Tonight's photo was taken on October 22 of 2008. This was two days after Mattie had his first limb salvaging surgery. Getting Mattie up from his bed, into his wheelchair, and transported into the child life playroom was a feat of grand proportion. Mattie had a drainage tube connected to his bandaged arm, he was on pain meds, and of course his IVs. But it was important for him to move his body and use his lungs and as you can see his entourage was with us to help encourage the healing process! Mattie was surrounded by Whitney and Lesley (Child Life Interns), Linda (Mattie's Child Life Specialist), and Jenny (Mattie's Art Therapist). They were an incredible team who made Mattie's existence more tolerable and humane!
Quote of the day: We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes. ~ Fred Rogers
This morning in between doing work and chores, I was listening to the radio and kept hearing an advertisement for the weekend edition of the Washington Post. Particularly an article about teaching college students about civility. I have to admit the ad caught my attention for many reasons, but mainly because I empathized with the professor who first off wanted his students to turn their attention AWAY from their cell phones while in his class in order to pay attention to what was being discussed. Though I haven't taught in a college classroom since Mattie was diagnosed with cancer, I can recall that cell phone problems were beginning to pop up even in my classroom in 2007! But the smart phone wasn't mass marketed then! Now I have no idea how a professor manages this obsession!?? After all college students are adults, you can't tell them to leave the phone in their lockers or you will call their parents!!! The consequences are different at the college level! You have to rationalize with such students in a different manner and if you don't, rest assured you and your students will have a very unpleasant semester.
I included the article below from the Washington Post in case some of you want to read it. I found it intriguing. I am not sure I agree with it whole hardheartedly and I am not sure I would even encourage my own students to take on such assignments. Though I admire this professor's spirit for civility and embrace his desire to get students to see the power of community and helping others, I also think we have the responsibility as educators to teach students who are buried within the world of cyberspace how to protect themselves in the process. Naturally I haven't seen the syllabus for this class or the parameters of these two assignments, but I always worry about the safety of students. Sending them out on the streets to interact with strangers, though a great idea, has to have some guidelines and there needs to be some discussion around this within the classroom. Otherwise in essence it is throwing students into a foreign land and culture. They feel safe with their computers, smart phones, and their insulated circles of communication, however within the bigger world, in which they have to inter-face FACE TO FACE they maybe ill prepared. Exposing students to service learning and community service is a great idea, but the problem with this is if the experiences are negative or even indifferent, guess what? This doesn't inspire students to do more of it!!! This only reinforces them to stick their noses right back in front of a smart phone. Which they may do anyway, I realize. But shouldn't we set up assignments which could potentially set up and spark further interest!? That give students some positive feedback, so that they will want to do more?
I am not sure what the answer is to these assignments, but I LOVE community service and service learning! I also love volunteering and I can tell you even I would have found this professor's two assignments daunting. Especially the eating with a stranger. Approaching a stranger and offering assistance, would have been challenging enough, but eating with someone you don't know to me is just inappropriate. This crosses a boundary line and honestly as a professor you do not know who your students will be meeting and getting involved in. To me this is a huge liability and one that I would not want to take on, especially as a licensed professional. If this were my course, I would modify this assignment immediately, so that the students were eating with a friend of a friend, or someone they did not know direct.
Now putting all of that aside, the substance of what this professor is trying to do is spot on. He is trying to get his students to think beyond the hand held device they are glued to and have become dependent upon. To see that the world is comprised of real people and we are responsible for each other and the condition of the world we live in. I think when we actually experience helping others we do see the actual beauty and passion that comes from this, like no other joy that can be achieved in life. There is something truly wonderful about making a human connection and when we see others around us giving of themselves to make the world better for others who they do not even know, one needs to stand back in awe. Or as Fred Rogers would say.... they are our heroes!
Teaching Civility: Two Daring Assignments
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/teaching-civility-two-daring-assignments/2014/10/30/6c71682e-4b3c-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html
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