Getting Serious About Academics

To Paula G. & Jeannie S.

Good meeting, Paula:

Thermal cups, games, prizes, background music.
We covered some ground and also fooled around
with ideas. Liberal arts instrumentality and
LIBERAL ART: putting IT in play.

Spirit-building: the environmentalism that counts.
It generates the sustainability that counts &
maybe minimizes sibling rivalries, & they
count too. (The word “gossip”—literally.
from “god’s siblings.”)

The faculty that brays together stays together if there's
an all-in-the-family mutuality & shared “ownership”
Tension and conflict become seen as what it always
takes to contra dance and get good, give weight.

You know: without contra dancing, is no progress.
Blake said that. Bring IT on.

You seem able to build this kind of environment.
Everything else spins off.

With appreciation, Sam

(on a soap box, sure: but anyone can improve my
terms and images, or what's a college for?)

Dear Jeannie,

in an effort to inspire the students to
take seriously their academics.

Paula’s observations that these people don’t come here to do
academics but to-go-to-colledge was for me beautiful, brilliant—
an Emperor’s-hairy-butt kind of observation that blows the whistle
on our conventional conspiracy to pretend the purpose of hire
education is to do all the things we say we’re doing.

That’s a cover up & an in-denial denial (an in-denial denial is
when the deny-er insists he’s not denying: What! you deny my
accusation? See: you’re in denial) It protects (sustains) the
system status quotidian. Not that there’s anything wrong all that.

That’s how the system works—gets its work done. That’s the
Way We Tall about IT rather than How IT IS. There’s
a difference. Do not collapse, conflated, and confuse.

If we talked How IT Is officially it would be demoralizing.
How could we ask them to “take seriously their academics?”
That’s why—to hear an official say IT like IT is changes
everything. lets that cat out of the bag. Gives me hope
in these end-days of my academic career..

If I had to try to inspire the students to take their academics seriously
—well, you’d have to put a grade gun to my head: warn me how
much the size of my QPA mattered, advise me on getting
service hours done on time, dead line, recommend the
study skills and writing tutoring laboratories, make me
aware of sexual predators & dormitory courtesy…
& like Professor Kahl says: You may hate me
for it now, Sam but I'll love me for it later..

so I knew how serious getting serious was! xxxooo, Sam

(or tell them our TRIAD is an avatar of Father, Son, & Holy Ghost
--you know:
1) the generalized
2) the specific &
3) how they just get along

(a) Whole to (b) Parts (C) Relationship)

or--my favorite version because, fractal-like,. you can see it all over the
curriculum:
II. Practice (work. get R down!)

I. Theory (academics) III. in-Performance/in-game (service)

Seriously!