Summer ends?
So it's Labor Day weekend, and I'm at a coffee shop, working (or, at this moment, taking a break from it). I've just overheard the barista yell something that makes historians cringe: "Why do I need to know how to look stuff up? History is just reading a book and writing a story about it." It's a little bit disheartening to be so misunderstood, I'll admit, and as much as I'm tempted to go and engage her in a conversation about it, I'm also jaded enough that I know it probably wouldn't matter that much. The process of writing history is something that more or less has to be done to be understood. Hopefully she'll get it before the end of the semester.
But it's also indicative of the end of summer, and the sudden influx of LOTS of 18-22 year olds, and the process of getting them acclimatized to the town and campus, a task which largely falls to the rest of us. Yes, it's about teaching them our subjects, but it's also about having the patience to teach them about lots of other things, too. They come to us as inwardly focused (as 18 year olds, pretty much regardless of who they are), and it's our job to introduce them to the fact that there is a much larger world. Often the academic teaching is the more rewarding than the life-lessons, mostly because we get to talk about what interests us. But, as someone who isn't teaching this year, the other life lessons have recently been brought home to me. For example, the people who walk down the (clearly-marked) bike paths. Whether under iPod headphones (which, as a user I can't issue a general indictment against) or talking on the phone, the kids aren't paying attention to their surroundings, and can't hear the frustrated bicyclist (ok... me) dinging a bell at them. In worst-case scenarios, this gets them killed- a few years ago a girl was struck by a bus when talking on her cell phone as she crossed the street. But it's also indicative of their focus as almost entirely inward, a direction which may or may not reverse over the course of their time here. It is certainly not something that the general population has lost, as indicted in everything from national politics to traffic jams- a "me first" mentality that puts everyone and everything else second to one's own wants and needs. We all do it a little bit- the challenge (and for some of us a more daily one than for others) is to see above and beyond ourselves, to have patience with those who haven't yet reached this point, and to have the endurance to try to help them get them to it.
I am enough of a historian to recognize that complaints about the "rising generation" have echoed for a long time, and enough of an optimist to hope that we will change enough of these kids to make a difference. And perhaps I'll go talk to that barista after all.
But it's also indicative of the end of summer, and the sudden influx of LOTS of 18-22 year olds, and the process of getting them acclimatized to the town and campus, a task which largely falls to the rest of us. Yes, it's about teaching them our subjects, but it's also about having the patience to teach them about lots of other things, too. They come to us as inwardly focused (as 18 year olds, pretty much regardless of who they are), and it's our job to introduce them to the fact that there is a much larger world. Often the academic teaching is the more rewarding than the life-lessons, mostly because we get to talk about what interests us. But, as someone who isn't teaching this year, the other life lessons have recently been brought home to me. For example, the people who walk down the (clearly-marked) bike paths. Whether under iPod headphones (which, as a user I can't issue a general indictment against) or talking on the phone, the kids aren't paying attention to their surroundings, and can't hear the frustrated bicyclist (ok... me) dinging a bell at them. In worst-case scenarios, this gets them killed- a few years ago a girl was struck by a bus when talking on her cell phone as she crossed the street. But it's also indicative of their focus as almost entirely inward, a direction which may or may not reverse over the course of their time here. It is certainly not something that the general population has lost, as indicted in everything from national politics to traffic jams- a "me first" mentality that puts everyone and everything else second to one's own wants and needs. We all do it a little bit- the challenge (and for some of us a more daily one than for others) is to see above and beyond ourselves, to have patience with those who haven't yet reached this point, and to have the endurance to try to help them get them to it.
I am enough of a historian to recognize that complaints about the "rising generation" have echoed for a long time, and enough of an optimist to hope that we will change enough of these kids to make a difference. And perhaps I'll go talk to that barista after all.
posted by Karen at
11:37 AM
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