Journal #7 (Or, When We Fall in Love, We're Just Falling in Love with Ourselves)

First of all, if you're reading this and you said "happy birthday" to me, then thanks! A special thank you to April who made some of the most amazing cupcakes ever in life. Just thanks to everyone for making yesterday awesome.

Here are some issues I had with this week's readings:

I know that the whole idea behind this week's readings was that ESL students are an entirely different breed of cat, and that we need to adjust ourselves according to each student's needs. Honestly, however, a lot of the time, I had the feeling that the authors were trying to put the ESL students in a box. I realize that that wasn't their intent, but it felt like the authors were trying to devise a formula for working with ESL students. It's easy to understand why they would do that. If only there was a way to break students down into categories and sub-units, and provide a step-by-step formula to help each and every type of student. But as we talked about last night, this is impossible. Every student needs to be approached in a different way, and often, we only have a few minutes to figure out where a student is in his or her writing process, what they know and what they don't know, and how we can lead them down the right path. The idea of a writing center, therefore, is not necessarily a concrete concept. They always have to make adjustments, and need to maintain just the right amount of flexibility, yet retaining their integrity as institutions.

Is institution the word I want to use here? Maybe the whole problem is that writing centers are trying to become institutions, not realizing that their true integrity lies in the fact that they are not institutions...? I don't know, I don't really feel like writing about post-modernism and its effects on society.

Another issue I had with the readings, specifically the Judith Powers' piece, was the whole presentation of tutors using the Socratic method when dealing with ESL students. So...we're using a Eurocentric liberal education model to work with foreign students who have most likely been personally traumatized by Western imperialism? Heh. I feel like I should have some sort of sign and a megaphone. Down with the system! No, not really. I'm being facetious, obviously, but I still wonder. ESL students come from a variety of different education backgrounds. For a lot of them, I'm sure, their education was made up of memorization instead of collaboration, and questioning a person in authority, even if it was to ask for help, was unheard of. So I wonder what the best way to approach that is. If they don't understand that it's OK to come to conclusions on their own, what are we supposed to do? We can't sit there and discuss Socrates with them, can we? Does it take multiple sessions or X number of years in the US to understand what's expected?

I guess I just need to develop my telepathy skills. Consultations would run so much easier if I could just see into people's heads.

Oh, and if I had X-ray vision.

Also, the power to fly and conjure chocolate out of mid-air.

And a wand.

K, this is sounding more and more like Harry Potter.

BTW: Joy, if you're reading this, sorry I terrified you by having a random, stomping temper tantrum this morning. I promise I usually only do that when I'm alone.