I spoke on apathy and now I'm apathetic
I experienced my first tutoring session today. I think she was an ESL student. Nice. I like to talk to people who are learning a lot. I sat with her for a half an hour. She was taking the university orientation course and was required to come to the Writing Center for help.
It is interesting to realize how many of us think we are good at something of which we have limited knowledge or experience. Even the slightest understanding gives us false confidence in our abilities yet when it comes to things we actually know something about we falter and shrink away in fear, worrying that everyone will see our horrid imperfections. Mistakes are signatures for the devil and there is no way to redeem ourselves!
But I believe in redemption! And that is why we have the Writing Center. It is a place where we can walk in backward and upside down about our talents and abilities and walk out with those things straightened out a little bit more each time.
When we realize that we have goodness and talents and that we are not going to be the best we will ever be while we are still students, (hopefully) we realize that we have plenty to write about and plenty to discover. Isn't life only about discovery anyway? Over and over we learn the same things but hopefully from a new perspective. We look in the mirror each day and see a different person than we did the day before yet we see the same familiar person we've seen all our lives staring back at us. Like our writing we can look at our faces with all our experience written in jumbled, emotional jargon, or smooth coherency.
What does all this rambling have to do with apathy? I don't know, but I think while I sat with my tutee I did not feel apathetic and niether did she. I think that my interest in her and her abilities was strong enough for both of us today. Maybe sometimes all it takes is an eye and an ear and some paper to get something accomplished in the Writing Center.
It is interesting to realize how many of us think we are good at something of which we have limited knowledge or experience. Even the slightest understanding gives us false confidence in our abilities yet when it comes to things we actually know something about we falter and shrink away in fear, worrying that everyone will see our horrid imperfections. Mistakes are signatures for the devil and there is no way to redeem ourselves!
But I believe in redemption! And that is why we have the Writing Center. It is a place where we can walk in backward and upside down about our talents and abilities and walk out with those things straightened out a little bit more each time.
When we realize that we have goodness and talents and that we are not going to be the best we will ever be while we are still students, (hopefully) we realize that we have plenty to write about and plenty to discover. Isn't life only about discovery anyway? Over and over we learn the same things but hopefully from a new perspective. We look in the mirror each day and see a different person than we did the day before yet we see the same familiar person we've seen all our lives staring back at us. Like our writing we can look at our faces with all our experience written in jumbled, emotional jargon, or smooth coherency.
What does all this rambling have to do with apathy? I don't know, but I think while I sat with my tutee I did not feel apathetic and niether did she. I think that my interest in her and her abilities was strong enough for both of us today. Maybe sometimes all it takes is an eye and an ear and some paper to get something accomplished in the Writing Center.
posted by Anonymous at 12:49 PM
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