tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8711842698474349005.post8171752889161769350..comments2023-10-03T09:00:33.550-04:00Comments on Hofstra University Provost's Blog: Occupy Wall StreetUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8711842698474349005.post-71193675828755199712011-12-19T17:35:15.414-05:002011-12-19T17:35:15.414-05:00PS: I should have mentioned that the students were...PS: I should have mentioned that the students were all first-semester freshmen enrolled in FYC courses -- a cluster and a seminar. This makes the experience all the more important, it seems to me, as part of our effort to get students involved in life beyond the immediate campus. If I give up reading and get back to work, they can move on to being second-semester freshmen!<br /><br />RonRonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8711842698474349005.post-38941345815710979882011-12-19T17:13:56.982-05:002011-12-19T17:13:56.982-05:00Herman –
I still have three final papers to grade...Herman –<br /><br />I still have three final papers to grade and about fifty final grades to post, but instead of working all the way to end and then quitting cold turkey, I thought I would ease myself out of the term by starting to catch up on my reading. So it is that I am way behind in reading your blogs, among many other things. I am happy to see you include OWS among your topics, and want to remark on an aspect that you don’t mention – the “teachability” of the movement, especially for Hofstra students and especially in conjunction with the (now) two Presidential debates we have been chosen to host. It seems to me that from the point of view of teaching it doesn’t matter too much if the OWS participants are doing it right or wrong or inadequately or whatever other description one might use. For teaching purposes, it is enough simply that they are doing it. Students from all three of my writing classes this semester have visited Zuccotti Park, either with me or on their own or both, and many of them have used the experience in various ways in their papers in the latter part of the semester. None of them had ever seen a protest activity up close. Some students were supportive and thought the demonstrators were doing something to heighten awareness; others picked up a common line of thinking that “no plan, no leader, no organization, no goals” would lead to “no results.” To me, as a teacher, whether the students are for or against does not matter as long as they are thinking hard about what they are seeing and trying to articulate their responses in effective ways. For the most part, the students were doing that. But even more, they were, as class discussion and individual conferences revealed, experiencing something about the distinction between the functioning of a republic and the needs of a democracy – were seeing, in other words, how the perceived failings of the elected representatives (as you have pointed out in another of your blogs that I’ve just finished reading) are answered by the direct voice of people demanding change. I hope the students can hold this semester’s experience in focus as long as next fall when they get to see actual and aspiring elected officials up close and can take their newly acquired learning experience one step further. (Had I seen your piece earlier, I’d have used it in my classes – would even have encouraged students to respond to you.)<br /><br />Ron Janssen/Dept. of Writing StudiesRon Janssennoreply@blogger.com