I realize your point is much bigger than this but bc I feel deeply about this issue: yes, yes, we have to tell students when they do good work, and *especially* when they do one important thing right in an overall very flawed piece of work!!! After ten years I still feel like an interloper or spy at the very fancy university that I work at, but I sometimes feel like these spaces manage to combine two things that theoretically don’t go together: low intellectual standards overall; a degree of nitpicking and withholding that almost amounts to emotional abuse. That seems like it should be a logical paradox. It’s some sort of anti-miracle to make them happen simultaneously.
For me, sensitizing a student to what they already do well is the best part of the job, and also often the most productive part of the job. It makes students want to write better for internal rather than external reasons: if I can do this well, why wouldn’t I want to? It is CRAZY-MAKING for me that some educators don’t see this.
I realize your point is much bigger than this but bc I feel deeply about this issue: yes, yes, we have to tell students when they do good work, and *especially* when they do one important thing right in an overall very flawed piece of work!!! After ten years I still feel like an interloper or spy at the very fancy university that I work at, but I sometimes feel like these spaces manage to combine two things that theoretically don’t go together: low intellectual standards overall; a degree of nitpicking and withholding that almost amounts to emotional abuse. That seems like it should be a logical paradox. It’s some sort of anti-miracle to make them happen simultaneously.
For me, sensitizing a student to what they already do well is the best part of the job, and also often the most productive part of the job. It makes students want to write better for internal rather than external reasons: if I can do this well, why wouldn’t I want to? It is CRAZY-MAKING for me that some educators don’t see this.
The edge is the feeling just before you create something. You have to be empty, fearless and receptive to do it— just like this, like you just did.
Lucy, you have a huge elastic brain. This is intense and I enjoyed it. Merry Christmas. Love, Karen.
oh, yes.