they are going through; and we usually aren't drawn deeply below the surface into the people business of education. It all too often makes the entire process none too real.
Make it a good day. --Louis-- Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.com Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org Valdosta State University Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\ (229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\ / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ \ /\ //\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\ \_/__\ /\"If you want to climb mountains,\ /\ _ / \ don't practice on mole hills" - --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2020 or send a blank email to leave-2020-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
