Grounded in Reality

I just returned from a visit to the TYCA PNW annual conference. For those who don’t know the acronym, that is the Two-Year College English Association, Pacific Northwest Regional. Continuing for those of you unfamiliar with the TYCA family, these regional conferences are vibrant demonstrations of teacher-scholars at work. It was good to break bread and share ideas with them. For those of you familiar with the TYCA family, you know it was like "old home week" for me.

Let's get this straight--I enjoy my work down here. There is something wonderfully heady and exuberant about joining the throngs of people weaving through the sidewalks to work, to come out of the metro tunnel into the sunlight at the Capitol South Metro Stop and realize I am in the center of the most politically powerful city in the world. But it isn't always real, and I know that. But it is easy to be sucked into the vortex of rumor mills, top story of the day, winners and losers on the national scene, and the playing with people to gain power.

But at TYCA PNW (and other regionals) I find myself amongst real people who are real teachers working with real people who are real students in real spaces--their home classrooms, hallways, benches on campus, email exchanges, and the other constant, human work of education. Let me give one example. I attended a session on critical inquiry in writing classes. The presenters included a seasoned faculty member (is that politically correct?) a mid-career faculty member, a relatively new faculty member, and an adjunct faculty member who balanced two community college assignments. All had the excitement of kids in the park who had found a new game that gave them a sense of life. They showed how critical inquiry could free students in a) an advanced or honors-type writing class, b) a typical first-year college composition class, and c) developmental English courses. They were honest about their work, questioning what was problematic and showing how what worked really helped their students. Different stages of their careers, and different assignments in different institutions, they were all working together. What was really impressive is that they kept coming back to, not their work, but their students' struggles and successes. And they did it with a degree of collegiality and respect between each other, regardless of their stage in their career or their institutional affiliation, that demonstrated the ideal academy.

As I left the conference and headed back east to the adult Disneyland we call Washington, I was rejuvenated--not with what I could take to the classroom I have abandoned, but with the need to ensure we have policy in place to allow these real teachers to work with real students in real environments. And for that, I thank you all out there who wake on Monday morning, excited to face the most important challenge--giving voice and therefore life to our students.