Elsewhere, I write about the essential need for community college students to meet their professors, so I recommend revisit that post.
In 2017 Fall, the southeast Texas coast was inundated (literally) with/because/in Tropical Storm Harvey, and my college closed for a week. All my students were affected at several level, and many lost their homes, cars, other possessions, even textbooks. The college was successful to provide many, many resources. Yet, though I begged students to visit me during the semester, I was also struck that so many students chose not to visit professors, perhaps emotionally detached from their experiences with the chaos of the semester.
In 2018 Spring, we encountered a winter storm where the roads were iced-over and the college, again, was closed for a week. We did not experience massive destruction, and I see the difference. The students are less emotional fragile than they were last semester. I am still concerned with many students, however, because of their personal stresses, and I respect those real lives. In community colleges, we must acknowledge that our students live in often marginalized worlds, and as a community college / college community, we must know about these worlds.
This is where visiting the professor is important: professors, as awesome and all-powerful and all-knowing [satire, satire, satire] cannot read minds; we cannot read the minds of our students nor some professors practice very human psychology and assume student behavior based on body language and silences. Professors can only learn from students either reading student writing (I have the advantage - as a Rhetoric-Composition Studies professors, I am privileged to learning from my students because of their writing act; some professors do not have this privilege) or by talking, visiting, learning through oral communication.
What I've seen this semester is that more students are willing to visit for conversations. We discuss writing, reading, access to textbooks and on-campus resources. We discuss my experiences as a professor, but also as an undergrad student. We discuss the classroom and how I can improve the class pedagogy. We discuss assignments and address success in those assignments. We learn from each other what students want to do and how the community college/ college community can support student success. We discuss danger in our community -- threats by politicians and ICE; threats of community food insecurity; threats of overwork because of the working problem. We discuss how students' families support college goals and how families have multiple goals and sometimes these goals conflict with college success. I learn about work balance and we discuss alternative deadlines. I am more interested with students learning than just hitting my deadlines.
I've already met so many students to clarify our projects but, importantly, I have learned from my students and want to learn with them for this semester. We have already planned for their final projects based on their experiences, their confidences, their professional goals, and our community needs.
This is powerful -- a professor sitting with a young student (all my students are young this semester!), respecting their lives, and collaborating for new scholarship. This should be our college goals -- facilitating, mentoring, collaborating for knowledge, contrast the banking model of education where the professor presumes she or he knows all.
But this collaboration won't happen until students meet the professors and until the professor decides to listen.
Two cents.
In 2017 Fall, the southeast Texas coast was inundated (literally) with/because/in Tropical Storm Harvey, and my college closed for a week. All my students were affected at several level, and many lost their homes, cars, other possessions, even textbooks. The college was successful to provide many, many resources. Yet, though I begged students to visit me during the semester, I was also struck that so many students chose not to visit professors, perhaps emotionally detached from their experiences with the chaos of the semester.
In 2018 Spring, we encountered a winter storm where the roads were iced-over and the college, again, was closed for a week. We did not experience massive destruction, and I see the difference. The students are less emotional fragile than they were last semester. I am still concerned with many students, however, because of their personal stresses, and I respect those real lives. In community colleges, we must acknowledge that our students live in often marginalized worlds, and as a community college / college community, we must know about these worlds.
This is where visiting the professor is important: professors, as awesome and all-powerful and all-knowing [satire, satire, satire] cannot read minds; we cannot read the minds of our students nor some professors practice very human psychology and assume student behavior based on body language and silences. Professors can only learn from students either reading student writing (I have the advantage - as a Rhetoric-Composition Studies professors, I am privileged to learning from my students because of their writing act; some professors do not have this privilege) or by talking, visiting, learning through oral communication.
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| [Most students won't recognize this, but the guy with the cap is the Wizard of Oz; I use it here as a metaphor of both systemic assumptions of power vs marginalized youth and the pretentiousness of professors (wizards) often ignorant of their students' worlds. Image 1939, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer] |
What I've seen this semester is that more students are willing to visit for conversations. We discuss writing, reading, access to textbooks and on-campus resources. We discuss my experiences as a professor, but also as an undergrad student. We discuss the classroom and how I can improve the class pedagogy. We discuss assignments and address success in those assignments. We learn from each other what students want to do and how the community college/ college community can support student success. We discuss danger in our community -- threats by politicians and ICE; threats of community food insecurity; threats of overwork because of the working problem. We discuss how students' families support college goals and how families have multiple goals and sometimes these goals conflict with college success. I learn about work balance and we discuss alternative deadlines. I am more interested with students learning than just hitting my deadlines.
I've already met so many students to clarify our projects but, importantly, I have learned from my students and want to learn with them for this semester. We have already planned for their final projects based on their experiences, their confidences, their professional goals, and our community needs.
This is powerful -- a professor sitting with a young student (all my students are young this semester!), respecting their lives, and collaborating for new scholarship. This should be our college goals -- facilitating, mentoring, collaborating for knowledge, contrast the banking model of education where the professor presumes she or he knows all.
But this collaboration won't happen until students meet the professors and until the professor decides to listen.
Two cents.
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