In the Teaching and Learning Workshop this morning, we spent some time in individual reflection around the question “What have I lost in this time of the pandemic, and what remains?”. When we shared our thoughts with each other, we notice themes of grief and mourning we share in common.
First we noticed that our lives have felt less satisfying in a fundamental way without the spontaneity and energy of seeing, interacting and responding to colleagues and students face-to-face.
Second, we noticed a feeling that we have lost control: in pre-pandemic times we felt that we understood and had a firm grasp on the structures of the academy — courses, curricula, fora for sharing our scholarly work. Our sense of familiarity in that system, with norms and manners accumulated layer-by-layer over centuries, was hard won. In fact our graduate educations were designed for exactly that purpose. Without those structures as they previously existed, we feel especially the loss of the ability to plan for a predictable future. We also noticed feeling that we had lost our clear sense of our various identities (professor, parent, etc.) with the loss of spatial and temporal separation between home and work.
And what remains in us even during the pandemic? We noticed that though we feel the loss of spontaneous interactions, we are struck by the generosity of colleagues as we work together and encourage each other in facing this challenge. Especially gratifying is the sense that we remember, in this light, that academic life in pre-pandemic times could feel like a very solitary enterprise.
We noticed, too, that with our eyes open anew to age-old inequalities baked into traditional academic structures, we can bring our creativity and energy to bring forth fairer, more equitable structures. One clear example of that might be the Liberal Arts Experience itself. As we mourn the loss face-to-face instruction at this moment in the history of the College, we also remember throughout academia in recent pre-pandemic times there was a great deal of soul-searching about how to regenerate the sense of vitality and relevance Liberal Arts education might have in the 21st century. We notice in our work to re-imagine our lives of online teaching and learning, green shoots begin to emerge that will endure when the pandemic has passed for the good of the Liberal Arts spirit.
This summer a group of 25 K College faculty participated in a 3-part online workshop lead by Kalamazoo poet and philosopher Mark Nepo. The first two sessions focused on the profound changes we as instructors and scholars are experiencing in the time of the pandemic, and what remains unchanged within us that we bring to the task of making our future. Among many readings, Mark shared with us a short piece by the eminent American poet and liberal arts professor (Lewis and Clark College) William Stafford:
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
The Way It Is, William Stafford
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.