Give IT a break, I tell myself, but
who am I fooling? I’m amateur.
No pro. Compulsive. Obsessive.
The learning & teaching process
is addictive even if the product is
a wash.
I imagine conversation across the
curriculum. Virtually, like olden
days strolling thru groves of
Academe. Togas & sandals
& life-stirring questions.
(Snicker.)
They never went anywhere:
a Socratic dialogue always
petered out—what? what the?
what the hell?
possibly to a-poria:
no openings, no exit. Stunned
stupid: just right for the
beginnings of philosophy.
Got to love it.
Pure Amateurism.
Honor the Liberal Arts Tradition
through Rigorous and Innovative
Academics
Phatic communion:
Bronislaw Malinowski’s term for
“empty” talk even as it fills a social
space.
Hey, how are you!
What’s up!
Strokes and status negotiation
crossing the bridge; no one but
a whiner expects those words to
be taken literally..
Saluting the flag.
Swearing on the bible.
Marriage vows.
Graduation speeches.
Performatives: the action of saying
is sufficient unto the day thereof..
(Tony Early avoided the pratfall
of Graduation-Speak by sustaining
a one-liner stand-up comedic series
that let us all snicker together. A
collective Holden Caulfield moment
delighting both savvy & the
conscientious.)
To ask,
“well, what do you
mean when you say rigorous?”
“So what’s ‘new’ in our
innovative academics?”
is like stopping the by-passer on the
bridge who asked “how you
and insisting he hear you out.
Wait! Wait!
Let me tell you.
Whiner Inappropriate.
Missing the point altogether.
Rigor & Innovation: of course.
What academic program sizing itself up
for SACS wouldn’t make the same claim?.
Check it off. Get it covered. Like wearing
a logo t-shirt; a bumper sticker declaration:
Honor “rigor.”
Encourage “innovation.”
with head, heart, and hands.
Words potentially as emphatic as
“sustainability” and “empowerment,”
if we put them and ourselves in play,
professional snickers & snorts
not with standing,
Endless summer for amateurs
& bananafish. .
.
xxxooo, Sam
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