Issue 53 • Spring 2020 Issue 53 • Spring

OF SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE A PUBLICATION

ALL ABOUT ALL MENTORING

ALL ABOUT MENTORING Issue 53 • Spring 2020 Printed by SUNY Empire State College Print Shop ALL ABOUT MENTORING

issue 53 spring 2020

Alan Mandell College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring Editor

Scattered throughout this issue of All About Karen LaBarge Mentoring are quotes taken from our recent Senior Staff Assistant for publication, Explorations in Adult Higher Education. Faculty Development Associate Editor This, the sixth of our “occasional paper” series co-edited by Shantih Clemans and Alan Mandell photography with Associate Editor Karen LaBarge, focuses Photos courtesy of Stock Studios, on the theme of “access, identity and power in and faculty and staff of American higher education.” It includes edited SUNY Empire State College, unless otherwise noted. guest presentations from two webinar series, as well as responses from our SUNY Empire State cover artwork College colleagues Frances Boyce, Ruth Goldberg, “Daquan” Elliott Dawes, Jeffrey Lambe, Rhianna Rogers, David Fullard Margaret Clark-Plaskie, and Renata Kochut. Our colleague, Raúl Manzano, provided the paintings production that are included in the publication. If you are Kirk Starczewski Director of Publications interested in receiving a copy of this occasional paper, Janet Jones please contact Janay Jackson ([email protected]). Office Assistant 2 (Keyboarding) College Print Shop

Send comments, articles or news to: All About Mentoring c/o Alan Mandell SUNY Empire State College 325 Hudson St., 5th Floor New York, NY 10013-1005 646-230-1255 [email protected]

Special thanks: Thanks to our entire SUNY Empire State College community for being just that, especially now, when we all need it. 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial — SoTL for the Little Set...... 2 Moments in the Human Condition...... 49 Alan Mandell, Manhattan and Saratoga Springs David Fullard, Manhattan

The Return of the Social: The View from Labor Studies ...... 4 Thoughts by a Pilgrim on EcoPilgrimage...... 53 Richard Wells, Manhattan Karyn Pilgrim, Brooklyn

“In the Noise and Whip of the Whirlwind” or Pay It Forward with Mentoring...... 57 The Poetry of Teaching Poetry...... 11 Teresa A. Smith, Saratoga Springs Elaine Handley, Saratoga Springs Individualized Transitional Support The Marines Have Landed...... 13 for Career-Change Employees...... 59 Connelly Akstens, SUNY Empire Online Susan J. Sylvia, Grand Canyon University

Pears...... 15 Life After Empire: The Learning Collaborative...... 64 Reamy Jansen Miriam Tatzel, Mentor Emerita, Hudson Valley

Transcending Vegetation...... 16 Engaging Students in Hands-On Science Sandra Winn, Saratoga Springs Learning Experiences at a Distance...... 67 Audi Matias, Saratoga Springs Observation on the Daily Trek to Work — My Take...... 19 Lear Matthews, Manhattan Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and Learning Project Summaries...... 73 On Trying Not to Grade...... 21 The 2018-2019 IMTL Fellows Rebecca Fraser, Manhattan The Return...... 76 A Study of Representations of Robert Congemi, Latham Women in Art History Textbook...... 24 Alice Lai, Saratoga Springs Reflections on Gamification in Mentoring and Teaching...... 82 Anamaria Iosif Ross, Utica Getting Personal: How We Used Voice Feedback Tools to Connect with Students on their Writing Practice...... 29 Reflections on Not Knowing...... 85 Dan McCrea and Kjrsten Keane, Saratoga Springs Betty Hurley, Mentor Emerita, SUNY Empire Online

“On ‘My Bucket List’” Continued or Take Flight...... 87 “How We Have Grown”...... 34 Laurie T. Seamans, Retired Assessment Specialist, Mary Zanfini, Staten Island Syracuse

From the Personal to the Sociological: 2018 – 2019 Arthur Imperatore Community Forum Why The Ramones Matter...... 38 Fellowship Report...... 89 Donna Gaines, Garden City Lorraine Lander, Canandaigua

The Complex Nature of Success in The Working-Class Experience as Class Politics...... 92 Human Services Students...... 41 Sharon Szymanski, Manhattan Thalia MacMillan, Manhattan An Extended Review of: Leaps of Faith: Stories from Working-Class Scholars An ESC Digest and Evaluation: Edited by Anne C. Benoit, Joann S. Olson, and When and Where I Entered...... 44 Carrie Johnson Robert Carey, Mentor Emeritus, Brooklyn Remembering Our Colleagues...... 98

Core Values of Empire State College...... 102

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e d i t o r i a l SoTL for the Little Set

“The thing is, with each story I could see after his wife) meant listening to her Our colleague, Mayra Bloom, took the that the children wanted to do something talk about her little students and their lead at, then, the Hudson Valley Center, nice for someone, compliment them, or sit special ways and the worlds they and we welcomed Paley. And with her next to them. Some recognition of another created. And, without skipping a beat keen attention so palpable, she listened person, a connection to another person (because, of course, everything is to our students (many current or future had to be made.” connected to everything), she was onto teachers themselves) and their efforts to the biggest themes of any time: fear, describe their own school experiences, — Vivian Gussin Paley, The Kindness unfairness, hurt, care, stereotyping, as if they were (as I would guess her of Children (1999), pp. 19-20 rejection, love. own students felt) at the center of the world. How lucky we were to have her As I probably couldn’t fathom at the with us. n July 26, 2019, Vivian Gussin ripe old age of 18 and 19, Paley was Paley died. Her name may using the world of three- and four-year- Vivian Gussin Paley, masterful O not ring a bell for most of olds to push us to wonder about (and ethnographer and storyteller, is really you, but for those involved in early even reimagine — her hope) the ethical an exemplar of what’s now called childhood education or in the study of strands of our lives and the problematic “the scholarship of teaching and schooling practices, Paley’s works — nature of ideas, feelings and attitudes learning” (SoTL) for the little set. There her example — have been powerfully that we, in a flash, take for granted. Why she was, day after day, year after present for decades. Even the titles of do we assume that it is OK to push a year, observing, glimpsing, listening, her many books, You Can’t Say You Can’t person aside or ignore someone not like recording, transcribing, and then Play (1992), The Boy Who Would Be A us? Why, without a second’s worry, can editing her thoughts, searching for Helicopter (1990), Mollie is Three (1986), we think that someone is way too odd themes and tensions, questioning a The Boy on the Beach (2010), offer first for words, or just pretty dumb? Is it only move she had made, wondering about clues to the distinctiveness of her lens reasonable, only natural, to assume that a conversation between her students and to the quirky beauty of what she it’s our call to choose those with whom she had overheard or an interaction has offered us. we want to spend any time? Paley, in (all of those most sacred impromptu her own way, was always teasing us into dramas and their unfolding) she had My own introduction to “Mrs. Paley” thinking that, yes, life could be different. witnessed, probing her assumptions, was of her as the mom of a dear college trying out something new — knowing friend, David Paley (“Pale”). Dinner at Years ago (before she was named a (and the books kept coming!) that there the Paley’s (always including the rather MacArthur Fellow in 1989), we invited was no end in sight to a process of cold and formal “Mr. Paley,” who, Vivian Paley to SUNY Empire State reflection-on-practice that often pushed stunningly to me, died only weeks College to meet with our students.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 3 her back to her own early life and to her answers — we are often desperate to Some Work by Vivian Gussin Paley experiences with her immigrant parents. provide that individual student with The boy on the beach (2010). Chicago, IL: Paley wanted us to know — to really the academic and personal support we The University of Chicago Press. feel — that nothing is easy: there know she needs — that she deserves. is always discomfort; we’re always The kindness of children (1999). Taken together, Mrs. Paley’s impressive grappling with what we can’t Cambridge, MA: Harvard corpus (thick description and storytelling understand; there is no perfect set of University Press. everywhere) is really about what it rules or rubrics that can ever nail it. And, means to be human. It’s why I always The girl with the brown crayon: How of course, there is always the possibility thought that it would be terrific for us children use stories to shape their of a new insight, the discovery of a to host a conference of early childhood lives (1997). Cambridge, MA: Harvard new quality of awareness that, itself, and adult educators. Put us in the same University Press. of course, needs scrutiny. This is what room: I think we’d discover we share teaching is all about. You can’t say you can’t play (1992). the same core values; the same focus Cambridge, MA: Harvard Our work with our students is really on the individual student and his/her University Press. demanding. There’s too much of it, idiosyncratic ways of learning; and the and often (I think we all fear this), we same need to talk together, as teachers The boy who would be a helicopter lose the particulars of a student’s work, and mentors, about what we are doing (1990). Cambridge, MA: Harvard or have too little sense of the life that and why we do it, and what we still have University Press. student is living and all of the things to figure out — the same “recognition” Mollie is three: Growing up in school with which she is grappling, especially that “a connection to another person (1986). Chicago, IL: The University now. And then, when we think we have ha[s] to be made.” of Chicago Press. an inkling, we can’t remember it. We wish we had more time, we pray we White teacher (1979). Cambridge, MA: could have more insight and smarter Harvard University Press.

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The Return of the Social: The View from Labor Studies

Richard Wells, Manhattan

Richard Wells is the recipient of the 2018 discuss how, in the more academic Susan H. Turben Award for Excellence setting of one of my Labor Studies in Scholarship. The following essay was classes, some small steps are taken in adapted from Richard’s subsequent that direction as well. SUNY Empire State College faculty lecture So you all know, a lot of this is drawn delivered to the college community at the from work I have done since being Fall Academic Conference in October 2018. at Empire State College, some of it in Thanks so much to Richard for editing his collaboration with my colleague, Sharon talk for All About Mentoring. Szymanski. It also represents a first pass at some themes I hope to pursue in a book. Most of all, it comes out of the few years back, when working on experience of the Harry Van Arsdale an article about the usefulness Jr. Center for Labor Studies — what of C. Wright Mills’ notion of A its students teach us; what we on the the “sociological imagination” in a faculty and staff have learned from Labor Studies classroom, I came each other. And I really want to thank across the philosopher of education Richard Wells Susan and Jack Turben and the Turben John Dewey’s (1916) discussion of Foundation for the support it provides vocational training in Democracy and of occupational learning to adapt. for this occasion. It is an honor to be Education. Dewey seemed to capture Although Dewey didn’t use the lingo, up here and to have the opportunity what could be called the class politics the competition induced drive to to share with all of you some of what of an education whose main goal was recalibrate the labor process and I’ve been up to. It is really great that a preparation for a job. After rereading increase productivity (what Marx [1990 faculty member gets the chance to do it, I saw that Dewey’s critical discussion (1867)] referred to as the creation of it every year. Hopefully, this will be of “narrow trade education” provided “relative surplus value”) was behind this. food for thought in terms of how we a historical and theoretical bridge to The labor historian David Montgomery all use education to engage the world the Labor Studies program at Empire and others have shown that technology around us. State’s Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for combined with the new management Labor Studies. I was also brought back Dewey was certainly not against the practices associated with Taylorization to Mills’ urgent call, almost 60 years idea that men and women should generated significant struggle between ago now in the opening pages of The be given the opportunity to acquire labor and management over control Sociological Imagination (2000 [1959]), the skills to find work. But important of the shop floor, and importantly, for another kind of “training,” in the critical qualifications followed. Before over control of the know-how required craft and sensibility of politically- industrialization and automation, to produce, say, steel. Montgomery engaged sociology. training for an occupation meant turned to “Big” Bill Haywood of the learning something along the lines of International Workers of the World, In what follows, I will look more closely a craft. And according to Dewey (2011 aka the Wobblies, to drive the point at these themes: Dewey’s critique of [1916]), more than just a rote “how to” home. “The manager’s brains,” said “narrow trade education”; how the Van kind of learning took place. “Education Haywood, were “under the workman’s Arsdale Labor Studies program follows through occupations … combines within cap” (as cited in Montgomery, 1987, on that critique; and then Mills’ urgent itself more of the factors conducive to p. 45). Therefore, added Montgomery, call to “taking it big,” to borrow from learning than any other method” (p. the “quest for greater and more secure the title of Stanley Aronowitz’s (2012) 169). Dewey argued that it was an active profits” by corporate managers meant biography of the famed American and ongoing kind of education. a “search for ways in which to cut the sociologist. Then I’ll look at a couple of taproot of 19th-century workers’ power examples of how the labor movement, But then the pace of factory production by dispossessing craftsmen of their due to the educational impulse of union and technological innovation in the accumulated skill and knowledge” organizing, “brings back the social” so late 19th and early 20th centuries (p. 46). to speak. By way of a conclusion, I will outran the ability of this deeper kind

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Dewey’s (2011 [1916]) main concern with the clunk of a time card. Dewey, it For Van Arsdale, the broad in taking up the transformation of the seems, saw evidence of class struggle in understanding of vocation may have labor process was its impact on the educational practice and policy. come organically. His whole career education of workers. What had been circled around a union that represented Harry Van Arsdale Jr., longtime business a unified experience “with an end in skilled craft workers. Indeed, the ability manager of Local 3 of the International view” (p. 169) had been broken down of building trades unions like Local Brotherhood of Electrical Workers into tasks, which were then assigned 3 to maintain possession of the “skill (IBEW), was very much an old-school to particular workers. This stripped and knowledge” required to do high- trade unionist. But as he matured as the kind of education required to quality and safe work through their a labor leader, Van Arsdale embraced accumulate that skill and knowledge — own apprentice training programs was a much bolder social vision. Beginning whether through apprenticeship or (and remains) a critical component of in the 1950s, Local 3 organized “critical more organically on the job — of its its market power. But as a creative and thinking” seminars designed to broader value. No longer were the pragmatic unionist, Van Arsdale believed familiarize, and in a sense “train,” Local active elements of “observation,” that there was also power in gaining 3 members to take the lead — in their “ingenuity,” (p. 169) discovery, and access to what had become increasingly union and in their communities — in adaptation part of the program. In their inaccessible to workers: a base of discussions around important public places became “trade education,” which knowledge beyond the experience of issues of the day. These seminars led to Dewey described as a way of achieving the mundane; meaningful participation an even bigger educational project, that mere “technical efficiency in specialized in cultural and civic life; readiness for of the labor college that he, along with future pursuits” (p. 173). The active had leadership in the wider society. Ernest Boyer (with assistance from then- gone passive. governor Nelson Rockefeller), founded Dewey also directed attention to as one of the original components of broader sociological and political Empire State College and is now known “But as a creative and consequences. “Trade education,” as the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for said Dewey (2011 [1916]), would leave Labor Studies. pragmatic unionist, Van “unchanged the existing industrial order Van Arsdale came at it from the Arsdale believed that of society, instead of operating as a perspective of a committed and means of its transformation” (p. 173). there was also power in experienced trade unionist, but his To provide the workers “an education goals were very much in line with gaining access to what conceived mainly as specific trade Dewey’s thinking. For his members, and preparation is to treat the schools as had become increasingly indeed for workers more generally, he an agency for transferring the older demanded an education that, in Dewey’s inaccessible to workers: division of labor and leisure, culture (2011 [1916]) words, “acknowledges and service, mind and body, directed a base of knowledge the full intellectual and social meaning and directive class, into a society of a vocation” (p. 174). That kind of beyond the experience nominally democratic” (p. 174). From education — acquired at Empire the perspective of those in power, the of the mundane; State College’s Van Arsdale Center — “directive” class in Dewey’s terms, to became a required component of the meaningful participation provide a generalized exposure to the apprenticeship training program, as it liberal arts to the “directed” class would in cultural and civic life; is to this day. The Van Arsdale Center be “to waste time” (p. 174). Workers, has since partnered with other unions, readiness for leadership in other words, should be limited to with the relationship structured a bit the “training” that satisfied employers in the wider society.” differently in each case: the United and kept the machines — the literal Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, machines as well as the sociological Local 1, the paraprofessionals of the machine of class power — running. The As the German sociologist and well- United Federation of Teachers, the elite, the well-born, the children of the known worker educator Oskar Negt International Association of Machinists employers, got a more rarified training put it an interview (I owe former Van and Aerospace Workers, and most in the arts of holding and personifying Arsdale Dean Mike Merrill for this recently, the International Union of political and cultural power. For one reference), “democracy is the only form Painters and Allied Trades. Apprentices class, competencies that consolidate of government that has to be learned, from Local 3 IBEW do, however, and extend control; for workers, while all other forms of government do continue to make up the bulk of competencies that kick in and then out not” (Pohl & Hufer, 2016, p. 204). In The our students.

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Public and its Problems, Dewey (1927) There are, of course, challenges. Our Center for Study of Liberal Education seemed to grasp this as well, via De students don’t necessarily buy into this for Adults, C.W. Mills (2008) gave a talk Tocqueville. Closer to Van Arsdale’s turf vision. There can be pushback precisely that was later published under the title was William Michelson, a contemporary because, at least at first glance, there “Mass Society and Liberal Education.” Of of Van Arsdale’s on the labor scene in is no “practical” value in the study of the purpose of the “liberal college for New York City (and considerably to the world history, say, or in reconsidering adults,” said Mills, it is “to keep us from left of Van Arsdale politically; also our received understandings of the meaning being overwhelmed” (p. 117). colleague, Elana Michelson’s father). and purpose of art. When experiencing To radically compress Mills’ argument: In “Harry was continuously an advocate for this resistance in the classroom, it can the “mass public” of capitalist modernity, the broadest kind of education for his be ascribed — to a degree — to a “blue- the broader social relations that shape rank and file,” he said. “All that he knew,” collar” reaction to “book learning.” In our individual experiences are filtered Michelson continued, “was that the labor own explorations of this, Sharon and I through large, impersonal social and movement was the road to building have argued that the trials of a five-year political institutions: the bureaucratic better lives for his members and better apprenticeship and the complicated state, private corporations, the mass lives meant not only higher wages legacy of a storied building trades union media. In this context, as Mills (2000 and better pensions and severance like Local 3 have instilled a narrow, [1959]) suggested in the opening pay, but opportunities to learn, to almost defensive brand of solidarity that pages of The Sociological Imagination, travel, to participate, to undertake can, sometimes, work at cross purposes the “private lives” of individuals are responsibilities” (as cited in Ruffini, 2003, with the broader collective goals of experienced as “a series of traps.” In p. 110). the program. their “everyday worlds,” individuals Van Arsdale would not have put it quite I imagine that colleagues across the sense “that they cannot overcome their like Negt or Dewey. But his own version college have seen something like this. troubles, and in this feeling, they are of pure and simple trade unionism After all, many of the students at Empire often quite right.” When they become led him to a similar conclusion about State College are not just “adults,” but even vaguely aware “of ambitions and of the mutually constituting relationship working adults, strapped for time, if not threats which transcend their immediate between education and democracy. also strapped financially. Some may locales, the more trapped they seem to struggle with required components of feel” (p. 3). As my colleague, Sharon Szymanski, and their degree plans — this or that general I (2016) have written, the educational Maybe the imagery is overblown. But education requirement, for example — charge provided for us at the Labor a case could be made that the “trap” that don’t seem to be related, in solely Center by our union partners was not metaphor remains relevant, and practical terms, to the career goals they to “train” members so that they could perhaps even more so now. While may well have borrowed thousands move up the “ladder” and presumably, critical individual freedoms in the realms to fulfill. out of the union and into management. of civil society and in formal political Rather, the Van Arsdale Center follows There is also the pressure on institutions participation have been won, what the progressive tradition within adult of higher education, especially public Max Weber (1992 [1930]) referred to education, as well as long-standing ones, to be accountable, not so much as the “tremendous cosmos” (p. 181) tradition and practice within labor and to a historic democratic mission, but of capitalism has evolved, as have the worker education. From the days of a to the transactional goal of providing inequalities inherent in it. The necessity young Samuel Gompers reading the students, increasingly understood as of compounding rates of growth has newspaper aloud while his fellow cigar “customers,” a solid return in the labor driven a deep thirst for fossil fuels; rollers toiled away, to the experimental market for their educational investment. climate change that threatens the basis labor colleges of the early 20th century, Salaries graduates bring home are now of civilization has come in tow. The to the labor extension programs at seriously being considered as a central financialization of the capitalist system various public universities instituted measure of a quality college experience. has made its workings all the more in the 1950s and ‘60s, to the internal These are tough times, no doubt, for the opaque, all the more volatile, all the educational efforts of various unions notion that higher education should be more geared toward the accumulation and worker centers today, education has about setting one’s regular imagination of wealth and power at the top. And been seen an integral part of a broader alight, much less a sociological version. while the internet has made information democratic mission: the full and equal more accessible, its more lasting impact But why is a general and liberal participation of workers in economic, may come from its capture by the profit education important? It is important for political, and social life. motive, which is leading to an atomizing really quite practical social purposes. commercialization of social life. At a 1954 conference sponsored by the

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One could go on. Frankly, it is and critical interpretation of the social underway, connections can be made to overwhelming. So we are back to Mills world and the relationship of their the bigger picture. Here is one recent and the increasingly urgent purpose concerns to it. Antonio Gramsci, the concrete case. In 2012, the Chicago of a liberal education for working Sardinian Communist, political prisoner Teachers’ Union went on strike and adults. A liberal education should aim of Mussolini, and formidable social not only won important pocketbook to demystify “society” by providing a theorist in his own right called it the gains, but new positions in the arts view of the way it is structured, so the “intense labour of criticism” (as cited in and physical education. The union also personal feelings of insecurity, which Mayo, 2008, p. 422). fought off two demands of the “reform” lead to various kinds of retreat, can minded leadership of the Chicago Public Gramsci came to the notion while be transformed into a more critical Schools and Chicago Mayor Rahm working as a journalist, political analyst, mindset, one that interrogates the social Emmanuel: the removal of caps on class and as an activist organizing factory basis of these feelings. Relief from being size, and a heavier weighting of student councils and study groups after workers overwhelmed comes when personal test scores in teaching evaluations. No gained control of factories in Turin, Italy, troubles are turned into what Mills small task, given the fact that this city’s in 1919-1920. As three commentators (2008) called “social issues and rationally power structure was behind the school put it, through this experience, Gramsci open problems” (p. 118), around which system’s demands, and was helped in realized that the “most pressing task” women and men can together actively this by a carefully cultivated general in the class struggle “was cultural and engage and organize their intellectual hostility to teachers’ unions. educational in nature” (Borg, Buttigieg, & and practical efforts as citizens. Mayo, 2002, p. 4). As recent analyses of the 2012 strike Mills (2008) also offered some have shown (Alter, 2013; Ashby & Bruno, Indeed. For when one really thinks interesting tips as to how to make this 2016; Uetricht, 2014), education was about organizing workers it becomes process of “interpreting the world” more at the heart of the effort. It started clear that unions themselves are manageable and relevant. Inquiry “must with a reading group that connected inherently educational institutions. To begin with what concerns the students individual concerns to a broader pattern successfully bring working men and most deeply,” and with materials that of disinvestment and privatization in women together in common purpose, connect to those concerns but also public school systems. As the study when as individuals they might feel “enable” students “to gain increasingly groups multiplied, energies went into trapped in different ways and to rational insight” into them. “There a campaign amongst parents and different extents, requires that each should be much small group discussion,” working-class communities. When the must learn about each other, and said Mills (p. 119). The result should be teachers struck, the mayor and the together come to understand and name an expansion of the social imaginary. system administration expected parents the social forces bearing down on them. Men and women would come to to get frustrated and turn against the understand that their “personal troubles To begin with, discussions of workers’ teachers. But due to the organizing and are often not only that but problems immediate concerns on the job is a educational efforts of the union, they shared by others and indeed not subject basic principle for union leaders and too grasped the issues at stake: they too to solution by any one individual but organizers; once those discussions get wanted investment in the schools they only by modifications of the structures actually had, rather than the backdoor of … groups” and “sometimes the privatization of the charter schools structure of the entire society” (pp. “The basic method Mills pushed by the city’s powerbrokers. 119-120). “To the extent that the adult Instead of walking through the picket college is effective,” wrote Mills, “it is proposes is very much lines, parents either joined them or going to be political; its students are line with the practice honked in support as they drove by. going to try to influence decisions of The even more recent teacher strikes power” (p. 122). and theory of popular in union-unfriendly places like West Virginia followed similar scripts: rank The basic method Mills proposes is very worker/adult education, and file workers were able to change much line with the practice and theory in that it insists on the conversation and bring the public to of popular worker/adult education, their side. Investment in the public good in that it insists on starting where the starting where the that is the school system was again the students are, with their concerns, and students are, with their rallying cry. through dialogue and debate (rather than the teacher “depositing” knowledge concerns, and through I want to focus now on the story of in their heads, as Freire [1972] would dialogue and debate … ” Tony Mazzochi. Born and raised in have said) working toward a collective Bensonhurst (Brooklyn), Mazzochi was

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 8 a high school dropout. But he parlayed more members could attend labor- Occupational Safety and Health Act his boundless energy and the politically related meetings and forums from D.C. of 1970 was not a radical intervention engaged “dinner-table” education he to Albany, and then report back what in labor/management relations. But received in the 1930s into a memorable they had learned to the membership. for the first time, responsibility for a and deeply impactful career as a labor Mazzochi also turned Local 149 into healthy and safe workplace was put on leader. It is a great story, and as told “a strike support machine” by sending employers instead of workers. It was in Les Leopold’s (2007) biography of members to join picket lines across Long a breakthrough. Mazzochi, The Man Who Hated Work Island (Leopold, 2007, p. 115). This not OSHA had many authors, but Mazzochi and Loved Labor, it is an important part only built confidence amongst members, was certainly one of the most important. of the Educational Planning for Labor but it also increased awareness that He provided workers with the space to Studies course we offer at the Van they were part of something bigger. tell their own stories, and then brought Arsdale Center. Through the example And Mazzochi started a reading group, in scientists to anchor those stories in of Mazzochi’s leadership, our students because there was, observed Leopold a world of cold hard facts. Before the can understand the importance of (2007), “no school that taught about workers of OCAW found their political ongoing education for workers’ ability, labor as a cause” (p. 117). While it voice, all they had to go on was what the as Dewey put it (2011 [1916]), to see started out small, the reading club grew. company was telling them. “the historic background of present They read and discussed the novels of conditions,” and gain the “power of The process began at the 1967 OCAW Howard Fast (1944), such as Freedom re-adaptation to changing conditions” so national convention. The endgame Road, which dramatized the racialized as to “not become blindly subject to a for Mazzochi was to get a resolution divide and conquer tactics of the post- fate imposed upon them” (p. 174). There passed clearing him to pursue a Civil War planter elite. They poured are many moments in Leopold’s account national campaign to pressure over classic texts of labor history, like that get at this. Drawing off of Leopold’s Congress for legislation on workplace Philip Foner’s (1950) The Fur and Leather account, here I will describe just two. safety and health. He succeeded. Workers Union. Plowing ahead in 1968, a year of Mazzochi first rose to prominence in The collective learning allowed activists assassination, civil unrest, and the the 1950s as president of Local 149 of to situate their own experiences in Tet Offensive, he set out on the road the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers a wider cultural and historical field. with university-based experts to hear (OCAW), whose members toiled at a Helped along by popular, union- from workers themselves. Helena Rubenstein plant, which had just centered social activities, the whole shop relocated to Roslyn, in Nassau County, First was the need to, in Mazzochi’s floor became energized by discussion after years in Long Island City, Queens. words, “ventilate the issue” (as cited in and debate. As one of the original To succeed once he became president Leopold, 2007, p. 245) amongst workers members of the reading group told — which he did, winning contracts that at OCAW district meetings. In airing Leopold (2007), “there were constant abolished a two-tiered wage structure, their experiences to one another, and debates on every friggin’ subject under winning groundbreaking health plans, then hearing from the experts, workers the sun” (p. 137). and forcing management to open up from different plants realized how much hiring to African Americans — the During the 1950s, Local 149 had become they had in common: Their work was membership had to be transformed into “one of the finest locals in the country,” putting their health, and their lives, a fighting force. And in the suburbs of said Leopold (2007, p. 139). It was later at risk. And although no one at the the 1950s to boot, which in Leopold’s recognized in a scholarly account of the time used this kind of language, from (2007) words were “the alleged routinized workplace as not only being Leopold’s account we can see that there graveyard of class consciousness and responsible for good pay but for the was a participatory, dialogic education radical politics” (p. 107). noticeable dignity with which workers taking place, with workers identifying carried themselves on the shop floor. the chemicals to which they had been How did he do it? The short answer, exposed, and the trained scientists unsurprisingly, is organizing By 1965, Mazzochi made his way into working to clarify just how dangerous flushed through with education. He the national leadership in OCAW as they were. “Sharing their misery and democratized the local by expanding legislative director. It was from this asking questions,” said Leopold (2007), participation in executive board and position that Mazzochi would make “broke these workers out of their labor management meetings, creating perhaps his most dramatic mark as a isolated, silent anger and grief” (p. 253). committees by election rather than labor leader, and it was his insistence For their part, scientists were able to put appointment. Money for individual on a national dialogue on workplace formal education and smarts to practical per diem travel costs was pooled so safety and health that did the trick. The public use outside the laboratory.

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Leopold suggested that perhaps the the “courageous intelligence,” to borrow overly generous public spending on most lasting contribution of this creative again from Dewey (2011 [1916], p. 174), social services caused the fiscal crisis, mix of worker testimony, engaged that develops alongside it. and two, that austerity was the only real science, and Mazzochi’s visionary solution to it. So let me finish up this essay by drawing leadership was an idea, one that off a recent article of mine (Wells, 2019) A new narrative is emerging that identified worker safety and health not to describe a bit about how I try to bring grasps the “social” basis of both the as a “trouble” for individual workers that spirit into one of my Labor Studies post-World War II period and of the but as a public issue of enormous classes. I have taught a course called rise of a different, less generous city. importance. The whole effort brought The Political Economy of New York City In class discussions, students work into focus the fact that pollution and for some eight years now. Broadly, through their suspicion of politics, environmental degradation more the goal is to pose a historical contrast politicians, and government armed generally were not things that happened between today’s “luxury” city and the with a new perspective on the working- only to the land and the air, and to period from the 1940s to the mid-1970s, class presence in the city’s past, and the communities that lived off it and a time when a strong labor movement in particular the labor movement’s breathed it. It happened to workers, led a unique experiment in urban social layered influence on the municipal and most often, it happened to them democracy. Students discover a much state and social programs addressing first. As Mazzochi said on national TV different New York, which while far from public health, education, housing, and in 1970: “You can’t be concerned about perfect, was arguably more economically the general environment unless you dynamic and democratic than the are concerned about the industrial city they presently experience. Just as environment, because the two are “Just as important, they important, they have the opportunity to inseparable” (as cited in Leopold, 2007, ponder the power and influence workers have the opportunity p. 272). and worker-based institutions like trade to ponder the power OSHA did not solve the issue of unions can wield for the greater good. workplace safety and health. Over the More specifically, the course provides and influence workers years, it has been worn down by political the opportunity for students to take a and worker-based pressure, lax enforcement, and the close look at the famous Fiscal Crisis of ability of corporations to absorb OSHA 1975, which essentially slammed the institutions like trade fines as the cost of doing business. But door on municipal social democracy, unions can wield for understanding the role of Mazzochi- and opened another to the brave new style “organizing by education” reminds world of austerity politics. the greater good.” us that democracy must be learned, Since the course is designed to meet continuously, and that this is best done the social science general education collectively. It also reminds us that the culture. Common sense assertions requirement, we discuss the sociological politically-engaged spirit of sociological about how the city can’t spend money concepts and methods that can be inquiry that Mills called for — one that it doesn’t have merge with discussions brought to bear on this important challenges assumptions, turns private about tax abatements, subsidies, and transformation. Most important are concerns into public issues, and pursues other forms of private accumulation by the related concepts of social class and solutions — is an essential component public subsidy. An emerging critical and power, and the method of a historically- of trade unionism at its best. historical perspective is brought to bear based class analysis that incorporates on students’ personal frustrations with Just to be clear, I understand that this processes of structural transformation long commutes from more affordable kind of education is not the same as into descriptions of class-based neighborhoods and towns. More and that which takes place in the formal configurations of power. There is also more, students wrestle with their setting of a university. There are no discussion of the importance of ideas, own contradictory position, as union exams, essays, or research papers. or more broadly, ideology in the making construction workers who have, in real There is no administrative assessment, of these contrasting periods in the city’s terms, built the city yet also have been no accreditation visits. But in describing history: for the early period, the twinned displaced by it. the educational work unions in the U.S. notions of social unionism and social have done, I do hope to convey the solidarity, which pervaded an incredibly I will leave you with some student basic importance — to democracy — of diverse labor movement, and to an reflections on trips to The High Line, a the learning that does take place as important degree, the political culture world-renowned park constructed on an workers come together in a union, and of the city; in the later period, two other out of use elevated rail bed on the West intricately related notions: one, that Side of Manhattan, which have been

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 10 published in Labor Writes, the Labor Borg, C., Buttigieg, J. A., & Mayo, P. Mills, C. W. (2008). Mass society and Center’s student magazine. We go to The (2002). Gramsci and education: A liberal education. In J. H. Summers High Line every term, precisely because holistic approach. In C. Borg, J. A. (Ed.), The politics of truth: Selected it forces an imaginative encounter with Buttigieg, & P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci writings of C. Wright Mills (pp. 107- changes the city has undergone since and education (pp. 1-19). Lanham, 124). Oxford, UK: Oxford the fiscal crisis. One student recalled the MD: Rowman & Littlefield. University Press. High Line’s beauty and the images of a Dewey, J. (1927). The public and its Montgomery, D. (1987). The fall of the bustling industrial past that it conjures. problems. New York, NY: Holt. house of labor: The workplace, the And yet, surrounded by the glassy state, and American labor activism, condo towers and high-end boutiques Dewey, J. (2011 [1916]). Democracy and 1865-1925. Cambridge, UK: that now dominate the area, he “almost education: An introduction to the Cambridge University Press. immediately felt out of place in my philosophy of education. Hollywood, own city.” As another student put it, FL: Simon and Brown Pohl, K., & Hufer, K. P. (2016). An The Highline was an “inspiration” and interview with Oskar Negt. Fast, H. (1944). Freedom road. New York, a cautionary tale. It shows that “we can International Labor and Working Class NY: Routledge. refurbish and recycle what is already History, 90, 203-207. visible and going to ruins and make it Foner, P. S. (1950). The Fur and Leather Ruffini, G. (2003). Harry Van Arsdale Jr.: useful … as long as it isn’t a means to Workers Union: A story of dramatic Labor’s champion. Armonk, NY: an end of pushing people out of their struggles and achievements. Newark, M.E. Sharpe. homes to build ones they can’t afford” NJ: Nordan Press. (as cited in Wells, 2019, p. 331). Szymanski, S., & Wells, R. (2016). Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Blue-collar classroom: From the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder References individual to the collective. Labor and Herder. Studies Journal, 41(1), 67-88. Alter, T. (2013). “It felt like community”: Leopold, L. (2007). The man who hated Social movement unionism and the Uetricht, M. (2014). Strike for America: work and loved labor: The life and Chicago teachers’ strike of 2012. Chicago teachers against austerity. times of Tony Mazzocchi. New York, Labor: Studies in Working-Class London, UK: Verso. NY: Chelsea Green Publishing. History, 10(3), 11-25. Weber, M. (1992 [1930]). The protestant Marx, K. (1990 [1867]). Capital (Vol. 1). Aronowitz, S. (2012). Taking it big: C. ethic and the spirit of capitalism. London, UK: Penguin Classics. Wright Mills and the making of London, UK: Routledge. political intellectuals. New York, NY: Mayo, P. (2008). Antonio Gramsci and Wells, R. (2019). Teaching austerity to Columbia University Press. his relevance for the education of working-class students: Toward a adults. Educational philosophy and Ashby, S. K., & Bruno, R. (2016). A fight new common sense. Capital & Class, theory, 40(3), 418-435. for the soul of public education: The 43(2), 315-337. story of the Chicago teachers strike. Mills, C. W. (2000 [1959]). The sociological Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. imagination. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

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“In the Noise and Whip of the Whirlwind” or The Poetry of Teaching Poetry

Elaine Handley, Saratoga Springs

“Poetry, like all art, has a trinitarian As a class, we look at some of the function: creative, redemptive, and descriptions in the poem and I ask sanctifying. It is creative because it takes students to ponder phrases like the raw materials of fact and feeling and “blueblack cold” (line 2), and “fearing makes them into that which is neither fact the chronic angers of that house” (line nor feeling. It is redemptive because it can 9), and the final question of the poem transform the pain and ugliness of life into “What did I know,/ of love’s austere and joy and beauty. It is sanctifying because it lonely offices?” (lines 13-14). We read the thus gives the transitory at least a relative poem aloud and listen to the words that form and meaning.” make a crackling sound, like the fire the father set to warm the house on frigid — Vassar Miller (as cited in Owen, mornings: blueblack, cracked, ached, 1970, p. 84) weekday, banked, thanked, wake, breaking, call, chronic. As poetry is both sound and sense, I work to help them hear the music of the poem and find meaning, Photo credit: Tom Stock ike solving a trigonometric enhanced by elements, like structure Elaine Handley function or analyzing an abstract and rhythm, working together to create painting, poetry insists we think L an intense experience for the reader. uplands” (lines 12-13). Students come differently. And that’s my joy: to lure my to understand and speculate on the students out of their comfort zone and Because poetry is typically short, it is problematical relationship between the enmesh them in poetry. Poetry allows an excellent genre to use to introduce speaker and the subject. us to express our lives’ complexities students to textual analysis. They like using language and metaphor. Even looking for clues. It is also easy to use Poetry is a crystallized way of exposing when I am not teaching poetry per se, I poetry to point out the work that strong students to human dilemmas, to help use poems to illuminate ideas. nouns and verbs do in writing, how them find their own lives and selves parallel structure works, how clichés in verse. Everyone can relate to the I bring poetry into my Critical Thinking don’t. It’s the best way I know to teach loneliness that informs Frost’s sonnet, class — often “Those Winter Sundays” figures of speech. “I Have Been One Acquainted with by Robert Hayden (1966). I ask students the Night.” “Miss Rosie” by Gwendolyn to come to the study group with five I like to make students aware of Brooks, on the other hand, resonates questions about the poem; this takes metaphorical thinking, and two favorite as a poem about human dignity in the the pressure off them to have figured poems for doing that are “Metaphors” face of old age and poverty. Wisława out just what the poem means. We by Sylvia Plath and “Your Eyes” by Szymborska’s poem “The End and the analyze possible meanings together by Octavio Paz. It often takes students Beginning” helps us to contemplate asking their questions aloud and seeing several readings of Plath’s poem to what happens when a war ends; she what answers we can find. Hayden’s realize that it’s about pregnancy, and to graphically describes the mundane tasks poem is one that students can relate see how much fun Plath was having by that need attending to in the face of to because it is about regret. Written in creating a nine-line poem, with each line unspeakable grief and loss. the voice of an adult son, he now better containing nine syllables. By contrast, understands his father’s struggles and the Paz (1963) poem offers a list — one One of the very best pieces of how love was there all along, although metaphor after another describing a professional advice I ever received not articulated in words. His regret specific someone’s eyes and what they was from a wise high school English comes in never acknowledging his reveal. The metaphors are complicated: teacher who told me (as if I were going father’s hard life or love. “trapped birds, sleepy golden beasts” to be teaching poetry someday), not to (line 4), “a lie that nourishes” (line overdo it — “just give students a taste of 9), “the absolute, quivering,/ cold poetry.” I understood her to mean to be

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 12 careful not to ruin poetry by analyzing it moment or a feeling you know. Maybe para. 4). Poetry demands our presence, to death, not to engage, as Billy Collins it’s the way a poem can contain so much our attention, our heart, and our head. (1988) says in his poem “Introduction to sheer humanity. It keeps us connected to what other Poetry” in “beating it with a hose/ to find human beings have endured over the I ask poetry haters if they will allow out what it really means” (lines 15-16). I centuries, to our own human condition, me to find a poem I think they might seek to make students curious enough, and gives voice to our lived experience. like … and I have had some success in and provide them with sufficient converting people into zealous poetry Isn’t that, in part, what lifelong learners resources, that they might go on reading fans. Mostly, I make some progress in need, deserve, and crave? poetry outside of class. helping people get that poetry is about In a Peanuts cartoon, Sally says to them. They come to see that poems can References Charlie Brown: “We’ve been reading be serious and goofy and heartbreaking. Brooks, G. (1968). In the mecca. New poems in school, but I never understand Yes, some are obscure, intellectual, full York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers. any of them. … How am I supposed of literary allusions and are therefore to know which poems to like?” Charlie off-putting, but mostly poetry is about Collins, B. (1988). Introduction to Brown answers her: “Somebody tells experiences we all have. poetry. In B. Collins, The apple that you” (Schulz, 1989). I’m not that teacher; astonished Paris (p. 58). Fayetteville, Poetry springs from the human desire I love infecting my students with poetry AR: University of Arkansas Press. to convey feeling and insight, to so the only cure is more poetry. I bedazzle, bewitch, startle, horrify, Hayden, R. (1966). Those winter often hear “Oh, I don’t like poetry … I delight, disgust, mourn. In short, to Sundays. Retrieved from https:// don’t understand it.” That’s a personal express the complications, mystery and www.poetryfoundation.org/ challenge I find hard to resist. Most quirkiness of being human. Gwendolyn poems/46461/those-winter-sundays people don’t like poetry because they Brooks (1968) wrote: have been exposed to so little of it; Owen, G. (1970, Fall). Vassar Miller: A poetry isn’t taught much (and I fear not It is lonesome, yes. southern metaphysical. The Southern well) in elementary and high school. For we are the last of the loud. Literary Journal, 3(1), 83-88 Besides, there still exists that lingering Nevertheless, live. Paz, O. (1963). Selected poems of notion that poets and poetry are only Conduct your blooming in the Octavio Paz: A bilingual edition with for the effete. noise and whip of the whirlwind. translations by Muriel Rukeyser. (lines 35 – 37) Many years ago, I was teaching College Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Writing in a prison. I started each class From what I know of our students’ lives Press. by handing out a poem that I would — even our own — challenges are many, Schulz, C. (1989, October 21). Peanuts. read aloud — no discussion, no analysis. both personally and in our present Retrieved from https://www. Each class, the students expressed society. We live in the whirlwind of gocomics.com/peanuts/1989/10/21 eagerness for the poem … they were family and job responsibilities, academic more open to poetry than I ever could endeavors, illnesses, financial worries, Tayiabr. (2014, June 9.). The Figure have imagined. Why did poetry make a community obligations, politics — all of a Poem Makes by Robert Frost difference to these men? I can’t speak it demanding, much of it difficult. It is [Blog post]. Retrieved from for them, but I suspect what they loved easy to lose heart. https://tayiabr.wordpress. about the poems I gave them was what com/2014/06/09/the-figure-a- I think Robert Frost was right when I love about poetry: the music of the poem-makes-by-robert-frost/ he described poetry as “a momentary words, the imagery, the way poetry stay against confusion” (Tayiabr, 2014, gets to the heart of things, captures a

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The Marines Have Landed

Connelly Akstens, SUNY Empire Online

or most of my life, I lived in fear I didn’t recognize the homophobia of discovery. I was convinced implicit in their statement of purpose. F from childhood that if anyone I didn’t realize that “crossdresser” was discovered my gender identity issues already under critique as a reductive I would be humiliated, ostracized and term. And why second self? Why not an sent to a reform school or an insane integrated self? Anyway, my thinking asylum. I survived by the most rigid wasn’t that evolved in 2002. I just compartmentalization imaginable. The wanted to connect with somebody to compartment that held my gender talk with and maybe befriend. I sent conflict was the most camouflaged and an email and after a rather Byzantine scrupulously hidden of all. I did what security process, I was invited to attend my instinct told me to do to protect the group’s upcoming convention in myself. But without realizing it, I had Manchester, New Hampshire. grown up developing the skills of an I registered for the event, booked a addict, bigamist or con artist. Not exactly room for the weekend at the Holiday consistent with my core values. Inn and spent the better part of a week When I was 55, I decided I didn’t want deciding what clothes and accessories to Connelly Akstens to live like that anymore. As I explained bring. That was a challenge since I had to my spouse Susanne, “I’ve been little fashion sense and no personal style Something bright and colorful? News closeted for 50 years. I suppose I could to fall back on. “Keep it simple,” Susanne flash — it’s winter. Something a little go for another 50, but then I’d be — suggested. So I packed lots of basics. glamorous? Is there anything more let’s see now — 105. So. …” She agreed Everyone looks good in black, right? hideous than a 50-something floozy? The that it was about time to find some I had thought that Manchester was an mirror was not my friend. Before I knew community. But where? odd place to have a convention, and it, it was after 6 o’clock. I was already The internet was the obvious starting when I surveyed the scene, it seemed late. I threw on something. I combed my place. In 2002, a Google search for even odder. The hotel was marooned in hair and grabbed the first jewelry I saw. “transgender” yielded a strange the middle of a vast, icy parking lot, like I rushed out the door. gumbo of websites: reviews of obscure a vessel aground on an asphalt sandbar. Well, almost rushed out the door. I had Scandinavian films, rip-off artists The façade was unwelcoming, the lobby never been in public before in anything selling large-size clothes and shoes at was cold and my room was shabby other than conventional male attire. exorbitant prices, cheesecake photos of around the edges. I began to wonder When my hand reached the doorknob, I nightclub “female impersonators” from exactly what I was going to do for the froze. Can I actually do this? I opened the the 1950s, homepages of desperately next three days. I pulled the curtains door, peered up and down the corridor lonely people, solicitations from to get a better view of my dismal and listened for footsteps and voices. So “escorts” and “models.” On the positive surroundings. Like a mirage, a big red far so good. I made my way cautiously side, there were links to websites Macy’s sign loomed at the far end of the to the elevator. The coast seemed to be of a few organizations that seemed parking lot. If all else failed, I could at clear. I pushed the button. There was a legitimate. I knew nothing about any least shop. ding as the elevator reached my floor. of them, so I settled on a group called The scheduled event for Friday night The door opened. I was face-to-face with “Tri-Ess” for my first contact. The name was a cocktail hour and dinner at a big four young Marines in khaki uniforms. was an acronym for Society for the Italian restaurant near the river. I spent “Our floor,” one of them said. And then, Second Self. The group billed itself the afternoon getting ready. I learned “Excuse us, ma’am,” as they swept as “an organization for heterosexual that shaving a toe is like shaving an past me. No smirking. No irony. Four crossdressers.” Well, I thought, that sort okra. Every outfit I tried looked worse Marines. My first time out. of describes me … I guess. … than the last. Basic black? Drab. Boring.

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I couldn’t begin to process what had evident annoyance of her husband, Somewhere a band was playing. Forget just happened, so I followed the who was sitting next to her with her the nightcap. I took a deep breath and example of sharks that keep moving own tonsorial Brillo pad. We went back plunged toward the elevator. I pushed forward through the water, no matter to our girl talk. I asked her if she had the button. Ding. The door opened. what. I drove to the restaurant, rushed encountered the Marines. She told me This time I was face-to-face with two inside and found my group, huddled they were as surprised to see us as we young Marines and their dates. One together in an alcove sort of space. I were to see them. Their commanding Marine said, “Excuse us, ma’am,” as introduced myself and people were officer had put them on their best they swept past me. The other added, cordial enough — the women more so behavior, “or it’s a blindfold and a firing “Have a nice evening, ma’am.” The girls than the men. Women? Yes, as it turns squad at dawn.” She had a zany streak. smiled pleasantly as they passed me. I out I was the only person in the group I was having fun. wondered if I were dreaming the whole who did not have a wife in tow. Here mad episode. It was too good to last. As the meal were “heterosexual crossdressers” with got underway, the “heterosexual The answer came at about 3 in the a vengeance. I had a scotch in honor of crossdressers” began to completely morning, when I was awakened by the Halls of Montezuma and pledged to dominate the conversation. Maybe the shouts of “Ooh-rah! Ooh-rah!” I thought myself to do more listening than talking. booze was beginning to kick in. One of the place was on fire. I grabbed the I tried to gauge the group, looking the “ladies” began a sentence, “So I told powder-blue robe I had bought at to see how I might fit in. It didn’t the son-of-a-bitch. …” Her wife shushed Macy’s that afternoon and opened the seem promising. her. Tension was building. Gradually, the door. The hotel was built around an We went in to dinner, and one of wives retreated into silence. I realized atrium, maybe five stories tall. A few of the wives sort of took me under her then that you can take an obnoxious the Marines, who had loosened up a wing. She was calling me “dear” as if I middle-aged professional man, put whole lot since I had last encountered were 11 years old. She manufactured him in a wig and a dress and what you them in the elevator, were in their a compliment about something I get (drumroll, please) is an obnoxious boxer shorts, rappelling down from was wearing. Then there was an middle-aged professional man in a one floor to another on ropes. Some anticipatory silence. It took a moment wig and a dress. I finished my scampi of the pretty young women had lost before I realized that she was and apologized to my new friend for their party dresses somewhere along indoctrinating me into a female ritual departing early. “I know,” she confided. the way and were swimming in the in which compliments are exchanged. “I’ve had my fill, too.” And she wasn’t pool in their underwear. I responded with the first thing that talking about the food. I watched the kids having their crazy popped into my head. “Your hair looks I made my way back to the hotel, fun for a few moments, hoping they nice,” I ventured. thinking that a nightcap would suit wouldn’t get hurt or busted. Elsewhere, She tilted her head, smiled coquettishly me just fine. But the lobby was full of in the bowels of the Holiday Inn, Brillo and confided in a loud whisper, “Tons young Marines, this time in fancy dress pads were resting on wig stands and of spray. Feels like a Brillo pad on my uniforms. They had been joined by “heterosexual crossdressers” were head.” I laughed out loud — to the pretty young women in party dresses. snoring the night away.

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Pears

Reamy Jansen

A note of explanation: Reamy Jansen, who one up and bite in. The solidity and would shop together, he would buy died in April 2019, was a long-time faculty shape of pears, though, don’t give them pears, which he could hardly see but member at Rockland Community College the lightness and evenly distributed knew well by hand through his delicate, (RCC). With great enthusiasm, intelligence, weight of apples. Pears are compact tapering papery fingers. and just the right humor, Reamy taught in and hard, hard as rocks, actually, dense I buy a few pears whenever I’m away the English department, was a loyal union and grave with specific gravity. I tried somewhere writing, like now, where my member, guided the student newspaper for to pick up some that gave a bit of give, studio is in the town’s assisted living many years, and was always a wonderful but this supposed tenderness was likely center, The Pines, and which is filled colleague and champion of SUNY Empire my imagination, for when I tentatively with a number of widowers like my dad State College. When ESC’s offices (then, the bit into one at home, it was…hard as once was. I have a shyness about buying Lower Hudson Unit) were located in the rocks. I let the second selection sleep on them and linger before their open basement of the RCC library, Reamy visited its side undisturbed for two more days baskets, never quite able to remember often, encouraged his RCC graduates to and then sliced into it the way my father what I succeeded with last time. Since consider ESC, and spent a lifetime writing did — part of his politesse with fruit, I like both the idea of pear-ness and reviews, poems and essays. To honor cutting, not biting. He’d bring me six something of the thing itself, too, I just him, we are very glad to include this little even sections on a plate when I was a choose a color, usually red or yellow, the piece that he wrote, which was originally teen in the living room reading. This one color of maple leaves in the fall. I handle published in r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary was excellent. each one carefully, though I learn little journal in July 2007. My dad loved a bit of fruit, savored the from doing this. Each day here, I’ll check juices, the entire activity of preparing, them with my right hand, which directs serving, and eating, offices hinting at my most responsive fingers, and gently oday I bought pears here in the sensuousness behind his solid, test the taut middle, one pear always Wadena to begin my residence upstanding Republican affect, one lost in the trial for ripeness. The second as a visiting writer. My host, T fundamentally jolly and good-natured, is usually perfection a day or two later, Kent Sheer, had driven me to the and which I seem to have largely desire finally grafted onto that Ding- Wadena True Value, where he had inherited, along with a jigger’s worth of an-sich. Its swelling side makes way tried to entice me to buy “our” (a.k.a., my mother’s madness. Pears, cherries, for my father’s pen knife, his still-sharp Central Minnesota’s) turkey and wild red grapes, and peaches, the runny blade easing through the slightly grainy rice sausage, but I would have none of fruits were his favorites; and was it this flesh, making thin, even slices, leaving a gizzards and grain. Instead, I headed off physicality my mother desired to avoid square core behind. I eat those gleaming for the fruit section. Coming from a tree by going to bed later than he? Perhaps pieces slowly, wetting my fingers. whose genus is Pyrus communis, a pear the juniper in gin may be considered or two was what I, a new arrival, had to At home, my wife, Leslie, who wants fruit, for, as Spenser tells us, “Sweet is have. I don’t know the many varieties to give me all things, will sometimes the Iunipere.” My mother would stay on of this fruit and can only conjure a few buy me pears knowing that they mean in the living room reading, as my father names: Anjou, Bartlett, Seckel; that’s something — what some people, would head upstairs, his hand lightly pretty much it. The three I bought were perhaps the French, like to call the gracing the polished mahogany banister. a speckled yellow brown, silting into presence of absence. Knowing the Certainly I possess his taste-in-touch. a fading green, a muted blend that I nurturing lore of her grandparents’ hoped was carrying my pear closer When he was in his seventies and living Maryland farm, she puts them in a toward ripeness. alone in too large a house, I would bring paper bag, sure that this is how they will him cherries, Bings, and I would always ripen. And they do. I’m not a good judge of a pear’s laugh at his standing joke about Crosby freshness; they’re hardly as simple as not fitting into the bag. And when we apples, which if they’re firm, you pick

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Transcending Vegetation

Sandra Winn, Saratoga Springs

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and This association, in partnership with narrow-mindedness, and many of our the China Education Association people need it sorely on these accounts. for International Exchange (CEAIE), Broad, wholesome, charitable views of created a fellowship program to bring men and things cannot be acquired by academics to mainland China. The goal vegetating in one little corner of the earth was to teach us about China and its all one’s lifetime.” people over a three-week period. It was anticipated that this information would — Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad then be used to teach Chinese exchange (1911, p. 407) students better, integrate information about China into our work, and overcome misconceptions about the have been in a love affair with Asia Chinese people. I was chosen to be one since 1989. The area called to me of eleven academics in this program. I and I answered it by moving to Japan and working there for six years. The In this essay, I want to share with you time spent in this lovely country taught the experience of this fellowship. I also Sandra Winn on the Badaling Great Wall, me more about myself than about the want to encourage you to consider the section of wall nearest to Beijing. island. Of course, after moving back to taking part in such exchanges in your the States, I still had the urge to visit future. It is true, as Twain wrote, that vocational school, one high performing more Asian countries, but, like our experiencing another culture only serves high school associated with a top tier students also experience, life tends to to broaden our minds and our hearts. university, one vocational high school, happen and more travel to Asia was put I found this fellowship confirmed my and one higher education technical on hold — until the summer of 2018. love affair with Asia; its people are what park. (Just as a little side explanation, make it such a beautiful country. I applied to be a fellow with the this tech park is an institution that American Association of State Let’s set the stage. All participants provides satellite campuses for Colleges and Universities (AASCU). traveled anywhere from 15-25 hours to universities around the world.) Every day arrive in Shanghai. We all came from was packed with activities. different parts of the country and were A day would look something like this: in different stages in our careers. Some We would rise early (which was easy worked as administrators, some were in Shanghai as it was the first stop full professors, others were assistant and I wasn’t on China time yet). We professors, some came from tier-one had breakfast on our own. We then research centers and others from boarded a bus by 9 a.m. to travel to a teaching colleges, such as ours. Our university. We would receive a lecture disciplines were equally diverse. What about Chinese culture followed by a was the same about all of us was that lunch provided by the school. Once we we deeply love to learn and that was ate lunch with other academics and just our purpose. a few times with administrators. Most of We started our adventure in Shanghai the time, we ate on our own as a group where we stayed for one week. We then at the school or a nearby restaurant. flew to Xi’an and stayed for five days We would board a bus again and move before traveling by bullet train to Beijing. on to another institution or to a cultural (For those who may not know, a bullet activity, which was usually sightseeing. train is a high-speed railroad run using Dinner was always arranged for us at a magnetic force). We were in Beijing for specially chosen restaurant where we eight days, which was the end of our were lavished with delicacies of that Shanghai Bund District. journey. We visited nine universities, one region. To give you an idea, Beijing is 17 known for its Peking duck. We were We did get to see the Terra Cotta taken to a specialty restaurant where Warriors, which was a real treat. The a separate room was reserved for us Terra Cotta Warriors are located outside and we had Peking duck. We didn’t just Xi’an. It is a burial ground for China’s eat meat; the meal had many courses first emperor (he lived approximately based upon the duck with a table rolled from 259-210 B.C.). Emperor Qin had in for a special duck carving, which was thousands of clay warriors, horses, spectacular to watch. The last night in carriages, et cetera, made to accompany each city was a special event where a him in the afterworld. The tale of these chicken is presented. This chicken is warriors and their discovery in the cooked in a wrapping of clay, or bamboo 1970s is quite interesting, but I divert leaves, or hard-baked rice. The outside myself. Needless to say, it was a full was hard for the purpose of cracking day excursion. it open with a mallet. A person was I could continue to describe the chosen at the table to pound open the daily routines and the amazing sites shell while people sang a song of good Delicious seaweed and garlic bread — we saw. However, I want to turn to fortune. This was a symbol of closing Street food in Shanghai. what I learned by participating in one’s journey in this place with well this experience. us cups of rich noodle broth, which wishes from natives of that city who was a specialty of this place, for free. shared the journey with them. I have been fortunate to travel to We weren’t shooed away or told not to many places abroad. I usually go away After this very full and rich day, we take up space from other customers. for a month or more when I get the arrived back at the hotel around This was another one of the everyday chance. What I have learned is that 9 p.m. or so. This was our time to generous acts we experienced. people, everyday people, are incredibly decompress. Some would need some generous. This held true in China Our tour guides and general guide were time alone. Others would spend these as well. One example: In a park in unbelievably generous. We had a guide after hours with colleagues. This time Beijing, there is a playground for senior who accompanied us for the whole was very special to me. This is where citizens. You may be thinking that this trip; and, for each city, we had a guide deep connections were made and good playground had benches and maybe for that location. They would buy us conversations were had. We would some swings. Nope. It was a full-fledged little gifts and share stories about their share a drink and discuss our insights playground that children would use. own lives. They answered innumerable as well as taboo topics that we These seniors walked on balance beams, questions with patience and adjusted couldn’t otherwise discuss with our swung on monkey bars, and balanced the schedule when they could to fit our Chinese colleagues. on half-exposed orbs in the dirt. My interests. These four women made our At every visit, one of us would give new friend and I looked in our mid-50s, trip as easy as they could and taught us a presentation about our college/ which is the age of retirement in China more than I could have ever imagined university and academic interests. We (China has mandatory retirement at just by their presence. would describe our academics, students, age 50 for women and 55 for men). Of course, finding these generous acts and colleagues. When it was my turn, Therefore, when approaching this required being amenable to a very I spoke about our differences from a playground to watch these spry seniors different way of being human on this traditional college, online education, jump rope, play catch, and somersault earth. Chinese people have a very and the beauty of serving nontraditional on monkey bars, we were approached different sense of space and speaking. students. The participants at Beijing and asked to join. This gentleman The large cities of Shanghai and Beijing University were very interested in online wanted to give us his cylindrical toy to have 26 and 21.5 million people living education. They had questions about play catch with him. Since neither of there, respectively. The space is tight. how this works and if it is successful. us spoke the other’s language, he used There are people everywhere, day I was proud to share that we are a gestures and pantomimes to encourage and night. The buildings are extremely premier institution in online education, us to join his game. We declined but the tall, and people live in apartments and it works well for many. invitation was genuine and generous. that would make a New Yorker In general, this is how our days went On yet another day in Xi’an, we took up uncomfortable, at twice the cost. What with an occasional sightseeing day a table in a busy restaurant until late at this translates into is that people are built in. night; half of us didn’t order anything to not being rude if they bump into you, eat or drink. Even so, the host brought cut you off, yell at you, move you along

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The same premise applies to restaurants. Restaurants run the gamut from small street stalls to large department store-size establishments. Eating in restaurants is very common. Again, due to the small housing space, people go out to eat with friends; dinner parties are rare. It is very common to meet up with co-workers to eat after work, have larger family gatherings in private restaurant rooms, or enjoy friendships while eating noodles from a street vendor. This use of space is an adaptation of a very populated country with an extremely long and rich history. When living in Japan, I had the distinct impression that I touched an ancient world. It was a world full of wonders and mysteries. It was similar to the magic I felt exploring the pueblos at Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, which was home to native people. Traveling to China had the same power. It was Muslim Temple – Xi’an. evident that we were walking in the quickly, or squish against you; these no idea why), doing calligraphy on the shoes of ancient peoples. Of course, we behaviors are adaptations from living pavement with water, singing, playing visited World Heritage sites with ancient in small quarters. They are not trying cards, playing on the playground, buildings and warriors. It was more to invade a Westerner’s space; they dancing … and much more that I didn’t than this; I could feel ancient lines in are just living with many other people witness. The larger point is that open everyday life. It was the old streets and close together. Once you look past this, locations are used communally daily. fortress walls integrated into modern you can begin to see people wait for society. It was the innovative way people I am very curious about this communal others, carry packages for the elderly, used bikes to carry belongings or trade use of space. I asked everywhere take in cats (contrary to popular opinion, tools. It was the familiar interactions we went what people did, how they I saw a lot of family pets), assist one among peoples and the closeness of interacted, and, most importantly, another in tasks, and so on. I smiled communities. It was in this shared space why. Here is what I learned from our at everyone and usually got a broad and gardens around pagodas. This guides: Being a communist country, all smile in return. I was not surprised that ancient world permeated everything, space belongs to everyone. People do open-heartedness was returned in kind. even though Mao tried to destroy so not own homes; they “buy” a home, People would even talk with you using much of what went before him. which is really just a 99-year leased rent a translator app and share a bit of who to the government, which belongs to That legacy of the ancient perseveres they are — indeed, a wonderful gift everyone. The same is true of public even in the collectivist mindset. These of generosity. space; the people own this space. societies focus upon the group — the These adaptations to space lead me It is theirs to share and enjoy. Since collective. How one acts or what one to my next topic, which is the unique most homes are so small and space to does should be in harmony with the use of public areas. Due to apartments entertain or pursue hobbies does not world around them. That makes it easier being so very small, people congregate exist, these areas become the place to to share such tiny space with others, to outside of the home for entertainment. enjoy oneself. Thus, we saw reading and lease one’s home for 99 years and call it We found people who were doing tai chi singing groups, card playing, organized your own but knowing it is not, to abide in parks, playing instruments (violins, dancing, dancing lessons, and so on. by the rules set before one because it erhus, flutes), yelling at trees (yes, you People are using what belongs to them is for the larger good of the Chinese read right — yelling at trees — I have out in the open communally. people. It is a mindset very different

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 19 from our individualistic society. I can see done by the prime minister, or the about what the youth is like. I want why this way of thinking can be difficult strength of the Chinese army. These to see if the new policy to eradicate for Westerners to understand. news articles read over breakfast left me poverty works. What will be in their/ with so many questions. I left wanting our futures? What was difficult for me in China had to know what lies underneath all of this. to do with this collectivist mindset. It Learning to explore the world and not When I returned home, I learned of this is too easy to sell the mistreatment vegetate in our own backyard will help atrocity happening to China’s Muslim of others if it is done for the greater us to not judge different ways of living. people as our country started separating good. While we were there, the Chinese This is one method for acquiring “… children from migrating families government was quietly collecting many broad, wholesome, charitable views of and placing everyone into our own in the Muslim population (who have men and things …” (Twain, 1911, p. 407). detention centers. lived in China long before Genghis Khan) I’m looking forward to deepening this and sending them to reeducation camps I hope to one day teach over the love affair that I’m in. because religion is still considered summer months at a Chinese university. Marx’s (1970) “opium of the people.” I want to hear what youth have to say References No one, but our group over drinks and think. Despite the restrictions in Marx, K. (1970). Critique of Hegel’s after a long day, spoke about this. It technology, young people are more philosophy of right (J. O’Malley, was not in the news. Not spoken about connected than one might think. They Trans.). London, UK: Oxford by academics, or our guides. I am not know more than the government might University Press. (Original work sure that many of the Chinese people want them to know. They are growing published 1843) knew about this. Even as we visited up with different ideals and exposure. Muslim streets and a mosque in Xi’an, They will get married without having Twain, M. (1911). The innocents abroad it appeared to be unknown. There were to restrict the number of children they (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Harper & Muslims at the mosque while I visited, have (this policy changes in 2020). More Brothers. Retrieved from https:// which added to my lack of knowledge. and more Chinese are studying abroad www.google.com/books/edition/ What we did see in the China Daily in Europe and the United States. I want The_Innocents_Abroad/PYEHuTkQJC newspaper was the positive outcome of to listen to them and hear their stories. EC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=broad,%20 reeducating Tibetan children in Chinese It is the youth who are going to mold wholesome,%20charitable%20 schools, expounding on the great deeds the future of this world and I am curious view#spf=1585164663645

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Observation on the Daily Trek to Work — My Take

Lear Matthews, Manhattan

ver my more than 20 years as a As I emerge from the 30-minute faculty member at SUNY Empire subway ride from Brooklyn to the O State College, I have noticed Hudson Street campus in Manhattan, some interesting, albeit remarkable particularly on the days when I lead an transformations in the public sphere as evening study group, another noticeable I travel via the New York City subway transformation is the trend in street and continue my trek to work as a vending. As an occupation, street pedestrian. Admittedly, it is a uniquely vending, considered the cornerstone multifaceted, multicultural experience, of many cities’ historical and cultural which provides a continuous education. heritage, has existed for a very long time. In North America, in cities like Unlike previous years, train commuters New York, this public entrepreneurial of all ages and ethnicities are today activity has evolved from the plain, starkly mesmerized with their minimally regulated wooden pushcart to contemporary fashionable, portable, the artistic commercial culinary activity manual technological devices, conducted in technologically-equipped particularly the iPhone. There is clearly mobile kitchens. It attracts the casual, Lear Matthews less reading of printed matter such as uninhibited, perhaps adventurous, as books, magazines, and newspapers, and well as nutrition-conscious, sophisticated archaic lunch carts, but now include a paucity of verbal interaction among customer. The artistry and kaleidoscope Generation X’s and millennials passengers, I dare surmise even among of colors on the outside of some of busily eking out a living from this those who may be connected through these retrofitted vending vehicles are traditional occupation. Perhaps to family relations or friendship. A few quite elaborate and futuristic. They also some established, more permanently of these urban sojourners are seen provide a growing source of revenue for located businesses, street vendors engaged in such literary exercises with the city’s coiffeurs. One can imagine the and their transported load represent electronic tablets. (Perhaps some of us exorbitant fee required to peddle such an eyesore, while others may view take two of those for arthritis flare-up in a business in a metropole such as them as less-deserving commercial the morning before leaving home. Oh, Gotham City. competitors. Whichever it is, they seem not that tablet! Sorry, I couldn’t help that to coexist mostly peacefully. This is but self-inflicted jab!) It is not uncommon to see long lines one of many urban changes, perhaps of patrons, from construction workers, Their attention is focused penetratingly unnoticed in plain sight, as we traverse students, office workers, service on the palm-sized electronic magnets, the bustle of one of the most diverse recipients, to shoppers and formally- many with plugged earphones, cities known. My take. attired professionals at lunchtime seemingly never disturbed by the queuing up at the vending spot, cradled Postscript: The impact of the COVID-19 presence of active or noisy underground in the shadows of skyscrapers, some pandemic will undoubtedly cause entertainers, potential danger or under reconstruction or rebuilding, and unpredictable transformation of the city panhandlers. Perhaps, for many, the other burgeoning edifices representing and beyond, perhaps of the likes never latter has become more of a nuisance symbols of perpetual gentrification. imagined. Will it ever return to the routine and distraction rather than an appeal practices, trends and habits described in for charity. This new trend exacerbates However, no longer are the vendors my trek? Only time will tell! the perceived labeled impersonal predominantly immigrants peddling relations characteristic of urban settings, ethnic dishes and snacks from their or rather the relations of which “city dwellers” are often accused.

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On Trying Not to Grade

Rebecca Fraser, Manhattan

“If you’re a teacher and you hate grading, final grade was based simply on their stop doing it.” completion of the informal assignments, and the final 20% was based on what — Jesse Stommel, “How to Ungrade” (2018) I like to call “good citizenship”: did they help the discussions in class, did they participate in activities, were they his short essay is a reflection of present, did they hand in work on my experience of “ungrading” — time — that sort of thing. T not grading student papers last year. Particularly, it is about how the As to my grading experiment: 99% of experiment did not work the way I the time, 99% of the papers turned intended. Let’s go behind the scenes in were given the grade of an “A” by and see what actually happened. the students. At first, this disturbed me. I had, after all, had them create First, for context, the study was a rubric by which they would grade Working-Class Themes in Literature, their papers. They got in groups and and we were focused on the mystery/ discussed possible items on the rubric, detective genre. We read a number of Rebecca Fraser and then we got together as a large short stories and three novels, and saw group and put everything on the board, two movies; we discussed the detectives overtly special about the written word). finally narrowing it down to five agreed who appeared in these media, whether I collect a lot of what students write, upon items. I didn’t know if I should be or not they were working class or not, reading it and commenting on it. It is not disturbed or not at their use of “teacher and if they were, what difference that true for me that “the work of grading is talk” when it came to the rubric. That is, made. We asked the same questions framed less in terms of giving feedback they clearly know what their instructors for the setting of the story/novel/movie or encouraging learning and more as want from them and being able to recite as well as the victim/s of the crime. a way of ranking students against one it back to me did not seem as reflective In the beginning, I spent a number of another” (Stommel, 2018, para. 4). or deep a task as I had hoped for. We sessions, while we were discussing the During other terms, I’ve graded and had talked about self-reflection and short stories, helping students develop provided a great deal of feedback, often evaluation as a mindful exercise, and I a critical awareness of the mystery/ with a requirement that students work had hoped that they would grade more detective genre, giving them a language with a writing coach before turning in a accurately than being motivated simply to use to reflect on and analyze the revision based on the response from by the desire to get an “A” in the class. stories, novels, and films we would be me and the thoughts of the writing But they didn’t. engaged with over the term. coach they worked with. At times, I read Jesse Stommel’s blog in the I’ve had students write back to me, Students were assigned three main middle of a rough term when the piles responding to the comments and grade papers; each one addressed a specific of papers kept stacking up and students on their papers. question about a novel or film. They also were writing more revisions than usual. did a fair amount of informal, in-class My students in the last term, my I teach writing and literature classes, as and out of class writing about topics experimental term, however, did not well as Educational Planning classes. I raised in class discussions. Sometimes bring a critical eye (or use the rubric we assign a lot of writing because I believe I pause a class discussion and have created) to the grading of their papers. that writing is thinking and that one way students write about the discussion and I still provided qualitative feedback on to get students to reflect on the content their take on the topic at hand. They their papers; my hope being that they of the course we are learning together collected all this work in a portfolio, would take that feedback and apply it to is for all of us to always be writing — which was read and responded to by their next papers — and that did occur informally, formally, sometimes in a writing coach at midterm; they then (I think) on a limited basis. For example, a journal, sometimes on scraps of handed in all their work again at the on a paper that had not been edited and paper they throw away (as a way to end of the term. The three main papers had been written like a text message demonstrate that there is nothing were 60% of their final grade; 20% of the (and perhaps even written on a phone),

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I wrote I would not accept another lower their grades to something that them to do more or less of what they paper that was of that caliber. My reflected more accurately on the work had done, and then let them “have at threat was taken seriously and the next they did for the class. it” with their next paper. Then, if I got a paper that student turned in had been handful of “A” papers, we would have a Too many times I have seen students “cleaned up” and did not have the same class discussion about that. Why all the stuff their papers in their backpack errors as the previous paper had (no “A’s”? Were their assessments fair? How without even looking at the grade. Too more lowercase “i’s,” more periods and so? With that said, I would try and keep many times I have spent half an hour commas, paragraphs and citations). But them “honest” with their grading. on a paper, commenting on it, noticing I had not required my students to write patterns in grammatical errors, or The other thing I would do differently out a rationale for the grade they gave problems with logic, or mistakes in an is to share my syllabus with a colleague themselves, and that is where I think I argument, or the use of a quotation only and have a thorough discussion about failed my students. It was this omission to have that student turn in their next that made the most difference to me. paper with exactly the same problems, Namely, I rediscovered that students and I have the sense that the time I so “ … and I have the need to be taught how to evaluate their carefully spent reflecting on and grading own work — and not simply taught, but the paper has been wasted time. sense that the time I so have self-evaluation modeled, practiced, Consequently, in the last term I was carefully spent reflecting and demonstrated over time. Our work ready for this change, that is, I was ready in one hour of one class to think about, to “ungrade,” and I think the experiment on and grading the discuss and create a rubric was not was not a bad one, but I do think I went paper has been enough for these students. They had no about it poorly. Ironically, I didn’t do experience grading their own work, so my own reflection thoroughly enough, wasted time.” rather than see it as an opportunity for just as the students didn’t reflect on self-reflection, they saw it as a chance their own papers. I can’t say I did no to get an easy “A.” I blame myself for reflecting — that would be inaccurate. the assignments, the students’ grading, the fallacy of “I’ve taught this so many But I didn’t think through, thoroughly, and the way I went about engaging times before to so very many students, what I wanted from students and how students in reflective thought that this group of students must know what I would elicit that from them, how they would (hopefully) go into their grading I’m talking about.” I “forgot” that even would get to where I hoped they would and commenting. I need that sort of though this was an advanced-level be before they started to grade their collegial interaction and discussion course, these students probably didn’t own papers. about what I’m doing. Being the only have the experience of reflecting on full-time writing person at the Van Can we imagine assessment their own work and so it was new and Arsdale Center, I sometimes long for mechanisms that encourage discovery, uncomfortable to do. So why not take writing colleagues with whom I can ones not designed for assessing the easy road and slap an “A” on discuss my assignments, my grading, my learning but designed for learning their papers? reflective processes — that is, the work through assessment? (Stommel, 2018, of teaching writing. The interesting thing, or one of the para. 17) interesting things, is this: at the end of Finally, after teaching for more than 35 So how might I do things differently if I the term, I felt that final grades were years, I feel the need to make myself were to try this experiment again? First, fair grades, grades based on formal “new” again. I need to come to my I would spend more time with them and informal writing, as well as “good courses and teaching with a freshness discussing the rubric they create — citizenship.” Many of the students who that I think I’ve lost. I think that might specifically asking them, how they would didn’t deserve an “A” on their papers be a root cause for my decision to try know if they met specific criteria or not, didn’t turn in any of the informal to “ungrade” last term. I wanted to and how that assessment would impact papers and were not the best citizens learn something new, to do something the grade they would give themselves. I in class (that is, they didn’t participate, different. I was, perhaps unconsciously can’t believe I didn’t do this the first time perhaps they fell asleep in class and for some period of time, looking for a around! Second, I think the first paper had to be woken up, they didn’t do the way of mentoring that engaged students they grade would be a “practice run” — reading, or they didn’t bring the book in new, untried ways. It is also true that where they would grade the paper and we were discussing with them to class). I was trying to solve my “mini-angst” I would grade the paper, and where we Consequently, 40% of their grade was about grading, grading and grading would both explain or reflect on the not an “A” and that 40% was enough to some more — something I think we all grades we gave. Then I would encourage feel from time to time. And I do agree

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 23 with Stommel that “the work of teaching The good news is that this experiment, him, and my hope is that an honest, shouldn’t be reduced to the mechanical as well as this essay, has me rethinking ongoing conversation about grading act of grading or marking. Our talk of grading completely. And I hope it has would open up into a discussion of grading shouldn’t be reduced to our you thinking about how you grade, why student learning. complaining about the continuing you grade, and what you hope grading necessity of it” (Stommel, 2018, para. 1). will do for your students, as well as for Reference And that was happening to me before you. Perhaps we, the faculty of Empire Stommel, J. (2018, March 11). How to I tried “ungrading.” I was beginning to State College, need an open forum ungrade [Blog post]. Retrieved from feel robotic with my “awkward sentence; online or perhaps at the Fall Academic https://www.jessestommel.com/ needs attention,” and “this comma Conference to discuss these questions. how-to-ungrade/ needs to be a semicolon; please explore Stommel (2018) believes that “grades sentence boundaries at the Purdue are a morass education has fallen into OWL” comments made over and that frustrates our ability to focus on over again. student learning” (para. 28). I agree with

“Given that effective adult learning is predicated on relationships, neglect cannot be part of the recipe for success in our vocation. As a result, how we think about, approach, and operate when confronted with difference is an indicator of how effective we will be as adult educators. In other words, a big part of our job requires negotiating cultural differences. People matter; in fact, when you get right down to it, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, people are what count the most.”

— Lisa R. Merriweather, “Negotiating Polyrhythms: Moving Toward a Praxis of Inclusive Adult Education” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 7

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A Study of Representations of Women in Art History Textbooks

Alice Lai, Saratoga Springs

“Yet, textbooks are more than simply challenged and deconstructed mediators of knowledge. They always canonized myths about art and the contain and enshrine underlying norms artist and investigated institutionalized and values; they transmit constructions norms and discrimination against of identity; and they generate specific women, hindering opportunities for patterns of perceiving the world.” them and their positioning as “great” artists. They suggested that educators — Fuchs and Bock (2018) could only reform the institutions of art and address gender injustice in arts and humanities curriculum materials hy have there been no through a feminist interrogation of the great women artists?” androcentric system. “WFeminist art historian, critic, and educator Linda Nochlin posed In the 1990s, I was taking undergraduate this provocative question in 1971 to her studio art, art history, and art theory fellow art historians and art critics. To classes, but I was not yet aware of answer this “tricky” question, Nochlin Nochlin’s theory or other critical or Alice Lai advised her colleagues to not fall into cultural theories based on gender the trap of defensively attempting critiques of Western art traditions. During my six-month sabbatical, I spent to identify exemplary female artists Still, I had the same nagging feeling time reexamining the instructional comparable to their great male peers. about the sparse sample of female materials, especially textbooks, I had Rather, they should examine the artists introduced in my classic art chosen to guide students in the critical institutionalized assumptions that define history textbooks in particular and study of art history and theory, women’s (great) art and govern how (great) artists departmental curriculum in general. art, and the art of diverse cultures. are produced. In doing so, they can also This feeling eventually motivated me to During this process, I happened upon recognize and further envision ways to dive deeper into the history, theory, and the opening quote by Fuchs and transform the deep-seated structure praxis of art education from a critical Bock (2018), which reminded me of of male privilege in the Western art perspective. At SUNY Empire State Nochlin’s discontent with the canonical canon. Nochlin asserted that great College, I have continued expanding this beliefs and prompted me to probe art is “to be learned or worked out, research interest and began creating the norms and values embedded in either through teaching, apprenticeship and teaching undergraduate arts and art history and theory textbooks. In or a long period of individual humanities courses incorporating particular, I endeavor to understand experimentation” (p. 483) and argued curriculum materials about female the changing institutional ideology and against the misconception of “genius” artists and using intersectional practice influencing the production of that was “thought of as an atemporal feminist methods. In other words, my art history textbooks starting around and mysterious power somehow courses invite students to uncover and the late 20th century. According to embedded in the person of the Great study female artists across diverse Turner (1996), the late 20th century saw Artist” (p. 488). Following Nochlin, identity categories, for example, race, textbook industries begin supporting Griselda Pollock (1999) described the ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual a new generation of textbooks that canon as a discursive formation that orientation, faith, age, and nationality, chronologically and fully survey women’s “contributes to the legitimation of white and to ponder multiple forms of art or follow gender-balanced content masculinity’s exclusive identification privilege and oppression in the art and language guidelines. Today’s with creativity and with culture. So long world intersected with various identity textbooks continue to reflect this effort. as feminism also tries to be a discourse categories. In doing so, I also aim to In this essay, I highlight the feminist about art, truth, and beauty, it can only prepare students to engage in a feminist critique of the canonical norms in art, confirm the structure of the canon” (p. investigation of androcentrism in the especially representations of women in 9). These feminist scholars tenaciously art world.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 25 textbooks. Using two seminal but non- and intellectual abilities and suggested that more female artists from canonical-driven textbooks as models — discouraged women from pursuing history need to be acknowledged in Women, Art, and Society (Chadwick, artistic professions. educational materials and taught in the 1990, 2012) and Mixed Blessings in a classroom. However, it was a daunting With concerns about the diminished Multicultural America (Lippard, 1990) — undertaking to (re)write a history of art representation of diverse race, gender, I analyze the explicit feminist and encompassing sufficient precedents sexuality, and so forth in art history intersectional feminist approaches these from female artists and a new system texts and art pedagogy, I attempted authors adopted to create the textbooks or theory of art that judges and gives a “quantitative” exercise to recount and counteract male dominance and, meaning to women’s work on their the women artists I studied as an to an extent, ethnocentricity and own terms (Garrard, 1991; Mathews, undergraduate. I took out my first copy Eurocentricity in art history. Lastly, I 1991). Consequently, even though of H.W. Janson’s History of Art (Janson, discuss the influences of these texts on the appeal for a new type of women- 1991), which I still retain after countless my students’ learning. centered or gender-balanced textbook moves from the West to East Coasts. was noticeable, especially among I surveyed the entire text to sort out Women in Art History Texts K-16 art educators (Turner, 1996), a female and male artists, keeping an minuscule number of new, scholarly, The lack of female representation eye to the description of their race, comprehensive, and women’s art history in art history textbooks was posited sexual orientation, class status, and textbooks were produced since the as a problem contributing to gender other identity markers. There were 30 late 20th century. Chadwick had just disparity in the art world. As “an art female artists featured in the text. I published the first edition of her iconic textbook (project) editor in a major was disappointed but not surprised to and voluminous text Women, Art, and textbook house and as an author for see that there were no female artists Society in 1990, a scholarly work fully art textbook and trade book publishers” of color acknowledged in the text. In a dedicated to surveying female artists (p. 135), Turner (1996) recounted that far more systematic, comprehensive, and the gender issues the artists have in 1986, “no mainstream K-12 or higher and meticulous manner, Gustlin (2016) encountered throughout history. This education textbook [on] the market had completed a doctoral dissertation in women-centered text corresponded with remotely attempted to offer a gender- part focusing on a content analysis of the then feminist movement; indeed, it balanced approach. These texts taught female artists in six widely used college- contains several hundred women artists students that art was created, for the level art history textbooks released from from periods ranging from the Middle most part, solely by white men” (p. 136). 2010 to 2015. The finding indicated that Ages to the late 20th century. Moreover, Chadwick (1990, 2012) noted that the “overall, the ratio of male to female it also highlights feminist theories and a standard and widely distributed art artists” in artist-identified plates and feminist critique of Western art canons. history textbook in U.S. colleges and indexes “was roughly 4:1. There was universities, H.W. Janson’s History of Art also a much greater numerical reference At the same time, Lippard (1990), (Janson, 1962), contained not a single to White European artists regardless coming from a critical cultural studies female artist at the time Nochlin (1971) of gender compared to artists of standpoint, published the first edition raised the poignant question. Sterling color, regardless of gender” (p. 65). As of her critically acclaimed scholarly text, (2010), director of the National Museum recently as 2019, White completed a Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural of Women in the Arts in Washington master’s thesis investigating gender America. Included in the text are D.C., added that it was not until 1986 representation in art pedagogy. Seventy- hundreds of narratives of contemporary that said art history textbook started to one students in her research reported artists and artworks from a wide range introduce female artists; however, the that they valued a gender-balanced art of women artists intersected with number was minimal: Only 19 out of curriculum, yet spent a vast majority of diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, 2,300 artists were female. As expected, a class time (an average of 72%) learning and sexuality backgrounds. Lippard large number of postsecondary art and about male artists. Some students applied critical and intersectionality art history students during the second expressed that they were able to learn theories such as race theory, feminist half of the 20th century were unable more about women artists only through theory, and multiculturalism to analyze to name a handful of female artists in their art professors’ dedicated efforts the artworks, the contemporary art the Western history of art. The lack of in providing additional narratives of canons, and the interconnected issues examples and study of female artists women artist to the curriculum. of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual and their inspirations and artworks, as identification, power, and privilege that To narrow the gender gap in the art both Chadwick and Turner asserted, influence the artists’ lives and artworks. world and empower female students has led to a distrust of women’s artistic Chadwick’s text no doubt mobilized and artists, art educators (Clarke, female artists from a marginalized Folgo, & Pichette, 2005; Gustlin, 2016)

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 26 existence to a center position in the a transitional space and an in-between history of art. Going further, Lippard’s time shaping the lives and works of text furnished samples of and supports women artists and artists of color. “These questions for underrepresented artists: female, Chadwick’s and Lippard’s texts must be pondered to non-white, non-European influenced, evidenced that despite the myriad and non-heterosexual. tear away the deep- obstacles female and other marginalized Scholars affirmed that Chadwick’s artists encountered, they have created rooted ideology of and Lippard’s texts went beyond the magnificent artwork along with their male dominance, “just add women and minorities and male or white contemporaries during stir” tactic and had the potential to different historical periods and art ethnocentricity, and transgress and even reform the art movements. Their endeavors not only Eurocentricity in defining history and art education canons helped to ontologically legitimize the (Garrard, 1991; Larsen, 1991; Mathews, creativity and achievements of women great artists and 1991; Parks, 1995). Employing a and people of color in the art world art, value in art, and radical feminist framework, Chadwick but also to epistemologically broaden attempted to disrupt the male canonical aesthetic theories and the philosophy of legitimate art curricula.” gaze by theorizing, locating, and valuing art. Labels such as feminist art, women’s artistic characteristics manifested art, or identity-based art (e.g., Native a category limiting or stereotyping in women’s artworks. Historically, American art, LGBT art) appeared in women artists’ understanding of self, male and female artists’ works were Chadwick’s and Lippard’s texts and in misguiding viewers’ interpretation of dichotomously attributed as grand/ the titles of visual culture magazines, art, and alienating artists who did not miniature, historical/domestic, political/ academic journals, art exhibitions, and subscribe to a particular category. For personal, masculine/feminine, and professional associations. Subsequently, example, as scholars (Broude & Garrard, strong/weak (e.g., color, brushstroke, an increasing body of art exhibitions 2005; Chadwick, 1990, 2012) cautioned, and texture). Privileging the former began accepting, requesting, or focusing although female artists had increased over the latter led to the belief that on artwork produced by women freedom to create their own work and artworks created by women were across various identity groups. Such a opportunities to exhibit their work in inferior and lacked long-term social, paradigm change in the art world and in the wake of the feminist art movement, th historical, or monetary significance. art education during the late 20 century Georgia O’Keeffe constantly objected Applying art theory, feminist theory, allowed art students to access new, or to her flower paintings being labeled and a feminist critique of the patriarchal previously ignored, knowledge. as feminine, erotic, or feminist art, and system of art, Chadwick, along with Chadwick’s and Lippard’s achievement other female artists were frustrated other scholars (Broude & Garrard, was monumental in terms of the sheer by the women-centric art categories 2005), identified femininity, domesticity, volume of new knowledge covered that, intentionally or unintentionally, and personalness as distinctive traits, in their texts and the new questions separated their creativity from the context, or the subject matter in and debates that emerged from their mainstream aesthetics. numerous women’s artworks. They texts that sustained a classic dialogue presented these aspects as positive Art educators (Rosenberg & Thurber, about what art is and sparked a new inspirations and important elements 2007; Turner, 1996) concerned about dialogue about identity-based art contributing to aesthetic theories gender issues in art institutions have in the age of identity politics. Fields and quality art. Lippard intended to generated and applied gender-balanced (2012) noted that their texts provoked destabilize European white canonical and gender-inclusive guidelines to feminist art historians and artists to traditions by devoting the entire text design or select textbooks. Their continue wrestling with what constitutes to illuminating new works created by guidelines can be extended to evaluate “women’s” experience, “feminist” art, and women artists and artists of color. the representations of gender, race, “feminist” or “feminine” signifiers from Using a critical multicultural and race class (including the divisions of high the standpoints of essentialism and anti- theory, she examined sexism and art and low art) and other identity essentialism. Historians and artists also racism and other identity issues in the markers in the prospective texts. For deliberated on the need for feminist contemporary art world and society example, an instructor may inspect art or women’s art, or for that matter, as a whole. Reflecting a theory of content along with such questions as Chicana art or Asian American queer art. intersectional feminism, Lippard (1990) which women artists and artists of color While the female label may have created wrote with “the relational, unfixed are included in the materials, by whom a safe space or niche market for women feminist models of art” (p. 4), exploring and based on what criteria, how they artists, they inadvertently reproduced are represented, as well as which and

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 27 whose art is worth teaching, exhibiting, rather than an all-encompassing theory while Trump utters his slogan, “Make or preserving for future generations. with which to analyze art of diverse America Great Again,” on the opposite These questions must be pondered to forms, contexts, and periods. corner. A cracked hand-mirror with the tear away the deep-rooted ideology of word society written on its handle was male dominance, ethnocentricity, and Implications of the Textbooks placed in the center of the drawing Eurocentricity in defining great artists separating the woman from Trump. In this last section, I exemplify the and art, value in art, and legitimate art Rizzo posted her artwork to the course’s influences of Lippard’s and Chadwick’s curricula. Employing their guidelines discussion forum and stated, “I am a texts on my undergraduate students’ to scrutinize Chadwick’s text reveals professional painter; yet, I have never learning. Students’ feedback on that each edition of Chadwick’s text created art to express my political point Lippard’s text was mixed. Students contains overwhelmingly white, of view or the social reality I live in … were enlightened by the text to European-influenced, intellectually this course gave me the courage to try explore the intersected experiences elite, middle-class and heterosexual something different” (M. Rizzo, personal and issues of gender, race, ethnicity, women, suggesting that to some communication, November 13, 2016). craft, and low art. While they generally extent the selection of the female Recalling the gender discourse and supported racial and ethnic diversity artists might have been grounded examples of women artists learned from in the American art world, curriculum in canonical standards. Indeed, the textbook, she explained her choices materials directly interrogating racism Mathews (1991) noticed that “where of the medium and subject matter. The expressed in the artworks appear to new research is unavailable to her, watercolor was canonically considered a be “too political” or uncomfortable for or when she tries to cover too much soft, feminine medium. Political matters a number of students. Other recurring material, [Chadwick] tends to rely on were traditionally considered masculine complaints from them included the Modernist assumptions of the artist as subjects; female artists, especially before “incomprehensible” critical theory and individual creator whose work can be the 18th century, were discouraged critical language used in the text and interpreted through its relations to an from creating historical and political difficulty relating to the artworks or established canon of male artists based paintings. Employing watercolors to finding “pleasure” in the aesthetics of on traditional categories such as style, depict a political subject was her way of contemporary artwork. Some students influence, and artistic schools” (p. 336). disrupting gender norms and subverting felt that the text promotes a sentiment Garrard (1991) further noted that while the gender-biased conventions in the of white guilt and thus perceived Chadwick was constantly attentive to Western art canon. This approach Lippard’s interpretation of artworks the intersectionality of economic, social, simultaneously aligns with the objective as rather discriminatory. Conversely, and class issues, her analyses of race and content of her watercolor; that is, many other students chose to focus on and homosexuality were scarce. This to express her discontent of injustice the historical and creative aspects of shortcoming, Garrard speculated, was multicultural art. These students related due to the insufficient resources of the interconnected issues of power artists of color and non-heterosexual structure and identity politics to the artists available to Chadwick — another shared gender, racial, ethnic, or national profound problem in the institutions history and made an effort to explore of art. Lippard’s text can be perceived the artistic elements women and other as representing an “abridged” or marginalized artists used to portray “alternative” history of artists of color difficult social issues and experiences. and multicultural art in the United States. The majority of the artworks Several public events during the presented in the text were created 2016 presidential campaign, the 2017 after the mid-20th century; hence, Women’s March, and the #MeToo the text was not typically considered movement have significantly heightened a comprehensive art history. Indeed, my students’ attention to gender, race, Lippard (1990) wrote, “I want to make and class issues and their impacts on it clear from the outset that this book women’s lives in the United States. is not a survey of art from a diverse For example, in Figure 1, Maria Rizzo, range of ethnic communities” (p. 4). In a female art student, responded to addition, the limited duration spanned Trump winning the presidency by in the text could lead to a conception creating a watercolor depicting a woman that “multiculturalism” was a short-lived covering her face with both hands Figure 1: “Make America Great Again” art movement or cultural phenomenon sobbing on one corner of the drawing by Student Maria Rizzo.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 28 against women and minorities — References Larsen, E. (1991). In the realm of the with which she empathized — in the censors [Review of the book Mixed Broude, N., & Garrard, M. D. (2005). contemporary time. I speculate that the blessings: New art in a multicultural Reclaiming female agency. In N. course reading Women, Art, and Society, America, by L. Lippard]. Transition, Broude, & M. D. Garrard (Eds.), by Chadwick, centering on female artists’ 53, 104-115. Reclaiming female agency: Feminist lives and works and art history from a art history after postmodernism (pp. Lippard, L. (1990). Mixed blessings: New critical and gender perspective, evoked 1-25). Berkeley, CA: University of art in a multicultural America. New her to produce “political” art confronting California Press. York, NY: Pantheon Books. gender oppression and discrimination, as she perceived it, throughout the Chadwick, W. (1990). Women, art, and Mathews, P. (1991). [Review of the presidential campaign. This case was society (1st ed.). New York, NY: book Women, art, and society, by W. not a rare display of a student being Thames and Hudson. Chadwick]. The Art Bulletin, 73(2), empowered and transformed by the 336-339. Chadwick, W. (2012). Women, art, and curriculum materials. In fact, many society (5th ed.). New York, NY: Nochlin, L. (1971). Why are there no students have found inspiration and Thames and Hudson. great women artists? In V. Gornick, encouragement from Chadwick’s text & B. K. Moran (Eds.), Woman in and were able to engage in a feminist Clark, R., Folgo, A. R., & Pichette, J. sexist society: Studies in power and investigation of androcentrism and (2005). Have there now been powerlessness (pp. 480-510). New other gender-related issues in the art any great women artists? An York, NY: Basic Books. world and in society as a whole. investigation of the visibility of women artists in recent art history Parks, N. (1995). [Review of the book As I embarked on the present inquiry, textbooks. Art Education, 58 (3), 6-13. Mixed blessings: New art in a I found persistent concerns about multicultural America, by L. Lippard]. the representation of race, gender, Fields, J. (2012). Frontiers in feminist art Studies in Art Education, 36(3), class, sexuality, and so forth in art history. Frontiers: A Journal of Women 189-192. history texts and art pedagogy. Gustlin Studies, 33(2), 1-21. (2016) observed that most of her art Pollock, G. (1999). Differencing the canon: Fuchs, E., & Bock, A. (2018). Introduction. history students on the first day of a Feminist desire and the writing of art’s In E. Fuchs, & A. Bock (Eds.), The new semester were able to name 10 histories. New York, NY: Routledge. Palgrave handbook of textbook male artists; however, it was difficult studies (pp. 1-10). New York, NY: Rosenberg, M., & Thurber, F. (2007). for them to name more than two Palgrave Macmillan. Gender matters in art education. female artists. It seems to me that the Worcester, MA: Davis Publications. standard art history textbooks alone Garrard, M. (1991). [Review of the are not adequate enough to support book Women, art, and society, by Sterling, S. F. (2010). Women artists: a well-rounded study of art. I have W. Chadwick]. Woman’s Art Journal, The national museum of women in purposefully chosen critically acclaimed 12(2), 36-38. the arts (2nd ed.). New York, NY: yet non-mainstream texts for my Abbeville Press. Gustlin, D. Z. (2016). The “F” word: A art courses. With this recent inquiry, content analysis of female artists Turner, R. M. (1996). The development I believe that both Chadwick’s and in art history textbooks (Doctoral and use of instructional resources Lippard’s texts can continue serving as dissertation). Available from for gender balance. In G. Collins, critical resources to strengthen students’ ProQuest Dissertations & Theses & R. Sandell (Eds.), Gender issues in exposure to women artists and other Global. (10149428) art education: Content, contexts, and underrepresented artists, as well as the strategies (pp. 134-143). Reston, VA: intersected issues of gender, race, class, Janson, H. W. (1962). H.W. Janson history National Art Education Association. and many other identity categories of art (1st ed.). Upper Saddle River, impacting their artworks. NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. White, J. (2019). Gender representation in art pedagogy: A survey of Janson, H. W. (1991). H.W. Janson history student knowledge and attitudes of art (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, around gender balance in art NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. (Master’s thesis). Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons. humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=1305&context=etd

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Getting Personal: How We Used Voice Feedback Tools to Connect with Students on their Writing Practice

Dan McCrea and Kjrsten Keane, Saratoga Springs

Introduction technological applications to echnology can often be a double- assist us in edged sword in education, where our efforts? T benefit and cost are difficult to distinguish. New digital tools that allow Research Focus educators to add voice feedback to student papers clearly illustrate this ESC employs challenge. Websites for voice feedback many faculty tools promise great things: “A whole and staff who new document experience” awaits users are using (Adobe, n.d., para. 1). Students will “love creative options to hear your voice” (Kaizena, n.d., para. to meet the 2). Feedback on written work will be needs of “faster, better” than ever (Kaizena, n.d., their diverse para. 1). While intrigued by the catchy students, Photo credit: John Hughes Photo credit: John marketing phrases, our primary goal many of Kjrsten Keane and Dan McCrea wasn’t to use trendy tools. Our research whom struggle team came together and bonded with academically, manage a disability research question: “What is student a goal to better meet the needs of our or have learned English as a second perception of formative feedback when SUNY Empire State College (ESC) student language (ESL). While trendy tools come audio is added to traditional text?” population as they improved their and go, the ability to engage students writing skills, with a reasonable cost to and help them sharpen their writing Our study was partly designed to benefit ratio. skills is a timeless educational endeavor. address recommendations made by Our team is dedicated to exploring new Delante (2017): “Another stimulating Our research team includes Dan methods toward that end, hopefully research direction to take is to do a McCrea, Miriam Russell, and Kjrsten assisting both the students we work comparative study between online Keane. Dan McCrea works as a director with directly, as well as a larger audience written feedback and voice/video or of academic support, overseeing as our results are shared. So, we set out chat feedback” (p. 799). We initiated Academic Support for the Capital to find and experiment with some new the study with the assumption that all Region of New York. He also assists methods. One such method is recorded surveyed students had experienced students in working on a variety of voice feedback, which implements written feedback at this point in their writing assignments. Now-retired educational technology to help educational studies. Therefore, student colleague Miriam Russell taught writing students discover their strengths and opinion was solicited on their use of one courses and served as a writing coach weaknesses. It has the added benefit of two types of recorded audio feedback for Academic Support. Kjrsten Keane of communicating tone of voice of the for improving writing skills within college teaches writing-intensive courses in instructor and offers the student the writing courses. Along with students news writing and reflective learning, chance to hear the feedback more in regular academic online classes, and mentors students through their than once. students at the college who sought educational planning efforts. Over writing assistance through the Academic time, we crossed paths with students in After some investigation of voice Support were also asked to participate. common and found ourselves discussing feedback tools that would retool our a clear and consistent objective: to methods, our research team decided to We collaborated, offering formative support these students through critical formalize our goals by asking: What do feedback to students between January writing processes. Given the advertised we want to know? The response that we 2016 and December 2017. We narrowed promises of these voice feedback tools, brainstormed evolved into our primary our technology use to one of two tools we thought, why not explore some during the student writing process:

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Kaizena voice comments or Adobe often had an easier time understanding improvement. Using the Kaizena Acrobat Reader, in addition to text- audio feedback, and the depth of the application, we are able to give and based feedback. feedback could be far greater than receive feedback on content through written feedback alone. The authentic the use of voice and text comments. The Defining Our Tools and genuine meaning of the feedback feedback is visible to students either was easier to perceive and was seen directly in a Google document, or within Our team regularly provides feedback to as a more personal communication the document inside the Kaizena web students on their written assignments, as well, rather than cold and critical application. The interface is similar to usually through using Microsoft Word’s (pp. 9-10). In short, students in the the Microsoft Word comment feature. “Review” and comment functions. We Merry and Orsmond study perceived have often found that the limitations Key Features of Kaizena: and implemented audio feedback in of text-only feedback include students different and more meaningful ways • Online access. misperceiving the tenor and purpose of than written feedback. what we are trying to communicate to • Written and/or voice feedback. them. This led us to look for alternatives Kaizena and Adobe Acrobat • Library of resources can be that incorporated audio feedback. We embedded and shared. found some promising research to back Kaizena is an educational technology up our intuition that audio feedback company with a web application • YouTube videos can be embedded could be a superior way to offer and add-on for Google Docs that into comments. students suggestions on their writing embeds voice and/or text feedback • Facilitates two-way conversation. practice. Of particular note, Merry and on documents. The name is derived Orsmond (2008) noted that students from kaizen, the Japanese term for

Comments Document

Bundled in Adobe Acrobat is another documents through the Adobe Acrobat already use. Students and colleagues voice recording tool that most people program. Using the “Comment” toolbar, who do not have access to the full don’t know about, but that offers click on the paperclip icon and then Adobe program can download the free another good option for making “Record Audio Comment.” This allows Adobe Reader option to record and/or voice comments. With this tool, users the easy addition of voice feedback to listen to audio feedback (Adobe Creative add audio comments directly to PDF a document in a program many of us Team, 2011).

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Describing Our Survey Do you know which program was What browser did you use used to deliver your voice feedback? to access the feedback? After we found the tools and experimented with them, we were Of the 44 students who responded, There may be incompatibility using the excited to incorporate voice feedback 13.3% used Adobe Acrobat Reader Chrome browser to open up the Adobe into our work with students and to sound files. A larger number (80%) of Acrobat Reader PDF containing voice get their feedback on them. This was respondents accessed Kaizena voice comments, via certain online Learning a preliminary look at the use of voice comments. A small percentage (6.7%) Management Systems. Four of the feedback, so we were interested in could not identify the program utilized. Adobe Acrobat Reader users could not what the students thought of the tools: access their audio feedback via the LMS Were they easy to use and access? How easily did you access at all using Chrome. Saving the file and Did they have a preference for voice the voice feedback? opening it outside the browser with or text feedback? We also wanted to the Adobe Acrobat program provided The majority of students accessing see what kind of browser they ran to a workaround but increased the steps voice comments (55.6%) found the access the tools, in addition to any and complications for feedback access process easy or mostly easy. A much general qualitative comments. We between these programs. smaller percentage (13.3%) found the worked with 125 students from January process difficult. As we teased out 2016 to December of 2017. As students Do you prefer voice comments more detailed responses from the completed the term in which they or written comments from your survey data, we found that 38 of the received audio feedback, they were sent instructor or writing coach? 44 respondents identified as Kaizena a survey using Google Forms. A review users, while six identified as Adobe A strong preference for personalized of related literature, along with our Acrobat Reader users. While the Kaizena formative audio feedback specifically experience of working with students, user experience was similar to the related to students’ written work informed our survey questions. The chart below, the smaller number of emerged in the responses. Of the results of all survey respondents Adobe Acrobat Reader responses skews 44 students who responded, 66.7% (n=44) were compiled at the end of the their experience when reported as preferred audio feedback to accompany research period. Close to 70% indicated percentages. Of the six Adobe Acrobat their text-based feedback, while 33% a preference for voice feedback. Reader users, three reported difficulty preferred written feedback alone. with the process. Quantitative Results Students responded to the questions below via our Google Form survey. A summary of the responses follows each question.

How often have you received feedback from your instructor on writing assignments? Ultimately, 22.2% of respondents accessed their voice comment tool once, 40% accessed the tool two to three times, and 37.8% accessed it four or more times. As access increased, some respondents became more familiar What device/technology did you Qualitative Results with the technology than did others. use to access the feedback? Students who received voice feedback Our study included an optional written more than once were also more likely to Most students who accessed the voice feedback section for comments. participate in the survey over students comments did so with a PC or Mac Examples of positive views found in the who received voice feedback only once. computer or laptop. A much smaller comment section of the survey: percentage used an alternative personal • “I thought it was great. I had a choice electronic device. The identified iPad of recording or writing a comment. user was not able to access Kaizena via I was also able to see what specific the device. areas you were referring to.”

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• “It’s great. The fact that I can hear Our study supported Pearce and know, and our students know, that the your voice makes online courses that Ackley’s (1995) finding that “students great strength of these types of studies much more interactive.” liked or were motivated better by taped is the flexibility and independence they feedback” (p. 32). In addition, they noted offer, the opportunities for engagement • “OK I just did it and it was a lot better that audio feedback was more detailed with other students are often than reading the comments on the than written. According to Boling, challenging. That sense of community side it worked well and I more fully Hough, Krinsky, Saleem, and Stevens can be harder to build. understand the comments that (2012), “...high levels of interaction you made!” As Desai and colleagues (2008) pointed typically need to be present for learners out: “Social presence is a strong • “I loved working with the Kaizena to have a positive attitude and greater communication component that reduces app and hearing your remarks one- satisfaction” (p. 119). Henderson isolation between the distant learner by-one was so useful when making and Phillips (2015) identified themes and other learners and instructor. A corrections to my paper.” in their data set, including student lack of social presence might affect a interpretation of recorded feedback as • “The voice message is understood learner’s performance and outcomes “individualized and personal,” as well as better by me. English is my second during an instructional transaction. “supportive: seen as caring and felt to be language and the wording could be Social presence is the degree to which a motivating” (p. 58). Students appreciated slightly difficult to understand.” person is perceived as a real person in a the degree of detail provided in terms of mediated situation” (p. 328). We believe • “Actually felt more like one-on- how their work was evaluated. one learning.” our work has shown one possible tool for mentors to help increase the sense Three students offered less positive Conclusion of engagement, personalization, and feedback focused on a preference for Our team learned a lot over the course community, and also provide valuable embedding voice comments directly into of our study. We also were able to feedback that will help students improve a document: improve our practice and, hopefully, their writing. • “I prefer written comments because better meet the educational needs As others continue their search it is easy to edit my work as I of our students who can often get for innovative and useful ways to read through.” extremely discouraged from feedback reduce the “transactional distance” on their writing. One of the primary aims • “It is hard to edit my work while (Moore, 1997) between mentor and we have as educators is to encourage listening to voice comments.” student, we hope that sharing our students to improve and continue their experiences using these tools proves • “Would prefer if voice appeared in the work. Voice feedback is one tool in our constructive. Involving students in such Google Doc.” toolbox we can use to help ensure that experimentation makes for a more students feel connected and engaged (Note: Since these results were engaging educational experience, as we help them become better writers. compiled, the Kaizena capabilities allowing them to sharpen both their Research has shown one of the greatest have extended to include embedded writing practice and their online/digital challenges for learning institutions voice comments.) communication skills. and instructors when designing and Several negative responses complained implementing online courses is to Note about the “glitches” or lack of “provide a sense of community with clear audio: constructive feedback and provide open Our research was formally published in • “Some were difficult to understand.” forthcoming communications as well as Open Praxis, volume 10, issue 4, 2018. recognizing membership and feelings • “Speakers can become muffled.” of friendship, cohesion, and satisfaction References among learners” (Desai, Hart, & Another student noted “glitches,” Adobe. (n.d). Adobe Acrobat Reader Richards, 2008, p. 333). At Empire State as well as the following addition DC. Retrieved from https://acrobat. College, this is doubly true for students about providing both text and voice adobe.com/us/en/ comments: “a bit cumbersome, but both who take studies that are either online, are appreciated.” or that significantly differ from a Adobe Creative Team (2011). Adobe traditional college lecture hall course, Acrobat X Classroom in a Book: (Note: It can be expected that future whether they are independent studies The document review process. advances in internet audio transmission or smaller group studies, and even to Retrieved from http://www. would make the problem of “glitches” some degree, residencies that may not adobepress.com/articles/article. less troublesome.) meet face-to-face every week. While we asp?p=1670579&seqNum=3

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Boling, E. C., Hough, M., Krinsky, H., Henderson, M., & Phillips, M. (2015). Moore, M. G. (1997). Theory of Saleem, H., & Stevens, M. (2012). Video-based feedback on student transactional distance. In D. Keegan Cutting the distance in distance assessment: Scarily personal. (Ed.), Theoretical principles of distance education: Perspectives on what Australasian Journal of Educational education (pp. 23-38). New York, promotes positive, online learning Technology, 31(1), 51-66. NY: Routledge. experiences. The Internet and Higher Kaizena. (n.d.). #1 feedback tool for Pearce, G. C., & Ackley, J. R. (1995). Education, 15(2), 118-126. Google Docs. Retrieved from Audiotaped feedback in business Delante, N. L. (2017). Perceived impact https://www.kaizena.com/ writing: An exploratory study. of online written feedback on Business Communication Quarterly, Merry, S., & Orsmond, P. (2008). students’ writing and learning: A 58(3), 31-34. Students’ attitudes to and usage reflection. Reflective Practice, 18(6), of academic feedback provided via 772-804. audio files. Bioscience Education, Desai, M. S., Hart, J., & Richards, T. C. 11(1), 1-11. Retrieved from (2008). E-learning: Paradigm shift https://doi.org/10.3108/beej.11.3 in education. Education, 129(2), 327-334.

“We need to think about keeping the connections, not just thinking about our students as minds at an institution, but also physically, emotionally, with families, and with all of these other influences on their lives. It is a great way to think about how we can support indigenous students and adult students.”

— Stephanie J. Waterman “A Holistic Approach to Support Adult Indigenous Students” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 76

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“On ‘My Bucket List’” Continued or “How We Have Grown”

Mary Zanfini, Staten Island

y essay about the first term of a College Partnership program M I created was published in the winter 2018 issue of All About Mentoring. This program gives SUNY Empire State College (ESC) students in our Staten Island location the opportunity to collaborate with a group of intellectually disabled adults (IDAs) from Lifestyles for the Disabled (“Lifestyles”).1 This organization aims to give IDAs from Lifestyles the opportunity to experience as many real-life opportunities as the rest of us. In the second term of this College Partnership,2 the students continued to instruct and work with Lifestyles students on the composition of poetry. Our second term class focused on the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Louise Vallario, a special education teacher from Lifestyles and my collaborator in this program, agreed that the Lifestyles Mary Zanfini (far right) and her students at Poe Cottage. students would be able to tackle the sometimes complex narratives of Louise and I also decided to do material with our Lifestyles participants. Poe’s poems. something different in this new class: we This gave the Lifestyles students an I introduced Poe’s work the same way included a field trip to the Bronx to visit opportunity to grasp the material I introduce any poet’s work in all my Poe Cottage. I thought visiting the place and incorporate it into their working college classes — with a discussion of where “Annabel Lee,” “Eureka,” “The memories so they would be able to the poet’s life. I feel that if students Bells,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” participate fully in class and group know a poet’s biography, the decoding were written would make the students discussions. To help with our focus of the poetry will be easier. The understand the extreme poverty in on the women in Poe’s life, I created a students were thus enabled to make which Poe lived and worked. I also PowerPoint about these women and the connection between Poe’s life and thought this might inspire our budding the poetry they inspired. We also used his words. Students may also come to a poets to greater heights. audio files of famous people reading deeper understanding of Poe’s meaning Poe’s poetry. Good readers of poetry Louise and I worked out a way to (which, in my opinion, can often be bring a deeper understanding of a co-teach that facilitates successful obscure) using this method. We focused poem’s meaning. Poems are meant to outcomes for all the learners involved. on Poe’s poetry about women. Poe, be heard and not just read. If a student I would compose a lesson plan, find unfortunately, experienced the loss uses more than one sense to decode a material and shoot my ideas out to (death) of many of the women in his life poem, I think it leads to greater success Louise. We would then converse, in who were close to him. These included in understanding the poet’s message. person or by phone, as to how the his mother, his foster mother, and his lesson could best be unfolded. Each Once we established this deeper wife, Virginia. All died from the same Tuesday morning before a class, prior to understanding of Poe’s life, I looked illness, tuberculosis. arriving at ESC, Louise would review the around for an inspirational idea for a

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 35 lesson. April, which is National Poetry in the month of April. We feel that our from Lifestyles retain the information in Month, was approaching and I wanted students deserve to be challenged and their memory banks! This boded well for to do something special. I Googled motivated in this way. our attempts to develop “found poetry” “lesson plans” and “NY Times” and came for publication. Thank you for your consideration in across something interesting about a this matter. Before our next class, we had the ESC student contest involving found poetry.3 students read the aforementioned New As I began to read the rules, I became Kind regards, York Times article4 on Poe for homework. excited about the possibility of my Mary Zanfini and Louise Vallario” These students were asked to think Lifestyles students entering the contest. To my surprise, Ms. Schulten replied about the instructions they wanted The idea from The Learning Network almost immediately. She said she was to convey to Lifestyles students for of the Times was perfect except for one unable to change the contest rules, composing a found poem. We did not thing. We did not qualify under the but that if we wanted to complete the ask the Lifestyles students to read the rules. Contestants had to be 13 to 19 contest and write up our experience as article for comprehension. Instead, years old. Almost all of our students a “Reader Idea,” she would be happy we told them to “mine” the article for were too old. We decided to tackle the to publish it along with some of our poetic ideas; we asked them to circle assignment anyway. In the meantime, students’ poetry. She told us that our the words that spoke to them about I wrote to the editor of The Learning idea sounded “wonderful” and wished Poe and cross out words they felt were Network, Kathleen Schulten, at The New us luck. Needless to say, when I shared not necessary for their composition. York Times. Although I was upset about her reply with our students, it generated The words that were circled were the contest rules, I thought to reach out a great deal of enthusiasm and brought to our next class. The ESC and was worth a try. Here is some of what I happiness in our classroom. Lifestyles students worked together wrote to her: in groups to discuss what words held The week after Ms. Schulten’s reply, “Dear Ms. Schulten: the potential for a found poem. Each we visited Poe Cottage. We prepared group was to compose one found I am a professor of English at Empire State for our trip to the Bronx by viewing the poem. It was slow-going at first, but College on Staten Island. I am currently Poe Cottage website5 and an extensive eventually, the students got the hang teaching a literature course to Intellectually collection of photos I had taken on of it. The Lifestyles students were told Disabled Adults from “Lifestyles for the previous visits there. This preparation to bring their initial efforts back to their Disabled.” My colleague, Louise Vallario, gave the students a heads up as to what classroom at Lifestyles to continue from Lifestyles and I are co-teaching this to expect when they got there. It also working on them. The ESC students course on our campus. Our class consists got their creative juices flowing as to were asked to prepare to help the of 15 students from Lifestyles and 15 questions they might want to ask the Lifestyles students with the redrafting college students from Empire. The Empire Poe Cottage curator. process in the next class. students help the Lifestyles ones overcome When we went to the cottage, we their disabilities with the written word In that next class, all the students arrived in plenty of time to walk around and with their analysis of literature. This worked together to polish their poems the outside. This gave us all a feel for semester we are studying E.A. Poe. enough to get up and read what they how small it was. We then met the had written. They tackled this task We very much want to use the found curator at the cottage door. She invited eagerly and were anxious to get up to poetry contest to motivate our students to us in and began to tell us about Poe’s read. In this class, we began to realize write more poetry. We are using the article life. I immediately noticed that she how eager the Lifestyles students titled: “The Writer and Man, Evermore”4 for had made a factual mistake about were to get up in front of the class our found poems. Our Lifestyles students Poe’s family. So did Donna, one of our and share. This is something I always are quite adept at composition when we Lifestyles participants. Donna raised hesitated in pushing. I did not want use a structured framework and give them her hand and politely said: “Excuse the Lifestyles students to feel awkward adequate supports. They are amazing me, but Professor Mary taught us that or uncomfortable. So, for the future, in their use of the English language. I Poe had two siblings.” The curator had we planned to do more reading out understand that the contest is only open to just told us Poe had no siblings. The loud and have informal poetry slams a certain age group. Would it be possible curator looked to me for validation and where the Lifestyles students had the to consider opening up this contest to this I replied that “Donna is correct. Poe had opportunity to read aloud with the help deserving group of individuals? Perhaps two siblings.” I was stunned to realize of their Empire State College partners. you could create a new category later on that my teaching, along with Louise’s We built time into our next class to re-enforcement, helped the students accommodate this new direction.

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After the poetry was carefully edited, I takes beautiful notes and takes her work Notes wrote the article for The New York Times seriously. And may I add that she is a very 1 Lifestyles for the Disabled website: Learning Network. I gathered all of the smart cookie.” https://www.lfdsi.org/. poetry and sent it to Kathleen Schulten. The Empire State College students 2 She was delighted with the poetry and About the College Partnerships: wrote that they had learned a great decided it would work well for the https://www.lfdsi.org/college- deal about a group of people who have lesson plan site on Halloween. True to partnerships. been marginalized and denied the her word, she published6 it on October 3 The New York Times’ Ninth opportunity to develop their strengths. 25, 2018, shortly before Halloween. Annual Found Poem Student They learned about their Lifestyles Every poem was uploaded. I was excited Contest: https://www.nytimes. partners’ lives, their likes and dislikes, by the opportunity to share our work com/2018/03/28/learning/our- and their daily challenges. Many of my with the outside world! ninth-annual-found-poem-student- ESC students felt that we, as a society, contest.html. As had happened in the first term of this could do much better. For example, program, our second term Empire State Lifestyles students “age out” of the 4 Exhibition Review of “The Writer College students extolled the virtues of formal education system at age 21 and Man, Evermore”: https://www. our Lifestyles partners in their journals. and are typically not afforded any nytimes.com/2013/10/04/books/ Each week, these ESC students were college academic opportunities. The edgar-allan-poe-exhibition-opens-at- required to write two to three pages in ESC students related that although the-morgan.html. their journals about their in-classroom our partnership with Lifestyles tries to 5 Edgar Allen Poe Cottage website: observations. Here is a comment from address the inadequacies of our society, http://bronxhistoricalsociety.org/ one student that I found to be typical of it was not enough. Who knows the poe-cottage/. ESC student responses: potential of these individuals? What time 6 “Reader Idea: College Students

“Dawn, (from Lifestyles) was in our group. and Disabled Adults Create Spooky has been wasted? What opportunities Absolutely amazes me and brings me to Found Poetry Together”: https:// have been lost? All of us felt that the tears every single week. She is so eager to www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/ Lifestyles students with whom we learn and participate. I love that although learning/reader-idea-college- worked are differently-abled and face her speech is impaired (by cerebral palsy) students-and-disabled-adults- too many barriers to experience true she doesn’t let it get in her way. She is create-spooky-found-poetry- fulfillment. What is the answer? Why not afraid or embarrassed to speak in together.html. not open the doors of the colleges, help group or in front of the whole class. She them in and let us find out?

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Student Poetry

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Nicole, Michele, Megan S. and Jennifer R. Elisa L., Dawn S., Kathryn P., Jestine and Donna W. Michele, Julia and Vittoria Edgar Allan Poe unluckiest, Unluckiest misunderstood writer Unluckiest, Misunderstood, Misunderstood Morbid, Damnation, Redemption, His reputation, misfortunes Mysterious, Death Thoughtful were found morbid Soul Lost Beyond All Hope Reputation His mysterious soul was lost in death of Redemption Misfortunes but he found redemption Finally Respectable Morbid His respectable horror stories High minded, deranged and were found deranged Mysterious claustrophobia Poe’s sunken eyes, haunted Victim Terror of the soul look by Terror of the Soul Unshakable The Raven His poem, The Raven, jet-black Horror stories and red dark Derailed train smashed a headstone Suspicion was seen with every shade of thought or emotion Scattered, Haunted look, Deranged sunken eyes Poe suffered through poverty Death and drinking forever Large jet black lashes, iris Grave dark steel-gray possessing He was a deadbeat, drunkard transparency, jet black pupil and wooer of woman Elusive, maddened and drinking His Gothic imagination was exaggerated and obsessed Suffered and Died He was a highly gifted person trapped Hostility, Weird, Obsessed, gothic writing in his own head

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From the Personal to the Sociological: Why the Ramones Matter

Donna Gaines, Garden City

here is a backstory here: In 1996, in the post-Ramones Empire, a I walked into the editorial offices worldwide community of kindred souls, T of the Village Voice to pick up intergenerational, international. my paycheck. The mighty Ramones In 2017, I was invited to contribute to a were retiring, and a music editor asked new “Music Matters” series published if I wanted to interview the seminal by the University of Texas Press. The punk band. She knew I was a fan from assignment (and my book title) was to Rockaway Beach, Queens, a surf town articulate why the Ramones matter. Part made famous by the Ramones. I said memoir, part eulogy, part encomium, yes, interviewed the band, the Voice I argued that the Ramones mattered published the story and here we are. socially, historically, politically, creatively, Once you got involved with the and personally. Since publication, I’ve Ramones, you never got away. done book readings at bars, churches, scholarly conferences, literary festivals, Unlike so many heroes, the Ramones libraries, and record stores. I teach were exactly who they claimed to be: several courses dealing with youth down to earth, hardworking, generous, Donna Gaines and music studies, and the material brilliant, funny, loyal, and completely in my book, Why the Ramones Matter nuts. In time, I would write the band’s By the late 1970s, the original punks (2018), resonates with themes of youth induction essay into the Rock & Roll had already tweaked the progressive alienation, trauma, deviance theory, Hall of Fame, the liner notes for Rhino imagination as the Sex Pistols puked up suburban studies, music therapy, Records’ reissue of the Ramones’ raw chaos, anarchy and nihilism in epic oppositional music subculture, and first two albums, promote their solo style; and the Sandinista combat rock popular culture. Since my courses at projects, and list their shows in the of The Clash schooled us about power, SUNY Empire State College are offered Village Voice. I was profiled with Joey position and resistance. Ironically, it collegewide, I don’t always get to meet Ramone in a sociology textbook and is America’s apolitical/anti-political my students in person. Invariably, I wrote their obituaries. Between Ramones who now emerge as the most my students are doing critical work 2001 and 2011, each of the original subversive of all. Avoiding rhetoric, in human services, sociology or the Ramones — Joey, Dee Dee, Tommy, and dogma, or sloganeering, the brilliantly performing arts. My great pleasure has Johnny — departed this earthly plane, goofy comic bubblegum fiends managed been to meet my students face-to-face immortalized as perfect masters — the to overthrow the order of things. while on tour, celebrating music we love, founding fathers of punk music. introducing them to my own mentors The Ramones eponymous first album, Like the Ramones, four friends from — editors, other music writers, and the now widely regarded as “the shot Forest Hills, I too grew up in Queens, musicians we admire. heard round the world” sparking spent most of high school hanging out punk’s cultural rebellion established Yes, we have our share of Ramones on street corners looking for adventure. it as a distinctive new musical genre. fans here at ESC, including members of Like them, I barely attended high Their aim was true: dethrone classic staff, faculty, and administration. I’ve school, was bored, irritable, restless, rock, displace the dinosaurs, seize the spent the year publically celebrating the and discontented, I hated everyone and airwaves. Following the 1976 release of Ramones’ legacy. Here are some of the everything. Like millions of alienated Ramones, kids around the world jumped reasons the Ramones matter to me and kids around the world, then and now, in, smashing disco, starting bands, to you. in the Ramones, I had found a home. building home recording studios, forging To date, I remain deeply immersed independent labels, generating fanzines, chopping their hair, appropriating

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 39 seedy bars, fully embracing the band’s as social rejects, irritable, restless, and DIY (do-it-yourself) ethic of self- discontented, alienated at home, in sufficiency, arresting the means of school and on the streets. Outsiders, music production. outside of everything. The Ramones’ mission was to save Like Black Sabbath, Public Enemy, or rock ‘n’ roll, to reclaim it for the greater Nirvana, the Ramones shared similar glory of rock ‘n’ roll radio, to the people. broken histories with their audiences, They challenged kids to recognize and forging deep, unbreakable, visceral transform the available resources ties to their fan base. Years after the of everyday life, redefine identity, band retired and passed away, the rethink norms of personal beauty and Ramones’ fans pray to them, lighting the meaning of musicianship itself. votive candles, asking for their guidance, Authenticity displaced mastery, creativity reflecting, “What Would Joey Do?” replaced boredom. Shut out from disco’s The Ramones’ songs urge the fans velvet ropes and arena rock’s hefty ticket to embrace their own weirdness — pricing, now the kids had something zits, farts, flab, flaws and all. They to do. challenge us to make difference an

Over 22 years, 2,263 shows, and 37 asset, not a liability. In “Pinhead,” the the author. by Image provided albums including studio, live, and Ramones put forth a stunning social likely be the only significant investment. compilation, the Ramones sustained contract with their fans, gathering all You didn’t need a perfect body or a a withering assault on the societal the cretins, warthogs, and misfits in perfect mind, you just showed up. The institutions that impinged upon young from the margins, creating safe space, Ramones were accessible to their fans people. The four founding Ramones new meaning and community, locally on punk principle. As Joey had said, and were marginal, non-affluent outcasts on and globally. Borrowing the song’s Marky too, they hated that whole rock the streets of Forest Hills, Queens. They infamous chant, “Gabba Gabba,” and star thing. came of age as the American dream their mascot, Zippy the Pinhead from was running out of gas. Peace and love Tod Browning’s 1932 horror film, Freaks, For the Ramones, organic intellectuals, had wiped out on the last wave leaving the Ramones extended their invitation the personal was the political, the social, broken promises, economic stagnation, to all, proclaiming we accept you, one the historical, and the cultural. As sons drugs, busted families, joblessness, and of us. Their spirituality of imperfection of World War II veterans, the Ramones psychic dislocation. negated stigma by appropriating it and were well-positioned to use popular turning it into a vicious little pop tune. culture in a critical way, to examine the 1-2-3-4! In Lobotomy: Surviving Instead of shame and rejection, the scar tissue left behind by the parental the Ramones (2000), Dee Dee’s Ramones offered kids friendship and generation, the unspeakable horror and autobiography, the Ramones’ original unconditional love. To this day, “Gabba carnage, the devastating impact war bass player described himself and his Gabba Hey” is a universal greeting had on our damaged combat veteran bandmates as “the obvious creeps of among Ramones fans in any language. dads, untreated — a residual trauma the neighborhood” (p. 54). Joey, the so deeply embedded in the fabric of iconic lead singer, spent most of his God gave rock ‘n’ roll to you and sent American family life. The Ramones late adolescence in and out of mental the Ramones to Earth to protect and also made fun of the Nazis, rendering hospitals, reviled by his peers for defend it. The band made a point of them frantic, impotent, cartoonish being tall, gawky, and bespectacled. In playing in small towns and suburbs, psychos. In time, with subtle wit and Johnny’s memoir, Commando (2012), the in flyover states that most touring rueful tenderness, the Ramones took guitarist, a former heroin addict and musicians overlooked, where kids rarely on most of the hidden injuries of youth thug, explained his younger years — “I got to hear or dance to live music. — generational legacies, the fallout of was just bad, every minute of the day” Spreading the Good News about rock family violence, incest, abandonment, (p. 29) — until a spiritual awakening ‘n’ roll was the Ramones ministry; this war, addiction, immigration. They called changed his tune. Original mastermind/ music belongs to you, anyone can do it. out the lies and betrayals and stood drummer/producer Tommy was In their populist utopia, all you needed up to injustice without ever getting in mercilessly bullied for being small and to be part of it was a pair of old jeans, your face. “foreign,” a Hungarian refugee whose some sneakers, and a T-shirt, basic extended family had been wiped out in street clothes most kids already had. A Like prayers and sacred mantras, the Holocaust. The Ramones identified black leather motorcycle jacket would the Ramones’ music offered courage and a good laugh no matter what

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 40 the day brought. They had a song for everything. Trapped in a sick family, a punitive school system, remanded to psychotherapy? So what? You’re laughing in your head, gone mental, a bad, bad brain, a teenage lobotomy, a time bomb, baby. In “Chinese Rocks” and later, in “Born to Die in Berlin,” principle songwriter Dee Dee considered the pleasure and danger of heroin addiction — the progressive disease that ultimately killed him. The Ramones had fun with familial dysfunction, too — we’re a happy family, a cretin family. Songs of resentment, I don’t wanna walk around with you, I don’t care. Songs of longing, I wanted everything, Danny said, I wanna be your boyfriend. But above all, the Ramones wanted you to have fun — to hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach, to believe in miracles, dance, howl at the moon, find lovely locket love, eat chicken vindaloo. The Ramones had your back, from old Hanoi to East Berlin. Some 43 years later, they still do. Whether you were a misfit in 1964, 1994, or 2014, you knew the Ramones were talking to you. An ethic of inclusion is at the core of the Ramones ministry, as effective today the author. by Photo provided as it was in the beginning — just ask Donna Gaines with Joey Ramone. the kids in Argentina. With latter-day brutally cruel, life can be meaningless, References Ramones Marky and C.J. keeping the unfair, and boring. Love, terrifying and flames high, touring and recording, Gaines, D. (2018). Why the Ramones painful. The Ramones never promised the fan base now includes several matter. Austin, TX: University of us a rose garden, but they did hold generations of young people, worldwide. Texas Press. the lamp of enlightenment bright and It’s as if the Ramones never left the steady while we crawled through life’s Ramone, D. D. (2000). Lobotomy: stage, or this Earth. good, bad and ugly tunnels. Over time, Surviving the Ramones (2nd ed.). New There’s a long, rich legacy of critical they would address almost every cruelty York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press. literature dedicated to dismantling the social order could inflict on the Ramone, J. (2012). Commando: The ideologies, waking people up from individual, and always with sarcasm, autobiography of Johnny Ramone (J. the trance states of their oppression, wit, and irony. Playing loud and past the Cafiero, Ed.). New York, NY: Abrams. decoding the scripts of institutionalized speed of light, they wrapped the brutal racism, class and gender subordination, truth in sweet, chewy bubblegum pop — colonialism, patriarchy. Youth music, otherwise we would have slit our wrists. too, aims at truth-telling — in real life, And if you were happy, well-adjusted, parents hurt kids, teachers can be soul- all aboard for funtime, hey, you got killing monsters, the “good kids” can be that too.

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The Complex Nature of Success in Human Services Students

Thalia MacMillan, Manhattan

Introduction The nontraditional student population is unique in its interests, needs, and omplex” is a term that is used assumptions; given current trends, to characterize something the nontraditional student could be “C that has multiple parts or considered the “new traditional” student represent a concept that is hard to on college campuses (Sisselman-Borgia analyze or solve. When it comes to & MacMillan, 2018). Unlike other student success, truly we have more areas, human services students are questions than answers. One could connected with the professional sector postulate that “complex” adequately as coursework intersects theory with captures student success on the practical application. Adult students collegiate level. in professional areas, such as human services, are more likely to already Research has demonstrated that be working in the field, be working in student success is an enigma; it is the field and wish to increase their comprised of personal, cultural, and responsibilities, or be individuals programmatic components (Hatch & changing careers or those who are new Thalia MacMillan Bohlig, 2016; HighPoint, 2017; Kuh, to the job market (MacMillan, 2018). Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, Such individuals are used to deadlines The Research 2006; Pérez & Taylor, 2016). Personal or managing expectations, hence they components represent elements of self- A qualitative study was undertaken may be looking for a deeper connection efficacy, previous academic success, with human services studies in order with their studies than those who have or motivation (Goncalves & Trunk, to understand how they define the never worked before. Coupling with 2014; Kuh et al., 2006). Programmatic concept of student success. For this being a nontraditional student, each components may include the presence IRB-approved study, a nonprobability of these four groups may have very of supports, degree completion, or convenience sample of current and different definitions of what it means course completion (Hatch & Bohlig, recently graduated human services to be successful; as a result, they 2016; Kuh et al., 2006). However, each students was utilized. Participants may utilize resources in a very of these components has been found were recruited via several methods: different manner. to be complex as they work together to information shared by their mentor, influence how one individual may define Further, it has been noted that if postings in human services online student success. students feel that the college (or courses, and flyers posted around local department) understands how they view centers. Students were given the name Depending on the methodology utilized, success, they may feel validated, wish of the researcher to contact if they were student success has been quantified as to learn and achieve, and have higher willing to participate in the study. course-based, degree-based, personal, self-efficacy in the degree completion or a combination of all three (Ćukušić, Fifteen individuals were willing to process (Adney, 2012; Cuseo, 2016; Garača, & Jadrić, 2014; Goncalves & take part in the qualitative interview. Gipson, 2016; Lemmens, du Plessis, & Trunk, 2014; Smith & White, 2015). Each participant was interviewed at Maree, 2011). This suggests that there While research has tended to focus a time convenient for him/her over is a need to understand a student’s solely on the undergraduate population Zoom; the researcher conducted all own definition of success, how being a (Almeida, Guisande, & Paisana, 2012; interviews. Individuals were asked if the nontraditional student impacts this, Goncalves & Trunk, 2014; Kuh et al., interview could be recorded for ease and how professional sector students, 2006; Petty, 2014), there is a dearth of of transcribing; all individuals were such as those in human services, may research examining success in adult or emailed a copy of the consent form and define it. nontraditional students and/or those gave consent prior to taking part in the interested in human services.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 42 interview. All interviews lasted between If an instructor is not giving me feedback As noted by one student: “It’s evolved 35 minutes to an hour. Students were or letting me know how I’m doing — then over time as I’ve gotten older. Am back debriefed at the end of each interview. how do I know how to improve?” to school now and am working on my bachelor’s and hopefully master’s. When I Grounded theory methodology was Another student indicated: “Well I think was younger, I had a lot going on. Didn’t utilized to code all data garnered you’d be surprised — at one point I’d take school as seriously as I do now. Didn’t from the interviews. Three individuals, say grades. At this point it doesn’t really put the time in. Didn’t get out of it what including two undergraduate research matter. Getting that piece of paper, I can I should have. Now — I have a family, students and the researcher, coded the move on to the next level. Right now a a job. Need to have goals for yourself. data. All three utilized sample data to bachelor’s degree means nothing. I am Just don’t sign up for any course. Have practice coding patterns. This helped learning something that can be applicable an expectation for yourself and for to gauge total agreement on all coding to the real world.” the professor.” patterns that were seen in the data. Several themes also emerged with Another student noted: “In the beginning The qualitative questions asked respect to the evolution of success, or of my college career, it was getting through about definitions of success, what how success has personally changed the work. I didn’t really understand the has impacted success, what type of over time for them. Several students importance of being able to apply it to the things would help an individual to be reported that in their previous schooling real world. Applicability is definitely the successful, the evolution of success they may have defined it one way major change.” over time, and the type of experience at but now seen it differently. These SUNY Empire State College and how it themes included: Beyond the Grade relates to experiences at other colleges. • Feeling good about what you are The results of this qualitative study A brief discussion of the overarching doing and yourself. illustrate that success in college for themes from the definition of success • Feeling content with what you human services students goes beyond and evolution of success will be shared. are learning. the grade. The themes suggest that Emerging Themes • Realizing who you are and how unlike previous research that has indicated GPA is a measure of student With respect to defining success in you can push yourself to succeed. success (Palmer, Maramba, & Holmes, college, several interesting themes • Feeling confident in what you 2011), success for human services emerged. Students highlighted that are doing. students is complex. Success represents success meant a deeper connection • Being able to adjust. an intersection of learning, application, to the school work, concepts, or • Feeling like you can grow as engagement, quality, personal drive, instructor-student relationship. The an individual. sense of self, and an active partnership themes included: • Thinking about all parts of your with the instructor/mentor. • Grasping the concepts. life while in school. Previous research has utilized mainly • Applying the concepts. • Building a mentoring relationship. quantitative research designs (Kingston • Engagement with the instructor. These themes reflect more of a personal & Anderson, 2013; Palmer, Maramba, • Producing quality work. or intrinsic change in success, and that & Holmes, 2011; Smith & White, 2015). • Being able to overcome issues that the individual has a personal connection One limitation of this is that, even arose in the course and in life. to success. with multifactorial models, this type of design does not necessarily explain the • Achieving good grades. complex nature of success as found in Truly, success was more than just “Truly, success was this study. Students did not mention motivation or grade point average (GPA); just one factor being the key to their it was an understanding of the material more than more than success, they mentioned several factors. and a connection with the instructor. just motivation or grade Current definitions of success were influenced by the evolving nature of As noted by one participant: “I define point average (GPA); it success, meaning the complex nature success in 2 ways. I define success by the was an understanding of one concept was influenced by amount of work the student is willing to personal factors and factors related put into the course. I also define success of the material and a to the course itself. by the instructor giving feedback — either connection with the positive or negative. I work very hard and love online courses. I do a lot of the work. instructor.”

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The atmosphere of the classroom is one Ćukušić, M., Garača, Ž., & Jadrić, M. Success: Spearheading a dialog on that influenced success for the student (2014, March). Online self- student success. Retrieved from in a multitude of ways. As a result of assessment and students’ success https://nces.ed.gov/npec/pdf/kuh_ feeling connected to the material or to in higher education institutions. team_report.pdf the instructor, the atmosphere has the Computers & Education, 72, 100-109. Lemmens, J.-C., du Plessis, G. I., & Maree, potential to make a student feel like Cuseo, J. (2016). Liberal arts & general D. J. F. (2011). Measuring readiness they are succeeding or not. As noted by education: What it means to be a and success at a higher education several students, engagement with the well-educated person in the 21st institution. Journal of Psychology in instructor and/or mentor was a crucial century. In J. B. Cuseo, V. S. Fecas, Africa, 21(4), 615-621. part of their success. As the instructor or A. Thompson, & M. Campagna MacMillan, T. (2018, November). In their mentor could be seen as a window into (Eds.), Thriving in college and own words: Defining academic success the department or field of study, any beyond: Research-based strategies in human service students. Paper type of feedback from or engagement for academic success and personal presented at the Online Learning with the instructor was welcomed; this th development (4 ed.) (pp. 27-56). Consortium: OLC Accelerate, included negative or positive feedback. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt. Orlando, FL. Given this, and how complex student Gipson, J. (2016). Predicting academic Palmer, R. T., Maramba, D. C., & Holmes, success may be, one could postulate success for students of color S. L. (2011). A contemporary that we need to rethink factors about within STEM majors. Journal for examination of factors promoting the course and/or academic support. Multicultural Education, 10(2), the academic success of minority Students may feel like they are 124-134. students at a predominantly succeeding if they can successfully Goncalves, S. A., & Trunk, D. (2014). white university. Journal of College engage with the coursework, activities, Obstacles to success for the Student Retention: Research, Theory & assignments, and/or resources. It could nontraditional student in higher Practice, 13(3), 329-349. be that certain types of activities or education. Psi Chi Journal of Pérez II, D., & Taylor, K. B. (2016, March). assignments within a course may help Psychological Research, 19(4), 164- Cultivando logradores: Nurturing an individual to feel more engaged 172. Retrieved from https://cdn. and sustaining Latino male success and therefore more successful. Further ymaws.com/www.psichi.org/ in higher education. Journal of professional development could be resource/resmgr/journal_2014/ Diversity in Higher Education, 9(1), 1-19. conducted with instructors to ensure Winter14JNGoncalves.pdf quality engagement with students. Petty, T. (2014, Spring). Motivating first- Hatch, D. K., & Bohlig, E. M. (2016). generation students to academic Note An empirical typology of the success and college completion. latent programmatic structure of This research was supported by a SUNY College Student Journal, 48(1), community college student success Empire State College PILLARS grant 133-140. programs. Research in Higher (2018 – 2019). Sisselman-Borgia, A., & MacMillan, Education, 57(1), 72-98. T. (2018). Creating programs for References HighPoint. (2017, March 3). How do professional development and Adney, I. (2012). Community college you define student success in 2017 academic programs: Integrating success: How to finish with friends, [Blog post]? Retrieved from https:// previous knowledge and experience scholarships, internships, and the www.mhighpoint.com/blog/define- into the educational program. In T. career of your dreams. Bedford, IN: student-success-2017/ MacMillan & & A. Sisselman-Borgia NorLights Press. Kingston, N. M., & Anderson, G. (Eds.), New Directions in Treatment, Almeida, L. S., Guisande, M. A., & (2013). Using state assessments Education, and Outreach for Mental Paisana, J. (2012). Extra-curricular for predicting student success in Health and Addiction (pp 257-264). involvement, academic adjustment dual-enrollment college classes. New York, NY: Springer Publishing. and achievement in higher Educational Measurement: Issues and Smith, E., & White, P. (2015, August). education: A study of Portuguese Practice, 32(3), 3-10. What makes a successful students. Anales De Psicología, 28(3), Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J. A., undergraduate? The relationship 860-865. Retrieved from https:// Bridges, B. K., & Hayek, J. C. (2006, between student characteristics, revistas.um.es/analesps/article/ July). What matters to student degree subject and academic view/analesps.28.3.156111 success: A review of the literature. success at university. British Commissioned report for the National Educational Research Journal, Symposium on Postsecondary Student 41(4), 686-708.

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An ESC Digest and Evaluation: When and Where I Entered

Robert Carey, Mentor Emeritus, Brooklyn

y career at SUNY Empire State the Metropolitan Center and, finally, a College started in the summer unit coordinator at the Brooklyn Unit of M of 1973. I took a Greyhound the Metropolitan Center. bus to Saratoga from New York City When I became a member of the to meet with Jim Hall, the president faculty, the college (and SUNY) was (I thought he was the chaplain — he fully supported by the state of New had a charming smile and a lot of curly York. These were the Governor Nelson hair), Loren Baritz (whom I knew from Rockefeller years. That would change Wesleyan University) and then, in turn, dramatically during the Hugh Carey Bill Dodge, who would be my first dean years — we went from being fully and Virginia Lester, who would be my supported to beginning the long march associate dean. I entered the college, toward being “kind of associated “with to put it more programmatically, on the state of New York. SUNY and its page 60 of the 1972 Master Plan (Empire member campuses would have to State College, 1973). On that page and learn a new kind of nimbleness in the the pages following was a description coming years as state support for higher of the SUNY Urban Study Center. Robert Carey education began to wane, speeded Located in New York City, it was to along at times by governors and have no permanent faculty of its own, of being a mentor and working with SUNY board members who were not but was to draw on SUNY resources in students (and each other) was more supporters of public higher education. providing visiting students from “State than enough to pass the time. University campuses” the opportunity The college was made up of regional Some early initiatives didn’t quite work “to plan Programs of Study built upon centers, the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School out. The college had a “development the rich learning opportunities of the of Labor Studies and the Collegewide faculty” early on; the idea was that Metropolitan area” (p. 63) — a kind of Division, which became the Center for they would develop “modules” — self- study abroad opportunity for SUNY Statewide Programs and the Center contained studies that mentors and students. One of the sources students for New Careers, which became the students could use as a student planned would be able to use was the Religion Hudson Valley Center. The Master a degree — our version of the British in the City Program, supported by Plan anticipated the development of a Open University materials. (Theirs were a grant from the Edward W. Hazen graduate school: that got underway in extraordinarily detailed; ours — not so Foundation. It was to admit its first the ‘80s. The college’s organizational much.) I remember that Kenneth Burke students in the fall of 1973. I would chart would change time and again did one or two that I thought were very be there to greet them. over the years, for budgetary or cool at the time. My favorite was “The programmatic reasons. For a stretch, That is how my career at ESC began. Myth of St. Petersburg.” I am still waiting it would be two colleges. The Center Over the course of 45 years, I would be for a student to show up wanting to do for Distance Learning was a child of a mentor in the Center for Statewide that module. Each office had a bunch the internet and became the public Programs, a mentor in the Metropolitan of these things, but over time, they got regarding face of ESC — College Number Regional Learning Center, an associate tossed or shredded. 1; the regional centers (the earlier, dean at the Metropolitan Regional analog version of the college) were Learning Center, a graduate dean, a Who Showed Up? now College Number 2. They met like mentor at the Metropolitan Center tectonic plates in the reorganization One of the things that happened very (again), an acting associate dean, a unit work that marked the end of the shortly after the college opened its coordinator at the Staten Island Unit of centers. All of that lay ahead of us. In door was that the people who were the meantime, the day-to-day work supposed to show up and do interesting

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 45 things in the city, did not show up and, ESC’s vocabulary — mentor, degree When you count a calendar year’s in all likelihood, would never show program, general learning, contract months as four weeks each, you end up. SUNY faculty who were supposed concentration, evaluation, up with a year of 13 months. That extra to participate were busy with their individualization — recalled the known month was the reading period from campuses and programs. So, who did and familiar — teacher/advisor, degree late-July to mid-August — not a vacation, show up? People, adults mostly, who requirements, a major, liberal arts mind you. A faculty member had to be wanted to finish degrees and who had requirements, grades, introductory/ “professionally available,” but had a heard that the college offered credit advanced, syllabus, course, teaching no appointment period for evaluating for life learning. My conversations with and learning. But our “lingo” had a student work, doing research, getting prospective students were not about gauzy quality to it, so working as a new material developed for studies. religious studies but usually about mentor meant detailed and seemingly That was the idea. One of the things what else they might be able to study endless explanations about what a that it meant in practice is that I could — psychology, any pre-MSW studies, student could or couldn’t do, what create a contract that would cover maybe some literature and how long the college meant by “experiential two terms of work because of the way it would take to get their degree. I did learning” or “concentration,” what enrollment worked. work with some students who wanted “individualization” meant and where Enrollment could happen on any to finish a degree so they could go on and when it could happen. working day — except for reading to seminary. Most of them did not need In addition to translating the college’s period. It was a continuous enrollment “religion in the city” (many of them language for students, working as a process; a student was enrolled unless were pastors in storefront churches or faculty member meant being party he/she dis-enrolled. We were orienting congregations housed in former movie to what would become a permanent students on a monthly basis — starting theaters) as much as a lot of liberal arts conversation about workload and up, always starting up. At some and skill development. So the Urban count and student readiness — usually point, the college had to change this Study Center grew, just not in the way occasioned by assessment committee system, but in the meantime, a quickly anticipated by the Master Plan. work and the review of student degree developed mentoring skill involved One thing that attracted students program rationales, a species of writing engineering enrollment amendments was the idea of credit for experiential peculiar to Empire State and the source that would prevent the student from learning. One of the constants of being of various types of educational angst. being overcharged, or on the other a mentor was explaining that process — The idea of the degree program, early hand, creating a document that covered what the college understood prior on, was that the mentor and student two terms — the bespoke contract. learning to mean, how college-level would put it together — charting what Any business day enrollment gave way learning was determined, what means the student would do to finish the to Monday only — not any weekday, and measures were involved, and not degree. It would be approved and then just Monday. Then, another change as least of all, how to caution against serve as a guide. It sort of did that in we slowly began to return to the mean. inflated notions of how many credits many cases, but increasingly, over the Enrollment terms changed from being would be forthcoming in the process. years, it would not be uncommon to see a student’s enrollment term to being One of the images I used again and a degree program needing review and college terms — the familiar summer, again in talking with students and approval so someone could graduate. fall, spring — with a fall 2 and a spring in doing information sessions for Rather than serving as a guide, it 2 tucked in. We had an enrollment prospective students was the image increasingly was an exit activity for form that allowed a student to enroll of a pretzel twister. many students. for 16 weeks as a full-time student. It went along the lines of — “OK, you Then, a further turning of the dial; we From Soft to Hard want to get credits for what you have had a standard calendar — there were learned. You have been a pretzel twister When I started at the college, the enrollment periods. If a student missed for a long time — so there should be a lot “month” was the unit of credit. If a one, he/she would wait for the next of credit for all that learning — right? Well, student was doing 16 credits of work — or ask to be shoehorned in as a no, actually. You learned to twist pretzels a full-time student’s term load — the late enrollee. in one day — that is when the learning contract (the document describing the Another big change in the way we did occurred. You have been doing the same work) would have “4 months” listed in things was the coming of SUNY General thing again and again and again — not the space where credit was indicated. Education requirements. If you were to learning anything new, but repeating what The “month,” as I recall was actually find a college “bulletin” (the precursor you know. So you would get a bit of credit three weeks and change, but we to the catalog) published before 1996, for what you learned — not for repetition.” counted a month as four weeks.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 46 you would find language that described was made to the GEAR requirements proposed concentration and — in more a student’s degree program as having after a while, going to seven. Degree recent actions — how the concentration “depth” and “breadth.” In addition to plan design began to become satisfied the area of study guidelines. having a robust concentration, the more routinized. These, it should be noted, had become expectation was that students would do more specific and department-like over Degree program planning embraced studies outside of their “major” and thus the years. If the student didn’t respond two things. The first was a student’s have “breadth” in the degree program. to the committee with the necessary history — What were they bringing to That was the idea. It was not framed as revisions, the degree program would sit the college? What was usable? Where a requirement but as something to be in limbo until the student realized that did it fit in the scheme of things? This considered as the degree program was they had not gotten a degree and called was the top part of the degree plan being formed. Degree programs tended to ask why. where transcript credits were listed to favor the concentration, the bigger along with other transcripted learning. Or, there were the other “undead.” the better, so “breadth” as a reliable Some of them would be in general A student got credit for degree design feature was a sometime thing. learning, some would be listed as program planning; the evaluation Very often the “breadth” that we could part of the concentration. Just below was in the file, the credits had been see was in the concentration, a polite that would be a place for credit by awarded — but nothing had happened. way of saying that the concentration evaluation for the concentration or The student had done some exercises was large. A constant reason for that for general learning. The bottom third and gotten credit but had not submitted design discussion — and often a tug of of the degree program form was for a degree program or rationale for war between a mentor and a student, or the titles of the contract studies that review. Another chapter in “forensic” an assessment committee that wanted would complete the degree — satisfying mentoring — meeting with the student, a degree that had two columns — was concentration guidelines and/or general putting the degree program together, the student’s voiced opinion that he/ learning requirements. The typed getting it evaluated, closing the file, she did not want to take anything that degree program and related/relevant waving goodbye at the door. was extraneous or, from their point of documentation and the rationale went view, beside the point. The assumption The call I dreaded getting as an to a faculty assessment committee that shaped that conversation went associate dean or unit coordinator for review — and that is where the something like this: “If I have a lot of usually began something like this: “Hi, discussion of the rationale and student studies in my major (concentration) — my mentor said I was all finished, but I writing would take root and climb like I will get the job, the promotion, get haven’t received my degree and I don’t ivy up the walls and over the transom into graduate school.” A kind of course/ know why.” That is when I would put on of a center’s assessment committee content magic. my “forensic mentoring” scrubs and get meeting room. started in sorting things out. The breadth issue was “solved” in 1996 Very early on, assessment committee when the board of trustees of SUNY meetings involved meeting the student mandated 10 areas of General Studies whose degree was being reviewed requirements for the SUNY system. A and discussing (and evaluating) their “‘Hi, my mentor said group of us went to Asheville, North presentation of their experiential Carolina for a workshop on developing I was all finished, but learning. One such meeting lingers General Education programs and — the student burst into tears and I haven’t received my approaches; we acquired another ran from the room. Documentation acronym — GEAR (General Education degree and I don’t and evaluators’ reports became the Assessment Review). The Historical norm as the college gained more know why.’” Studies faculty of the college was a big experience in sorting out experience winner. Historical Studies was not a and learning. Degree program planning major degree area at ESC — nothing had a way of becoming the land of the Analog and Digital like Community and Human Services, or undead. Several things contributed Business, Management and Economics, Central to my experience of the college to the creation of this twilight zone. A the big enrollment drivers, with Human as an institution was that it was always committee would approve a degree Development as a close third. GEAR in motion. A center shifted its locations, program conditionally, requesting the had an American History requirement a program that was started here ended student to revisit his/her rationale and along with a Western Civilization and up over there. A good deal of this had correct some sentences that didn’t really Other World Civilization as three of the to do with growth. The college added work or to clarify what the student 10 required areas. Some adjustment centers, centers added faculty, leases hoped to accomplish with the particular

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 47 ran out and new offices had to be consultative college that worked to and nothing had happened after that. found. Some of it had to do with budget. shape intellectual growth. Grades?? The student hadn’t revised, the mentor After the Rockefeller fat years, Hugh Yes, grades — employers wanted them, possibly forgot it, but there it sat. Then Carey became governor and the lean other registrars wanted them (What we went digital and had to move from a years began as budgets got leaner — is this transcript anyway? Why all this lot of paper to less paper. The behavior and meaner from SUNY perspectives. clotted prose?), and students, most of didn’t change. I still got calls — as a unit It also didn’t help that some governors all, wanted them. Grades were what coordinator, or as a faculty chair about and SUNY trustees weren’t big fans of you got from a college. When we moved the same stuff. Only now I could sit at SUNY. So, Empire adjusted and moved from paper to an online records system, my computer and use Notes DP, the administrative furniture — associate grades followed as the night followed Contract Library and DP Planner to see deans disappeared. Regional center the day. While I was an associate dean where things had stopped. We shredded deans became super deans charged and had to assign grades, I discovered a lot of files. with handling two regional centers that we (the faculty) had routinized a rather that one. Faculty chairs didn’t grading vocabulary. Excellent was, of Face-to-Face Good; CDL Bad. take the place of associate deans, really, course, an A; Very good or solid and A major change that followed on the but they served governance purposes. engaging, was A-and B+ respectively. It heels of computerizing things was the I was Metro’s first faculty chair. At the took the college a while to use F. The coming of distance learning. I was on time, the position was considered idea of failing didn’t figure in the early a committee that looked at how the radioactive. Associate deans would design. No Credit filled that spot — not college was going to address the use return as would center deans only exactly an F, more like a redacting of a of computer technology and distance to disappear again as reorganization past event. It sort of hadn’t happened. learning (it was not yet “online” learning). took another turn, and College 1 and 2 When the college adopted grades, it If the IBM Selectric and the Xerox had morphed into the currently slow to be marked the end of Empire State College been “good technology,” the computer born, College 3. for some. At least the first chapter was, as I recall discussions about online/ was over. The biggest change in many ways was distance/computer-assisted learning, the coming of the internet. Empire The computer/internet age arrived. a bad thing. But there was no turning started when the “technology” that We had computers on our desks and of the tide that was coming our way. we had was typewriters — I thought MS-DOS disks in the top right door Some things changed; others, not so that the IBM Selectric II was as good of our desks. Floppy disks would very much. The first direct experience of as things could get — and the Xerox quickly give way to hard disks, and change that I found myself coping with machine. Both of these were considered dot matrix printers and that buzzing was course design. Not contract, but good technology. We were swimming in noise they made would be replaced by course work. There would be a contract paper; everything needed to be typed, Hewlett-Packard desktop printers. for the student, but it now arrived as a vetted, signed, processed and sent to term-length course, with a number of Suddenly, a lot of behaviors were out of Saratoga. Student files bulged with modules, assignments, requirements for date. In the analog college, information copies or unprocessed originals. We online discussions. The earlier contract was something in print. You might need spent a lot of money on Wite-Out and style had been a kind of “come on down, Books in Print when you were developing some documents were lumpy with it. we’ll have a talk and see what you want a contract, each regional center had a to do.” Online changed that — this is the Our transcript consisted of evaluations. huge reference binder with information course you signed up for — 4 credits, Contracts were followed by digest and about sources that might be used in liberal arts, advanced level. No waiting evaluations — a transcript document developing learning activities. I am not for the contract to be typed and Xeroxed with a vaguely medical-sounding name. sure that that resource guide was ever and sent to the student. D&Es, as they were called, could run used a lot. I know Books in Print was for several pages. The original idea was essential as was getting on the phone The computer helped us do away with a that the evaluations would provide the and talking to colleagues. lot of paper, do slightly better on record student with information about how keeping, even though all of our different Student files were fat with drafts, well they were doing and what they academic records systems didn’t talk to amendments, memos to the file and might improve. But given the amount each other. Still, information retrieval somewhere along the way, a copy of of typing and processing of paper and problem-solving were a good deal approved degree plans or copies of involved, the D&E arrived too late to be crisper. What the computer did most degree plans that had been reviewed current news. And, early on, students strikingly, I think, was to sharpen the but didn’t pass muster for some reason began to ask for grades. Yikes — we core questions of our work and give — usually the rationale was a mess — were the non-grading, student-centered, them a new urgency.

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How should the work of teaching and was, as I would later learn, aliterate. She It had its moments, as in: “Do I have to learning and interacting with students knew the words but couldn’t “see” the read the whole book? Both articles? now proceed as they, like us, grappled meaning, couldn’t hear what the author Do I really have to rewrite this paper with mastering the computer and its was up to. We were covering “content” or see a writing coach? The college possibilities? How best to design, to but to what end? By the end of the term got underway, I think, with an idea of engage, to coach and to coax? Was there and a lot of deconstructing articles and the student as being pretty much at an app for that? Not really. All those some introductory texts, she began, the graduate level — at home with things were and are at the heart of the finally, to “see” what a text was about. research and writing, able to move enterprise of mastering something, of easily in the back and forth of analyzing What I am left with, after all the changes demonstrating comprehension. someone’s claims. It took a while to and moving about, is that moment — realize that those students do enroll At the dead center of things was a and all that is involved in the exchange from time to time and did some great question that I used in the Perspectives between reader and text. The final work — every center had its wall of on Interdisciplinary Study course in irony is that reading and writing were the best and brightest. But the day in the M.A.L.S. (Master of Arts in Liberal the crucial “technologies” along with and day out work of mentoring was in Studies) program: How many questions math that our ancestors invented to fostering insight, coaching, working on do you have to answer in order to cope with the world. Every generation comprehension. I loved that. answer the question you want to has to learn those technologies — the answer? Next to that, a companion greater the level of comprehension and Reference idea really, was my critical reading performance, the better. contract — a study I offered every term Empire State College. (1973, July 1). Working for that — “I get it,” “I see it,” after first putting it together when I was Master plan 1972: Empire State “Oh, that’s what it means” — is what an associate dean and was working College master of the State University we are all about. That, for me, was the with a student who was struggling with of New York. Saratoga Springs, unchanging task, the dead center of a reading assignment. She was very NY: Author. what working with students involved. bright, but reading was a struggle. She

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 Moments in the Human Condition

David Fullard, Manhattan

Over the years, I’ve drawn inspiration from many different photographers, including Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Eugene Smith, Diane Arbus, and Eli Reed. Each of these artists has a unique perspective of the world, and while they seem to be objectively documenting individuals, situations, and conditions, we can see their points of view in the finished product. They bring insight, depth, and an editorial opinion to what they see. Viewing their photographs is akin to having a conversation with them — cheerful banter perhaps, thoughtful discussion, or the occasional heated argument. As we study and engage with the work of other photographers, oftentimes we become an amalgam of their techniques and their spirit. I believe it is important to honor those sources of inspiration and to identify just how they influence us. Then, as we move on in time, we begin to develop our own vision, our own spirit, our own way of seeing the world. For me, photo reportage, or street photography, is a meditative process. When I select an area of New York City to explore, I become lost in the culture and character of the neighborhood and most importantly, the people who inhabit that neighborhood. My travels expose me to moments that are happy, sad, placid, peaceful, passionate, funny, tragic, and moments that make you go “hmm.” In these quasi-contemplative flashes, my eyes take over, and I feel moved by an unseen force that drives what my mind may not immediately grasp. I’ve learned to trust in that process. The same force that commands my vision also informs me to either remain behind the lens or interact with the people or scenes I am photographing — which brings me to one of the most magical elements of a photograph: “chemistry,” if you’re lucky enough to find it. Emil Moxey People typically talk about chemistry as it applies to the “feel-good” quality of a new relationship. While this concept of chemistry isn’t fully defined, I believe it involves the ebb and flow of any fleeting moment in time. Since that moment usually presents itself as unbidden, it’s not something to which I give a massive amount of premeditation. It’s instinctual. It’s “chemistry.” And even one precious moment of connectedness makes my day. When the visual representation, the experience and the chemistry collide, the output is extraordinary. But typically, it is only after the photo is taken, the moment is gone, and I am alone with my photograph — or see other people’s reactions to the final print — that it becomes clear to me just how significant a particular image can be. A good photographer’s work is more than mere reportage; it’s a visceral connection to the essence of humanity. This is what I seek to find as I travel through the city. My goal, my hope, my vision is to welcome the viewer to take a virtual walk by my side, join me on my journey to observe and experience the depth of these “Moments in the Human Condition.” I’m Grown

Happy People

Overjoyed Untitled

Waiting

Invisible

The Artist “Then, as we move on in time, we start to develop our own vision, our own spirit, our own way of seeing the world.”

I Got Soul and I’m Superbad

Untitled

The Words of the Prophets are Written on the Walls 53

Thoughts by a Pilgrim on EcoPilgrimage

Karyn Pilgrim, Brooklyn

rom my journal, spring 2018: through on foot or horseback as they follow Le Chemin de St. Jacques (The

F Way of St. James), a pilgrimage route of many strands, which passes through A pilgrimage route is so much more France en route to the Santiago de than its geography, historical memory, Compostela in Spain. monuments, and ruins. The route has Every afternoon, accompanied by shifted or been buried again and again in my stalwart yet stubborn Shih Tzu the layered sediment of human projects, companion, Chevalier, I followed one used, neglected, abandoned, razed, begun of the many hiking trails out of town. again. It houses thousands of species, Soon, I noticed the presence of seashells great and small, but mostly small and posted on trees, painted on walls, and microscopic, tucked into its fissures and plastered on shrines. These shells serve overflows and tufts of wild, and beneath its as trail markers along the routes of St. settlements, villages, towns. It pulses with Jacques. As I walked, I thought about the electrical impulses, speeding cars, the sonic millions of feet, human and nonhuman, tremble of passing jets and planes, the that had tread the same ground over Karyn Pilgrim with her dog, Chevalier. buzz and hum of buried cables and pipes, the centuries. Some of the trees rustling the heartbeats of animals peering out even so, the route has persisted for overhead may have witnessed the first from the foliage, the weary pant and tread 1,200 years, across shifting, fluxing, pilgrims heading for Santiago, while of pedestrians. Energy of light and sound, dissolving, recurring, constantly most were the antecedents of earlier of beings surfacing and intersecting, changing environments. I began to think forests that had grown, thrived, and momentarily snaring one another in their about pilgrims as tourists, and tourists been felled, even clear cut, many times. objective-subjective frames. The energy as pilgrims, and being both a pilgrim I thought about the trail by day, serene of the dead decaying and the living (pun intended!) and a tourist, how and mostly empty, and the trail by night, metabolizing, the fields and machines and tourism’s ancient roots in pilgrimage which four-legged travelers made use fireplaces burning, everything throbbing, may still be a factor shaping our of. I thought about how the nature of seething, decomposing, self-organizing, conception of travel today. Because I villages slowly, but sometimes quickly, changing, growing, dying: a pilgrimage am both an active participant in and changed to accommodate the appetites route encompasses a massive, shifting site concerned about the scope and shaping and needs of the strangers passing of space and time. power of the global tourist industry, I through. In 2017 alone, the number of wondered if the pilgrim’s notion of travel During my sabbatical year in 2018, I had pilgrims who completed the journey as a means to connect with the sacred the opportunity to stay for some months to Santiago de Compostela exceeded might be deployed to shape the tourist in the Lot Valley of South-Central France. 300,000, while around 2.5 million industry more broadly. The town, Entraygues-sur-Truyère, people visited the city. These numbers nestles in the confluence of two rivers, don’t include those who only walked One way of thinking about the nature of the Lot and the Truyère, which over part of the route. Now think about the the sacred is to consider our culturally thousands of years carved steep gorges many, many sites of pilgrimage and constructed boundaries between between the rolling hills. Its economy tourist destinations around the world. humans, nonhumans, and inanimate today is much like it was in 1000 A.D., In today’s astonishingly mobile global things. While all cultures contain a mix of tourism, cattle farming, and economy, whole towns are flooded contradictions and multiple ways of gastronomic specialties like blue cheese, by tides of visitors and then virtually considering these boundaries, I find beef, and wine. Although overshadowed abandoned, according to the season. some of the theories emerging recently by the far more popular Dordogne out of the posthumanities interesting The route that I followed had changed, region next door, the Lot has had its fair in that they point the way toward non- its economies transitioned, populations share of international tourists who pass binary, less anthropocentric ways of swelled and shrunk, its habitats altered;

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the 2003 blackout in North America sacred objects to which pilgrims travel as an assemblage: the blackout’s form their own “throbbing confederacy.” occurrence was distributed across a Consider the Reliquary of Sainte-Foy at vast spectrum of participants in the Conques, a day’s journey by foot from assemblage, including power lines, Entraygues. As the story goes, when power companies, computer programs, the monks founded the monastery in hot weather, lifestyles, politicians selling 866, they were so jealous of the nearby out to privatization, legal documents, monastery in Agen, which was blessed a will to master nature, and so on. The with a thriving tourist industry thanks grid took on a life of its own, acting to their possession of the Reliquary of unpredictably, with a mysterious agency Sainte-Foy, that they sent a monk to join that caused the electrical current to the monastery in Agen. Eventually, he suddenly reverse course and begin was appointed keeper of the treasury, flowing counterclockwise, causing a at which point he stole the reliquary chain reaction of power outages. and brought it to Conques, thereby diverting the pilgrimage route. The relic’s Pilgrimage routes are assemblages, power of affectivity came not only from too, of heterogeneous elements and stories and beliefs surrounding it but quivering intensities. The routes in other ways intrinsic to its thingness: seethe with organisms and networks a bone, a material in transition from of distribution and delivery and are Details from the doorway of the Abbey Church being embedded in flesh to being traversed by all manner of traffic, energy of Sainte-Foy, Conques. exposed in its boneness, existing flows, rituals, semiotic systems, histories, as a canvas for precious minerals, a imagining ourselves as embedded in and lifecycles. Some places along house for microscopic creatures who the world of things. Perhaps drawing on pilgrimage routes have greater intensity, break it down — an object undergoing new ontologies, pilgrimages, and travel bigger crowds, more traffic, and greater transition, perpetually emergent, all the more broadly, can provide a means for historical and spiritual resonance, while serving as a magnet for millions of meditating on, and experiencing, the demonstrating these “throbbing pilgrims and impacting and reshaping world in more ecologically vibrant and confederations” that Bennett (2010, the ecology of the two towns. sustaining ways. p. 23) referred to. As well, the various In her book, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Jane Bennett (2010) attempted to locate an agency inherent to all matter. She described this as thing-power, the “strange ability of ordinary, man-made items to exceed their status as objects and to manifest traces of independence or aliveness” (p. xvi). To illustrate this concept, Bennett offered the example of edible matter, which serves as an “actant operating inside and alongside humankind” (p. xvii) that influences our biophysical reactions, moods, energy and activities, cultural practices, economic systems, labor divisions, and so on. As Bennett explained in Chapter 2 of her book, she was influenced by the concepts of assemblages proposed by Gilles Deleuze. Just as individual things have this register of intensity, so do assemblages: groupings of objects that, taken together, exhibit a vitality apart from the sum of their parts. She cited Deciduous forests in Aveyron department, Occitanie.

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Like Bennett, ecocritical scholar Stacy as they must act as repositories be inhabited by animals with cancer” Alaimo (2010), in her book Bodily for the emissions of industrial and to undertake “an assembly on the Natures, described an environmental postindustrial waste; food, to which banks and shores of these waters justice ethic that extends beyond the she attributed an agency similar to and a collective consideration of our human, to incorporate all the bodies vital materialism; and labor power, intertwined lives” (as cited in Alaimo, within ecologies, and not just or caught up in a metabolic economy and 2010, p. 112). Another posthumanities primarily humans. Her ecological ethic ecology. Toxins, for example, blow apart scholar, Timothy Morton, described is reciprocal: there is no longer an out our notion of environmental activism something similar: Global Earth there, she argued because it is already by preservation, because they spread Exchanges, a Buddhist practice, by which in here. Nonhuman subjectivities should insidiously along waterways, windborne, people seek environmentally damaged be included in the scope of our ethical in the soil, in our blood. “[The] ethical sites for the purpose of “giving them responsibility and concern. She wrote, space of trans-corporeality is never an something beautiful” (p. 127). These “Casting racism as environmental elsewhere but is always already here, in examples lead me to wonder what exposes how sociopolitical forces whatever compromised, ever-catalyzing pilgrims could do to give something generate landscapes that infiltrate form” (p. 18). beautiful to damaged and toxic places human bodies” (p. 28) while they experience in their travels. Alaimo urged practical forms simultaneously excluding consideration of resistance to the dangers of Alaimo and Bennett would argue that for those lower on the social-hierarchal contamination wrought by the the concept of the sacred must be chain. Concerned by the immateriality Anthropocene, such as citizen science, a dispersed across the terrain. Applying of postmodern theory — this almost ground-up form of gathering data and Bennett’s theory of vital materialism, exclusive focus on the world as text, as shaping science based on community we would reject the notion of culturally constructed — she highlighted experiences and needs, rather than hierarchies between things, and focus our ecological embeddedness in a relying on profit-driven research. With on the vitality of all matter. In going material world, the porosity of life and a heightened consciousness, citizen somewhere to seek out the authentic, the absence of discrete boundaries scientists can act with a transcorporeal the untrammeled, the holy, even in between things. Alaimo called this sensitivity and responsibility toward a specified and set-apart place, we transcorporeality. Transcorporeality the life systems within their localities, risk viewing the world with blinders, reconceptualizes the human body — including nonhuman ones, embracing effectively carving out angles of an and all bodies — as intermingling, them as a part of the more-than-human experience to manufacture pocket-size interconnected, and permeable community that must be nurtured. landscapes that reflect preconceptions. with others. Likewise, she encouraged material In fact, everything we find on our two- In reimagining our ecological memoirs that transcribe the experiences week vacation or pilgrimage journey is relationships, we recognize that what of bodies coping with cancer and other authentic and pulsing with significance, we have labeled as insensate, non- diseases with known links to the toxic including the Styrofoam packaging piling sentient, and lifeless, is in fact pulsing chemicals that are spread widely across up in the garbage dump alongside the with requiring and desiring lives. This the environment. We live within risk historical and spiritual sites we have recognition forces us to come to terms culture, in which the threats to human traveled so far to see. with the effects of our actions and bodies, and sometimes to ecological What this means, practically, for understand that we are not separate environments, are assessed for the travel and pilgrimage, is that we can from the waste we create or the toxic threshold between harmless and interrogate deeply, and differently, the hazards we spread. Rather, we are hazardous. Material memoirs challenge possibilities for what we experience and composed by them. As Alaimo (2010) the quantification of harm with their learn when we travel. Thinking about explained, “By underscoring that trans very subjectivity. They bring into focus pilgrimage through the lenses of vital indicates movement across different the other side of the equation of what materiality and transcorporeality opens sites, trans-corporeality also opens up it means to embrace acceptable risks vast territory for agency and action. a mobile space that acknowledges the while illuminating the transcorporeality Pilgrims who travel along pilgrimage often unpredictable and unwanted of bodies. routes, and people who live there, might actions of human bodies, nonhuman As an example of embracing risk, Alaimo initiate ecological knowledge based creatures, ecological systems, chemical cited ecologist Sandra Steingraber’s idea on their lived experiences, both as agents, and other actors” (p. 2). She of an imaginary pilgrimage involving inhabitants and observer-participants traced her theory through several human and nonhuman animals, by passing through. All along pilgrimage subject areas: toxins released into the which “people with cancer [travel] routes and at key sites, information environment and bodily responses to various bodies of water known to beyond the historical narratives and

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imprecated in vast extra-local systems and structures: this knowledge and its attenuating sensitivity must not be separated from the pilgrim, as spiritual seeker or tourist. The pilgrimage route and the economy of cultural heritage should not cut itself off from the root. The Way of St. James has persisted for over 1,000 years, and so it seems fitting to urge contemporary pilgrims to tend more deeply to its collective continuity. Perhaps another way of saying this is that we cannot afford the illusion that cultural heritage and travel exist in a transcendent state, separate and impermeable to the world of things, and especially not separate from a thing-world caught up in a cycle of harm and risk.

References Alaimo, S. (2010). Bodily natures: Along Le Chemin de St. Jacques, Lot Valley. Science, environment, and the material self. Bloomington, IN: religious rituals could be developed for example, could be integrated into Indiana University Press. and shared about the dark side of risk the route and trailheads, along with society: economic and social inequalities, awareness practices, and methods Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A ecological devastations, the impact for really noticing the animals and political ecology of things. Durham, of tourism itself, local manifestations microorganisms along the path. Food, NC: Duke University Press. of environmentally exacerbated too: who makes it, where it is sourced Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: disease, along with activities to make from, how the pilgrim’s choice of food Philosophy and Ecology after the pilgrims aware of nonhumans within contributes to certain chains of action End of the World. Minneapolis, MN: the local community. Labor theory and socioeconomic structures and how University of Minnesota Press. and environmental justice awareness, it impacts local communities and is

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Pay It Forward with Mentoring

Teresa A. Smith, Saratoga Springs

his is a life story about mentoring. but due to a nationwide shortage of It is not a scholarly article steeped critical care nurses, it became the T in research or the impressive practice. A “robust” six-week orientation (and massive) literature-based evidence with a preceptor was provided, and that exists about mentoring. It is a I was soon the charge nurse on the story born out of purposeful self- night shift. An early “aha” moment reflection on the mentoring moments with mentoring occurred at this time of a 40-year professional history, many … a preceptor and mentor are not for which I was in the role of mentee. (necessarily) the same thing. Purposeful self-reflection is a phrase My assigned preceptor was very good; that evokes not only thinking about and she was knowledgeable, experienced, remembering significant events but efficient, respected, and wise. However, also connecting those events to life in we did not “connect,” and I was unaware a meaningful way. The accumulation of the value of that connection until of mentoring moments has helped finding my mentors on the night shift. me to build a repertoire of skills for “Finding” is an interesting word to use future use in mentoring others, nurses, Teresa A. Smith because in hindsight I was drawn, students, and colleagues alike. With magnetically it seemed, to four part- that in mind, I hope you will continue A Journey Into Teaching time, expert nurses who shaped to read this narrative, engage in your my knowledge and experience as a Within the first few years of staff own purposeful self-reflection, and professional nurse. Please humor me nursing, my passion for education share your mentoring story. Within your as I share with you their names: Bonnie, was apparent, having seen the repertoire, I believe you will find the Marge, Patty, and Wendy. I am unable transformational power of patient/ skills and talents to pay it forward to tell you (without a Google search) family teaching on both self-care and with mentoring. the name of the person who won self-determination. For about a year, the Masters Tournament in 1982, the I served as the patient and family The Early Years Nobel Prize, or the Best Actor Oscar, all education coordinator for the hospital, Faculty teach students to tell their noteworthy accomplishments in their providing primarily cardiac rehabilitation stories, for that is where we all live. own right, but Wendy, Patty, Marge, programs and diabetes education. In nursing, the requisite science and Bonnie are forever in my memory, Then, staff development called to me and technology of health care are and I am forever grateful. Naturally, as an “exponential opportunity” to intimately interwoven with the art of the teaching required to become teach many patients by teaching nurses caring for others, and stories help us competent as an ICU nurse continued, (another “aha” moment); what seemed to understand this intersection. At my but they also modeled traits such as to be my natural desire to mentor very core, I am a registered nurse and respect for the diversity of each person, others was identified. For the next have been for 40 years. After five years the importance of individualized care six years, I coordinated the hospital of nursing school, three in a diploma (even when diagnoses were the same), orientation processes for all new program and two in an RN to BSN and the goal of working with patients nursing staff, established a preceptor program, my working career began in toward their best possible outcomes. training program, and in 1992 created the intensive care unit (ICU) providing What distinguished these nurses as the Graduate Nurse Internship (GNI) patient care “at the bedside,” a term mentors versus preceptors? They were Program as a means to “grow our own” generally used to denote being a staff invested in my success as a person nurses. That same year, I was appointed nurse in a hospital setting. In 1982, the and a professional, not solely to my as the director of education but hiring of graduate (e.g., inexperienced) orientation in the role. maintained the coordination of the new nurses into an ICU was not preferred, graduates for several years.

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Many mentoring opportunities in our classes, the students who “find” with it personally. Working relationships presented through the GNI program, us as a role model, our coworkers who improve when conflict is approached especially in the forum of a weekly need assistance or seek growth, and our with humility and compassion. support group, where new nurses new faculty and staff yet unfamiliar with As a faculty mentor for SUNY Empire gathered to discuss their achievements the ways of Empire State College. Your State College, I sought out mentors and challenges of the previous week. repertoire of mentoring skills houses who would be my role models and The group, in this confidential setting, the ability to be that mentor, not only support system during the early years of celebrated accomplishments, shared to students but to coworkers and new adapting to a new environment. Lessons ideas for problem-solving, practiced employees who seek personal and learned: Offer to be a buddy mentor scripting for conflict resolution, and professional development in a variety to new faculty and staff. With a good disclosed those haunting personal of ways. experience, they too will pay it forward doubts that we all carry. With rich past with mentoring. experiences, I was able to pay it forward Lessons Learned to these new nurses and also learned Below are just a few examples of as much from them (“aha”) as they did lessons I learned from my mentors, and from me. My mentoring repertoire grew how I pay it forward with mentoring. “Offer to be a buddy in depth and breadth. As a second-year nursing student, mentor to new faculty Welcome to SUNY Empire State I approached a faculty member for and staff. With a good College — The Journey Continues clarification on a test answer marked as incorrect. After hearing my rationale for experience, they too Fast forward to March 2009, when the selection, she acknowledged that it I joined the faculty in the School of will pay it forward could be correct in an alternate scenario Nursing (now the School of Nursing and modified my grade. Lessons with mentoring.” and Allied Health), and a brand new learned: Tests do not always have RN to BSN program housed within the absolute answers. Listen to students former Center for Distance Learning and consider their perspectives; it (CDL). The program had just entered Paying it Forward helps to develop critical thinking. its first students (40) in the fall of 2008, (An important side note: This faculty In the current system, most of my and all of the faculty were new to the member later became the executive mentees are assigned to me and most program, new to online learning, new to secretary for the New York State Board of our relationships are mutually the college, and new to ESC mentoring. of Nursing and subsequently was the gratifying; a few are difficult, and a few We relied heavily on the knowledge driving force behind the 2019 “BSN in are just fabulous. I am not always sure and ESC experience of our staff and Ten” law for nurses.) how to understand these differences, professionals, and of course on our but I believe the latter category is faculty colleagues in CDL. As a staff nurse, I was caring for an about “clicking” with another person. ICU patient with chronic renal failure, As new nursing faculty and staff joined Recently, a current M.S. student needed and his laboratory values reflected a the School of Nursing, it seemed a placement for her capstone course in potassium level noted in the texts as natural to offer assistance in their administration, and I reached out to a “incompatible with life.” We treated him orientation and socialization to the former student and (fabulous) mentee aggressively and he ultimately returned college. Somewhat incidentally, the role (RN to BSN and then M.S. program), home. Lessons learned: The textbook is of “buddy mentor” became comfortable and she was delighted to provide the not always right. Evaluate each person to me. So many of my old mentoring practicum experience for her future and his situation individually and moments flashed back to mind, and the fellow alumna. That is paying it forward. holistically. Work hard toward seemingly connections with the ESC mentoring Two ESC nursing graduates (M.S. in impossible outcomes. model were so clear. Embrace the education) now teach in our RN to BSN diversity of people, respect everyone as As a nurse educator, I provided program. That is paying it forward. an individual, and invest in the success education and guidance to graduate When our most recent faculty member of others. nurses and new hospital staff on how to was hired two years ago, I was prepared manage conflict by promptly addressing to offer myself as her buddy mentor. So, who are our mentees? The clear issues and “bringing the mail to the But a colleague, who I had mentored in answer is that they are the students right mailbox.” Lessons learned: It is the past, stepped forward and took the assigned to us in our mentoring role. easier to provide others with direction role, stating that it was her turn to pay But, they are also the students we teach on conflict resolution than it is to deal it forward.

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Individualized Transitional Support for Career-Change Employees

Susan J. Sylvia, Grand Canyon University

The Career-Change Process advancement within an organization and transferring to the same career with a remember when my father began to new company. plan his retirement; he talked about I it with much more excitement than I would venture that most people have he ever spoke about his job. After 30 at least a single moment in time when years of employment with the same they dream about the excitement of a company as a machine repairman, he new career and leaving behind a job had enough of the anxiety-provoking that they know all too well. So, why workplace changes, including shifting do some people who devote years of performance expectations and high their life to a career decide to pursue turnover in supervising staff. He a different career while others opt to also complained of boredom after remain in one long-term position? To performing many of the same tasks begin to understand the answer to this every day for so many years. Once he question, it is important to first review finalized his commitment to retire, I the stages of the career-change process. asked him why he never invested in Barclay, Stoltz and Chung (2011) Susan J. Sylvia his own small business, which was identified four stages in the career- his “secret” dream; he confessed that change process that most people stage, action/establishment, is the he had been scared to abandon the traverse. The first stage, contemplation/ pursuit of the career (Barclay et al., security that his retirement plan offered growth, is the acknowledgment of 2011). This phase is the engagement to him at the close of 30 years in dissatisfaction with the current in the steps needed to make a career one company. career choice. As people experience change, including specialized training It is rare to see my father’s level of situations/events at work that are and the application to available jobs. single-career commitment in modern unpleasant, challenging, or difficult, they It is during this stage that the scope society. In the last decade, job-hoppers experience an awakening about their of the impending change, which may (“those who frequently jump from one job dissatisfaction. Peake and McDowall affect a person’s living conditions and/ job to another in a short period of (2012) clarified this notion by saying or personal responsibility levels, might time during their employment” [Jules, that a “period of disenchantment” (p. ignite fear related to an unfamiliar work Ghazali, & Othman, 2017, p. 572]), those 405) with the career occurs that sparks environment, new co-workers, and who recareer (people who consider an interest in a career change. The next undefined expectations. Some people changes in career mid-life [Boveda & stage, preparation/exploration, centers may resign themselves to stay in their Metz, 2016]), and those who engage in on the consideration of new career current careers instead of accepting an encore career (people who reenter choices. At this point, people begin to a new position because of resulting the workforce after retirement from reflect on what potential careers might apprehension. The final career-change a first career [Alboher, 2012]) have suit them. During this exploration stage is maintenance/maintenance, fast become the new norm. Unlike my period, it is important to seek out which is established at the conclusion dad, many people now seem willing to “like-minded individuals for support, of career training and career transition. risk financial setbacks or to invest the such as individuals who had similar If the career-changer selected a new necessary time to train for a new career career-changing aspirations, shared the profession that better aligns with in exchange for a more compatible and, individual’s dream, or had already made his/her values, beliefs, and interests hopefully, a more enjoyable profession. similar career switches” (Tan, 2012, p. then job satisfaction will likely result. In fact, job-hopping has become so 96). This support can prove inspirational However, “just as there are different popular that it surpasses other forms to those considering a change and reasons for changing careers, there of employment change, such as it might validate the person’s desire are also different results. Not everyone to change careers as well. The third experiences a seamless transition

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 60 from one career to another, even if the interactions and workplace events, process could also benefit from the second career is something that the influences how he/she responds to new assessment results since their support/ career changer has always dreamed or future experiences. mentor programs can include these about doing” (Lee, 2011, p. 2). areas as a focus for individuals entering Identity development is specific to their work setting. In essence, the new According to Schein and Van Maanen an individual since no two people hire’s transferable skills become the (2013), people do not select a traverse an identical set of life and foundation for the employee to build compatible career from the onset work experiences. A person’s existing upon, which would provide assurance because making a long-lasting selection professional identity, work history, and that the transition is manageable and at a young age is not possible. They transferable skills (defined as “the most appropriate. Additionally, as stated, posit that “new challenges can reveal basic unit — the atoms” [Bolles, 2016, this process would also identify what latent or hidden talents and introduce p. 145] needed to succeed in a career), job tasks may present a challenge to a motivation that simply had not had as well as additional fundamentals such new hires. This knowledge is critical an opportunity to appear earlier” (p. 8); as the person’s expectations for the for mentors/supervisors to know this discovery period takes at least 10 new career and their motivation for immediately upon employing new staff years. As a result, people find that their changing careers, must be considered because it provides insight into where initial career choice no longer holds by employers when developing a the new hire needs the most transitional the same level of appeal as it originally transitional support program for support to be successful in the new did for them. Conversely, some people new hires. setting. While the act of transitioning may decide mid-career that they simply In consideration of how people’s from one career to another can be wish to pursue their calling, which is skills are applicable to a career a complicated, time-consuming, and defined as “a transcendent summons, setting, Whitaker (1998) identified anxiety-provoking for most people who experienced as originating beyond 76 transferable skills that a person make that commitment, successful the self, to approach a particular life may accumulate during a career. career-change transitions will result role in a manner oriented toward He classified these skills into nine from employers who understand that demonstrating or deriving a sense of categories: communication skills, each new hire must have individualized purpose or meaningfulness and that research and investigation skills, critical support because of their varied holds other-oriented values and goals thinking skills, personal and career backgrounds. as primary sources of motivation” (Dik developmental skills, information & Duffy, 2009, p. 427). People who management skills, human relations and seek their career calling (a career that a interpersonal skills, design and planning person believes will provide them with skills, management and administrative “ … each new hire must personal meaningfulness and that will skills, and valuing skills. Whitaker stated contribute to the betterment of society) have individualized that when people self-identify their anticipate that they will be met with job transferable skills, they are better able support because of their satisfaction, life satisfaction, and self- to adapt these skills to the workplace congruence while working in that field. varied backgrounds.” setting. He developed a “Transferable Skills Assessment” that can be easily Individualized Support Planning followed to help people identify their Once a person transitions to a new categorical skills. First-Career vs. career, their professional identity (a Second-Career Employees It is critical that employers engage in professional self-concept based on focused discussions with their new and Now that we have considered a career- attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and potential employees about the career change employees’ individual support experiences [Schein, 1978]) undergoes a changer’s existing identity, interests, and needs in the workplace setting, let’s transition from the existing one that was transferable skills so they can collectively contemplate how first- and second- developed during the previous career identify how these areas will be an asset career employees differ in areas of to one that will more closely align to the to the company, how they may pose needed support in a work setting. I new profession. This dynamic process a challenge in the new employment will use the teaching profession to occurs over time and is influenced by an setting, and to assist in establishing demonstrate some differences. individual’s social, cultural, and political reasonable workplace expectations, experiences. Every situation that a A first-career teacher often enters the preferably prior to appointment to the person encounters, including collegial teaching profession at the close of new position. Employers who encourage their college career, during which time the new employee’s self-identification they engaged in courses that focus on

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 61 content-area instruction, pedagogical considered to have a distinct advantage classroom because it lends credibility strategies, and classroom management over those entering into teaching after to their lessons (Anthony & Ord, 2008), basics. These teachers’ identities are their college graduation at a traditional such as enlivened discussions about a result of their historical, social, and age (Anthony & Ord, 2008; Crow, Levine, real-world scenarios that support the cultural experiences, including exposure & Nager, 1990; Freidus, 1994; Mayotte, curriculum. Bullough Jr. & Knowles to college course curricula and limited 2003; Novak & Knowles, 1992; Schein (1990) added that second-career interaction in a professional career & Van Maanen, 2013) because they teachers are often better educated and setting. Comparatively, the expanded possess “authentic life experiences” more dedicated to teaching than their set of historical, social, cultural, and (Williams & Forgasz, 2009, p. 98) that can first-career counterparts, and previously work experiences that a second- be shared with their students, as well acquired experiences may develop a career teacher has accumulated are as greater maturity than their novice person’s trade-related perspectives and vastly different. Not only do career- counterparts (Anthony & Ord, 2008; communication abilities, which could be change teachers accumulate more Bullough Jr. & Knowles, 1990; Fry & an advantage in the classroom (Freidus experiences over a longer period Anderson, 2011). This level of experience & Krasnow, 1991; Mayotte, 2003; Novak of time, the practical application of influences their adaptation to the & Knowles, 1992). these experiences in a career setting school community and setting. Having Consider the differences in the translates to bringing more “to the table” access to prior career experiences following teacher profiles that than the first-career teacher can offer. and additional personal experiences represent varied backgrounds In fact, a second-career teacher may be also greatly assists a teacher in the of those entering the field:

Teacher M Teacher N Teacher O A 45-year-old male who accepts A 30-year-old woman who attends A 23-year-old woman who a plumbing teaching position in and graduates from a VT high graduates from a state university a vocational-technical (VT) school school cosmetology program with a B.A. in English and a setting after earning his master followed by graduation from master’s degree in teaching/ plumber credentials and opening a cosmetology postsecondary education. At the close of the and maintaining a plumbing school. She is employed by program’s fifth year, which business for 10 years. His two salons over the five-year included one semester of student private business employed period before accepting a teaching, the teacher accepts an three additional plumbers cosmetology teaching position in English teaching position in a VT that he supervised. a comprehensive high school that high school. offers VT programs.

These examples demonstrate the basic assume that every new teacher brings contributing to a regretful transition and premise of how different the career- individualized characteristics, skills, and ultimate desire to leave the profession. specific trainings, education, and work interests to the classroom setting and Attempting to find a balance among the experiences are of those entering school community. new school-based expectations, family, into teaching. Some of the differences and other external obligations might This does not mean, however, that a between Teachers M, N, and O would be also contribute to stress and fatigue. second-career teacher is immune to their time management, interpersonal, challenges during the transition to communication and critical thinking A Career-Change Scenario teaching. In fact, they are likely to need skills, and each person’s mastery level of help with classroom management, Let’s examine the tradesperson’s each skill set would vary in their ability implementing pedagogical strategies, transition to teaching as a sample to adapt to the expectations of the new lesson planning, navigating the licensure career-change scenario. Those who career. In fact, even if we duplicated process, and social networking if the enter into teaching often envision Teacher M’s exact career history, his prior career setting did not include a that the career will be similar to independent historical, social, and collaborative work environment. In the experiences they encountered cultural experiences would set him many cases, career-change teachers when they were a student (Castro & apart from other people with the same find the school setting to be an isolating, Bauml, 2009; Furlong, 2013; Stenberg, career history. In light of this, we can resulting in job stress and fatigue, Karlsson, Pitkaniemi, & Maaranen, 2014;

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Tigchelaar, Vermunt, & Brouwer, 2012), for him. In fact, he admitted to battling to the next. In addition to individualized similar to the experiences that the persistent thoughts of returning to support plans for new hires, it is teachers they interact with have shared his previous HVAC work setting, which advisable for employers to conduct with them (Castro & Bauml, 2009), and/ was comfortable and familiar. Michael their own research to determine if any or similar to a teaching experience that summarized his transitional journey existing studies have been conducted they had while working in their trade by saying that “all the things that in that identify skill sets most associated area (Castro & Bauml, 2009; Powers, your mind [teaching] is, it’s nothing with their career setting. With regard 2002), but these expectations are like that” (Sylvia, 2017, p. 149). When to teaching, Williams & Forgasz (2009) not realistic. There is a considerable I inquired about the support that he conducted a study that identified difference between the perspective received from the school community compassion, patience, and imagination that a student has about their teachers when he transitioned, he replied that his as critical to the teaching environment, and school experience compared with immediate supervisor was supportive while Anthony & Ord (2008) conducted a a teacher’s experience in the classroom and helped to make his first two years study that identified presentation skills, that is qualified by the time spent bearable, which helped him to get administrative work, and working on a learning content, delivering instruction, to the point of balance between the team as critical to the school-community developing lesson plans and curriculum, workplace expectation and his own setting. Companies that are interested and managing a classroom (pacing, work performance. However, while his in hiring the most compatible person for timing, and discipline). Often, those who supervisor was aware of his struggles, a vacant position should also consider meet with the realities of a profession he/she did not develop an individualized using this discussion process as a tool that do not align with their expectations support plan to help him in the areas to increase their awareness about job experience regret, remorse, or that he was personally struggling with candidates who apply for the position. disappointment with the new during his transition to teaching. If An internal audit of current staff and career selection. Michael’s school leader had discussed their transitional experiences could also his previous work environment, his be helpful to determine what areas “Michael,” referred to as “Teacher B” transferable skills, and his expectations existing employees struggled with upon in the study I conducted about what for the classroom and school setting, entering the organization. motivates tradespeople to transition they would have realized that he needed to VT teaching (Sylvia, 2017), was in Effective and compassionate preparation for the differences he would his fourth year of teaching when we organizational leaders cannot assume encounter between the classroom and met. He indicated during our interview that all new employees will seamlessly work setting as well as intensive support that he had been in the HVAC (heating, adapt to the new setting or that they will to prepare him for class instruction. ventilating, and air conditioning) field for seek out the necessary help they need Michael’s transitional experience is over 20 years prior to transitioning to when questions arise. Some people will not unusual. While the school did teaching and that he had contemplated “suffer in silence” rather than appear assign a mentor to work with him who a teaching career for at least five years incapable of managing the job and its was helpful to Michael in many ways, prior to making the transition. He related tasks, while others are unsure an intentional plan to address these discovered by chance that he could who to trust or who to ask for help. topics would have made his first two teach HVAC in the high school setting Organizational leaders who devote years more enjoyable and would have and, as a result, believed that he had the time to developing individualized increased his classroom productivity. found his niche to impart his content programs of support for career-change knowledge on young adults training to employees will benefit from the new Conclusion enter his field. hire’s increased workplace performance Many organizations are willing to and productivity, which may even Michael admitted to me that he was help their new employees acclimate manifest into a long-lasting career unhappy with the career change during to the job setting, but they heavily relationship despite job-hopping trends. the first two years of teaching because embed workplace logistics, such as he did not “get along” with his HVAC protocols, procedures, and overviews of References counterpart and his expectation for organizational goals as support for new their relationship and teaching were Alboher, M. (2012). The encore career hires. While these areas are necessary not the reality that he experienced. handbook: How to make a living and to include in the workplace introduction, He struggled with satisfying state a difference in the second half of life. most employees, particularly second- licensure requirements, classroom New York: NY: Workman Publishing. career employees, require additional planning, course preparation, and support to help them successfully content delivery. Overall, he questioned navigate the transition from one career if teaching was the “right” profession

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Anthony, G., & Ord, K. (2008, November). American Educational Research guiding metaphor. British Journal Change-of-career secondary Association Annual Meeting, New of Guidance & Counselling, 40(4), teachers: Motivations, expectations Orleans, LA. 395-410. and intentions. Asia-Pacific Journal of Freidus, H., & Krasnow, M. (1991, April). Powers, F. W. (2002). Second-career Teacher Education, 36(4), 359-376. Second career teachers: Themes and teachers: Perceptions and mission Barclay, S. R., Stoltz, K. B., & Chung, Y. variations. Paper presented at the in their new careers. International B. (2011, September). Voluntary American Educational Research Studies in Sociology of Education, midlife career change: Integrating Association Annual Meeting, 12(3), 303-318. the transtheoretical model and the Chicago, IL. Schein, E. (1978). Career dynamics: life-span, life-space approach. The Fry, S. W., & Anderson, H. (2011). Career Matching individual and Career Development Quarterly, 59(5), changers as first-year teachers in organizational needs. Reading, 386-399. rural schools. Journal of Research in MA: Addison-Wesley. Bolles, R. M. (2016). What color is your Rural Education, 26(12), 1-15. Schein, E. H., & Van Maanen, J. (2013). parachute? 2016: A practical manual Furlong, C. (2013). The teacher I wish Career anchors: The changing nature for job-hunters and career-changers. to be: Exploring the influence of of work and careers (4th ed.). San New York, NY: Ten Speed Press. life histories on student teacher Francisco, CA: Wiley and Sons. Boveda, I., & Metz, A. J. (2016, idealised identities. European Journal Stenberg, K., Karlsson, L., Pitkaniemi, H., June). Predicting end-of-career of Teacher Education, 36(1), 68-83. & Maaranen, K. (2014). Beginning transitions for baby boomers Jules, N. J., Ghazali, H., & Othman, student teachers’ teacher identities nearing retirement age. The Career M. (2017). Job satisfaction and based on their practical theories. Development Quarterly, 64(2), job-hopping behaviour among European Journal of Teacher 153-168. employees of casual dining Education, 37(2), 204-219. Bullough Jr., R. V., & Knowles, J. G. (1990). restaurant. Journal of Tourism, Sylvia, S. J. (2017). A tradesperson’s Becoming a teacher: Struggles of a Hospitality & Culinary Arts, 9(2), transition to vocational technical second-career beginning teacher. 571-582. Retrieved from https:// (VT) teaching (Doctoral dissertation). International Journal of Qualitative fhtm.uitm.edu.my/images/jthca/ Lesley University, Cambridge, Studies in Education, 3(2), 101-112. Vol9Issue2/6-14.pdf MA. Retrieved from https:// Castro, A. J., & Bauml, M. (2009, Lee, D. (2011, May). Changing course: digitalcommons.lesley.edu/ Summer). Why now? Factors Reflections of second-career education_dissertations/127/ associated with choosing teaching teachers. Current Issues in Education, Tan, P. I. J. (2012). Second career as a second career and their 14(2), 1-17. teachers: Perceptions of self-efficacy implications for teacher education Mayotte, G. A. (2003). Stepping stones in the first year of teaching. New programs. Teacher Education to success: Previously developed Horizons in Education, 60(2), 21-35. Quarterly, 36(3), 113-126. Retrieved career competencies and their from https://files.eric.ed.gov/ Tigchelaar, A., Vermunt, J. D., & benefits to career switchers fulltext/EJ858726.pdf Brouwer, N. (2012). Patterns of transitioning to teaching. Teaching development in second-career Crow, G. M., Levine, L., & Nager, N. and Teacher Education, 19(7), teachers’ conceptions of learning (1990, May). No more business 681-695. and teaching. Teaching and Teacher as usual: Career changers who Novak, D., & Knowles, G. J. (1992, April). Education, 28(8), 1163-1174. become teachers. American Journal Life histories and the transition of Education, 98(3), 197-223. Whitaker, U. (1998). Five steps to career to teaching as a second career. success: The essential guide for Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2009, April). Paper presented at the American students, job seekers and lifelong Calling and vocation at work. The Educational Research Association learners (2nd ed.). San Francisco, Counseling Psychologist, 37(3), Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. CA: The Learning Center. 424-450. Peake, S., & McDowall, A. (2012). Chaotic Williams, J., & Forgasz, H. (2009). The Freidus, H. (1994, April). Supervision careers: A narrative analysis of motivations of career change of second career teachers: What’s career transition themes and students in teacher education. Asia- our line? Paper presented at the outcomes using chaos theory as a Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 95-108.

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Life After Empire: The Learning Collaborative

Miriam Tatzel, Mentor Emerita, Hudson Valley

retired from SUNY Empire State there are few options. This instructor College in February 2015. During my is wonderful. The word that comes to I first year out, I did catch up on the mind about him is “generous”; he gives deferred projects I would get to “when so much to how he organizes the course I retired.” I organized my files, painted and materials, and so much support the basement, and so on. In the second to us. year, I taught a course — more on Between the second and third periods that later. In the third year, I became comes the lunch hour, which is a social a student. That’s where I am now. time. There’s also an option to use the time for a discussion group, a visiting Hmm. What Shall I Take? presenter, or a TED talk, but I choose to Meet me when I get the Learning chat with my old buddies from Empire Collaborative (LC) catalog for spring State College (mentors and tutors) and 2019. I am looking at the options for two my new acquaintances. There are coffee six-week sessions, and I want to take and tea available throughout the day, three courses in each. What shall I take and cookies at lunchtime. The classes Miriam Tatzel for the first six weeks? are 75 minutes, with 15 minutes in between and the day runs from For the first period of Session 1, there and evaluators).1 The members of the 10:00 - 3:00. are seven options and I select Joy board are also at times students and Through Improvisation, which falls a instructors. The Learning Collaborative A Little History good deal outside my comfort zone, but is a financially lean institution. Tuition I’ve taken this course once before and I I knew about the Learning Collaborative is modest: taking six courses over 12 believe I’ve benefited from the demands pretty much since its inception in 2007. weeks (three courses in each six-week to stay in the moment and to allow Retired mentors Diana Worby and session) cost me $370. The instructors, myself to be silly. Leontine Temsky were among those likewise, are paid modestly. When I gave who started it and they were part of a course in 2016, I got $325. For the second period, I have a conflict. the first group of instructors, along A course on China is given by a new LIU eventually moved from that location, with Thelma Jurgrau, and Mayra Bloom instructor with impressive China and the Learning Collaborative found a who had also retired from Empire. credentials. But I choose Euripides on new home at the New City Jewish Center Nancy Low Hogan, then a provost at the Trojan War. I have taken courses (NCJC), beginning with the fall 2016 Long Island University (LIU) in Rockland with this very good instructor before term. My experience as a student has County (and now a Rockland County (Chekhov stories, The Winter’s Tale), been at NCJC. It’s a large, rambling place legislator), supported the project, but I’m not sure I’ll like the reading. with lots of small classrooms and larger and LIU offered space, tech support, (However, I really got into it.) spaces that accommodate courses with refreshments, and handled finances high enrollments. For the third period, too much to (registration, paying instructors) choose from. A course on First Chapters (Buchbinder, 2018). The Teachers (reading the beginnings from fiction The academic program is run by a and nonfiction books) is given by an A surprise for me was how much I board of directors, which selects the instructor with whom I had a terrific learned about teaching by being a courses, creates the catalog, and class in which we read Less by Andrew student. I was very interested in how evaluates the outcomes; Diana Worby Sean Greer and Nabokov’s Pnin. Then they did it, and I was much in awe: the was on the board for the first 10 years, there’s a course on Math Delicacies and command, the ease, the ability to speak and her special purview was recruiting Tidbits, which appeals to me too. But I at length about complex topics without instructors (a skill that was surely honed take Printmaking for the second time. during a career of working with tutors I especially want to do studio art and

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 65 using notes, the pleasant back-and- center meetings, from her work with of well-traveled and theater- and forth with the class. And it looks like the my students, and as a friend. Now I got concert-going people, I am the one instructors are having fun doing it. to know her as a teacher! (I am sad to who is a laggard. Just as I may find the say that Thelma Jurgrau passed away in instructors scintillating, so may I find the When I started taking courses, I was January 2019.) students. My feeling toward old people most interested in literature and art. generalizes: I see them not as depleted, These were loves from my youth that I see that the instructors use these but as enriched. had languished during my working courses to delve into their interests, years. But what if I can’t find a course much as I did as a mentor in my study “Old age” conjures up frailty, disease, that particularly appeals to me? Then groups and learning contracts. Before I senility, and death. Even in the best comes serendipity. Thus, I reluctantly became a student at the LC, and a year case, you are not what you once were. took Twelve Legal Topics Everyone after I retired, I led a course on The But there is the plus side that comes Needs to Understand thinking it’s Psychology of Ideology. I built it out of with freedom, contentment, and something I ought to know about, and I learning contracts I offered at Empire, pleasure. I’ve changed my attitude about found the course not just informative, drawing on Political Psychology, Positive being old. I find myself saying, “Old age but more philosophical than I expected, Psychology, and Consumer Psychology. is the dessert of life.” and delightfully presented. I took Great It was a lot of work, there was much Gardens of the War Years (the two student participation, and it was overall world wars), and I found a mesmerizing satisfying, but not really fun. But now, “But now, having instructor to whom I could listen all day. having observed other teachers, could When the following year she offered I pull off some of what they do — be observed other teachers, Great Cultural Traditions of Landscape easygoing, able to talk at length, relate could I pull off some Design, I signed right up. Her book had pleasantly with the students, and have just come out (Chisholm, 2018) and fun doing it? I haven’t yet mentioned of what they do — be she drew from; it was landscape as that there are a few times when the easygoing, able to talk at art history. Collaborative offers single, one-shot classes, and I picked this opportunity length, relate pleasantly I would hear about instructors for my experiment. I offered Wanting from other students, and on their with the students, and and Spending: Consumers and Their recommendation, I took courses I Happiness. It went well, and it was have fun doing it?” might not have otherwise. Thus, with an “up.” an instructor who is a U.S. political history buff, I took First Ladies. What Old People A “Free School” a great teaching method! So prepared with an agenda, charts, excerpts from Just about everyone I meet at the The Learning Collaborative reminds me books, handouts and occasional quizzes, Learning Collaborative is retired. This of the Free School movement of the all well-paced and yet with allowance goes for the instructors as well as the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, a movement for digressions and questions to be students, although some instructors I was quite keen on and dabbled in. followed up on. Now hooked, I took his have ongoing careers. A program for I participated in “relearning” groups. next course, The United States Congress the elderly may not sound so attractive, I attended a gathering of alternative — history, current events, and the but I do find something attractive about schools where I was much taken with Constitution. Intense. being with people of my generation John Holt, who I followed around and (some younger, some older than my 75 listened to. I researched alternative A special treat was to take a course with years). I would say that my experience approaches to primary education by my Empire colleague and friend, Thelma at the Collaborative has dramatically visiting schools around the country and Jurgrau. This was a course on Virginia altered my view of the elderly, going interviewing teachers and directors Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, a challenging read from never-thought-much-about-it (Maccoby & Zellner [Tatzel], 1970). that I would not have gotten through to positively positive. The epiphany on my own. I was in with a group of Freedom to learn. The student directs the came with, “These are the same people 10 serious literature students, most of learning process. I, as a student, can be who were young when I was young.” whom had taken courses with Thelma as focused or capricious as I wish. There There’s a sense of shared history, before. She had done much preparation is indeed a great variety of choices. For knowledge, and experience. These are for this course — context and biography. example, in the time slot when I took retired professionals for the most part, We did a close reading as a group; I read Improvisation there were six other and so we share a similar educational and reread. I knew Thelma from our options: Israeli Artists; Old Time Radio; background as well. In this company

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Pastry Tips (and tasting); The First seems to me that much of the success is Note Amendment; Latin American Art; and due to the vision and choices made by 1 Diana Worby passed away in The U. S. Congress. Whether I know a the board. November 2019, after this lot about the subject or nothing, am an I don’t know if there was an intention to was written. expert or a novice, I can proceed. Being create a community of learners, but in engaged is what matters. effect, this is what has happened. One References Freedom to create the program. This is time when I was describing the courses Buchbinder, M. (2018, May). Learning an independent school. There is no I took, I was asked, “Is this online?” Not Collaborative flourishes. Rivertown external institutional oversight. It’s a at all! Being there, being with others, Magazine, 20(5), 115. grassroots phenomenon, arising from and being part of the immediacy of what the ideas of the founders, aided by transpires are what you’re there for. You Chisholm, L. A. (2018). The history of an institution (Long Island University, soon start to recognize and connect with landscape design in 100 gardens. and now the New City Jewish Center) the people who take the same courses Portland, OR: Timber Press. that provides the venue and material you do. It’s a friendly place. Maccoby, E. E., & Zellner [Tatzel], M. supports. The success of the program It should come as no surprise that back (1970). Experiments in primary and its offerings are in the hands of the in 1974 when I joined Empire State education: Aspects of project follow- students, who evaluate the courses and College, I was attracted to the new through. New York, NY: Harcourt the overall program, and the board of experiment of a college committed to Brace Jovanovich. directors who assemble the offerings. It student-centered learning.

“ … [D]espite the progress we have seen, it is not enough: adult learners are themselves a diverse group of individuals with distinct experiences and circumstances, and we need to understand how our institutions and programs should be responding to this diversity. The underrepresented adults and under-focused-on adults could include people with disabilities, the formerly incarcerated, low-income students and people of color. We do not know enough about these students’ experiences in higher education and we likely have not been doing enough to help them access postsecondary learning opportunities, much less succeed in them.”

— Becky Klein-Collins “Considering the Adult Learner at Hispanic-Serving Institutions” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 24

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Engaging Students in Hands-On Science Learning Experiences at a Distance

Audeliz Matias, Saratoga Springs

Introduction laboratory and teach! We teach and students are supposed to learn. But, or the 14th year in a row, distance how often do we question whether our education enrollments have teaching methods are appropriate? increased nationwide. As the most F When designing and developing recent Babson Survey Research Group curriculum, we begin with a goal in mind study shows, close to 32% of students about what students should know and (undergraduate and graduate) enrolled be able to do at the end of the course. in higher education were taking at least This goal can be broken down into one fully online course, and nearly 15% learning outcomes, which will drive the of them were doing exclusively online selection of assessments and course courses (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, design. Any learning outcome that could 2018). The flexibility online learning be achieved in a classroom should brings to students also continues to be be achievable outside also. Thus, the one of the major draws of this teaching question is not if teaching science online modality, and the majority (84%) can be done, but how best to do it. considers their online education worth Audeliz Matias its cost (Clinefelter, Aslanian, & Magda, Teaching and learning of science 2019). As a result, the availability of concepts and practice have traditionally society, if we want to develop mindful online courses nationally and globally been an interactive process. Then we global citizens, as educators we need have expanded rapidly. The quality must ask: Is it possible that the online to rethink current models of teaching of courses is also improving as new experience can be as good as the driven by subject content alone, technology affords us more possibilities. in-classroom science experience? How particularly in science, technology, we can engage students as producers Nonetheless, the perceived value engineering and mathematics of content? What skills should students of distance learning in science (STEM) fields. gain in our courses? How we can education continues to suffer a accommodate the need for experiences Further, in today’s global society, negative stereotype. Academics in the that are usually undertaken in a our teaching must enable learners natural sciences who have engaged in laboratory or in the field? What is the to become active participants in distance teaching and learning share real value of the online science course? the shaping of an emerging social one common challenge: the need to and economic global order. When prove that science can be taught at a Students today are rarely satisfied with a developing material for distance and distance. Scientific reasoning includes one-size-fits-all educational experience. asynchronous courses, a student- the thinking skills involved in inquiry, Keeping pace with students’ needs is centered approach using hands-on experimentation, evidence evaluation, a continuing challenge. They demand learning activities helps students not and argumentation. Thus, scientific new experiences in learning that involve only to be aware of concepts but also reasoning draws its foundation on exposure to real-world problems to develop skills they can apply to their constructing new understandings by within and outside their communities. professional and personal development. “doing.” Teaching, however, is more than For students, activating engagement As demonstrated by multiple studies, the content we should cover in a day is crucial not only to satisfactorily students are more likely to succeed in or a week. The “how” and the “why” of complete any single course but also online courses that are highly interactive teaching are vital to what we do in to develop as independent scholars (Fulford & Zhang, 1993), allow them the classroom. beyond the course. When designing to be active participants (de Verneil courses and learning activities, our goal In the sciences, teaching methods tend & Berge, 2000; Prensky, 2005), and should be to have a positive effect on to be traditional. The norm is for faculty promote collaborative learning (Miller students’ lives and futures. In addition, to stand in front of the classroom or & Miller, 1999). to face the new needs of a multicultural

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Then, the key question again is: Can (2009) demonstrated that discussion of their chosen rocks based on all the we teach science online? Although boards have a role in teaching critical geologic processes they have learned the published research in this area thinking skills, which is important for about during the course. Students are is still lacking, several authors (e.g., scientific inquiry. Discussion boards also free to use their imagination with the Harlen and Doubler, 2004; Lundsford, provide a more intimate experience caveat that the “short story” should 2008; Annetta, Klesath, & Meyer, 2009; to learn science, which can help in be based on real geologic processes. I Lyall & Patti, 2010; Mawn, Carrico, overcoming fears of science (Jeschofnig have been extremely pleased with the Charuk, Stote, & Lawrence, 2011) & Jeschofnig, 2011). Additionally, stories submitted by the students. As have demonstrated that hands-on encouraging students to take ownership demonstrated by students’ comments and field-based learning experiences of the learning process creates a space in the course reflection during the last can be successfully integrated with for self-initiated learning, which has module, the pet rock activity continues science content in an online learning become increasingly important (e.g., to be well received. environment. Further, in their essay, Park, 2003). Another example of creating hands-on “Accessible Elements: Teaching Science opportunities for students to work on Online and at a Distance,” Kennepohl their critical and problem-solving skills & Shaw (2010) presented a survey of “ … encouraging at a distance is the use of data analysis. current practices that provides some students to take Data analysis in discussion forums can ideas and guidance to anyone involved be achieved in different ways. Perhaps in teaching science at a distance. ownership of the the most common way in the sciences The next part of this essay provides learning process creates is through students producing their own examples of how to engage students in data through experimentation such as hands-on and field experiences using a space for self-initiated the pet rock example. In other courses, different approaches, which allow learning, which has such as ENSC-1002 Energy: The Issues students both to be immersed in the and the Sciences, students are asked subject matter and to gain skills useful become increasingly to research news media to discuss how in the work environment. important … ” the science and technology behind Facilitating Creative and Hands- energy issues are communicated by On Learning Through Discussions the popular media. Courses in more For my courses, I tend to use the field-related areas benefit from having As we know, to fully engage students in discussion forums as constructivist students collect data pertinent to their the online environment, the materials activities where students construct community, such as water samples should be as interactive as possible. much of what they learn through and data used by scientists for risk Interaction with the material has to go experiences. For instance, in the GEOL- assessment of natural disasters. beyond simply reading the textbook 1200 Introduction to Geology course, or writing a paper. Further, the We can also engage students using data I created an assignment that requires engagement of students with others in available from public-funded monitoring students to collect a rock to study online courses is especially important and researchers such as data obtained throughout the course. The students because learning at a distance tends by the United States Geological Survey present their “pet” rocks to one another to be more self-directed, which creates (USGS), the National Oceanic and and identify what type of rock it is based feelings of isolation. Discussion boards Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on its characteristics and readings from are the heart of an online course, as or the National Aeronautics and Space the textbook. Students then present they can create a sense of community Administration (NASA). Many of our their pet rocks to the rest of the class and a social learning network. science online courses utilize resources in the discussion forum to learn more Unfortunately, according to the 2019 from these and other government about each other’s rocks. A series of report on “online college students,” agencies. In PHYS-1100 Introductory questions about the environment only 66% of students surveyed during Astronomy, for example, students are and rock composition guide them the study said that discussion forums asked to analyze a possible landing area through the discussion. The hands- are engaging (Clinefelter et al., 2019). for the exploration of Mars. As part of a on experience continues throughout Developing discussions that focus written assignment, they are assigned a the term, as they learn more about on the students’ community and the particular area based on their last name the processes that could have formed environment helps students gain critical and asked to download and analyze their pet rocks. During the last course thinking and problem-solving skills that data from two different missions (NASA’s module, students are then asked to are essential in earth and environmental Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the write a short story explaining the history sciences. Work by Bliss and Lawrence Mars Odyssey Mission). After they are

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 69 done with their analyses, students are asked to share their results with their classmates through a presentation. For the presentation, they are tasked with creating a commercial to convince NASA that their site is the most appropriate place to land their next robotic mission (and perhaps human mission) to conduct experiments on Mars. The presentation is expected to include the data and information generated by students from their written assignments. With this approach, students are able to engage with scientific data, as well as Field Residency group, 2019. to gain critical and communication skills they can use beyond the course. Interpretive Center in Cooperstown, Although the course involves a lot of New York. This approach allows us to preparation and the days are packed Creating Opportunities offer students from across the college with activities from early morning to Through Residencies the opportunity to participate in the late evening, students’ reactions to Motivated students in science scientific field-based research. We have the hands-on field component continue concentrations with demanding continued to have 10-12 students every to exceed our expectations. Further, schedules should have the opportunity summer (with close to 20 in 2016!). students appreciate the one-on-one to learn about scientific research while interaction with three instructors During the residency portion of the acquiring professional development. In and, for some of them, the residency course, students learn about field the summer of 2019, we welcomed the is their first experience camping. research methods in ecology, biology, seventh cohort of students to the course Learning opportunities such as the environmental sciences, and geology ENSC-4006 Ecology and Earth Systems ones offered through this residency through a series of activities. In order to Field Research. This unique summer course truthfully reflect the definition allow students ample time to develop residency study was created in 2013 as of an interdisciplinary approach to their research projects, we start the part of my collaboration with faculty teaching as well as the mission of conversation about possible research mentor Dr. Kevin Woo and Dr. Nathan SUNY Empire State College (n.d.) to topics in the online environment and Whitley-Grassi (associate director of give “access to innovative, flexible and schedule the residency early in the educational technologies), and the quality academic programs” (para. 1). term. The field weekend then begins support of Lori McCaffrey (collegewide This enriched learning experience helps with a series of lectures on scientific residency coordinator). Unlike other students develop the necessary skills research and the big picture — the residency opportunities at SUNY Empire to undertake similar projects in their geology of New York state and of the State College, Ecology and Earth Systems career field or future graduate school. area. During the rest of the time, each of Field Research is only one course taught As such, several residency alumni have us as instructors teaches different field by the three of us. use research conducted during the methods according to our particular course as part of their graduate school The course consists of two parts: an area of expertise. My work with the applications, and others have presented online component and a field trip/ students primarily focuses on three their research project at the college’s residency component. Students work areas: the use of rocks to decipher the Student Academic Conference. collaboratively with the three instructors geologic history of an area, the study on a scientific problem of their choice of stream morphology and flow, and Engaging in an in the areas of ecology, biology, water quality. Every year the cohort International Collaboration environmental science, earth science, of students brings new challenges When thinking about how we can and/or geology to design a research and opportunities. Students’ research provide students with hands-on learning project, collect data and perform areas of interest, as well as their skills, experiences, it is also important to analysis, interpret results and prepare vary. However, it is not a surprise that consider the opportunity to engage a written scientific paper on the work. many students are very interested in students beyond our institutional The three-day residency focuses on learning about water quality issues and boundaries. In 2014, I was presented work at and around the SUNY Oneonta monitoring techniques. with an unusual opportunity to engage Biological Field Station and their Upland students in real-world problem-solving

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 70 through an international collaboration. opportunity for students from both one. The ability to understand and The SUNY Center for Collaborative countries to engage in discussions manage cross-cultural contexts is Online International Learning (COIL) around the topics in the course. Thus, essential for success in today’s global received funds to create a Latin America this collaboration presented an excellent society. Some would argue that Academy, which allowed faculty and possibility to integrate cultural issues because science is the study of natural student interaction with peers from into our lower-level geology course as phenomena that this type of learning higher education institutions in Mexico well as interdisciplinary collaboration experience — one involving cross- through co-taught multicultural online in this advanced-level programming cultural contexts — is not important. and blended courses. What made this course. Our cohort of participants But culture itself also influences science. opportunity unusual and unique was consisted of 25 students; 10 from Culture shapes our values, beliefs, that there were no science educators ESC and 15 from ITESM-Chihuahua. expectations, and goals as citizens among the group of faculty from However, from the ESC students, and as scientists. Such personal views Mexico. Fortunately, the team leaders only seven actively participated in can influence not only how science is were aware of a faculty member in the the learning activities (Matias & done but also how society responds to area of information technology who was Aguilar-González, 2017). Because the scientific endeavors and discoveries. At happy to accept the challenge of such subject matter of our courses was so the end of the geology course, students interdisciplinary collaboration. different, we decided to use the online reported that the collaborative learning geology course as the platform for activities had the greatest influence on In spring 2015, students enrolled in the collaborative experience. Learning their knowledge of geological hazards GEOL-1200 Introduction to Geology activities that incorporated students’ and how they impact other countries, (then called Geology and the cultural and geographical backgrounds as well as on their own communities Environment) were able to actively were created for the first (introduction) and Mexico. Both cohorts of students engage in a series of learning activities and the third (earthquakes and showed overall satisfaction with the with students working in an advanced volcanoes) content modules of the experiential learning activities. mobile development course with Dr. online course. Alberto Aguilar-González from the Overall, the collaboration was a success Tecnológico de Monterrey-Chihuahua Students from both institutions (Matias & Aguilar-González, 2017). The Campus (ITESM-Chihuahua, from its learned about each other and about students were involved in problems name in Spanish). We united to develop environmental issues affecting their that were practical, social, and personal a unique opportunity for undergraduate communities during the icebreaker as part of an experiential team activity. students at our respective institutions, discussion. They then worked together The richness of the experience certainly thousands of miles away from each in a group project, scaffolded over a challenged students’ global perceptions. other. The work needed to create a series of activities and weeks. Five teams As a geology student noted: “Relying meaningful experience for our students integrating two to three students from on people thousands of miles away was not easy. The subject matter was ESC and three to four from ITESM- to do their work could be, at times, different. The courses were offered in Chihuahua were formed. Students were disconcerting. Ultimately though I think two different modalities, online and asked to assume one of four different it was a great exercise, and certainly face-to-face. Our student population is roles within the team: project manager, one of the most engaging.” A student primarily composed of working adults; science leader, technology leader, or from Mexico added: “Lo que me parece students at ITESM-Chihuahua are more presenter. Each group was tasked with positivo es que se nos permite observar un what we consider traditional in age, providing support to the citizens of a panorama muy diferente a el cual estamos with the students enrolling right after city through the creation of a mobile acostumbrados como ingenieros en high school. Then, there were the time application (or app) for iPhones around tecnologías y así comprender como existe and language differences. But, we the topic(s) of earthquake or volcanic mucho más además de la elaboración o were determined to connect students hazards. After brainstorming their desarrollo de el producto. (What I find with their surrounding communities team’s approach, students shared their positive is that we are allowed to see a and bring about awareness of the proposal with the other teams for peer very different picture from the one we links between science, technology, review. Then, the ITESM-Chihuahua are used to as technologies engineers, and society. students built prototypes of the apps and to understand how there is so and shared with the class, which voted much more besides elaboration or Earth and sustainability issues do not for the best app. development of a product).” occur in isolation: We are part of a global planet. Mexico’s rich culture, Our partnership represented not only an Building global partnerships geological history, and environmental interdisciplinary collaboration but also characterized by clear mutual benefits, challenges presented a great an intercultural and intergenerational cultural respect, and shared leadership

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 71 is crucial to the development of labs, kitchen science labs, instructor- mindful global citizens through assembled labs, and commercially- collaborations such as the one assembled lab kits. Many of our fully presented here. As educators, this online science courses incorporate experience also proved significant for virtual and alternative laboratory our professional development. activities. A discussion of these options as alternatives to the traditional Using Laboratory Kits laboratory environment while working Lastly, what can be done about with students at a distance could be laboratory experiences when teaching explored in more detail on its own. As at a distance? There is an ongoing such, for the purpose of this essay, I will debate regarding the role of laboratory briefly discuss only the incorporation of work in science education, which dates commercially-assembled laboratory kits. back several decades. Traditionally, Hands-on labs designed and assembled Audi Matias with Field Residency students, 2019. laboratory experiences provide students by commercial companies are not new. with the opportunity to directly interact during the first week of the term to In the last decade, companies dedicated with equipment and materials to engage ensure they have the correct kit and to assembling science laboratory kits in scientific inquiry. Laboratory activities to gain familiarity with the materials. for students to use at home have go back to the idea that students learn There is also a general discussion board proliferated. The lower-level sequences best by doing. Emerging technologies (not graded) for laboratory-related for biology, chemistry, physics, and now afford us more flexibility through questions only. Although the companies anatomy and physiology, as well as one simulations and virtual labs, as well also provide online resources for the of the lower-level geology courses, make as through the use of remote access students, sometimes they need more use of lab kits to provide students with labs. However, for the online educator, practical information. The discussion hands-on experiments in the respective recreating the laboratory environment board creates a pressure-free space content areas. One of the primary can be difficult, and the lack of to ask questions when they encounter outcomes we expect from students knowledge of what “online” labs an issue during lab time. In my course, when participating in laboratory consist of has caused many individuals students have used the board when activities is to learn to observe, measure, to question the quality associated they are struggling with a particular record, convert, and analyze data. In with them. part of the lab activity, such as the a campus-based laboratory, students identification of fossils and questions As a result of the expansion of Open are provided with science materials about which mold/tray to use to SUNY and the SUNY Seamless Transfer and equipment to perform a scientific simulate depositional environments Initiative, the SUNY Faculty Advisory experiment as per the instructions of with clay. Council on Teaching and Technology a laboratory teaching assistant. Well- (FACT2) convened a task group in 2016 designed lab kits are aligned to specific Lab kits, then, provide students with to explore the options, challenges, course objectives. Then, the use of no time constraints to thoroughly and opportunities presented by virtual commercially-assembled lab kits allows explore scientific concepts and enjoy and alternative laboratory activities for student engagement in scientific discovery learning experiences. Students in the online teaching modality. The experiments with access to materials in the historical geology course did task group’s efforts included a daylong but without the need for a laboratory express concerns about the lab kits as symposium where faculty, instructional teaching assistant. some information was missing from designers and technologists, and the manual, which was frustrating. Of course, one may argue that administrators participated in the As instructors, we need to make sure instructors could also put together conversation about the value and students have all of the information their own lab kits. An advantage of assessment of virtual and alternative necessary to complete the experiments. commercially-assembled kits over labs for science courses. Another concern is the knowledge level instructor-assembled kits is that the of the laboratory activities, something In their essay, “Teaching Lab Science company supplies all materials needed over which we don’t have much control Courses Online: Resources for Best to conduct the experiments and the when using a commercially-assembled Practices, Tools, and Technology,” safety training. For example, in the kit. Overall, the experience with the lab Jeschofnig & Jeschofnig (2011) presented recently developed online GEOL-2200 kit for historical geology was positive, alternatives to the traditional science Historical Geology with Lab, students but students must invest more time laboratory, including simulations and are required to post photos of their and active engagement in doing the virtual labs, remote access labs, hybrid lab kit materials in a discussion forum lab activities.

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Conclusions immersion through a laboratory Lyall, R., & Patti, A. F. (2010). Taking experience in a virtual learning the chemistry experience home In this essay, I presented only a few environment for entomology — Home experiments or “kitchen examples of how we can engage students. Journal of College Science chemistry.” In D. Kennepohl, & L. students in hands-on learning at a Teaching, 39(1), 27-33. Shaw (Eds.), Accessible elements: distance. Although the examples are Teaching science online and at a from science courses, you can easily Bliss, C., & Lawrence, B. (2009). From distance (pp. 83-108). Edmonton, replicate them in any other field. posts to patterns: A metric to Alberta, Canada: AU Press. Students taking online courses in areas characterize the discussion board such as Community and Human Services activity in online courses. Journal Matias, A., & Aguilar-González, A. could engage in data collection and of Asynchronous Learning Networks, (2017). What do geology and IT discussion in online discussion forums 13(2), 15-32. Retrieved from have in common? The case of an and other assignments. We have a range https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ international collaboration through of residency opportunities in different EJ862344.pdf experiential learning. In A. Lee, areas and could create new ones to & R. D. Williams (Eds.), Engaging Clinefelter, D. L., Aslanian, C. B., & benefit students. The SUNY COIL center dissonance: Developing mindful global Magda, A. J. (2019). Online college continues to create opportunities for citizenship in higher education (Vol. 9) students report 2019: Comprehensive faculty across SUNY — and the world — (pp. 107-127). Bingley, UK: Emerald data on demands and preferences. to collaborate and provide students Publishing Limited. Louisville, KY: Wiley. with a study abroad-type opportunity Mawn, M. V., Carrico, P., Charuk, K., without leaving their homes. And, virtual de Verneil, M., & Berge, Z. L. (2000, Stote, K. S., & Lawrence, B. (2011). and alternative laboratory experiences Spring-Summer). Going online: Hands-on and online: Scientific could augment courses in health Guidelines for faculty in higher explorations through distance sciences, nursing, and even business, education. Educational Technology learning. Open Learning, 26(2), among others. Review, 6(3), 13-18. 135-146. To teach online as an instructor, Fulford, C. P., & Zhang, S. (1993). Miller, S. M., & Miller, K. L. (1999). Using regardless of the subject matter, we Perceptions of interaction: The instructional theory to facilitate must have a vision for the course as critical predictor in distance communication in web-based a whole. Only then can we find the education. American Journal of courses. Educational Technology & appropriate approach for the learning Distance Education, 7(3), 8-21. Society, 2(3), 106-114. activities. We need to experiment and Harlen, W., & Doubler, S. J. (2004, try new pedagogical approaches. We Park, C. (2003). Engaging students in August). Can teachers learn also need to be patient. It may take a the learning process: The learning through enquiry on-line? Studying term or two (or three!) to find the right journal. Journal of Geography in professional development in science balance of engagement and teaching Higher Education, 27(2), 183-199. delivered on-line and on-campus. approaches for the students. Thus, International Journal of Science Prensky, M. (2005, September-October). we need to be prepared to adjust as Education, 26(10), 1247-1267. Engage me or enrage me: What needed. If something does not work today’s learners demand. EDUCAUSE out, do not panic. Assure your students Jeschofnig, L., & Jeschofnig, P. (2011). Review, 40(5), 60-65. Retrieved from that you are there for them and you can Teaching lab science courses online: https://er.educause.edu/articles/ work with them to correct the situation. Resources for best practices, tools, 2005/1/engage-me-or-enrage-me- Every one of the examples presented and technology. San Francisco, CA: what-todays-learners-demand had a “Plan A” and a “Plan B” (sometimes Jossey-Bass. even a “Plan E”). In the end, the goal is Seaman, J. E., Allen, I. E., & Seaman, Kennepohl, D., & Shaw, L. (Eds.). (2010). to achieve a balance with our teaching J. (2018). Grade increase: Tracking Accessible elements: Teaching science methods to help students achieve the distance education in the United online and at a distance. Edmonton, desired learning outcomes and their States. Retrieved from https://files. Alberta, Canada: AU Press. educational goals. eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED580852.pdf Lunsford, E. (2008, December). Guided SUNY Empire State College. (n.d.). References inquiry and social collaboration in College mission and vision. an online classroom. Bioscene, 34(2), Annetta, L., Klesath, M., & Meyer, J. Retrieved from https://www.esc. 12-21. Retrieved from https://files. (2009, September). Taking science edu/about/college-mission/ eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ859826.pdf online: Evaluating presence and

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Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and Learning Project Summaries

The 2018-2019 IMTL Fellows

Over the last eight years, the Institute 2019, is now in the course catalog; the of community-based research I had on Mentoring, Teaching and Learning second course is under review, and begun earlier in Seattle on hip-hop as (IMTL) has offered faculty and academic the remaining two courses are under a force for social change. Through the professionals an opportunity to pursue development. The concept paper and support of IMTL, I have been developing a wide range of projects relevant to the draft of the first manuscript, which a book on how community-based hip- their academic and professional work — will discuss the creation of a certificate hop and small-scale farming serve as particularly their work with students. program, will also be developed soon. practices grounded in philosophies Each year, colleagues gather in Saratoga Thank you to my IMTL colleagues and of uplifting and educating people for a three-day retreat that serves as the the CMLAI staff for your continuous to improve their lives and help the foundation for their yearlong effort to encouragement and support throughout communities around them. Since 2014, focus on topics, problems, research, course this project. IMTL projects have helped me deepen development, and creative endeavors. my involvement in farming and food The annual cohort (typically about 25 Michele Forte, Debra Kram-Fernandez, security projects while also allowing colleagues) is supported in an ongoing Jessica Kindred, Tom McElroy, Marie me to explore connections between way by an IMTL planning group and by Pennucci, Pat Pillsworth, Susan Oaks, this work and the community-building one another. Bhuwan Onta, Margaret Sithole, and practices formed through hip-hop Nan Travers worldwide. My 2018-2019 IMTL work Here, we include short descriptions of Degree Planning and PLA was dedicated first to applying for a one- some of the projects that were part of IMTL Resource Exchange year sabbatical, and then to developing 2018-2019. Other participants included: a bibliography, writing research grant Diana Centanni, Kelly Mollica, Dana Our IMTL team has visited groups of proposals, and organizing the materials Brown, Sara Farmer, Karen Garner, Donna faculty and staff at different SUNY I have gathered for this project through Mahar, Jelia Domingo, Lynette Nickleberry, Empire State College geo-locations interviews, ethnographic styles of and Ajay Das. to share outcomes of our past two observation, and active participation. Innovative Instruction Technology We thank everyone who has been a part of The year also led to learning more Grants (IITG) and our identification of a IMTL. We very much look forward to future about zoning codes, Right-to-Farm laws, need for an online repository to house IMTL activities that we will communicate to property rights, and agricultural history the 14 iPLA (individualized prior learning the community. in the small town just north of Saratoga assessment) guides developed through where my husband and I live and farm. IITG. We have been eliciting feedback, Rebecca Eliseo-Arras and faculty and staff needs for this Development of a Cyberbullying and Thomas Kerr resource exchange. As part of this IMTL Suicide Risk Certificate Program The Threshold Learning Project work, we invited willing participants Cyberbullying is a pervasive problem in to share their resources and tips for This project incorporates an our society, and while our curriculum the resource exchange. We have held individualized prior learning assessment does include a course for how to help this presentation at the All College (iPLA) request modeling method that children and adolescents cope with Conference and three geo-locations supports students’ identification and bullying, there was still a significant thus far. We look forward to continuing understanding of their experiential gap in what we could offer our this work. learning and college-level learning. I students. This project involved the work with labor leaders who actively development of a certificate aimed at Himanee Gupta-Carlson practice the topics they request as iPLA creating four courses that, together, A Hip-Hop of Food credits, and who continue to use their will enable undergraduate students skills as they additionally engage in Since 2010, I have been involved with to become proficient in identifying an assessment of their present work farmers markets and a food pantry in and understanding the impact of and responsibilities. Through their and around Saratoga Springs. From the cyberbullying on an individual’s well- growing understanding of college- outset, I saw this work as an outgrowth being. The first course, launched in fall level competencies, students come to

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 74 recognize the arc of their past, present, involved moving a 4-credit independent Conference. In these sessions, project and future skills. Thus a “threshold” can study to a fully online study. In addition development and ways in which IMTL be crossed back and forth, informing to increasing access by offering an provides opportunities to produce discovery — new insights — about online format, the other goal of this creative and innovative projects were adult learning. IMTL project was to convert this to shared. The repository went live in an OER (open educational resources) May 2019. An IRB (Institutional Review JoAnn Kingsley course, meaning 51% or more of the Board)-approved survey will evaluate Grassroots.cares course uses OERs. The project has been the effectiveness of the repository. successful in terms of the transition to a The collection of data began after the I continued my efforts to understand fully online mode, but achieving the 51% spring 2019 term. The findings of the and respond to the needs of a local mark for OERs has proved challenging survey will continue to be disseminated festival community by working to build in terms of finding content in this area at relevant conferences and in peer- organizational capacity and support for that is focused on the adult student and reviewed scholarly publications. grassroots.cares (Community Awareness still maintains the level of quality found Resource Engagement Service), a in nationally recognized textbooks. This Diane Perilli and Carolina Kim community-based volunteer effort at course was offered in the fall 2019 term. Enriching Independent the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival Studies Using Technology of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, Michael Nastacio New York. Tompkins County-based Mentor Diane Perilli and Lead Quantitative Reasoning community organizations, such Educational Technologist Carolina Kim as Suicide Prevention and Crisis Inspired by a grant received by SUNY continued the project of enriching Services, Advocacy Center, Family Math Pathways, the course, Quantitative Diane’s independent study in accounting and Children’s Services of Ithaca, Reasoning, was developed as a new using educational technology. The friends of the Grassroots Festival, math study group for our Empire State first stage was implemented in the and other concerned citizens share College students and a viable option first project year where synchronous in the responsibility to help inform, to fulfill the SUNY General Educational technology was added to the raise awareness of healthy choices requirement in mathematics without independent study. In the second and protect vulnerable populations the need for any of the common stage, asynchronous resources were during this four-day festival. One of anxiety and stress that come with added, namely, recorded tutorials the goals of these activities is opening some college mathematics studies. and Moodle. With Carolina’s help, communications and sharing in what is This was also a perfect match for our Diane recorded brief tutorials. With very challenging work. Supporting each Staten Island mathematics students. the use of Moodle, information was other is an important way that we can Part of the curriculum is based on what easily relayed to the students including work together to change our society the Carnegie Math Pathways refers the posting of resources such as the for the better. My involvement with to as “Productive Struggle”; that is, tutorial videos and recordings of the ITML has given me access to supportive as the students work in groups, they group synchronous meetings. We are feedback, collaboration and a sense of expand their efforts to make sense of continuing to evaluate the effectiveness community-building during the college’s mathematics and figure something out of this independent study enrichment recent reorganization. In co-creating the that is not immediately apparent. To through student surveys and analysis of concept of grassroots.cares, I borrowed date, registered students have found study completion rates. vocabulary words from the Balanced the course topics to be quite refreshing, Scorecard approach to strategic interesting and, importantly, relevant to Bernard Smith, Leslie Ellis, planning as a way of demonstrating their everyday lives. A second offering Nan Travers, and Amanda Treadwell the overlap between my volunteer took place in the fall of 2019. Mentors Mentoring Mentees: iPLA work in my community and my service and Cross-Disciplinary Mentoring to the college. Jennifer Nettleton, Jacqueline We surveyed both mentors (n=76) Michaels, Kim Stote, and Lynn McNall and active, concurred mentees (n=73) Seana Logsdon and Dan McCrea SONAH Online Faculty Repository regarding individualized prior learning Increasing Access to and The SONAH Online Faculty Repository assessment (iPLA). Although we are Engagement in Tools and Strategies provides nursing faculty with still analyzing the results, we know for Academic Success Course information and access to pertinent that faculty mentor students in degree The goal of increasing access to and college policies and resources. It was planning within their fields and assumed engagement in the Tools and Strategies presented at the 2018 Fall Academic that was the prevailing practice; for Academic Success course has Conference and the 2019 All College however, our research found cross-

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 75 discipline mentoring more dominant. Betty Wilde-Biasiny those overviews, design of assignments The extent to which faculty still mentor Digital Humanities Research and assessments for each module, and across disciplines was counterintuitive and Course Design a template for two other courses in now that the college is organized need of upgrades — Museum/Curatorial Digital Humanities is a developing field by “schools.” This cross-discipline Studies and American Art: A New Look. that interests me in terms of applying mentoring pattern was also reflected scholarship to tangible resources for in assisting students in preparing iPLA Mary Zanfini students at Empire State College; most requests. Again, the data suggest more Using a Comfort Dog in the Writing specifically, to identify ways to update faculty mentor iPLA students cross- Classroom to Combat Anxiety course materials using a sophisticated disciplinarily. On the student side, level of technology in both research Each term, at least one of my students the majority indicated their mentor and course delivery. IMTL provided suffers from “writer’s anxiety.” I as being the most useful resource the concentrated time and collegial understand the fear and am accepting in preparing iPLA requests. iPLA is a support for me to research content, of all the difficulties that this specific cornerstone of the institution and linked write course content lecture pages, learn fear entails. If students cannot even to increased completion rates; mentors supportive technology, and work with begin a writing assignment, how will are fundamental to its success. The an instructional designer to create a they ever be able to finish one for cross-disciplinary nature of mentoring in form/design, grading tools, and relevant credit? I began to wonder if a “therapy general, and specifically iPLA, regardless ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) dog” could assist my work with my of institutional structure, raises compliance. Group activities facilitated students and mentees. I received a questions around how well faculty are additional learning from others in terms Mother’s Day gift: a small rescue puppy. prepared for cross-disciplinary and iPLA of organizing research and using media, I wondered if I could somehow work mentoring. Further research exploring OERs (open educational resources), out a way to bring “Seamus” to campus. institutional data would determine and repositories of information in His temperament seemed ideal for he the full extent of cross-disciplinary course design. My course, Issues in was friendly, loved people and was mentoring, but, regardless, focused Contemporary Art, has been updated ready to go anywhere with you. I will faculty support is needed. from an informal course template to be looking for a therapy group that will a robust online study group learning provide training and insurance for his management system that includes “work-life” here at Empire State College’s personally written narratives for each Staten Island location. I hope that I can thematic module, augmented resource bring the “graduate” of the training to materials and historical annotations for campus, so I can work “miracles” with my own students!

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The Return

Robert Congemi, Latham

Scene One The Boy: (holding the ball) My name is not Charlie, sir. It’s Peter. The Promenade in Brooklyn, New York, which overlooks the Hudson River and the The grandfather stares at him. enormous buildings of Lower Manhattan. Grandfather: Oh, yes, of course. Sorry. Evening is beginning. A few tourists and You look just like Charlie, Peter. Is your neighborhood people walk up and down father’s name Charlie? the Promenade. A few children play games. From stage left, a very old man with a The Boy (shaking his head): Nope. His cane, accompanied by a youth who helps name is George. him to walk, makes his way with difficulty The grandfather shakes his head, to a bench at stage center. Finally, the acknowledging his mistake. old man is seated and seems as if he has finished a long journey. He watches the Grandfather: Yes. Nothing’s changed. children with some intensity. The same games. The same houses. Almost the same children. Actually, the Grandson: (solicitously, tenderly) So. same children. We made it grandfather. I told you Robert Congemi we could do it. I’ll make whatever The boy’s friends call out to him. you want happen. After a bit of time, several other young Friends: Peter, come on, will you? It’s people enter stage right, carrying books, Grandfather continues to watch children getting dark. but very different in dress and manner but speaks to his grandson. The boy runs back to his friends and from grandfather as an adolescent. They Grandfather: Christopher, leave me for a gradually they disappear from the stage. are hippies or dressed as hippies from the few minutes. Now that I’m here, at last, The grandfather begins to think aloud. He 1960s — long hair, colored hair, the young I want to think about this neighborhood points to the façade of one of the buildings women in long old-fashioned dresses, where I first lived and take it all in. The immediately behind the Promenade. flowers in their hair. One of the young men Promenade and the neighborhood are looks more like a beatnik than a hippy, Grandfather: Charlie, it’s Franklin. Ah, we interesting places to discover. dressed all in black. Another young man, had some fun in that house, huh? Even apparently the leader of the group, wears Grandson: (still solicitous) You’re certain? if my family only rented the top floor. a buckskin jacket, jeans and hiking boots. (sadly) Charlie, where are you now? Did Grandfather nods, and rather reluctantly, He is nice enough, but indeed the leader. things go well for you? And Rosalie? And his grandson backs away and then, after He stops the group dramatically, holding Phil? All of you? some time, exits stage left. out his hands, as they reach Grandfather as Adolescent. Grandfather: Has anything changed? Scene Two (looking around) Nothing has changed. Hippy Student Leader: Ah, there he The stage darkens and the lights come is. (friendly but bossy) Franklin, stop Suddenly, a ball that the children have up on another location — a Long Island studying for once, will you? been playing with rolls toward him suburb of New York City. A young man, and one of the boys chases after it. The the grandfather at 17 or 18, is sitting on Beat Student: Yeah, like you’re too grandfather stops it at his feet and gives it the front stoop of a tract house. He is very square, man. Like I told you a thousand to the boy. involved in studying, a textbook in one times, you got to drop out and turn on. hand while holding a notebook in his Grandfather: Here you go, Charlie. You The young women in the group giggle and other hand. always had to go get the ball. even succeed in taking away Grandfather Grandfather as Adolescent: They’re all as Adolescent’s textbook and notebook. The boy is confused but does not back lawyers, the presidents. That must be He’s not happy about that, but can’t bring away from the grandfather. The boy can the ticket. (he goes back to studying) himself to protest. see there is nothing threatening in the old Ah, yes, torts. man’s manner.

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One of the Young Women: Do Scene Three less than what most people have? Damn something fun for a change, Franklin. you, Susan. To betray your child as well Lights go down and then, after a bit of If you get any stiffer. ... as your husband. Advocate for yourself, time, come back up on a small living room you tell me. Well, I’ll advocate for myself. She’s interrupted by Hippy Student Leader. in an old house in a small town. There is Watch this. a table filled with papers center stage. The Hippy Student Leader: Look, we’re on grandfather as a 30-year-old is watching The lights dim and when they come up, our way to this great rock concert. In television by changing the channels Grandfather at 30 is at a house party. He Woodstock, New York. You have to come repeatedly. He is very agitated. is now at stage center by himself and is with us. Don’t miss this, man. This is the somewhat drunk. A few couples to each start of the Age of Aquarius. Everything’s Grandfather at 30: (Almost crying out) side of him are talking, having a drink, etc. changing from here on in. Where the hell is she? Finally, The Boss approaches him. Another Boy: Life is ours. We are the Indeed he makes so much noise that finally The Boss: (not particularly offensive) future. Freedom, love, happiness. A a child of about 10 enters from stage right, Franklin, get a hold of yourself. This is whole new ballgame. obviously having been awakened, the child not good. (Tries to take Franklin by the much upset. Girl: Franklin, listen, not only the arm, but Franklin breaks away. Almost greatest music, but there’ll be thousands Child: Daddy, I woke up. I was scared. whispers) Get a hold. ... of women. No bras. Stoned. Willing! (rubbing his eyes and whimpering, he looks Franklin: (very combative) Leave me around) Where’s Mommy? Grandfather as Adolescent grins, shakes alone. What gives you the right to tell his head. Wanting them to understand. Grandfather at 30: (speaking with a me what to do? Because I happen to mixture of repeating himself and not work for you? Grandfather as Adolescent: I can’t. I sure of what he’s saying) Your mother’s really can’t. (looking to get his book and Boss: Franklin, don’t do this. not here. notebook back) Franklin: But I will! This is what I must Child: (as if this is his usual question) Other Boy: (mocking explanation to the do. You don’t understand. I must change Why? others) He’s got to prepare, man. Pass my life. (strengthens himself) I must quit the tests. Get a career. Grandfather at 30: She has to work your ugly firm. I must quit this town. I late tonight. must have the courage to change my Grandfather as Adolescent: (trying to life. You think I want to live like this reason) Even if I wanted to, look at me. Child: She always has to work late. for the rest of my one life! What will Girl: You mean you look like the Child continues to whimper. The come of working for you? Nothing will squarest guy on earth? whimpering continues and grows in come of it. Nothing has already come strength, the lights dim, and Grandfather of it. Nothing of any accomplishment Hippy Student Leader: No problem. at 30 stands downstage, speaking out to is gained by settling to be ordinary. All (taking off his buckskin jacket) Here, take the audience. the greats of the world have been risk- my jacket. Don’t say anything. Do what takers. They’ve struck out on their own. we do. You’ll pass. Everyone will be out Grandfather at 30: Where are you, Taken chances that have led to changing of their minds anyway. Susan? Yes, yes, he’s right. You always their lives and often changing the lives have to work late. Do you think I’m Grandfather as Adolescent: (trying to of the rest of the world. Their daring was fooled? Do you even think he’s fooled? resist to no avail. They take off his jacket, scorned at first, but they were right to In some instinctive way, he knows. Even take away his tie, pull his shirt out of strike out. (secretive himself) It’s as if they the banality of it is disgusting. Where his pants, mess up his hair) No. Come had a secret that everyone else should are you? Have I really been that much on. No. know. Actually, they do know, but don’t of a failure? To legitimize in some evil admit it to themselves. (back to normal, They succeed, lead him off stage. Lights way you’re just having sex some other straightens up) This night is just what I go out and then on again briefly. Franklin guy? Your boss? I don’t think you even needed. Tiny things make great changes. is seen sitting on the ground smoking care if I know. All right, I am not the That’s also overlooked. The old Franklin dope, two girls by his side, folk and rock greatest lawyer who has even been, and is gone as of this minute. I’m glad all this music blaring. this town is not the capital of the United is happening. If I don’t do this, I’ll blow States. But it is something, isn’t it? No my brains out.

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He points a finger at his head and backs He waits. Finally, a brash young woman we did nothing to stop or hinder it. up a little. Darkness descends. Franklin is exits from the crowd, gets next to the man, That’s their right. Their First Amendment alone on a dark stage. He has a revolver to the cheers of the crowd. right to freedom of speech. in his hand. Stands for some time with it Man with Bullhorn: O-K. Here we go. I Reporter: OK, OK. But what about what pointed at his head. In the end he doesn’t should have known Cindy would lead these people are being paid? use the revolver. Stage lights come up the crowd. again and the previous scene is resumed. Spokesman: They are being paid a Cindy takes the bullhorn from him; the competitive wage. They are being taught Franklin: Finally I have the courage to crowd continues to cheer for her, calls the business and then seasoned. Now do something first-rate, meaningful, of encouragement. She nods her head, they have skills they can take anywhere. something I can be proud of and not acknowledging she is going to do this silently embarrassed by my life. I may Reporter: Yeah, and get the same public thing. even do great things. shamefully low pay. Cindy: Yes, I’ll do it. I’m not afraid. Spokesman: (Ignoring this) We provide Scene Four Not afraid to speak out against the jobs for people. Hundreds of thousands conditions I have lived with for seven The lights come up on a demonstration by of jobs that wouldn’t be there if it years now. Just like lots of you people. low wage earners in front of a government weren’t for us. We keep the food Even worse. Do you know how much building. Grandfather enters stage left in inexpensive for the public. We invent I make an hour? After working seven cheap suit, carrying an old attaché case, the business, we take all the risks, we go years for this food chain? Eight dollars returning home from his job. He is a under if things don’t go well. We keep an hour! And, like I said, that’s after low-level city worker now in his 60s. The the economy going. seven years. It was even worse when I demonstration stops him and he listens started. They called it entry-level pay. Reporter: That’s not what the intently off to the side. A short, stocky, Learning-the-job pay. Why I couldn’t live research says. strong-looking man with a bull horn is on that salary and I still can’t live on my stirring up the crowd of workers. Spokesman: And we are committed as salary. I have to beg for as many hours a company to make working conditions Man with Bullhorn: What do we want? as they’ll give me, if they decide they better and better. Right now we are (waits for answer) will. They don’t have to, you know. And negotiating with the unions. they have more ways to commit wage Crowd: (tentative at first, but growing theft against you than you can imagine. The reporter seems to lose heart. stronger) Fair wages. How can this happen in our country? Grandfather is listening intently. The man Man with Bullhorn: I can’t hear you. How can this happen in this world? with the bullhorn regains it from Cindy What do we want? and moves on with the demonstration. Crowd noise supports her more and more. Crowd: Fair wages! Then it returns to chanting “fair wages, Man with Bullhorn: Now. Who wants to fair wages!”) testimony next? Who wants to speak Man with Bullhorn: What? out? Come on. Don’t be shy. What do On stage opposite Grandfather, lights Crowd: Fair wages!! you have to lose? Cindy showed us how go up on a reporter and a company to do it. Cindy showed us the way. The man with the bullhorn smiles, finally spokesman. Other officials are silent content, and the crowd starts to cheer, but their presence is felt. For some time, nobody comes forth from cheering that gets louder and louder. the crowd until a woman of color is urged Reporter: (putting the microphone in to leave the crowd, mount the stage and Man with Bullhorn: That’s more like it. the spokesman’s face) So what do you take the bullhorn. She is gently being urged That’s the way to demonstrate. Now, say to this? What do you say to these on physically, but she resists. She is clearly who is going to come up here and take accusations? Indeed, not accusations, a very shy individual. Finally, she gets to this bullhorn out of my hand and make but apparently facts. where the man with the bullhorn is. People a testimonial? Spokesman: (trying at first to take cheer. With various remarks called out to Nobody responds to his request at first. the microphone out of the reporter’s her, they really urge her on. hand) Look, the first thing I want to Man with Bullhorn: Come on now. Who’s Crowd: Yeah, Marjorie. Yeah, Marjorie. say is that these people have every got the courage to speak out the truth Go to it, girl. You can do it. Yeah, right to demonstrate. We knew this before everyone? Marjorie. Tell it like it is. Witness for demonstration was coming along, but our cause.

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Slowly, trying to gain confidence, she is very sad. For a long time, he just sits, not Dr. Adams: As I said in my book, the begins to speak. This probably is the moving, feeling very sad. Finally the lights Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean are biggest public speech of her life. darken slowly, a period of time passes, gradually moving into synch with each and when the lights come up again, far other regarding their movements, and Marjorie: (meekly, but becoming a bit downstage, a trio of men in suits are when that fully occurs, the heated ocean more energized as she goes along) Yes, I apparently in a television studio doing a resulting from the synchronization want to speak out, too. I want to tell you news show story. Two of the men represent will not only further obliterate the ice what it’s like when you work all the time point and counterpoint, or more exactly, caps but, even more terrifyingly, heat and you’re still at the level of poverty. a guest on the show and a second studio the ocean bed. When that happens, Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to man, Mr. Blanc, acting as commentator. unimaginable amounts of methane will make trouble. For anybody. I just don’t The third man works for the television be released from the thawing ocean want things to be so hard. And hard all network also and is the moderator. beds, and then the planet will heat up the time. Give me a little more money, until it is uninhabitable and explodes. and I won’t take advantage, I’ll work The Moderator: Good evening, harder than ever before. Not for myself. everyone, welcome to tonight’s edition Commentator: Well, wait just a minute, That’s gone. Long ago. But for my kids. of “The News Behind the News.” Tonight doctor. I, too, have read your book and You see I got kids. Same as everybody we are interviewing Dr. Sherwin Adams, did some research on this very issue. else — a daughter and a son. Just at who has written a new book called The First, it turns out that the theory didn’t that age. The girl, she likes to have a Last Days. It is a very controversial book. even originate with you. And, as always chance like all the other daughters. You Indeed, Dr. Adams is a very controversial in these cases, this prediction is based know, proms in pretty dresses, feel like man. We here at Channel 42 have long on man-fed computer mathematical something? (pause) Not like nothing. She considered inviting him to speak to us, problems that are merely guesses in sashays around like she’s something and being that we are committed to the end. but inside she feels like nothing. (pause) getting at the truth behind the truth, Dr. Adams: This is not a guess. This You know what she said to me the other we have invited him here today. Let me is reality. day? She said, Momma, I don’t want tell you at the outset that Dr. Adams’ to be nothing. (another pause) And the ideas are indeed very controversial, even Commentator: Sir, no disrespect same for my son, too. I don’t want him upsetting. So take that as a heads up. To intended, but that is only what you say. to get the wrong ideas. We got some comment on Dr. Adams’ book and ideas Dr. Adams: I have studied this ocean very bad people in the neighborhood is our Senior Analyst Ray Hammond. event for several years now. ... who are really angry and want to stir (turning to the doctor) Good evening, up things and they tell him that he’s got Dr. Adams. Commentator: So have others. nothing to lose. Don’t be a loser. Get Dr. Adams: Good evening. Dr. Adams: And together with the rising what other people got. Make some big particles per trillion of methane in the money selling drugs. That’s right. Make The Moderator: Dr. Adams, as I’ve just air and the simply unstoppable use some big money selling drugs. People stated, your book is quite a thing. by mankind of fossil fuels, and god at him all the time. Really simple, they Dr. Adams: It wasn’t meant to be. It was knows what else ... this is the truth tell him. Lots of people doing it. Don’t meant to tell the truth. of the matter. be stupid. (again a pause) So he decides to do it and pretty soon ends up in jail, The Moderator: (going through his notes) Commentator: Hmm. Arguments that and that’s the end. Now he can’t get a I had a chance to read most of it before all can be refuted. May I tell you about job, no way. So what’s he do? Back to the show and I must say your assertion many other so-called predictions that selling drugs until he’s back in jail again. that we have passed the tipping point didn’t turn out — that now look like By that time it’s all over. Totally. Don’t because of global warming when it failed doomsday predictions? Dates of let anybody tell you different. You know, comes to the Earth’s future, that the the Earth’s climate tipping point that sometimes I look at my children and I planet is doomed because of a theory were supposed to have happened and say to myself, I just want to take you in you have about the world’s two great didn’t happen? Particle levels that were my arms forever, cause I know what’s oceans is ... well ... doctor, can you supposed to bring on catastrophe that coming for you. explain this assertion? It’s one of the have been reached and even surpassed main reasons we’ve invited you here this and nothing happened? Grandfather has continued to listen evening. It’s a new one for me. intently to all of this, and when the woman has finished, he slumps his head down. He

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Dr. Adams: But all this is simply over America? People who are nothing, Dr. Adams: It is people like you and irrelevant. Terrible changes are with nothing to lose, and the riots are your bosses who are responsible for so occurring, ice caps are melting, the Earth spreading from city to city, state to state. much hardship, heartbreak, brutality, is rising in temperature, nothing is being And it’s far worse in other countries. hideous degradation. done about fossil fuels, the two great People making less than a dollar a day, Grandfather has been listening with more oceans are coming together, and these selling themselves, living in filth. Slavery. and more agitation. His head sinks lower are indisputable facts, facts, facts. Worldwide slavery, which if it isn’t and lower toward his lap. Suddenly, he worldwide will soon be. Nothing is Commentator: That is what people lifts up his head and starts to scream. His going to get better. It will only get always say. screams are loud, long, shocking. He can worse and worse. bear the dialogue no longer. Finally, he Dr. Adams: All right. Put this issue aside Moderator: Well, Mr. Blanc, what do starts to sob and slowly the lights on stage for a moment. Let’s grant everything you make of this? begin to dim. that people say about global warming around the world is absolutely wrong. Commentator: I don’t make much of Scene Five Let’s say that the world will continue to it at all. Haven’t you heard that you be most habitable. That catastrophic can use statistics to do whatever you Back to Grandfather in his old Promenade global warming is totally disproved. Let’s want? He chooses his statistics. Haven’t neighborhood. He seems shaken by his talk about my other main point. Even if you heard that our economy is much recollections, breathing deeply. In time, his I am wrong on the first point, which I’m better since the crash? All right, I’ll admit grandson returns. not, allow me to give you the facts on the economy is slow, but it is growing. Grandson: (noticing his grandfather’s the global slavery that is coming. People are doing better actually. Fewer agitation) Grandfather? Grandfather, are people are out of work. Month after Moderator: Yes, gentlemen. That’s the you all right? month. We are adding thousands and other issue I wanted to discuss with the thousands of jobs every month. And our Grandfather: (trying to get a hold of good doctor. median level of living is greater than any himself, to hide his agitation from his Commentator: (shaking his head at Dr. other in the world. Sure, we need more grandson) Yes, yes, I’m just fine, dear. Adams in disbelief) Fine. progress, but we look very good based Grandson: Coming back here emotional? on our recent past financial history Dr. Adams: Well then, how are these and on the rest of the world, where the Grandfather: (sardonic laugh) Yes, you facts for you? No matter which study recovery is very sluggish. Also, there are could say that. you use, the studies all say — they all kinds of new government programs all agree! — that the top 1% of the Grandson: Anything I can do? in the pipeline. And if you want to population in this country own continue to talk worldwide, there is Grandfather: No. Just give me a about 40% of all the wealth in this actually a decrease in income inequality few moments. country. Surely, you’ll agree that is in other countries. Believe it or not, incontrovertible. And astounding. Grandson gives Grandfather some room there is a rising middle class in other Doesn’t that impress you? My god! And and time, and then spies a pretty young countries. Look at India, look at Russia, before you talk about new job creation, girl on the Promenade, switching his look at China. I could go on and on. do you know what kind of new jobs? attention to her. Jobs that pay next to nothing, jobs that Dr. Adams (getting more and more Grandfather: mumbles to himself: What don’t allow you to feed your family, buy distraught by the commentator’s remarks) the hell is it all about? Not only is it clothes, educate your children. Jobs Stop it! This is all sleight of hand! It’s all a terrible as you go through life, but it that don’t give you any dignity. Is that cover-up for reality! The gains are smoke is also even more terrible at death! what America is all about? Is that what and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors. Can’t Far more terrible. Unimaginably more countless people over the last 350 years you see that? terrible! A steady decline in everything have fought and died for? For a few Commentator: That’s what you say. about you. A terrible illness. If you’re people to own everything? And how unlucky, the horror is kept going with all about the people who have no jobs at Dr. Adams: Sir, you are evil. You are just the medicines. Until there’s nothing left all, can’t find jobs, however wretched, a mouthpiece for those who control of you or you spend your last moments and will never find jobs? Don’t you this terrible situation. This inexcusably figuring out how to be released from the know what all the rioting in the streets unjust world. horrid situation. these days is about? Violent rioting all Commentator: I beg your pardon.

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Grandson: (for the moment, pulling Grandson: (he’s heard this before, so he Girl: I was thinking that you are the most himself away from the sight of the is not completely shocked) Come on, you handsome guy I’ve ever seen. Do you girl) Grandfather, we should get have to take your medicines. You want mind my saying that? going shortly. You have to take to live, don’t you? Grandson: (happy) Not at all. I’m lucky your medicines. Especially your Grandfather: Do I? you feel that way. I have to take care of heart medicine. my grandfather right now, but may I see The boy turns back to the girl, leaving his Grandfather: Oh, to hell with the you again? grandfather to meditate. The boy and girl medicine. (thinking) Hmmm. The heart come together. Girl: Of course. medicine? That’s probably the best way out. Great pain briefly, and then it’s all Grandson: You’re the most beautiful They smile at each other and then take over. Forever. Hmm. girl I’ve ever seen. Do you mind my each other’s hand. Grandfather continues saying that? to think.

“It is just flat out uncomfortable to reflect on yourself. I do not know if you all experience difficulties, but I struggled. It is hard to put that mirror up and be honest with yourself and be honest with the fact that you are not as strong as you would like to be or you are not as developed as you would like to be, or even that you have accomplished things that you do not believe you have. But if you do not experience that discomfort, if you do not embrace the bother, you are doing a disservice to your adult learners.”

— Geleana Alston “Adult Educators Must Be Learners, Too” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 110

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Reflections on Gamification in Mentoring and Teaching

Anamaria Iosif Ross, Utica

his short essay aims to bring forth cognitive and social development, as a few possible applications of well as healing. Whether playing ball T “gamification” to our professional or playing piano, the notion of play activities of mentoring and teaching suggests dynamic engagement with the adult students. Having increased world around us. For adult humans, the tremendously in popularity over the difference between play and work can past two decades, the term pertains to be arbitrary, at times. Some humans the introduction of game-like elements rebuild boat engines, restore classic into an activity for the purpose of cars, or assemble computers for fun, boosting enjoyment and motivation in others garden, and yet others play card learning experiences or other tasks. games, word games, or gamble. What Game activities include a wide range of characterizes or defines the playfulness endeavors and purposes: icebreakers, aspect of an endeavor? Often, it is a creative brainstorming, organizing and high level of attentional or professional sorting information, Q & A (i.e., Jeopardy! engagement. A high level of satisfaction and Trivial Pursuit), and collaboration. blurs the line between play and work for adults, as illustrated in the experience of Anamaria Iosif Ross Why play, you say? Yes, that should “flow.” When one is absorbed in a game be the title of a Dr. Seuss book. One and playing well, it is easy to lose track That initial conversation blossomed into is never too old to play, as noted on of time. It creates fulfillment. a project supported by the college’s countless board games that say “for Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and ages 9 to 99.” A more detailed answer Two years ago, my colleague Nadine Learning, and was followed by months can take many forms. For one, play is Fernandez and I encountered each of brainstorming, discussions, and the first and most fundamental form other at a SUNY Empire State College readings. Our initial enthusiasm waned of learning among social animals, roundtable session on gamification, as we were forced to the pragmatic including most birds and mammals. It which took place during the Fall conclusion that ESC did yet not have the entails communication, cooperation, Academic Conference. We agreed that necessary IT (information technology) and (often) friendly competitiveness. It we would like to further explore the resources to create the interactive, is associated with increased emotional possibilities of gamification for use in “gamified” Ed Planning portal we intelligence. It builds many different Educational Planning (“Ed Planning”) envisioned. However, we still benefitted skills (cognitive, emotional, physical, and studies. We hoped to find innovative from enriching conversations with social). It fosters positive relationships ways to increase engagement and supportive IT staff and experimented and trust among peers and frequently improve retention of new students in Ed with several kinds of software, such across groups, for example, the Olympic Planning by developing new methods/ as a shareable virtual progress board Games. Gaming allows and empowers techniques that included game elements (timeline) based on Scrum1 methodology one to be vulnerable and to take and narrative elements to frame, used in software development, and risks, which are attitudes essential to mark, and reward a student’s progress the text-based game tool, Twine.2 More innovative thinking. It can improve through the often tenuous journey that valuable insights and possibilities have attention, coordination, and focus. is the process of educational planning. been emerging from that effort, while Animals that hunt and animals that may We thought game elements could it has been lying fallow. Immediate serve as prey both must play to practice help to engage some of the younger outcomes seemed esoteric and soft needed survival skills. generations of students, millennials while foreshadowing a distant promise in particular, who desire interactive or Founding scholars of developmental of new engagement methods, interactive prestructured forms of instruction. That psychology devoted their lives to platforms, and digital learning tools that is, we thought game elements could studying children’s play, which fulfills make innovative use of game features. bring more clarity and diversity to the many important functions for emotional, planning process.

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Good games tend to be exciting, embarking on their ed planning journey In my native Romania, I was acculturated interactive, and rewarding. They provide need to imagine a future that is not to classic European teaching paradigms, rapid feedback, hot incentives, and fully conceived or manifested yet, which entailed students listening to new experiences. They allow second “a world we can see only dimly, as if lengthy expert lectures, sitting quietly, chances and offer the opportunity to through a fog.” The authors added: “In and raising one’s hand to speak. Around progress along a narrative journey or a knowledge work, we need our goals age 10, I outgrew being a hyperactive timeline. Interactions that create friendly to be fuzzy” (p. 5). They noted that tomboy and learned to hyper-focus by competition between opposing groups fuzzy goals have emotional, sensory writing extensive notes. My favorite or collaboration within teams work and progressive characteristics, and subject was math because I was by bringing “fun” game elements into the movement toward a goal is a fortunate to have an extraordinary everyday learning activities. learning process that involves successive teacher, Dorin Moraru, whom the approximation (p. 8). Recognizing this students called Morris. He was famous The nature of the educational planning basic truth can foster a mindful, positive, for getting his students to Olympiads, process is amenable to gamification as and resilient relationship between with a dynamic teaching style that was an approach in a multitude of ways. The student and mentor. ironic, playful, and witty. He teased his quest for the degree can be imagined as pupils, encouraged us to try different a kind of “magical journey to the pot of things, and gave us nicknames. Morris gold.” The ed planning trek is peppered used humor to explain when something with trials, prizes, setbacks, tribulations, “The ed planning worked and when it did not. If an idea and rewards. The hero’s first challenge trek is peppered fell flat, he would often say: “That was is to identify and visualize her/his own about as helpful as rubbing down a educational goals and break up progress with trials, prizes, peg-leg!” When one of us nailed an into smaller bites or steps, sometimes setbacks, tribulations, answer or came up with a particularly called chunking. There are many clever solution, he knew how to make choices and decision points in the hero’s and rewards.” us feel delighted, by showing his delight. journey. Opportunities emerge from Morris was adored by all his students, her/his curiosity and engagement, the both the ones who struggled and the willingness to query, explore and risk. Student and mentor may feel that they ones who shined in math. There was There are some setbacks, like in Chutes want to “solve” the educational planning a kind of magic that he made happen, and Ladders or Monopoly, but every puzzle, reach a quick answer and a filled with as many “aha” moments as setback bears gifts. Through educational path laid out — nice and clear. Instead, with math flops. He motivated us to planning, students have the opportunity the path emerges as you put one question and made it safe to fumble or to collect credits for their life foot in front of the other throughout blurt a wrong answer. experiences and “level up” educationally the planning process. The notion of and professionally. They also build successive approximation recalls the Creative exploration involves confidence, as they learn to advocate idea of “baby steps,” with the critical randomness, reversal and reframing, and speak about their experiences difference that it does not dismiss or improvisation, and selection, among and transferable skills in ways that can minimize the challenge and potential other features, according to the authors change hurdles into portals. impact of choices and incremental of Gamestorming (Gray et al., pp. 23-26). changes of perspective. And whereas Games such as Card Sort can help A book that I enjoyed and found babies may take some steps just for the organize information into categories useful for thinking about educational sake of walking and may not even care for area of study guidelines or PLAs planning is Gamestorming: A Playbook where they end up as long as they are (prior learning assessments); Forced for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and free and safe, the adult student charting Ranking offers a tool for making difficult Changemakers by Dave Gray, Sunni an educational life-course has much at decisions among competing priorities, Brown, and James Macanufo (2010). stake, both financially and personally. and; Graphic Gameplan creates a The book seems intended to foster To reassure Ed Planning students, it is timeline of achievable tasks. Certainly creative teamwork in the business world helpful to acknowledge the importance not least, a key ingredient is the art by drawing upon games and game of their decision to take part in the of asking questions. In Educational theories. These authors described game process and the interactive nature of Planning, mentor and student are worlds as alternative spaces governed it. Their degree is a work-in-progress doing exactly that: asking questions by their own rules, which players must that they are in charge of designing and about goals and life experiences and agree to follow. A fruitful concept they redesigning, and “every great journey building trust, while navigating together mentioned is that of “fuzzy goals.” Like starts with a single step.” through emergent possibilities. The ed a player at the start of a game, students

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 84 planning sometimes feels amorphous in a Moodle course, or points and Notes and daunting to students. It can be a checkmarks along the way. Like a 1 According to Scrum.org (https:// straight path, for registered programs, game-world quest or journey, the www.scrum.org/resources/what- or a complex, somewhat lengthy dynamic and transformative process is-scrum), “Scrum is a framework developmental process of self-discovery of educational planning unfolds in within which people can address and self-validation, governed by rules space/time according to a set of complex adaptive problems, and multiple decision nodes/points that guidelines. While registered programs while productively and creatively provide many opportunities to imagine, and modular online course design are delivering products of the highest create, open, explore and “close the able to inject clarity and direction by possible value.” world.” And commonly there is a sense chunking and scaffolding educational of danger and risk involved for students: tasks along a sequential timeline, 2 For more information, go to “Am I making the right decisions?” “Will I there are many ways to adapt and http://twinery.org/. get this credit?” “Can I do this?” “Is it the adopt game elements into “analog” right time?” encounters, as mentor and student Reference solve the riddle of academic progress To maximize their sense of progress Gray, D., Brown, S., & Macanufo, J. face-to-face. As we revisit the key role and well-being, students benefit (2010). Gamestorming: A playbook of educational planning at Empire from continuous feedback loops to for innovators, rulebreakers, and State College, gaming elements assess what to keep and what to toss changemakers. Sebastopol, CA: and methodologies could provide a (concentration titles, PLA topics, and O’Reilly Media, Inc. framework for embracing challenges possible courses). These markers may and engaging creatively and productively be badges, flags, completed modules with emergent needs.

“To change the culture, to change the stigma, to reduce stereotypes and the use of those stereotypes in forming public policy that affects the funding that students and institutions need so badly, you need to help us change the story. Share the real stories of your real college students, talk about the data as you understand them, share this on social media, tell the person you go to Friday night dinner with, talk to the people who are not involved in higher education right now so that they can reflect on an experience that might not have been their own.”

— Sara Goldrick-Rab “‘Paying the Price’: The Costs of a College Education and the Realities of Broken Dreams” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 129

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Reflections on Not Knowing

Betty Hurley, Mentor Emerita, SUNY Empire Online

“I tell my students, ‘When you get support what mystics and shamans these jobs you have been so brilliantly have known for years: that what we trained for, just remember that your can see with our eyes is only a small real job is that if you are free, you need percentage of what exists. Because we to free somebody else. If you have some are connected in this web, each of our power, then your job is to empower actions affects others around us in somebody else.’” ways we cannot predict. So, my task is to mindfully approach each moment, — Toni Morrison (n.d.) the only moment I know I have, and make it a moment where I make a positive contribution. y father, Thomas Hurley, embodied this quote and And, all of this is actually a wonderful M passed this sentiment on to approach to mentoring. Over my last me. He was a high school math teacher few years at SUNY Empire State College, and cared deeply about the success of I saw my mentoring expand to address his students. His goal was to empower the whole person. In my early years, Betty Hurley them as learners. I have tried to do my focus was on the neck up. That had the same. some advantages, but it also gave me a professor played by Michael Caine, limited view of myself, as well as of my This article for All About Mentoring has whose love for literature is reignited mentees. Recent research has shown been a writing challenge. With 36 years by his conversations with Rita, a that we have cells similar to brain cells at the college, the temptation is to think hairdresser dissatisfied with her own on our hearts (Daemen, 2013); and somehow I know more. Yet, Buddhism life. I also remember the day of the researchers have also seen the mind as has taught me about “beginner’s mind” attacks on the World Trade Center, being present in the whole body, not and the power of approaching every as we sat in a center meeting getting just in the brain (Pandya, 2011). experience with humility and knowing increasingly desperate reports. I must only that there is so much I do not know. What are my strongest memories say that the All College conferences and from my years at the college? What all those governance meetings have Since my ordination in 2016 as an did I learn from them? I remember my merged into one big blur of faces interfaith/interspiritual minister, I’ve interview at what was then called the and documents. chosen a word each year to focus on Genesee Valley Center in Rochester. I as the core of my experience. For two What am I most proud of? My inclination don’t remember what my presentation years, it was “tree,” as I both rooted to make connections came with me, was on, but the two hours alone in the myself in spiritual development apparently. With adult learners, I found main meeting room at the head of the (including indigenous traditions in which it was especially important to help table with random faculty coming in to rooting is a key concept) and branched them connect quantitative skills with ask me questions has stayed with me. out, seeking new areas for service. I life experiences. As I was cleaning out Then, organizing a busload of students trained as a hospital chaplain and got my office, I found some booklets I had from Rochester to participate in the a certificate as an end-of-life doula written to address math for the math- Women’s Studies Residency in New York in those two years. Now, as I retire avoidant learner. As we moved into City and the student who had a history from mentoring, my new words are online, I developed, with the help of of seizures (including one in my office) “not knowing.” I am not sure how my many others, including Marj Robison, not showing up for the bus ride home. retirement years will unfold! general education math courses that She finally appeared and I learned my continued making those connections, What I do know is that things will change lesson about risk and vulnerability. whether visually, through problem- and that the most important entities of And I remember sitting behind George solving, or through an interest in my life are the relationships I have with Drury, known for transforming students, education. I’ve also added journaling Earth’s inhabitants. We are all connected watching Educating Rita, a 1983 movie to all of the math courses on which I in mysterious ways. Physicists now about a British Open University worked, finding it to be beneficial in

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 86 many ways, including helping students Amsterdam, New York. The residents Key for me is our core values that articulate those connections and at Wilkinson continue to inspire me. include respect for all members of the maintaining a good connection with the Many come from hard work as farmers, community and their contributions. I instructor for ongoing support. raising large families. They are spirited, will continue to carry those core values full of humor, and care for one another. with me as I move on to other forms of Connecting students in a community has I encourage you to seek out our elders; service to our Earth and its inhabitants. also been a common thread throughout they can teach us much about what is my time at the college. Since many of Namaste. most valuable. my mentees in my early days at what was then the Genesee Valley Center In September 2019, a nurse practitioner, References in Rochester were computer science Amy Balog, started a palliative care Daemen, M. J. A. P. (2013, February). The students, I was able to connect them practice in Saratoga Springs, Saratoga heart and the brain: An intimate to each other through Caucus, an early Family Health NPs Palliative Care Center, and underestimated relation. conferencing system that was all text. and I am part of her team as a chaplain Netherlands Heart Journal, 21(2), With those students, we also held and end-of-life doula. This will definitely 53-54. Retrieved from https://www. “Computer Fairs” where students shared be a role that will evolve over time. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ their knowledge with other students. It’s good my words for the year are PMC3547419/ In online courses, I used discussions “not knowing”! and group work as a way to build a Morrison, T. (n.d.). Untitled. Retrieved A little while back, I offered a free course community within a course. There’s from https://www.goodreads.com/ to any Empire State College student so much technology available now to quotes/127937 who has been dismissed and would like facilitate communities. I hope to see to focus on developing study learning Pandya, S. K. (2011, January-December). Empire State College become more of a and life skills for success. It’s called Understanding brain, mind and leader in this area. Psychology of Learning and Success. soul: Contributions from neurology Where to now? Over the past few and neurosurgery. Mens Sana I’d be remiss if I did not also express my years, I have been serving as a hospice Monographs, 9(1), 129-149. Retrieved gratitude for the amazing opportunities volunteer and a volunteer chaplain from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ I have had at Empire State College. at Albany Medical Center. I’m also a pmc/articles/PMC3115284/ And, I am most grateful for the people volunteer chaplain at the Edward L. I’ve been able to meet and work with. Wilkinson long-term care facility in

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Take Flight

Laurie T. Seamans, Retired Assessment Specialist, Syracuse

itting by the bed, Dora watched Another dose. Dora initially thought the the rise and fall of her mother’s morphine would be on a schedule, but S breathing, not daring to move. an aide explained it was better if she She seemed peaceful, a change from didn’t get it too often. It made patients earlier when her mother pulled at her too comfortable and unwilling to let go. gown in disjointed, maniacal motions. Some discomfort is a good thing in It was terrifying to watch. Stay calm, the end. she thought, wanting to run screaming Dora was jarred from her thoughts from the room. I have to be here, I have when her mother grabbed at her, to stay. trying hard to speak. Dora stayed. Her mother settled down. “Big … red … bugs,” her mother said. Voices down the hall, scratches of “Big … red … bugs … at … the … house,” conversations. She wanted to listen but her arm dropping to the bed. couldn’t stomach the endless gossip Was she hearing her right? and complaints. Dora focused on the photograph above her mother’s bed, “Big red bugs,” her mother exclaimed Laurie T. Seamans her mother’s softball team from the as she pulled on Dora’s arm, then going ‘40s. So young, thought Dora, they limp as though exhausted. Dora heard a nurse’s cart in the hall. were all so young and beautiful. Almost It was time for afternoon medications. Dora had no idea what this meant. glamorous. Dora remembered another Perhaps her mother’s internal clock Hallucinations? Memories? Memories photo — her mother and some friends knew it as well. The nurse entered, of what and when? Was she talking on a trip to New York City, all huddled administered the dose and left. about after Dora’s sister passed away? in a fake car with a sign behind them, An infestation of ladybugs appeared in Afternoon faded into evening and “New York City or Bust!” Their faces filled her sister’s kitchen and everyone said the call to dinner brought quiet to the with big smiles, raring to go. When Dora it was Sarah. Dora’s sister loved winged halls for a while. Dora’s mother would saw it, she considered asking who they creatures — ladybugs, butterflies, have no dinner. She stopped eating were but doubted her mother would dragonflies and dragons. It felt like almost two weeks before. Her features remember. She’d make a circular motion a sign. were changing, she was fading away. A trailing away from her head saying, week ago, her mother recognized Dora “My brain flew right out the window!” Dora’s mother loved birds. She had when she arrived, “Thank God you’re parakeets when Dora was a kid and Dora’s mother couldn’t remember here!” Today, Dora barely recognized always a bird feeder under the kitchen friends or enemies, triumphs or her mother. window. She kept a small guidebook on heartaches. She couldn’t remember hand and knew the difference between Standing to stretch, Dora wiped her the warm, red plaid pajamas she a grackle and a cowbird, a cedar eyes. It was 6:30 p.m. Residents would wore the day before or how much she waxwing and a cardinal, and more. be back in their rooms soon. She loved coffee. We forget more or less wanted to go home for a while, but everything in the end. What was it about birds that was so dreaded clearing the snow off her car, captivating? Was it an allegory for A nurse appeared and asked how she so she sat back down. freedom? That somehow we can escape was doing. Dora wasn’t sure if the nurse the trappings of this earth and fly off to The night sounds cycled through — meant her or her mother. a better place? residents back to their rooms, visitors “Fine, I guess. As well as can talking loudly over blaring televisions, A half-hour passed. Her mother began be expected.” and staff changing shifts. Shift changes to move. Not spastically like earlier, were the hardest. Information never “I’ll be back to give her another dose,” just a subtle shifting and rustling of the the nurse said, smiling thinly. sheets. Should she tell the nurse?

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 88 seemed to get from one group to the kitchen up the hall. Sipping from the hand falling from her thigh to the bed. next. One hand didn’t know what the cup, the bitter taste helped wake her as 5:00 a.m. on the dot. She was gone. The other was doing. she walked back toward the room. room was still. “Time flies when you’re having fun,” An aide trotted down the hall Dora noticed a breeze push at the Dora used to say to her mother, whose toward her. curtain. The window was open. One response was a sarcastic, “Yeah, right!” of the aides explained, “We open the “You have to come now, it’s time,” she Most days her mother was OK. Some window to let the spirit fly out into said, turning around and heading back. days she talked about leaving. She the world.” told Dora that when she got out, she Entering the room, another aide Dora smiled. “Take flight, mom. Get was going to get a car. Maybe a Buick. was at the end of the bed. Dora’s in your car and go. They’re waiting. Something big. She wanted a car that mother was panting now, rushed I’ll be OK.” all her friends could ride in and take off and urgent breaths. for parts unknown. Dora pictured the What should she do? She’d never done Note photo of her mother and her friends this before. Did she hold her? Stand and smiled. Laurie T. Seamans’s short story here wringing her hands? She waited, “Take Flight” took first place in the Early morning now and pitch dark watching, breathing. Dora looked at prose category at the Ninth Annual outside. The snow stopped during the the clock. It was 4:59 a.m. Her mother Cortland Community Arts Challenge night. Dora felt numb and exhausted. drew a deep breath and exhaled, her in January 2019. She went in search of coffee in the little

“[There must be] a continuum of services from prerelease in prison, to navigating through the existing services; from providing ongoing mentoring and continuous support, and doing so from a community college perspective, to then ideally transferring to a four-year college and beyond.”

— John R. Chaney and Joni Schwartz “Reintegrating Formerly Incarcerated Citizens” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 52

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2018 – 2019 Arthur Imperatore Community Forum Fellowship Report

Lorraine Lander, Canandaigua

n August 2018, I began a yearlong which represented different approaches Arthur Imperatore Community and audiences. Talking with fellow I Forum Fellowship with the objective conference participants became one of (as I described in my application for the the most valuable benefits of attending, award) “to partner with and support as I shared my early ideas about my local public libraries to provide nature project and got both enthusiastic education to children.” There are many support (people overwhelmingly thought reported benefits of nature education it was a great idea to partner with public for children, communities, and the libraries for this work) and suggestions natural world. At the same time, there for materials and approaches. are concerns about the declining The first conference I attended amount of time children spend outside. explored the field of early childhood While I have engaged in scholarly nature pedagogy and took place at the work about sustainability education Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago. for several years, primarily focused on The title of the conference was “Worlds the higher education context, nature of Wonder.” education for children is a specialty Lorraine Lander (top left) addresses librarians within sustainability education that I also attended a wilderness therapy at workshop. interested me. I wanted to investigate conference where the idea of using what high-quality nature education nature for therapeutic work was trained to also be outdoor educators. would consist of using the lens of explored. One important aspect Hiking and overnight camping were what I already knew about child of this work is to use nature to common activities that were presented development, and research that increase mindfulness in clients and with a wide range of positive outcomes I would seek out about effective as a stress reducer. Many of the for those who participated. The approaches to teaching children. participants were related to the conference itself took place in Australia, Outward Bound movement that takes a country at the forefront of nature Phase One children from the inner city into nature education given that environmental to conduct what they hope will be education is federally mandated for all In order to learn more about nature transformative activities. grades in their public school system. education, I started by reading articles and books on the topic. As The third conference I attended was In addition to examining various well as reading, I examined possible the North American Association for nature education guides, I also looked conferences to attend in order to Environmental Education Annual at theoretical and research findings see the latest approaches to nature Conference, the biggest of the about good quality nature education. education and to interact with gatherings. And while many of the David Sobel (2008), one of the leading academics and practitioners in the field. presentations focused on a scientific researchers and writers in this field, I was surprised at all the variations approach, others did not. recommended that nature education and approaches that exist for learning should be: The last conference I attended, which about nature. There were conferences was international and focused on • Active. that focused on fields like wilderness outdoor education, was primarily related education, wilderness therapy, • Involve sensory exploration. to physical activities in the outdoors. I environmental education, outdoor learned that in many places in the world, • Develop children’s mindfulness education, experiential learning, even outdoor education is part of physical about their surroundings. wilderness adventure education. In education programs in public schools the end, I attended four conferences, • Open-ended. and physical education teachers are

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• Directed by children’s goals. who could be reached. Thus, in The first module is about becoming developing my proposal for the a nature explorer and encourages • Mysterious and adventurous (at the fellowship, I reached out to two local children to have open-ended time in comfort level of the child). public library groups including a the outdoors where curiosity guides Phase Two group that represents the Rochester their actions. The module focuses on area libraries, as well as a group that children using their senses to investigate Using a broad perspective to promote represents the four-county area that an outdoor area while pretending to a love of nature and to accommodate a surrounds Canandaigua, where I live be an explorer doing either a quest, wide range of childhood interests and (Pioneer Library System). To accomplish trailblazing unknown areas, or just doing activity levels, I began the next phase my goals with these librarians, I planned a walkabout to experience the outdoors. of my project, which was to develop to conduct workshops that would point Thus, the potential for using imagination resources for my work to support public out the importance of nature education and creativity are built into this module librarians. First, I developed a website1 and provide some suggestions for with the open-ended design allowing to store resources for public librarians the content they could provide to for curiosity and differences in their and others who might be interested in their patrons. interests among children. a broad approach to nature education for children. On this website, I stored In February 2019, I did a two-and-a- half-hour workshop for 28 children’s various materials that I created during “ … the potential for my fellowship. librarians in the Rochester area that represented 18 local libraries. In using imagination and One resource I created was a pamphlet2 April, I addressed 22 librarians in the that librarians can share with parents Pioneer Library System for a one-hour creativity are built into and others about the importance workshop during their annual summer this module with the of nature education. Using funding reading readiness day. During this from the Imperatore fellowship, I was presentation, I shifted my focus a bit open-ended design able to print copies of this pamphlet since I was also scheduled to do a three- allowing for curiosity and distribute them to the many hour workshop with this group in April, libraries that ended up participating using the idea of “the good life” and and differences in my workshops. how nature experiences could support in their interests children in developing a sense of place To support workshop delivery at the among children.” participating libraries, I also used the for the outdoors. As well, I shared links funding to buy inexpensive magnifying to web resources that related to the lenses that could be given to children themes I had found about physical to motivate them to go outside and activity, science, art, stress reduction, The second module is about creating a explore the outdoors by examining connections with other species, and base camp and considering the homes what they saw. Knowing that those first stewardship in nature education. The of creatures in the wild. The point of steps to learning about the outside three-hour workshop to this group, like this module is again to encourage might need some incentives and that the one in February to the Rochester imagination and creativity as children libraries often struggle with funding, I area librarians, focused more on how build some type of special place, a also provided nature-themed stamps nature supports children’s health, common feature of nature experiences to the librarians. These could be used development, and the various reasons that impact children’s nature to keep track of children completing a it needs to be broad to accommodate interactions. It promotes having a sense multistage series of outdoor activities, various children’s needs and of place, while also encouraging children which could be prominently displayed personalities. The PowerPoints for to explore the homes of other creatures, on the wall of the library so that this these workshops are available on the setting the stage for consideration of 3 public recognition would be a motivator website I created. other species and perhaps even helping with the development of empathy, as to get children outside. In addition, I developed two modules4 well as pulling them again into becoming that could be used for nature education familiar with the area they are exploring. Phase Three workshops at public libraries. These In my Imperatore fellowship plan, modules include many of the qualities I am grateful for the chance to I proposed working with public cited earlier from Sobel (2008) and the potentially impact the work of more libraries rather than doing workshops various conclusions I reached during the than 50 public librarians and 35 libraries with children myself in order to earlier phases of the fellowship on what through my workshops. It is my sincere maximize the number of children was good quality nature education. hope that those individuals will go on

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 91 to influence the child patrons at their Fellowship for completing this work and 4 http://www.sustainablechildren. facilities, as well as guide local parents the potential for it to have continuing com/become-a-nature-explorer--- about the importance of nature for influence on the lives of children and module-one.html and http://www. children and how to best provide high- their interactions with the natural world. sustainablechildren.com/nature- quality time outside. As well, the website base-camps-and-habitats---module- I created will go on to support this work Notes two.html. in future years. 1 http://www.sustainablechildren. Reference Going forward, I hope to write a regular com/. blog about nature education, which 2 http://www.sustainablechildren. Sobel, D. (2008). Childhood and may draw others to the website who com/world-of-wonder-brochure. nature: Design principles for will then go on to impact children html. educators. Portsmouth, NH: and their learning about nature. I 3 http://www.sustainablechildren. Stenhouse Publishers. genuinely appreciate the support of the com/worlds-of-wonder-powerpoint. Arthur Imperatore Community Forum html.

“High-Impact Practices (HIPs) work across and against the disciplines. They tend to combine liberal, experiential and sometimes pre-professional learning. Some of the practices foreground collaboration, and others, self-authoring and individual self-transformation. Most break out of the spatial logic of the classroom and even the campus, and break out of the temporal logic of the credit hour and the semester. They are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that suggest a holistic, integrative, engaged model of learning, a design for educating the whole student.”

— David Scobey “The Crossroads of Change: Why Adult Learners Are So Important to the Future of Higher Education (and Vice Versa)” Explorations in Adult Higher Education, 2020, p. 90

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The Working-Class Experience as Class Politics

Sharon Szymanski, Manhattan

An Extended Review of: Leaps of Faith: Stories from Working-Class Scholars Edited by Anne C. Benoit, Joann S. Olson, and Carrie Johnson

oday, class as politics is emerging experiences, and how these experiences in unlikely places. Striking might be analyzed to comprise a fuller T teachers, graduate teaching understanding of class as a central assistants, professors, nurses, pilots concept in challenging all inequalities — and flight attendants ending the including racism, sexism, and government shutdown with threats of homophobia — within our economic, work stoppages — all have brought political, and cultural spheres. However, a renewed legitimacy to working on the surface, that’s not what this book people standing up for their rights is about. (Rhodes, 2019). Once considered a solid middle-class profession, the public The Stories has been shocked to learn how little Leaps of Faith includes 20 essays (three teachers are paid and that their pay co-authored) that trace the educational is significantly lower than comparable journeys, from childhood through college graduates, precipitating concern higher education, of 17 women and for “who will teach our children” three men, self-identified as working- (Allegretto & Mishel, 2019). Supported class students who overcame various by both Republican and Democratic socioeconomic challenges and achieved constituencies, teachers led successful advanced degrees and satisfying careers strikes in over eight states and cities in academia — mostly working with (Bollag, 2019). In fact, 2018 saw the nontraditional and adult populations

highest number of strikes since 2007, Image credit: Amazon.com — and, for the most part, solid middle- involving the highest number of As the editors point out, what makes class lives. Sixteen of the contributors workers, 485,000, since 1986 (Bureau this compilation of narratives different attained Ph.D.s; six, Ed.D.s; and one, a of Labor Statistics, 2019b). Not to be from similar previous collections on D.Ed. The stories in this book represent overlooked are the class-based policies working-class academics is that the an ambitious, talented, honest, and put forth by presidential candidates and “Contributors represent not only racial, proud group of individuals who are politicians — calls for “Medicare for All,” cultural, gendered, and sexual diversity worthy role models for any group of taxes on millionaires, a Green New Deal, but also international working-class students. The wide-ranging backgrounds and a universal basic income, to name perspectives. Moreover, unlike earlier described in the stories not only attest just a few. volumes, the narratives provide insight to the often unrecognized and ignored into intersectional memberships from Leaps of Faith: Stories from Working-Class diversity of the working class, but they which readers can glean shifting and Scholars (Benoit, Olson, & Johnson, also serve as examples from which any sometimes competing personalities” 2019) is a collection of essays that student might choose one, or several, (p. 256).1 This claim is somewhat can be read within this context of a as closest to their own upbringing, and limited since only three authors are reinvigorated interest in class and be inspired in overcoming their own African American, two are Caribbean class politics. The book can contribute educational challenges. Furthermore, international students, and one to classroom discussions about the the stories also can provide templates identifies as a gay woman; nevertheless changing nature of the working class, for students writing their own their insights are compelling. what defines working-class lives and educational journeys.

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Each author in Leaps of Faith has a who read the The New York Times and Many authors sought college as a way unique background and journey. The had summer homes, revealing that to escape the kind of insecure life majority of authors are first-generation “... the class differences between us they had come from: “I was part of a college students, two authors are were deep” (p. 96). Another author felt sharecropper family. ... The work was Caribbean-born international students that “The message was that I could, if I physically hard and this fostered an who confront what being black in worked hard enough, ‘pass’ for one of understanding of what I didn’t want America means, another two authors them and reap the benefits of thinking to do for the rest of my life” (p. 142). had stints in the military, another author instead of having to be one of those sad Many felt they were not prepared grew up on a Midwestern farm, one had people who ‘do things’” (p. 23). academically; they might have been a an alcoholic father, yet another’s dream big fish in their high schools but were In some cases, the authors attribute of becoming a scientist was thwarted by out of their league at college. They didn’t this feeling of “otherness” to not having the sexism she confronted, a couple of know how to study or how to engage the right clothes, to speaking “funny” authors didn’t complete their degrees with academic material since they (not the “college” language) or lacking until they were past 40, one author lacked the foundations and the familial savvy about the way college works — came from a conservative family who underpinnings for “engaging in deep its values, hierarchy, and rituals. For viewed college as a place where racial thought” (p. 208). others, the lack of cultural capital was and gendered identities were valued emblematic of their feeling marginalized: Whether or not authors’ families over abilities, another author faced “I recall an informal conversation encouraged or discouraged attending misogyny and homophobia, an African about literature and classical music ... college, a lack of assistance and American author faced many challenges I was exposed to neither literature nor guidance — either from underfunded growing up in a sharecropper family, classical music in my younger years and schools or from struggling working another author lived off the grid in felt as if these colleagues were from parents — hindered the college entry the mountains of Colorado, an African another world than I. The truth is, they American author whose grandfather were” (p. 61). Many continue to feel this was a college graduate faced racism as “Many continue to feel lack of not knowing something they well as ostracism by black gentry. There can’t quite name but that, nevertheless, this lack of not knowing are at least a half dozen more incredibly prevents them from feeling truly varied and unique stories in this volume; something they can’t accepted and comfortable in their all are moving. academic institutions: “When I reached quite name but that, my academic goals, I found that I no The Working-Class Experience nevertheless, prevents longer fit with the previous identity’s While all the stories represent expectations nor did I fit within the them from feeling remarkable journeys, what is most new identity’s expectations” (p. 151). truly accepted and significant are the shared experiences For some, the sense of “otherness” was that emerge when the authors intertwined with race and/or gender comfortable in their leave their families for college and as well as with class, adding additional academic institutions.” then graduate school. These shared layers of confusion and alienation. experiences can be grouped into themes “For people of color, so much of our that contribute to an understanding of identity is analyzed in relation to the process: “But, as to the means by which what exactly defines a working-class majority race that — whether we want I would make that happen, I was left experience, at least from the authors’ to or not — we are confronted with the to my own devices, I received little points of view. essential consideration of our position guidance. My mother was overwhelmed within American society based on race with making ends meet” (p. 197). One of the most defining experiences as well as class” (p. 189). Similarly, Another author said, “It wasn’t that shared by the authors is that of being another author stated, “When I think they didn’t want to help, but without an “outsider.” All the authors, except of who I am as a person, I first think college experience of their own, they two, speak of feeling like an “other,” of my race.” However, the author then didn’t know how” (p. 79). And yet an “imposter,” or a “fraud” once they stresses the fundamental status of class another author revealed how she chose stepped on campus. The authors valued for her: “Black working-class individuals a college: “I opened the Cleveland the opportunities that college provided, comprise a vibrant group who hold the telephone book” (p. 203). but at the same time they felt their same kinds of working-class jobs as [w] identity as working class were being One aspect that is prominent in most hites and who share the same kinds of threatened. One author felt that her essays is the centrality of “hard work” — concerns ...” (p.190). peers’ parents were all professionals as a working-class value and a working-

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 94 class point of view. Authors wrote about Leaps of Faith certainly contributes to categories — education and income — “hard work” as both sustaining them and this important endeavor of naming in so far as they relate to the stories in helping them fit in. “While I may have the forms that contribute to and Leaps of Faith, in order to gain a fuller felt like an outsider, my working-class acknowledge the working-class understanding of class. skills served me well. ... I was raised to experience. However, if defining the believe that hard work and persistence “working class” stops here, it could be Education and Class pay off. ... I studied hard and did well” understood as just another category Almost all the parents of the authors (p. 121). “As we were confronted with within identity politics (Naschek, 2018). in Leaps of Faith had no higher than middle-class norms and academic While honoring these experiences, we a high school degree; many did not culture ... we were able to transmit can take it one step further. Leaps of complete high school. Two parents our families’ values of hard work ... Faith can be parsed to explore how had associate degrees. Researchers, into our academic lives and convert the “experiences” described by each particularly in sociology and economics, these resources into cultural capital. author impact, and are impacted use a bachelor’s degree as the major ...” (p. 127). “… We could be anything by, the activities and relations in the determinant of middle-class status we wanted to be if we put our minds economic sphere, thus providing a more relative to working-class status to it — no matter what we didn’t have” complex understanding of class. As (presumably education is used as a (p. 103). Another author said, “I know Zweig (2012) stated, “Another reason to proxy for better-paying jobs and a what hard work looks like, I know that acknowledge class distinctions has to higher income, another marker of persistence and asking a lot of questions do with the power of class analysis to class distinctions). Looking at the table will help me to find what I need to help us understand what is happening below, most U.S. adults, 68.2%, do not succeed. …These are actually strengths in the economy” (p. 62). Anyone who have a college degree (Economic Policy that I’m able to bring to work, and is interested in changing the political- Institute, 2018). Therefore, if using a without my background, I would have economic structure of our society can’t bachelor’s degree as an indicator of no awareness that they even existed” (p. ignore that class and power are two the middle class, one could conclude 160). Yet another author commented on sides of the same coin (class politics). that most adults are of the working her family’s lack of any understanding class. Interpreting this data in terms of of the role of societal structures and What is Class? class politics, one might say, at the very institutions in determining individual How to define “class” is a contested least, that policies that do not take into success: “Working-class values don’t terrain. Typically, and popularly, class consideration the needs and concerns allow for consideration of these external is defined in socioeconomic terms, as of non-college workers (a significant factors that influence achievement; indicative of differing degrees of status percentage of the U.S. population), working hard simply equals some — levels of education and income are are not in the interest of the working- measure of stability, comfort, and the two most commonly used categories class and may not, or should not, be happiness” (p. 166). (Draut, 2018). However, these categories supported by them.2 are acknowledged as problematic, since Why Class Matters Share of 18-64-year-olds in the U.S. by the many exceptions in each category level of education, 2018 The particular stories of the authors and call into question the validity of the very the identification of the themes in their categories themselves. For example, is Less than high school 10.5% described working-class experiences a highly paid union electrician without High school 28.3% are important for several reasons. a college degree working class or As Michael Zweig (2012) stated in The middle class? To what class does an Some college 29.4% Working Class Majority, office support employee with a Ph.D. Bachelor’s degree 20.9% belong? And most significantly for those When society fails to acknowledge Advanced degree 10.9% advocating for social change, levels of the existence and experience of education and income, while providing (Adapted from Economic Policy Institute, 2018) working people it robs them of an useful and related information, do articulate sense of themselves and not capture the essence of class as Income and Class their place in society. We know the positional relationship in the labor from the vibrancy of other identity Every author in Leaps of Faith wrote process between those who produce movements that to silence and about his or her lack of financial products and those who control the leave nameless a central aspect of resources: “It should be clear that the surplus product (more on this below). people’s identity is to strip them of primary impact of my background on Nevertheless it is worthwhile to at a measure of power over their lives. my experience in higher education was a least touch on these more popular (p. 6) result of financial constraints created by

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 95 that background” (p. 187). Most authors defining the middle class. Given rising whole, heterodox economists turn the discussed how they missed out on much inequality and the levels of extreme analysis to the occupational structure of of college life — including not having disparity we are witnessing today with the U.S. economy. enough time to study, no spring breaks, an average annual wage of $37,575 for The U.S. Department of Labor groups no travel abroad — because they had to the bottom 90% relative to the average the hundreds of different jobs in work in addition to taking classes. One annual wage of over $2 million for the the United States into five, broad author talked about the hardships she top 0.1% (Kopczuk, Saez, & Song as occupational categories, including encountered by not being able to afford cited in Economic Policy Institute, 2019) management, professional and even a beat-up secondhand car or get — there is ample basis for common related; service; sales and office; her computer repaired. Yet another economic and political ground between natural resources, construction, was astonished when he found out that the middle and working class, in and maintenance; and production, books were not included in tuition. One opposition to the interests of the very transportation and material moving author was accepted to an Ivy League wealthy. Faced with student debt and occupations. Using the labor process school but couldn’t attend due to a lack limited job opportunities, a fairly recent concept of class described earlier, of finances, even with scholarships. And study found that 56.5% of 18-35-year- and thus excluding the management, another author said, “I had to work to olds identified as working class, a professional and related category from earn money while many of my peers percentage not seen since 1982 (Malik, the calculations, the working class were told by their parents that their Barr, & Holpuch, 2016). The Occupy Wall represents approximately 60% of all job was to ‘be a student’” (p. 124). Every Street slogan of “We are the 99 percent” employed persons (Bureau of Labor story included poignant statements was prescient in capturing the growing Statistics, 2019a). The Department about a significant lack of money — divide between a small group of “them” of Labor also groups workers in while the authors were growing up and a growing, bigger group of “us.” another way that results in an even and while they were in college and larger percentage being identified as graduate school. Economics was a Occupation and Class potentially working class. According defining factor in each author’s working- For the most part, Leaps of Faith authors to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of class experience. described their parents’ jobs and the roughly 129 million private-sector their lives as blue-collar. Their parents employees, about 80% are “production held the kinds of production and and nonsupervisory,” or “working class” “Economics was nonsupervisory jobs that are associated (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019c, a defining factor in with the working class — including 2019d; Zweig, 2012, p. 31). While this a waitress, a mechanic, a miner, an category includes professionals, these each author’s working- autoworker, a tool and dye worker, are among the “white-collar” groups class experience.” a retail worker. Bowles, Edwards, now seeking to join unions or form Roosevelt, and Larudee (2018), in their worker organizations as their autonomy economic textbook Understanding and working conditions deteriorate and Capitalism, defined class in become more similar to what was once In general, we assume that the working- contradistinction to levels of education thought of as typical working-class jobs. class earn less income than the middle and income, as “a group of people In other words, this Bureau of Labor class. Researchers often define “middle who share a common position in the Statistics definition has some teeth to it class” as those households with incomes economy with respect to the production as it can be interpreted as reflecting the between two-thirds to double the and control of the surplus product” (p. Marxian sense of class struggle playing national median income, adjusted for 123). Following in the Marxian tradition, out in deteriorating labor processes for geographic location and household size they went on to say that class only many groups of workers. (Newport, 2018). In 2018, the income exists in a relationship within the labor While the earlier discussion is a very range defining “middle class” was process, that class relationships are cursory and incomplete overview of the roughly between $42,000 and $126,000. hierarchical in so far as the group on occupational structure as a window into While this definitional range certainly top controls the work and process of the labor process analysis, the point can be debated, the important political producing the product (including those is that the working class is extremely question is whether or not there can who do the producing), and that the diverse and broadening, with potential be common ground between the interests of the two groups usually are for exerting political power as the working class earning less than $42,000 in conflict (pp. 124-125). Grounding this structure of the economy changes. and those in the broad income range explanation in the labor process as a

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Working-Class Scholars from marginalized communities, we something better — economically, Benefit Higher Education frequently reflect on our life experiences culturally, intellectually. However, to provide our students with a only a small percentage of those The authors left their families to meaningful learning experience” (p. 71). receiving Ph.D.s will become part of the pursue the opportunities and dreams educational elite. Most working-class associated with higher education. Not Some author’s comments revealed more scholars, and most of us in academia, only did they face myriad challenges in class-based reflections. One author will find that we are not leaving a certain college, but for many it was increasingly commented on the transformational class position with our Ph.D.s; rather, difficult to come home to circumstances possibilities in higher education for we are merely moving to another part that were so different from what they leveling the playing field for students — and it’s not with the one percent. were experiencing in college. “Visits from disadvantaged backgrounds: The fundamental crises we in academia home were intensely painful, as I tried “We need to recognize and address face, with the corporatization of higher to acclimate to independent thought the historical and contemporary education, is one of power — questions in college while being expected to be disparities that exist in their lives (e.g., about who will have control over no different than I had been when class, gender, and ethnicity). A way to access to education and who will have home, a common predicament among address this is for educators and society control over our, and our students’ college students, but even more so to recognize and value the cultural labor processes and resources. Arising among first-generation college students” dimensions the learners bring with from their own experiences, there is a (p. 49). While most authors felt like them and work with these to create a collective demand that all the authors in “others” while in college, they were often curriculum that is meaningful to their Leaps of Faith, and their students, could viewed as becoming “others” by their life” (p. 73). Another author stated, “Part come to support; that is, the problem own families and, to varying degrees, of maintaining higher education as a comes down to the economics of higher betraying their upbringing and roots. place of equalization means we must education whose solution will have to reframe how we see education and However, rather than abandoning their include consideration of free higher access to it. …” (p. 99). And, an African working-class identities, all the authors education in public colleges for all those American author stated, “And though have come full circle, incorporating who qualify. many of my students are from different their own working-class experiences, ethnic and racial groups than I am, our consciousness, and insights into Notes shared socioeconomic class serves to their choices to work with adults and bridge these gaps. ... It is important to 1 Unless otherwise noted, all nontraditional students and their remember that social class distinctions quotation page numbers refer to views about, and practices in, higher can create divisiveness within the page locations in Leaps of Faith education. “My personal position as academy just as easily as racial divides” (Benoit, Olson, & Johnson, 2019). an ‘insider’ with ‘insider knowledge’ of (p. 198). marginalized communities was a key 2 Levels of educational degrees vary motivation to becoming a basic skills Indeed, in keeping with the spirit of considerably by race. In 2017, tutor. I drew upon my own life history these quotes, one of the editors, in her 15.1% of African Americans, 12.2% … and being the first generation of my final comments, stated that “… there of Hispanics, 30.5% of Asians, and family to enter college and university” couldn’t be a more important time for 21.8% of whites, 25 years and (p. 66). Another author stated, “I working-class scholars to bring their older, had a bachelor’s degree. now teach and advise nontraditional unique talents and lenses to teaching, For master’s degrees, it was 7% undergraduate students in the adult research, program administration, of African Americans, 3.9% of education degree completion program. mentoring, and community Hispanics, 17.6% of Asians, and ... My own experiences inform how I partnerships” as more first-generation 9.4% of whites, 25 years and older teach and how I advise my students” and working-class students attend (Census Bureau, 2017). (p. 97). Yet another author said, “I college and will be recruited to sustain made a commitment to serving as a financially struggling institutions (p. 268). References mentor to all students, and in particular However, the hope is that these and Allegretto, S., & Mishel, L. (2019, April students who are underrepresented. other scholars will do this and more. As 24). The teacher weekly wage penalty I committed to making explicit every revealed in the authors’ stories in Leaps hit 21.4 percent in 2018, a record aspect of college life so that they of Faith, higher education is viewed as high: Trends in the teacher wage and too, could become infiltrators while an opportunity, an “escape,” from a compensation penalties through 2018. preserving their identities” (p. 126). And certain stratum of the working-class, Retrieved from https://www.epi.org/ yet another author stated, “As we often with the expectations of achieving files/pdf/165729.pdf work with first-generation adult learners

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Benoit, A. C., Olson, J. S., & Johnson, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019d, Malik, S., Barr, C., & Holpuch, A. (2016, C. (Eds.). (2019). Leaps of faith: December 6). Table B-1. Employees March 15). US millennials feel Stories from working-class scholars. on nonfarm payrolls by industry more working class than any Charlotte, NC: Information Age sector and selected industry detail, other generation. Retrieved from Publishing, Inc. seasonally adjusted. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/ https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ world/2016/mar/15/us-millennials- Bollag, S. (2019, April 24). Majority of empsit.t17.htm feel-more-working-class-than-any- Californians supports teachers other-generation striking over wages, poll finds. Census Bureau. (2017, December Retrieved from https://www.sacbee. 14). Educational attainment in Naschek, M. (2018, August 28). The com/news/politics-government/ the United States: 2017. Table 3. identity mistake. Retrieved capitol-alert/article229643269.html Detailed years of school completed from https://www.jacobinmag. by people 25 years and over by com/2018/08/mistaken-identity- Bowles, S., Edwards, R., Roosevelt, F., & sex, age groups, race and Hispanic asaid-haider-review-identity-politics Larudee, M. (2018). Understanding origin: 2017. Retrieved from https:// capitalism: Competition, command, Newport, F. (2018, August 3). Looking census.gov/data/tables/2017/demo/ and change (4th ed.). New York, NY: into what Americans mean by education-attainment/cps-detailed- Oxford University Press, Inc. “working class.” Retrieved from tables.html https://news.gallup.com/opinion/ Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019a, Draut, T. (2018, April 16). Understanding polling-matters/239195/looking- January 18). Table 11. Employed the working class. Retrieved from americans-mean-working-class.aspx persons by detailed occupation, https://demos.org/sites/default/ sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino Rhodes, D. (2019, April 11). Days after files/publications/WorkingClass_ ethnicity, 16 years and over. UIC graduate students end strike, Explainer_Final.pdf Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ professors prime for their own cps/cpsaat11.htm Economic Policy Institute. (2018, walkout. Retrieved from https:// December 20). Top Charts of www.chicagotribune.com/news/ Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019b, 2018. Chart 9: Most U.S. adults local/breaking/ct-met-university- February 8). Major work stoppages do not have a college degree. of-illinois-faculty-union-strike-vote- in 2018. Retrieved from https:// Retrieved from https://www.epi. 20190411-story.html www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ org/publication/top-charts-of-2018- wkstp_02082019.htm Zweig, M. (2012). The working class twelve-charts-that-show-how-policy- majority: America’s best kept secret Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019c, could-reduce-inequality-but-is- (2nd ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell April). Table B6. Employment of making-it-worse-instead/ University ILR Press. production and nonsupervisory Economic Policy Institute. (2019). employees on private nonfarm State of working America data payrolls by industry sector, library. Wages for top 1.0%, seasonally adjusted. Retrieved from 0.1% and bottom 90%. Retrieved https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ from https://www.epi.org/ empsit.t22.htm data/#?subject=wagegroup

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Remembering Our Colleagues

We remember these colleagues who were From Karin Dedrick, student success vital parts of our community. We think and development coordinator about what they provided our students Working with Mary Goldman was a gift. and what they offered to all of us over Her love of life, of teaching, learning many years. We hope that reading even and mentoring students was infectious. a few words about these people (some of Her smile lit up every room and her whom we may have known well; others laughter echoed throughout our whose names we might recognize; still Highland location. Mary was a giving others who we are learning about for and kind person who worked tirelessly the first time) reminds us of what we to help all of her students discover the care about and what we try to do, and joy of learning as well as graduating! about lives and work at SUNY Empire She was a pioneer in the SUNY Learning State College. Network and developed the first Hudson Valley Residency. More than anything, Mary was devoted to the college and its MARY J. GOLDMAN mission, to her family and friends, her Thelma Jurgrau colleagues and her students. She was Mary J. Goldman, who died in April 2019, a cherished friend and colleague and is lived in Rhinebeck, New York, and worked collegial welcome and a generous offer missed every day. part time for more than 25 years with to assist me whenever I might need students in Business, Management and it, which I often did. Over the years, Economics at the New Paltz and then the I learned a bit more about Thelma’s Highland locations. Deeply devoted to her THELMA JURGRAU Brooklyn background in the Jewish students, and always interested in trying immigrant community. She excelled at Thelma Jurgrau came to the college in out new ways to better respond to their school and at the piano, and positively 1977 as a mentor in literature and the academic needs and interests, Mary was inhaled all things French: language, humanities at the Hudson Valley Center a cherished colleague and an enthusiastic literature, history, culture, conversation, where she worked for two decades. Thelma spokesperson for Empire State College. passion, and precision. She dreamt died in January 2019. She earned a Ph.D. about living in Paris, and returned in comparative literature and devoted her every summer for pleasure, inspiration, scholarly life to the work of George Sand, renewal, and, no doubt, scholarly editing and leading a group translation of pursuits. Thelma did her dissertation on Sand’s autobiography, Story of My Life the country novels of George Sand and (1991), and founding the group, Les Amis George Eliot, but Sand was Thelma’s true de George Sand. Thelma was a patient and subject. Not only did she publish a great deeply devoted mentor to her writing and many translations, papers, and journal literature students and, at every turn, a articles about Sand, she ultimately trusted colleague. took on the monumental scholarly/ organizational task of translating From Mayra Bloom, retired mentor Sand’s autobiography into English. When I first joined the Hudson Valley Thelma’s capacity for collaboration was faculty, I was soon told about Thelma matched by her clarity about roles and Jurgrau, an extraordinary mentor in standards. Perhaps this was part of Comparative Literature. I was starstruck, her success as a mentor — capable of Photo credit: Burnett-White.com but when we met, Thelma immediately connecting deeply with students, and Mary J. Goldman put a stop to any of that. With a marked also of organizing an administrative twinkle in her eyes and a wonderfully workload that crushed many of her wide smile, she extended a warm colleagues. Thelma’s collaborative

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 99 approach was also in keeping with program evaluator, he collected reams the progressive ethos of Empire State of institutional data and became the College. As a mentor, Thelma not only resident scholar on alternative higher created learning activities for students education with an office crammed full at all levels, but also, in the words of of his and other data, newsletters, Nell Noddings, saw them “in the best reports, journal articles, and books. possible light consistent with reality.” Indeed, no one wanted the office on the floor below his in the now refurbished Alumni House, because it was seriously believed that the ceiling might collapse TIMOTHY LEHMANN from the weight above. Tim was one Timothy Lehmann, with a Ph.D. in of the kindest, gentlest, and supportive sociology from Berkeley, came to Empire scholars I knew. As the college changed State College in 1973 and became vice its direction, his role also gradually president for research and evaluation, shifted toward the graduate program; authoring may key institutional reports. nonetheless, he retained his always Later, he was a most valued mentor in cheerful outlook and a deep interest in Emil Moxey with Lear Matthews the graduate program. Tim was also the adult higher education in whatever form founding director of the National Center it took. I miss him still, as do all those at the Brooklyn campus, Emil pursued on Adult Learning (NCAL), an ESC “think whose lives, like mine, were enriched by mentoring with a passion, vibrancy, tank” that welcomed and, thanks to his his support and enthusiasm for what we yet with a conservative demeanor that kindness and intellectual rigor, nurtured sought for our students. was characteristic of his own humble some of the most important research and socialization. Working assiduously theorizing in adult learning in the country. with former Center Director Rudy Cain Tim Lehmann died in September 2019. and Administrative Secretary Ethel EMIL MOXEY Bowles, he created a positive learning Emil Moxey, a mentor in Community and environment conducive to the needs Human Services, served our students of a cadre of diverse students under with quiet intelligence and dignified conditions that at times were less than care for many years at the Bedford- ideal. Many former students boast Stuyvesant location, a significant office of about “Mr. Moxey” as being demanding the Metropolitan Center. Emil earned his but “the best mentor.” I was honored Ph.D. in clinical practice at the NYU School to present Emil with the 2013 ESC, BMI- of Social Work and, over a long career, sponsored Heritage Award. worked for many New York City social I must extend this brief tribute to my services agencies. Emil Moxey, who retired friend and colleague by invoking my from ESC in 2010, was honored for his introduction to Emil’s elder brother, also many contributions to the community by known as “Mr. Moxey” in their native the Bahamian American Association and Bahamas. In true-to-form generosity, was a recipient of the 2013 Heritage Award Emil arranged the meeting with his given by Empire State College’s Black Male brother when my wife, Monica, and Initiative. He passed away in March 2019. Timothy Lehmann I vacationed there. Unbeknownst to us, the elder Moxey, a former local From Xenia Coulter, retired mentor From Lear Matthews, mentor politician, was not only one of the most Although when I knew Tim well (1984 Emil Moxey was a notable stalwart of knowledgeable individuals I ever met, to 2004), he was an administrator (one nontraditional education, committed to but in contrast to Emil, he was ebullient of “them,” my son tells me), I saw him the intellectual and skills development in manner and an extraordinary as a colleague whose passion for the of students and dedicated to the ideals raconteur. He conducted a tour that original mission of the college I shared. and mission of Empire State College. surpassed the experience of the average We often met in local restaurants for He represented the consummate visitor, in detail and education. When I lunch to talk about research plans educator — a good communicator reported to Emil upon return, he calmly and share our ideas about adult promoting principled values. As one said, “That’s my brother for you”! We students and mentoring. In his role as of the first faculty members of color had a hearty laugh.

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GEORGE P. PILKEY shared, always shared. And he listened From Steve Lewis, retired mentor too. We regularly talked about what George P. Pilkey, a longtime and most David Porter, my dear friend and valued we were reading, related exchanges valued part-time mentor in the Saratoga colleague from those halcyon days at with students, and sometimes would location, died in February 2019. For more the New Paltz and Highland Hudson troubleshoot an issue one of us was than three decades, George, with a Ph.D. Valley units, was a man of competing having in a course or with a student. He in counseling education, was director admirable qualities rarely found in brought us chocolate from his travels. It of counseling at Fulton-Montgomery one human being: both righteous and was a lovely thing to have a colleague, Community College. Devoted to community charitable, virtuous and affable, he a friend, who epitomized student- service of all kinds (including a local soup “maintained” the messiest college office centeredness, who laughed often, loved kitchen) and to nature conservancy (he I have ever seen … and the clearest ideas, and who dedicated himself to was an Adirondack 46er!), George was and sharpest mind I have ever had the making his corner of the world better an inspired and caring teacher whose pleasure of knowing in academia. Most through understanding, kindness and commitment to ongoing learning was felt important, though, in a world seemingly gratitude. How lucky we were to be in by so many. growing more heartless by the day, his corner. David Porter was among the kindest people on earth.

DAVID PORTER David Porter came to Empire State College DIANA WORBY in 1980 and worked with students in the Diana Worby, who died in November New Paltz location in an imaginative array 2019, worked at Empire State College in of social, political, and historical areas for Rockland County for more than 30 years. 25 years. A specialist in Algerian politics An enthusiastic and devoted mentor in and in anarchist movements, Dave was the writing, humanities, and literature, Diana editor of Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman worked with any student who came her on the Spanish Revolution (1983) and, way. She received Empire State College’s most recently, translator of Kadour Naïmi’s Excellence in Student Advisement award, Freedom in Solidarity: My Experiences as well as the Rockland County Women’s in the May 1968 Uprising (2019). In Network Award for Achievement in addition to his lifelong commitment Education, both in 1982. After retiring George P. Pilkey to alternative education, Dave threw from Empire State College in 2006, Diana his critical spirit and energy into many From Elaine Handley, mentor founded The Learning Collaborative that grassroots political projects, including as continues to provide retirees with the At least once a week George would co-founder of AFFIRM, the Association for kinds of learning opportunities her own come to my office door, lean up against Intelligent Rural Management. Dave died in life celebrated. the doorframe and say, “Have I told you December 2018. how much I love this job?” Sometimes it would be at the end of a particularly harried day and I would look at him cross-eyed, wondering where the buoyancy, that optimism, that unending well of good cheer came from. It was all genuine and ever-present. He really did love (and there is no other word for it) what he did. He was grateful for the opportunity to share what he knew and support students in their learning — he was a passionate teacher, indefatigable in his delight to be in conversation about ideas and their application. He was generous with students, and he was

generous with colleagues, especially Rachael Worby. by Photo provided those of us in the Saratoga Unit. George David Porter Diana Worby

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From Miriam Tatzel, retired mentor ERIC ZENCEY up a conversation with Eric could be an invitation to lose an afternoon! He In the spring of 1975, not many months Eric Zencey was an eclectic social critic, had a few favorites, environmental after I joined ESC, I received a two- economist, historian, ecological analyst, economics and justice, being among month reassignment. Who could take and novelist who came to Empire State them. He would speak with passion over my work with psychology students College in 2002 after many years on the and conviction, and by the end, you’d in this nascent, somewhat amorphous faculty of Goddard College. The author of be convinced that he was right and that new college? An English professor at many volumes, including Virgin Forest: you needed to help spread the insights Rockland Community College (RCC), Meditations on History, Ecology, and you had just gained. Speaking for where we were housed at the time, Culture (1998) and the novel, Panama myself, I can’t tell you how many times recommended Diana Worby, a recent (1995), Eric devoted his world of thinking I’ve said, “My friend Eric once pointed M.A. in literature, and an RCC grad. and imagining to the possibilities of a out that communism failed because Not my area, psychology? Nevermind. sustainable life. After retiring from Empire it didn’t tell the economic truth, and Diana was a natural. I admit to some State College, Eric lectured at the Sam capitalism is doomed to fail because jealousy when I returned and sensed Fox School College of Architecture at it doesn’t tell the environmental truth, that some of my students might have Washington University and in the Honors and I think he is right because [fill in preferred to stay with her. As the Program at the University of Vermont, the blank with any one of the many years went by, I came to think of Diana where he was a fellow at the Gund reasons he had shared!]. There were as a Star Mentor. She made deep Institute. Eric died in July 2019. many dimensions to Eric, and I was glad connections with students, took pride to have gotten to know him outside of in their accomplishments, and students office conversations. We spent many flocked to her. Fast forward to current a lunch sitting on the Broadway patio times. When I retired in 2015, Diana had at Uncommon Grounds with the small already been retired for some 10 years. group of “regulars” talking softball, During that time, she became one of the cars, politics, small-head hydropower, founders of the Learning Collaborative Vermont, MGs and Lucas (The Lord (see “Life After Empire: The Learning of Darkness) electronics, our families. Collaborative,” in this issue). In 2016, You name it, we talked about it (and I joined her in taking classes there, he was passionate about it!). Our last and we met regularly over lunch. She day together was spent driving sports was now in her 90s. Something about cars around a race circuit as fast as we turning 93, in particular, made her feel could. He pushed his car and himself “old.” This meant that she would only hard, each lap faster than the one drive locally, but take an Uber (she had before it. And, as I look back to that day, her special driver) when going to the I think it captures Eric’s spirit: curious, theater or concerts and such in New Eric Zencey eager, adventurous, competitive, a York City, or to Westchester to be with little bit silly, and great fun. Before his her family. One time, she and her driver From Phil Ortiz, former ESC passing, to ensure that his intellectual went to Boston and back in a day so mentor; assistant provost for passion would persist, he was honored she could see her granddaughter in a undergraduate and STEM education, by the University of Vermont’s Gund dance recital. We both loved taking the and coordinator of the Empire State Institute with the creation of the “Eric classes. Her strong suits were literature STEM Learning Network, SUNY Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics.” and music, but she said she liked to It is difficult to write just a few words If you wish to honor his memory, learn new things, and she took courses about Eric Zencey. He was not just any more information can be found at in history and philosophy. As I reflect on one thing. Author, environmentalist, https://www.uvm.edu/gund/news/ the last part of her life, I’m put in mind educator and mentor, activist, gund-institute-creates-eric-zencey-prize- of the old refrain, “I’m going to live economist, and scholar all come to ecological-economics. I am sure I speak until I die.” mind. But to many of us at ESC, most for many people — Eric brought joy to of all he was an excellent colleague and our time with him, he pushed us to think generous friend. He was happy to talk new things (or old things in new ways), about almost any topic, and striking and he will be deeply missed.

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Core Values of Empire State College (2005)

he core values of SUNY Empire We value learning-mentoring • Recognizes that learning occurs State College reflect the processes that: in multiple communities, commitments of a dynamic, environments, and relationships, as T • Emphasize dialogue and participatory, and experimenting well as in formal academic settings collaborative approaches to study institution accessible and dedicated • Attracts, respects, and is enriched to the needs of a richly diverse adult • Support critical exploration of by a wide range of people, ideas, student body. These values are woven knowledge and experience perspectives, and experiences. into the decisions we make about what • Provide opportunities for active, we choose to do, how we carry out reflective, and creative We value a learning-mentoring our work in all parts of the institution, academic engagement. organization and culture that: and how we judge the outcome of We value learning-mentoring • Invites collaboration in the our individual and collective efforts. modes that: multiple contexts of our work More than a claim about what we have already attained, the core values • Respond to a wide array of • Fosters innovation support our continuing inquiry about student styles, levels, interests, and experimentation what learning means and how it occurs. and circumstances • Develops structures and policies We value learning-mentoring goals that: • Foster self-direction, independence, that encourage active participation and reflective inquiry of all constituents in decision- • Respond to the academic, making processes professional, and personal • Provide opportunities for ongoing • Advocates for the interests of adult needs of each student questioning and revising learners in a variety of academic • Reflect innovation and research. • Identify and build upon students’ and civic forums. existing knowledge and skills We value a learning-mentoring • Sustain lifelong curiosity and community that: critical inquiry • Defines each member as a learner, • Provide students with skills, insights, encouraging and appreciating their and competencies that support distinctive contributions successful college study.

SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE • ALL ABOUT MENTORING • ISSUE 53 • SPRING 2020 SUBMISSIONS TO ALL ABOUT MENTORING f you have a scholarly paper-in-progress or a talk that you have presented, All About Mentoring would welcome it. If you developed materials for your students that may I be of good use to others, or have a comment on any part of this issue, or on topics/ concerns relevant to our mentoring community, please send them along. If you have a short story, poem, drawings or photographs, or have reports on your reassignments and sabbaticals, All About Mentoring would like to include them in an upcoming issue. Email submissions to [email protected]. Submissions to All About Mentoring can be of varied length and take many forms. (Typically, materials are no longer than 7,500 words.) It is easiest if materials are sent via email to Mandell as Microsoft Word attachments. In terms of references and style, All About Mentoring uses APA rules (please see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. [Washington, DC: APA, 2010] or http://image.mail.bfwpub.com/lib/feed1c737d6c03/m/1/BSM_APA_update_2010.pdf). All About Mentoring is published twice a year. Our next issue, #54, will be available in late 2020. ALL ABOUT MENTORING Issue 53 • Spring 2020

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