Something's Fishy

Every year I have spent in college, I have looked back at myself as I was 12 months ago, and I can hardly believe how much I have changed. For me, this experience has been deep, awakening, and challenging, and only part of the growth I have experienced has been academic. I have made friends, evaluated my political beliefs, examined my faith, philosophy, and worldview, and engaged in powerful, meaningful conversations on all manner of topics touching on, but not limited by, my area of study.

This is what I believe college is meant to be, and it is the college experience that I try to present to my students..

I have certainly become more knowledgeable, but much more importantly, I have become a better learner, a better citizen, and a better member of society. To Fish, these elements are not the role of communication. But how can they be separated? If a student truly learns even a portion of what they are meant to learn over their college years, there should be a desire to use it to the good of themselves, their friends, and their community.

The one project that my students in COMM 1010 have really taken initiative on is the Advocacy in Action project, in which they get to work with a community partner to collect donations and raise awareness for their cause. I think this has come more naturally to them when the other work has not because, even as first-year students, they recognize the importance and the value of being able to apply the knowledge that they are (hopefully) gaining and the skills they already have.

And this is a key point - the students all came into this class with certain skills and interests, and they were sorted into groups based on those qualities. While it is important to call our students to more than pure academic fact-gathering, it is important to remember that we must have a gentle hand in molding them into good citizens. They must do the molding themselves. And here is where Fish actually touched on the right philosophy (although he went way too far with it.)

Our students know how they want to learn, and how they need to learn, whether they recognize it or not. If I had placed my students into groups at random, or chosen them for them, they would not have performed as well as they have so far. If I assigned them a topic to advocate for, they would not have pursued the project with the same zeal. Fish was right in this: there is a time, as teachers, to keep our opinions, and even our personalities, to ourselves. We can, and should, help shape our students into good citizens (or help them shape themselves), but we cannot choose the form that that takes.

So, while I agree with Dewey when it comes to the purpose of a classroom, Fish was on the right track with his idea of a professor keeping their own views and opinions out of the classroom sometimes. However, the purpose for this is not so that you refrain from providing your students anything but scholastic growth, but so that they are allowed to grow - in knowledge, in breadth of perception, in community, and in relationships. Because that's what college is about.

#highclass