Go to Dr Jacks
Loft (bottom of page) to see extent of classes Dr Jack taught at
Kent State as opposed to current online courses and instructor currently
offered. Dr Jack never got a bad evaluation in 22 years at Kent, yet was
never offered tenure. Cake Photo Caption |
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A FINAL WORD I have spent over 40
years in classrooms and have had over 9000 students some of
which liked me and some who did not.
(Of course, there is a reciprocity
to that!)
Through those years and the years in which I grew up
(the forties and fifties) I witnessed a great ride from the mechanical
to the virtual or electronic age. All along, however, people fabricated
my construction of reality of which I am grateful. It is people who I
met, experienced and reacted to as well as them reacting to me that made
life sometimes a joy and sometimes misery, but that is the way it goes.
One does not become a whole person without personally growing through interaction. The classroom taught me that if one is
self-centered and can not take criticism - they had better look for
another job because the day a teacher believes they are a good one, is
the day they become a bad one! It is all predicated on dealing with
people, People and the times change which is reflected in
education. This change is seen in the proliferation of online courses.
Online courses have
significantly altered and mutated the nature of human existence. No longer
do people have to interact with what is happening because they can see it on the computer. The problem is they may not
understand nor learn anything about themselves from this paucity of experience.
(Many gauge their self by the
number of face book hits they have which is nothing more than mediocrity
elevated to self aggrandizement.)
The only way one
grows as a person is to put those personal ideas out there and see how
well they stand up. Contemporary times cultivate a lack of understanding
one's talents and failures. One has difficulty who they are
existentially other than what the little screen blatantly tells them. I thank the students for
for being critical of my lectures - it put me in a certain place that I
could experience creatively.
(Sounds nice but
no one likes to be criticized!)
That is THE important change the
sociologists miss - not the change whereby one becomes another lemming and just "go along with things."
Sometimes the best learning for me occurred when I or someone else was aggravated. Then
we had to find out just what kind of
a person we were in terms of defending or regretting what was said.
Usually it
worked out, BUT at least it was better than being a
monumental wimp and hiding behind a "not offending" philosophy.
People are complex, different and no one (honestly) is equal to anyone else. Some are better and some are less - so it goes. Respect and strive
for your personal best,
but never believe there is not someone better than you. There always is.
That is the challenge - a personal standard of excellence built on face-to-face
contact. It is hard to do, but a hell of a lot better that going out on your knees. |
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