One thing I’d like to address that David pointed out in
their blueprint for liberation presentation a few weeks ago is his point on how
Rhodes students can educate themselves and become more involved around the
city. I completely agree with this and think that we as college students have a
duty to learn more about the city and really love the city that we live in
while we’re here. Part of speeding up the process for the newest Rhodes class
was establishing the first-year seminar. I am a student teaching assistant for
the first-year seminar and from someone who sees these students once a week,
every week, I think there is much to be done about the way it is taught and the
content of the teaching.
Let me say, I really enjoy our faculty instructor, my other
student teaching assistant, and the peer assistant group we were paired with
but this has been approached entirely incorrectly. Like David said, after he
had polled a few athletes he knew, they were fairly unimpressed and felt as
though the seminar is a waste of time. Students in my seminar tended to agree
with that same sentiment.
Where I think this seminar goes wrong is that it feels
incredibly forced. Talks about diversity, health, Memphis, studying- they all
feel as if we’ve digressed back to high school age where these students need a
step-by-step recipe for success when they truly don’t. There are so many
successful older students who didn’t participate in this seminar. I think where
the problem lies with this seminar is that when these subjects are forced,
students, in result, have a bag experience with them. Themes like sexual
assault, the election, the Civil Rights Museum, now all have a negative connotation
associated with them because the conversations weren’t productive and were
entirely too orchestrated.
Not only this, but the order in which the seminar took place
was appalling. None of the information made sense in the ways in which it was
put together. Much of it seemed haphazardly thrown together, each week seeing
an incredibly different topic with no time to address the need to speak on past
topics. I would say that the times we ad lib-ed the conversation were times
when we were the most productive. I believe that this seminar really can make a
difference but there needs to be more transparency from the committee to the
teachers and more openness to be able to address the issues head-on if this
seminar is to be worthwhile in the future.
Thank you for your post. I too have concerns about the state of the first year seminars. From the few students I have talked to I have learned that they echo these feelings of being bored and disillusioned by this highschoolish structured style of education. How then do we implement a framework that provides a fruitful environment for these ad-lib discussions? Could instead of a lesson plan we have weekly themes that could be addressed in different ways by depending on the particular attitude of the class? How can we encourage engagement without forcing it? These questions require thorough thought. Hopefully though trial and error we as a community can find a balance that provides the necessary social education to the students who require it while not boring or distracting the students already well versed on these issues.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I completely agree. I have also been speaking with first years about their opinions of the seminar. They reiterate that they feel it is a waste of their time. I even had one boy jokingly call it the “bane of his existence.” However, I feel that a group such as this has so much potential for good. You mentioned that felt the times that your conversations were the most productive is when you and your partner ad-libbed. I think there is a lot of value in that. One way that I feel this group could be restructured is by making it more flexible. Forcing conversations about difficult topics does not make the conversation productive, but awkward and closed off. By allowing conversations to organically grown and develop is when the most progress is made. By allowing students to make the conscious choice to discuss these topics is when real discussions can start to happen.
ReplyDelete