What does learning mean? I used to think I had the answer: getting a good liberal arts education. 10 years ago, my class and I were discussing John Henry Cardinal Newman's book about a university education. When a student asked me, "Yes, but what do you think of this chapter?" I fobbed off the question, thinking that the chapter explained my own thoughts.
But as it turns out, I hadn't thought deeply about the text at all. I took the text as a given rather than questioning its premises or...
What does learning mean? I used to think I had the answer: getting a good liberal arts education. 10 years ago, my class and I were discussing John Henry Cardinal Newman's book about a university education. When a student asked me, "Yes, but what do you think of this chapter?" I fobbed off the question, thinking that the chapter explained my own thoughts.
But as it turns out, I hadn't thought deeply about the text at all. I took the text as a given rather than questioning its premises or my own. I assumed that a liberal education was valuable, and thus I had ceased to think critically about said education. That student spurred me to reconsider my own basic assumptions, helping me realize the critical necessity of asking good questions -- a skill I help my students now foster, and which I seek to foster in my tutoring. To question the text and oneself is where learning occurs.
Thus, while I have a doctorate in Literature from the University of Notre Dame, it's my more than 15 years teaching at the high school, college, and graduate level, as well as tutoring undergrads in the Writing Center, and working with graduate students on fellowships and grants, that have taught me to ask good questions. As I help students articulate their own vision, I ask them to consider both their wider argument and the details of sentence structure, clarity, and style. I love helping them see the necessity of connecting sentences, paragraphs, premises and conclusions, claims and evidence together, seeing how the parts form the whole.
In my current role, I am most interested in working with upper level college and graduate students on fellowship applications or grants. I want to help these writers as they seek future appointments in their fields. Specifically, I encourage them to speak succinctly and pithily while also conveying the detail and specificity of their experiences and credentials. Ultimately, I guide them to ask the right questions of their own writing and thinking, learning from themselves.
