By Nicholas
Hayes
Sometimes
on Sunday mornings, I wake naturally. My partner snores gently. A cat stretches
over my chest and belly. Another cat, balled tight, leans against my calf. In these
moments, I don't have to worry about my inadequate health insurance or my
student loans. These mornings are the navel of my world. Everything on the
queen-sized mattress seems right. In these moments, my comfort is supreme. But
eventually, inevitably, the adorable ball of fur will swat the cat on my chest.
They will hiss and spit. Eventually, inevitably, I have to think about my
finances. I have to get out of bed.
Students who have enrolled in
Writing Workshop are often running from the bad dreams of previous academic
experience or doubt in their own academic ability. Their nerves can be so
frayed that I find myself wanting to create the academic equivalent of the
Sunday morning bed for them. I don't want them to worry. I just want them to
sit in the classroom, talk with each other, and find that this can be a
comfortable environment.
In the classroom, I want students to
know they are not alone. I talk to them about my own struggles with writing. At
times, I will even show them drafts of papers I am writing. I show them the
notes I make on my work. I point out the errors I have made. I insist that they
are not alone. Most people have made the same bed and take the same steps to
get out of it. I invite students to talk about their writing difficulties. They
see they are not alone. I try to show them they do not have to be uncomfortable
when they write or when they are in class.
Having created this environment, many students find
ease in silence when I ask a question or request a volunteer for peer review.
Some think they can hide in the silence. But I break this silence by saying I
will take "voluntary volunteers first, and then involuntary
volunteers." Everyone needs to participate not because of some grading
checklist, but because attempting to answer and finding the confidence and
comfort to share work is the only way to build a worthwhile learning
experience. Some students try to bargain. They'll share their work if they can
do it anonymously, but I have tried to do this in the past. And when their classmates
were unshackled by anonymity, their feedback was blunter and the anonymous
students' found less comfort than in the open peer review.
Certainly, comfort is not always conducive to
learning.
From my own educational experience, I learned the
most from the teachers who made me uncomfortable. Those instructors who
inhabited tiny, book-cluttered offices would clear a small square on their
desks so that I could set my work out for them to scrutinize. If my reasoning
or translations were unsound, Dr. B would sigh, "Nicholas, I didn't think
you were any idiot but [the quality of that thought was lacking.]" In
graduate school, one of my advisors would disdainfully slide my short stories
back to me. She grit her teeth and made me map out each sentence and explain
how the syntax fit the nature of the story. The anxiety from these experiences
still makes me want to vomit. But the lessons I gleaned from these experiences
are clear and indelible. When students ask me to hit the metaphorical snooze
well past the time we need to be challenged, I imagine Dr. B whispering in my
ear to stay firm for the students' sake. This academic daimon knows I must
demand clearer thinking and finer phrasing. I push (but with a softer touch
than Dr. B could manage.)
A vocal minority of students who believe they can
only learn from a dry-erase dictator armed with a free-flowing red pen
complicates this reflection. These students think education is to be battle
hardened. But they miss out on the fact we need to know we belong. At times, I
have to send these students to their metaphorical beds to look at the good work
they have done.
Workshop more than other classes requires balance
between comfort and challenge. So many students have been traumatized by past
educational experiences that they are reluctant to attempt writing. Providing
an environment in which they can salve their wounds is the first step in
getting them on track. Of course, once students know they can be comfortable
they need to start the difficult task of writing. Finding this balance changes
from class to class, and it requires instructors to use the soft skills of
reading a room. Most importantly it requires instructors to remember Writing
Workshop prepares students to find comfort in an academic community that will challenge
them.
