> In my view, I, as a SOE instructor, struggle exactly with my students
being very
>school-successful. They are often ones of the best. And this is the
problem (for me). >They have very high grades (and GPA). They study and
work for grades. This is not >just my observation but their own
testimony articulated in our class and web >discussions.
The Ph.D. program I used to be in has a pervasive problem with students
"stalling out" on their First Doctoral Exam - which requires the student
to design, conduct, write up and defend a "beginner's level" piece of
independent research. One of the guys who had done well as an undergrad
and now was drowning said:
"I learned how to be a great undergrad: read books, take tests, write
papers, figure out what the prof wants. Now I have to think
*independently* and no one ever taught me how to do it. I need someone
to show me how and the profs here don't help because they seem to think
we must have been born knowing how to do this."
An interesting question: how many people in Academia have really learned
how to do research and how many have just substituted "meeting APA (or
whatever) standards" for "pleasing the prof," and can this account for
some of the amazing things that get published these days?
>They often have never experienced academic learning for pleasure and
they think, at >least initially, that it is impossible.
On the contrary, being too enthusiastic will get you in trouble - it
takes time away from your "real work" and makes your institutionalized
keepers wonder if you're getting subversive. What if you want to keep on
studying the subject after the semester ends? How will you find the time
in between grubbing for grades and politicking the teachers?
>They have great dreams of becoming teachers who make differences in
their kids' >lives. The essence of school machine: control, discipline,
transmission of
>knowledge, meeting benchmarks, blaming kids and parents, fatigue, and
>indifference will claim many of them. JOB -- concerns with promotion,
survival, >dealing with burnout -- will soon replace their dreams.
At least they're still dreaming! Cherish that, and teach them all the
guerrilla tactics that you can. The consciousness that one is caught in
an anti-human organization is the first step in resisting it - keeping
from being defeated on a personal level and accomplishing something
constructive in spite of the system. Most people who have been
successful students have trouble initially in realizing that the system
is basically hostile - after all, it's been rewarding them for obedience
- but once they see the price they have paid for "making it" they can be
more open to learning specific strategies and approaches. Let them know
the choices aren't limited to martyrdom or capitulation. Of course, some
may not believe you and won't until they're actually out there, but then
they may recall what you said (and even drop you an e-mail to ask you to
repeat it).
Just my two cents.
Rochel Heckert