New Directions

I spent the first part of my mornings this past week surveying the field – literally.  My apartment in Stephenville, home of Tarleton State University, backs up to a gorgeous view of cropland and pastureland. Every morning this past week, I poured myself a cup of coffee and went out onto the back patio. I sat there each morning watching the sunlight spread slowly across a newly-plowed field as starlings followed in its gilded wake, plundering the warming soil of creeping things to make their breakfast.

Then I went to work – new school, new colleagues, new title, new office, new job, new students.

I am delighted with my colleagues, glad to be part of a cohort of four new historians hired for this fall, and very grateful for the warm welcome shown to all of us by our department and our school.

And of course I love my students. I always do, though I never tell them so.  I love them in the aggregate, and on principle made visible in practice I approach each of them as human beings full of dignity and intrinsic value, fellow creatures, fellow pilgrims and seekers, whether they know they are pilgrims and seekers or not, and I do my best to meet them where they are and offer what help I can for the journey.  That is a pastoral sort of love, but it is love all the same.

Still, I really love the students at Tarleton State – I love where they are coming from and where they are headed.

At faculty orientation, the Provost gave us some preliminary stats on the incoming freshman class: 50% are first-generation college students, 40% are Pell eligible, 34% are from under-represented groups, over 60% are women.  And because I’m teaching all intro courses this fall, the demographics of my classes square pretty well with that profile.  I can say this much about my students from experience:  they are full of hope and promise, eager to succeed, unfailingly polite, and demonstrably capable of rising to the challenge of college work. I believe in them.  Not sure yet whether they believe in me – but they don’t have to.  I can do right by them regardless.

So, anyhow, here’s how it went for me this week…

On Tuesday I taught four sections from 9:20 a.m. to 9:15 pm.  I have a once-a-week Tuesday night section, which is one of my favorite assignments, though that twelve-hour teaching day always knocks me flat. Not to be ageist, but I may be getting too old for this.  On Wednesday I had a meeting in the morning, lunch with other faculty in the department, and office hours in the afternoon.  I had great plans for late Wednesday afternoon – after office hours, I had intended to browse the library.  But I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I went back to my apartment at 3:15 and took a nap.  I woke up at 7:00 in an absolute panic at having slept past the sunrise.  Then I realize that it was 7:00 p.m., and I hadn’t missed anything but dinner. Doesn’t hurt me to miss a meal now and then.

Thursday was more leisurely – I taught my three morning / early afternoon sections, covering both halves of the survey.  I am still finding my voice with these students; it will take me a while to develop a style that fits perfectly with the class size, the room size, and all that.

Thursday ended well:  I went to the first football game of the season (against the “Fighting Okra” of Delta State).  In any other situation I would have been rooting for the okra (“It’s hard to root against okra,” one of my colleagues noted), but I was there to represent for the home team, for ourteam.  And, to my great delight, Mr. Burnett made the drive out to Stephenville to join me for a tailgate barbecue for faculty sponsored by the Alumni Association and then the football game.  We hadn’t been to a college football game in decades.  It was great fun.  (Also, it helped that Tarleton – the Tarleton Texans – won, cheered on by The Ploughboys and bolstered by The Sound and the Fury, the school’s marching band.)

And that was my week at work.

I went ahead and made the drive back to home base this morning – about two and a half hours – to see my loved ones and gather up a different set of wardrobe options for the week ahead.  (Rain is in the forecast, and rain puddles and palazzo pants don’t mix.)  I will head back to Stephenville early tomorrow morning, trying to beat the holiday traffic while simultaneously constituting it. And I will try to try to get some writing done on Sunday or Monday.  Yes, you read that right:  I’ll try to try.  Please send good thoughts my way.

In any case, these are my new directions.

Speaking of which…

I made some changes to my syllabus, as I always do.  One of those changes was to update my student conduct policy.  I thought I’d share that language with you here, because I am both pleased with it and amused by its corny earnestness.

This is a university classroom. When you and I step through this door, we are heirs to and participants in a thousand-year-old tradition of teaching and learning, of gaining knowledge and seeking wisdom.  Honor that tradition and claim it as your own.  Treat your fellow students and your professor with kindness and respect.  If you behave in a disrespectful manner, whether through word or gesture, I will speak to you about it and will expect better things of you thenceforth….

May this academic year be filled with better things for all of us.