I often hear my office mate Brian urging students to “be more aggressive” about completing work in the writing classes that he teaches. I have become more deliberate in coaching my A&P students to “grab the materials that you need. If your classmate is hogging the model that you need to see, go after it.” Community college students need to hear from us that getting an education is an active process, one that requires them to assume responsibility for what they need to learn. Feminist and poet Adrienne Rich offered these thoughts in a speech to the graduates of Douglas College in 1977:
“You cannot afford to think of being here to receive an education; you will do much better to think of yourselves as being here to claim one.”
A vivid visual always clarifies an idea for me, so I offer this clip from the news as evidence that seizing what you want can be a joyful experience:
Enjoy your weekend. Grab some fun.
pleasureinlearning 