Wondering

Plato, Aristotle, Montaigne, Heidegger all traced the beginning of philosophy back to wonder. Rodolphe Gasche, a student of Derrida's links wonder to aporia -- that moment where our current way of thinking gets stuck in its own devices. So, how do we cultivate wonder? If wonder precedes and informs philosophical thinking, what makes wonder? And, as some read Gasche, philosophy hovers behind play, then wonder precedes even play. What, then, does it mean to wonder?

To Heart or Hate Grading

I got my first stack of papers this week and set out to get at least halfway through over the weekend. Usually, any attempt at tackling the majority of a stack leaves me wiped out and grumpy. However, this weekend, I had almost all Saturday to pace myself while the family was at the Renaissance Festival (the font while loading is the best part of the page, I think). As I graded, I realized "Hey, I like this." And then I had to ask why I liked it. Usually, as Nedra Reynolds points out in her book, Portfolio Keeping, I am one of those professors who really doesn't like that part of the job. I'd rather just sit and talk about the writing and what the student can do to improve it, like a tutoring session. Alas, students want written comments and, I think it provides a record of my reactions we can both reflect upon at the end of the semester when they argue about what they learned and I distribute grades.

So, there I was, totally jazzed about grading. Only I realized was doing more than that. The essays my students wrote provided me with an opportunity I hadn't really gotten in the first two weeks of class. I got to sit down with them and know them through their writing. I wasn't rushed into evaluative mode, but, rather, settled into a mode that was open to their texts, their voices, and the choices they made as they wrote.

Sadly, this didn't last as long as I hoped it would. After I graded half the papers, I had to grade the rest in smaller increments during the week. That meant under more time pressure -- after conferences with the students whose papers I had already completed, in between teaching classes, or -- more often -- in front of the TV after the kids had gone to bed. I tried to remain as open and relaxed about the grading process, but I don't think I accomplished that. I felt more quick to judge and less accountable to each student as an individual. I still graded on the same criteria and often pointed out many of the same things in the last half of papers, but somehow I feel the quality of my responses didn't match their predecessors. I'll have to grade the next stack in reverse order from this one.

We're Beer! We're Here!

Newly available in Iowa:Here, look closer:
And we are oh, so happy! The 22 oz. commemorative bottles bear a label that reads "FIGBRAI: Fat's Inagural Bike Ride Across Iowa." Mmmmmmmmmm.

A Happy Shambles

I had figured my new job would involve a fair bit of repairing an old or damaged system. After all, the WPA person here had a degree in literature, taught women's lit courses and published in women's lit; the director of the state Writing Project: an Americanist; director of the writing center: former grad student.... There is a minor in professional writing, but that is administered and taught largely by a wonderful colleague whose degree is in professional and technical writing. She has her hands full there, but outside of us two, there are no other faculty or staff with specialties in writing.

Much of this I knew when I accepted the job. I liked the potential and the room to grow. Where others may have blanched, I saw challenge. So, during the first three weeks here, I have scheduled meetings with the WPA person, the Department Chair, the Director of the Writing Center, a retiring specialist in writing (by way of a minor), and the Dean of the college. So far from what I have learned, the administration realizes its predicament. Certainly, the President of the university wants to replicate the atmosphere he was used to at Iowa State. My chair is behind me and as far as WPA and Writing Center folks, I am enthusiastic about their creativity and open attitude.

In my meetings, I have been using the phrase "initiating a conversation about writing" at this university and I think this is apt. From what I can tell, until fairly recently administration did not take writing seriously and/or relied on a basic skills theory of writing. At one point, what was supposed to be an entrance exam assessing student writing skills had a 50% rate of student failure. Another 50% failed it after taking it a second time. The 25% who could not pass the exam often had to take FYC as a remedial course and/or during one of their final years as an undergraduate. Currently, everyone has to take FYC, even though it still is taught mainly by adjuncts, a few graduate students, and some full-time faculty. However, FYC is still considered remedial by a large segment of the university community. So, there is one thing that needs to be discussed.

Part of this conversation is deeper, though. During orientation lunch, I brazenly (perhaps too brazenly) discussed how rhetoric was the foundation of a liberal undergraduate education, even the foundation of the scientific method. There was some silence at the table, but some curiosity, too, before the Provost interrupted and began her speech. Thankfully, I was off the hook. However, it seems that the conversation about writing here is still fairly shallow: its a basic skill that students ought to have been taught in high school or community college. Then they get upset when students can't write. Worse, they lump all these students together: second language writers with minority writers working against hegemony with less privileged economic class writers with those who just don't know the material. No wonder the administration has that desperate look in their eyes.

I am listening, happily, amidst the shambles.