What Tickles Me Today
Wanting to do something and sitting down to do it are two different things . . . especially when it comes to my updating this blog! My teaching semester is winding down. I am not quite "in my body" because of a minor car accident today -- sliding on the ice! -- and couldn't think of anything upbeat to write about. Here we go . . . I'm grateful to the telephone pole that stopped me from sliding right out into traffic on Telegraph Road!
Checking email, I discovered I now have eight active accounts! Plus Facebook and a couple of other networking sites I seldom use. This tickles me. For someone who with great trepidation purchased her first (very primitive) word processor from Montgomery Wards in 1987 or so, I'm now really involved with technology. So much change in 23 years! I also updated my cell phone, only because the dinosaur died, to a new Blackberry and I have hopes of learning to use more of its features and adding apps. Whoo-hoo! My younger readers may not appreciate this, but it is a big deal.
Something else that has changed in the past 23 years is me! In the last two weeks, I've had students guess my age at 25 years younger than reality, and I giggled all day. Today a kind young service station manager described me to an equally kind police sergeant as "an older lady," and convinced the busy officer to take my accident report, so I don't have to make a special trip to the local police station. It's all relative! I'm grateful to be seen as younger, and to be seen as older. Amazing.
Another ordinary moment of note: I got a Christmas card from a cousin, including a couple of journal notes, memoirs about his childhood and parents. I was astonished to learn that he spent his first seven years with a grandmother and only met his parents when his grandmother was too ill to care for him. I find myself warming with affection that this 60-plus gentleman would bother to share his recollections this way.
My students continue to amaze me. Each one gives me glimpses of a special life story. Many have dramatic stories unfolding even as they are striving to study and pass exams.
One student confided about being accused of a crime he swears he didn't commit. Another had major surgery but was back in class three weeks later. Several are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and struggle to concentrate, and with whether or not to use their prescriptions to help focus. One was unexpectedly served divorce papers a week before finals. In the last two years, students have confided about their dreadful war experiences (shooting and being shot or bombed), rape, history of sexual abuse, family suicides, family murders, fire that killed an entire family, and domestic violence. Others struggle with depression, bipolar disorder, general anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder, and social phobias such as extreme shyness and even schizophrenia. Some are veterans of recent wars, and some would protest any wars. At one college, my students are a marvelous mix of Arabic, African American, Chinese, Mexican-American, Phillipino, French, Canadian and Anglo-American. Many are young, including a few high-school students doing advanced placement classes, and some are middle-aged or entering retirement years. Very few could fit the stereotype of a typical 18-23 year old middle-class college student.
I am grateful to touch their lives for a few months, to share my perspective on life along with a broad overview of contemporary psychology. I am grateful that we laugh a lot in my classes, and that in spite of their personal challenges, the students keep coming back, always wanting to learn.
When I began consistent college teaching (in contrast to teaching professional working adults), I felt frustrated that today's students "can't read, can't write," and don't seem to learn the same way my contemporaries and I learned. Now, I've come to think that perhaps our changing world is creating a need for a new breed of learners. Maybe today's students don't really need to learn masses of information, and don't need to master the same old ideas. Instead, maybe they need to know how to find information, recognize when it is accurate and useful, and how to experiment and adapt within a world that keeps leapfrogging into unexpected futures.
I work daily to adjust to my own challenges, and I'm grateful to my students for teaching me a gazillion new ways to keep going in spite of the obstacles in life. I'm privileged to be a neutral compassionate observer of their process of forging new pathways to self-discovery and success.
That tickles me too.
Until next time . . .
Checking email, I discovered I now have eight active accounts! Plus Facebook and a couple of other networking sites I seldom use. This tickles me. For someone who with great trepidation purchased her first (very primitive) word processor from Montgomery Wards in 1987 or so, I'm now really involved with technology. So much change in 23 years! I also updated my cell phone, only because the dinosaur died, to a new Blackberry and I have hopes of learning to use more of its features and adding apps. Whoo-hoo! My younger readers may not appreciate this, but it is a big deal.
Something else that has changed in the past 23 years is me! In the last two weeks, I've had students guess my age at 25 years younger than reality, and I giggled all day. Today a kind young service station manager described me to an equally kind police sergeant as "an older lady," and convinced the busy officer to take my accident report, so I don't have to make a special trip to the local police station. It's all relative! I'm grateful to be seen as younger, and to be seen as older. Amazing.
Another ordinary moment of note: I got a Christmas card from a cousin, including a couple of journal notes, memoirs about his childhood and parents. I was astonished to learn that he spent his first seven years with a grandmother and only met his parents when his grandmother was too ill to care for him. I find myself warming with affection that this 60-plus gentleman would bother to share his recollections this way.
My students continue to amaze me. Each one gives me glimpses of a special life story. Many have dramatic stories unfolding even as they are striving to study and pass exams.
One student confided about being accused of a crime he swears he didn't commit. Another had major surgery but was back in class three weeks later. Several are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and struggle to concentrate, and with whether or not to use their prescriptions to help focus. One was unexpectedly served divorce papers a week before finals. In the last two years, students have confided about their dreadful war experiences (shooting and being shot or bombed), rape, history of sexual abuse, family suicides, family murders, fire that killed an entire family, and domestic violence. Others struggle with depression, bipolar disorder, general anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder, and social phobias such as extreme shyness and even schizophrenia. Some are veterans of recent wars, and some would protest any wars. At one college, my students are a marvelous mix of Arabic, African American, Chinese, Mexican-American, Phillipino, French, Canadian and Anglo-American. Many are young, including a few high-school students doing advanced placement classes, and some are middle-aged or entering retirement years. Very few could fit the stereotype of a typical 18-23 year old middle-class college student.
I am grateful to touch their lives for a few months, to share my perspective on life along with a broad overview of contemporary psychology. I am grateful that we laugh a lot in my classes, and that in spite of their personal challenges, the students keep coming back, always wanting to learn.
When I began consistent college teaching (in contrast to teaching professional working adults), I felt frustrated that today's students "can't read, can't write," and don't seem to learn the same way my contemporaries and I learned. Now, I've come to think that perhaps our changing world is creating a need for a new breed of learners. Maybe today's students don't really need to learn masses of information, and don't need to master the same old ideas. Instead, maybe they need to know how to find information, recognize when it is accurate and useful, and how to experiment and adapt within a world that keeps leapfrogging into unexpected futures.
I work daily to adjust to my own challenges, and I'm grateful to my students for teaching me a gazillion new ways to keep going in spite of the obstacles in life. I'm privileged to be a neutral compassionate observer of their process of forging new pathways to self-discovery and success.
That tickles me too.
Until next time . . .
Labels: appreciation, college students, compassion, future, learning and growing, teaching
posted by Ilenya Marrin, DSS @ 8:11 PM
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