Sunday, September 15, 2002
I've been really up and down this semester, but ya know, writing about it helps!
This whole writing as therapy, writing as finding out about yourself, writing like anybody at all instead of writing like some sort of academic pointy-head is really taking over my life and causing all sorts of personal introspection. In a Rhetoric and Professional Communication PhD program, you can imagine that we weren't encouraged to be exploring our feelings and helping students get to know themselves better. But I am pretty convinced now of something like what Sybil is saying--that the most important thing we can do is help students mature, be reflective, be introspective.
I am really excited about some of the stuff going on: the FSU connection, the Analog Cereal guy, a student of mine wrote a long, powerful entry about being clean for 40 some days now--since her best friend OD'ed and died this summer. Others in the class have read it and are staring to write about it. Two students are looking into setting up their own sites so they have more control--and like Sybil's students, they are thinking of keeping a blog for the rest of their college careers--and beyond. Wouldn't this be a great way to stay in touch with students over the years? !!
If we do build some momentum, we should get the spectrum to do a story on our classes and feature some bloggers. For the right person, it might be quite a trip to be the official blogger of NDSU--to achieve cult status among your fellow students.
I order a book via ILL today: The Writing Cure: Psychoanalysis, Composition, and the Aims of Education. I'll share it with you both when I get it.
This whole writing as therapy, writing as finding out about yourself, writing like anybody at all instead of writing like some sort of academic pointy-head is really taking over my life and causing all sorts of personal introspection. In a Rhetoric and Professional Communication PhD program, you can imagine that we weren't encouraged to be exploring our feelings and helping students get to know themselves better. But I am pretty convinced now of something like what Sybil is saying--that the most important thing we can do is help students mature, be reflective, be introspective.
I am really excited about some of the stuff going on: the FSU connection, the Analog Cereal guy, a student of mine wrote a long, powerful entry about being clean for 40 some days now--since her best friend OD'ed and died this summer. Others in the class have read it and are staring to write about it. Two students are looking into setting up their own sites so they have more control--and like Sybil's students, they are thinking of keeping a blog for the rest of their college careers--and beyond. Wouldn't this be a great way to stay in touch with students over the years? !!
If we do build some momentum, we should get the spectrum to do a story on our classes and feature some bloggers. For the right person, it might be quite a trip to be the official blogger of NDSU--to achieve cult status among your fellow students.
I order a book via ILL today: The Writing Cure: Psychoanalysis, Composition, and the Aims of Education. I'll share it with you both when I get it.
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