I love the way that Harris begins his article on community. I was a small town, country kid entering a university for the first time. I remember how defensive I would become when I heard people attempting to define my way of life, a life they hardly understood. I remember feeling lost and alone. The only sense of "community" I found that first semester was in my agriculture classes. There people understood me. There people loved me. Then things changed. I learned community isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Perhaps such a statement sounds jaded, and in a way I guess it is. I am a person who discovered a long time ago that sometimes it is easier to exist outside of what many consider "community." I am generally open-minded, and I would never intentionally step on another person's beliefs. I expect that sort of respect in return. That is the problem with some versions of the classroom community. Let me explain with two very different examples.
BLED 350, Summer 2007, second summer session. Fifteen students, only two boys. We had all been together in a different ed class for Summer I, and we knew one another, were comfortable with one another. We were a group, a community. We knew that Aumanda was a member of the LDS. We knew Ana's husband was in the Airforce. We knew Jaimie was in search of an MRS degree. We knew Tracy was the Chi Omega president. But what we learned in the four weeks of Summer II was more important. We spent that time talking and learning about ways to address diversity in the classroom. Our teacher, Genie, was bubbly and funny, and with her Master's degree in tow she remains the most brilliant instructor (or professor) I've ever known. Her questions prodded and poked. Her ideas made us think and question who we were, why we were that way, and why and how we needed to accept those who weren't. That class proved to be the foundational element of the current "me," the starting point of my research, the place where love was shared and relationships were built. A community of friends that lasted throughout my undergraduate career and whose impact is felt today.
ENG 330, Sping 2010, a long way from Summer 2007. By this time, I had changed my major three times and was now in my final semester and ready to graduate with an English degree. I knew people in the class of twenty-five, it was a small University after all. Some I had had classes with, others I knew by sight. Our professor opened Day#1 by informing us that we probably weren't going to understand what was going on most of the semester and that she didn't assume that most of us ever would. Fabulous...we are too stupid for your class. Undergrad was definitely difficult, but a little encouragement would have gone a long way. Classroom discussions throughout the semester were often heated. We stepped on each other's toes, but not as much as that professor stepped on those with whom she disagreed. You aren't category X, Y, or Z, so be prepared for a woman's size 10 right in the middle of your forehead. I have two good friends from that class, women with whome I cried and vented. We weren't a community, we were a tripod of support for one another.
The differences in these two classes are extreme. The sense of community from the two is vastly different. In one group, community was all of us and our clashing and disagreement which, in the end, built us all up. In the other, community was only what our professor said and those who agreed or were too afraid to speak up. I want my classes to be Version #1...and if they become Version #2, then it's time to find a different profession.
Interesting post! I think community is a tricky thing. It may be an advantage to not "fit-in" to a specific group. I think the people that fit into many groups, or perhaps none at all, tend to be more interesting people.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your post, Melissa, and you raised something in class this week especially important--the line which we draw in the sand as to when something should be learned is a little problematic. When should students negotiate these spaces? When should we encourage them to read outside of class? Well, not at the freshman level; perhaps as they enter school at the Kindergarten level. In many ways it's too late, in many ways it's all we have and is not too late.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem with defining a life is that lives can't be defined. That's the same thing as saying, ultimately, that to create one system of process for everyone is to make everyone's unique process of writing a product. To me that's not good teaching. That is, lives change, people change, processes of learning are MUCH more individuated and complex.
You highlight that there is space in reacting against community. Perhaps we can call that agency. That, in fact, there's motivation in thinking about being the other and reacting to the mainstream. But, can't we all do that, from are own, diverse vantage points?
You raise another interesting point, too. If the instruction is the same, then why isn't the reception of the instruction from section to section the same? Well, obviously, because the students are different. Their experience brings something much different to ways in which the material can be embraced.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI loved your post. Creating community in my classroom will be my first priority!
Becca
Becca you need to read "Thinking Out Loud on Paper" by Lil Brannon. You can totally apply this in the classroom...I know you, you will love it!
ReplyDeleteI'm having issues with this site, so I apologize if you get two similar comments from me.
ReplyDeleteI, too, want to create the first kind of community in my classroom. That's what I loved about going to a small university and being in an incredibly small department. It was safe. It was productive. For me, it was an academic version of family.