The Student Leader Blog

And I thought I'd only learn inside the class room!

Late last Friday afternoon, an obviously concerned club adviser approached me and in a vague, non-committal way communicated that their club has been directly affected by seemingly unrelated issues in their department. Now, I always want to attack an issue head-on and try to find out all the information I can in hopes of efficiently reaching a solution, so thank goodness my supervisor was there to rein me in. I don’t really know the first thing about recognizing, let alone handling situations in which my reaction to seemingly unrelated political agendas could land me, or my superiors, in hot water. I come from a food service background, so I do know a bit about jockeying for the Friday night serving or bar tending shift, but this stuff was way over my head.Taking my boss's lead, I soon found that the most I could say was, “as a student I don’t have the experience necessary to handle such a situation.” It all felt wrong to me though; I hate marginalizing what I feel and being unable help my fellow students. I still feel I should be able to bring something positive to the situation. Hey, maybe I could go to some other teachers and get their take on the matter. Maybe I should approach the leads of the department and tactfully inquire about the history of the teacher and the club in question, like how long they’ve been involved together or how much experience the teacher has with student groups. I know! I’ll ask the Dean of Transfer Education if there has been any new hires or teachers in the department moving from part time to full time…or…crap, I’ve been sucked in!

I guess the lesson is “mind my own business and do the best I can.” Maybe this is sort of an end to the innocence I’ve enjoyed regarding our educational system. I want to think that the educator's main focus is always the student's well-being. I also may be displaying my naivety by believing that working toward the student's best interest won’t step on anyone's toes. I still feel a bit of frustration though; no matter how I react in this situation I will be contributing to the issue and my actions will still be a reflection of my department and superiors. In the end though, my job has nothing to do with the professional issues of any academic department, and I won't really be involved unless the club or department violates guidelines I have been asked to uphold. And even though I do plan on becoming a teacher one day, I’m not one yet.For now, I get to sit back and learn from this situation, and see what I do and don’t agree with. I can just put this experience in my mental vault for when I do have to deal with personal agendas and defend the student’s best interests. All I need worry about now is the our next event and how I can help my friends and fellow students have a great college experience. I guess I’m being shown that the most meaningful learning experiences sometimes happen outside the class room. I've heard that a lot this past year, but I'm kind of having an epiphany as I recognize the truth of this statement. Action certainly is an integral part of education.

If I die tomorrow, will I regret studying for the GRE?

Got home, kicked off the high heels that I shouldn't have been wearing, plopped down on the couch, opened my calendar. Calendar says "study for GRE." But here I am writing a blog post and not studying, and I'm trying to figure out whether I'm doing the "right" thing.

Today a friend said something along the lines of: "how can I waste time worrying if I might die tomorrow?" I think about this a lot, particularly as a way to calm myself down and get some perspective on life. Perspective seems to be one of the first things to go under stress. (Hint: You know it's happening to you when you get a B- on a test and you start contemplating suicide).

I've gotten pretty good at cutting unnecessary stress from my life, but now I'm thinking in terms of "what if I die tomorrow" as far as studying for the GRE is concerned -- and all other activities that lead to short term frustration and long term benefits.

I have a hard time reconciling the values of "plan ahead" and "seize the day." As a student leader, I was constantly trying to figure that out how to choose between the slow and bloody battle with bureaucracy vs a short and sweet goal that makes people (and me) happy tomorrow but doesn't amount to much in the end.
I suppose we have to live with the understanding that sure, we might die tomorrow, but we also might not, and plan accordingly for either outcome. It's safest to assume you're going to be around for a long, long time, but use the reminder of mortality to make sure you're doing your best to enjoy every moment. At the end of the day, I think it's possible to be both ready for tomorrow, and feel no regrets about the way you spent the time you've had, should your time run out.

So I'll go study for the damn GRE in case I'm still alive on Saturday, but I will also pour myself a hot cup of tea (because tea makes me happy) and try to find some intrinsic motivation for relearning geometry. As for whether or not it was right for me to take the time to write this post... I don't know, but I don't think I will regret it.

Can you change a system that doesn't want to be changed?

I hear over and over again that you can't change a person unless he wants to be changed. Well, how about a system? Does a system ever want to change? I think the bigger the system the less likely it is the it will want to get up and stretch its legs for a second, let alone attempt moving around and doing something different. Change is a system's biggest fear, right next to noncompliance.

When it comes to being a student leader, do you ever get the feeling that creating positive change feels a lot like moving grains of sand from one bucket to another with a pair of tweezers?  Or digging a tunnel with a toothpick? That about describes my state of mind when I find myself face to face with the Education System Monster. I start having this sickening feeling that no matter how hard I try, the most I can ever hope for is improving the experience of a few people. But the system remains unchanged.

Maybe things have to be changed from the top down. Maybe you have to crawl into the thing and get it to do what you want instead of just pushing it around from the outside. But how do you do that? This reminds me of Mr. Incredible's fight with that spidery robot thing that learns all your moves. First he fights it for a while, but then he manages to jump inside of it and get it to bash its own brains out. But where are the system's brains?

(Check out the last 2 minutes of the video)

 

The Bureaucratic Beast of Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy. Not only is it hard to spell, but it is hard to stomach too. Forgive me as I air my frustrations a bit and seek your advice. Here's what I'd love to know: are all colleges stricken with this crippling disease?
Are all companies with over 15 employees  bound to catch it? And what happens to seemingly human individuals when they become entangled in it?

If you have answers to these questions, then by all means, let me in on them, but since I haven't gotten any information yet, then let me turn to the only positive side of this that I can see: coping mechanisms.

As a student leader, I've learned about more forms and discovered more scattered offices than I had imagined in my wildest nightmares. I've never looked the Beast in the face (because no on knows for sure whether it has a face), but I have seen its footprints and smelled its fowl breath. And here is what I've learned:

• It's often (though not always) futile to try to battle bureaucracy: figure out when the fight isn't worth it and come up with some work arounds.
• Make copies of EVERYTHING because that one form that you're sure everything will be just fine with WILL get lost.
• Date EVERYTHING, for the Beast thrives on chaos and confusion.
• Make friends in low places (in a bureaucracy there are no high places). Go out of your way to learn people's names and start conversations, and if you find someone you get along with, hold on to that connection like you're holding on for dear life.
• Keep a directory for your team members of all offices and samples of all forms to avoid going to the wrong place and filling something out incorrectly. It's worth it.
• Get as much as you possibly can in writing for the Beast devours memories of the spoken word.
• When you're at your rope's end, chillax and start skipping the rope. There's only so much you can do, and only so much stress it's worth experiencing. Don't take it too seriously (because laughter is the Beast's biggest fear) and don't be afraid to get creative and have some fun with your tactics. That's right. I said chillax.
  

Now get this blog post signed by 6 people in order of their weight, make 3 copies, rewrite one original, and fax it to me between 12:30PM and 12:32PM on July 29th. Okay, ready, set, go!

Saving money on textbooks and the question of why we are buying them.

The Fall semester will soon be approaching (or should I say encroaching?) and shopping lists will soon contain ISBN codes galore. As we all well know, textbook prices are often somewhere in the hundreds, and many of us never do crack those bad boys open after we shell out the cash for them.  So does all this makes sense?

Websites like Textbook Torrents and Chegg.com are saying heck no (though some more legally than others). Textbook Torrents, a site that allows students to share digital textbook files for free, has gotten quite a bit of attention lately, after publishers requested that it take down some of its listings. The site complied, but the debate over whether this is a new kind of piracy continues. Chegg offers a Netflix-like solution: renting textbooks for the semester and helping students save a whole bunch, provided you're okay with the fact that you can't highlight the pages. Some other alternatives include SwapTree.com and your school's library.

Oh yes, and NYPIRG is pushing for legislation forcing publishers to cut their textbook prices, but I feel that we're all missing the point here.
Maybe instead of persecuting an industry that's just trying to make money like the rest of us, we should start encouraging the industry to evolve.  Why is it that instructors are still assigning textbooks when the Internet is flooded with free information? Why is Wikipedia not considered a legitimate source of information by professors? Do millions of people check on textbook content to make sure it is factual? Maybe what needs to happen is for textbook publishers to wake up and start doing something more constructive, like charging schools a fee for aggregating class-specific information from online sources.

And I mean, come on! Why are we even talking about how expensive textbooks are when we should be talking about the fact that no one is reading them? NYPIRG recommends that teachers and students use old editions of books to save money, but wait a minute, isn't education about new information? And new information happens faster than even the latest edition of a textbook can handle. Even if the legislation does cut book costs down from $80 to $60... that's a $60 paperweight and another missed opportunity to get something deeper from your education.

Wondering why I don't want to go to class.

It's 7:43PM and my class starts at 7:45. All day I've been telling myself that I'm going to go this time around, but now it's 7:44, and it doesn't look like I'll be finished with this post by the time I need to leave. So I'm going to make the most of it and examine why I am not going, and hopefully learn something about the nature of motivation and education.

My thought process inevitably starts with excuse-making: "I'm not feeling well and going to class requires too much energy." Then the truth: "My class is a 3 minute walk from where I am right now, and all I have to do is sit there. Writing this post requires a lot more energy."

In the past I've thought that doing stuff meant using up energy, but the reality seems to be that it completely depends on what it is I'm doing. Doing too little leaves me feeling more exhausted than doing a lot. Okay, so why am I doing "too little" in class?

#1 the topic isn't particularly interesting to me, so I am not intrinsically motivated; it's a general education requirement. This means I'm doing less cognitive work than I do in classes that interest me.
#2 the structure of the class doesn't engage me. I listen, I watch, I doodle. That's the experience.

So what can the instructor do to change this?
Personalize the experience; take the time to find out students' interests (shift to intrinsic motivation). Perhaps get some more debate or discussion going (more cognitive work).

But the class and each student can be doing things to improve the experience as well. We can form teams of devil's advocates, do collaborative research, or create a discussion board.

This is wonderful when it happens, but for a student, the cost of initiating this approach is often too high. You run the risk of instructor or class disapproval and the responsibility of maintaining the collaborative process. I've taken this risk in a few of my classes, and when it pays off it is well worth it, and when it doesn't, it is not.

It seems that the solution is instructor-coordinated dynamic education. Just sanctioning collaborative initiatives and recommending a few tools to use (like Diigo or Google Docs or a Wiki Space) could make a huge difference. There needn't be a mandatory class forum, just the encouragement and the establishment of collaboration and individual initiative as a norm.

In conclusion, along a somewhat related vein, here's an goosebump-inducing video that's about as inspirational to me as my class isn't:

The surprising dark side of "Keep up the good work," and the power of the gold star stickers.

I have very few pet peeves, but perhaps the deepest and darkest is my hatred of the phrase "keep up the good work." Until yesterday, I had a hard time explaining to people why it drove me bonkers to hear this from a boss or teacher. I had a perfectly reasonable explanation all along, but only now do I have some proof of my theory in print.

According to psychologist Teresa Amabile, certain extrinsic motivators (such as praise or rewards) can "undermine a person's sense of self-determination." So using the "keep up the good work" example: If I'm your boss, and I say this to you after you've done something really well, I am basically giving you an order to maintain your performance level. I am implying that the work you are doing is for me, so to some degree I am taking away your sense of control and intrinsic motivation (the desire to do well simply because you like what you're doing).

Okay, so maybe I have some control issues, but I think it's an important point to keep in mind. Extrinsic motivation can actually hinder intrinsic motivation. That means that a very strong incentive to succeed (e.g. a vacation to Hawii) may be worse for improving determination and satisfaction than a small incentive (e.g. a gold star). My guess is that the those star stickers are as popular as they are because they provide just enough external motivation to make people feel a bit competitive without overshadowing the pride they feel for their accomplishments. I knew there was a reason I always loved those.

Getting Up When Feeling Down: Leadership during your "blue period."

Okay, I've had a really rough weekend:
relationship problems, a highly unpleasant antibiotic-requiring illness, financial concerns, and having my cat put to sleep.

But today is Monday, and I've got students to work with and paperwork to handle. A huge, tired part of me wants to crawl into bed and spend the day pretending that life has an undo button, but taking on a leadership role means that your responsibilities to your organization come first. Honestly, if it were between my student group and taking care of my other priorities (like family and friends), I'd put my organization aside, but now it's just a question of whether I want to wallow in self-pity or get out and be somewhat useful to the world and myself.

The truth of the matter is that being productive when you're feeling bad (for lack of a better word) is physically difficult. Your mind and body feel drained and even your fingers feel heavy. Fighting against that downward pressure and "thinking positively" doesn't always work. So what are the options?

Well, first I try to realize that feeling sad is my body's natural reaction to everything that's happened, and within reason, it's a useful response. Being sad slows you down and makes you think. Happiness is often associated with carelessness and a lack of attention to detail. We've evolved to use sadness to step back and contemplate the roses. Plus sadness has its own particular thoughtful brand of creativity. So I'm trying not to fight it but rather use it in some way. Today I've been taking on tasks that require more deliberation and care and then slowly mixing in some social interaction and the stuff that requires some smiling.

Maybe these next few days will be my blue period. After all, it worked well for Picasso, right?

Student Leaders Around the World - Venezuela's Yon Goicoechea

Modern human history is filled with examples of student protests that led to larger cultural shifts. Venezuela may be the next country to undergo a student led revolution.

Wall Street Journal reporter, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, covered the story of 23 year old Yon Goicoechea's student movement in Venezuela to confront the unchecked power of President Hugo Chavez.

Yon believes that Mr. Chavez runs a dictatorial government that is against the will of the people. Some of his protests drew up to 200,000 people. The government is well aware of the power of Yon's group, but Yon, in a very V for Vendetta way, is quick to pass the credibility on to the idea, not the person.

"We have generated a consciousness in the youth that doesn't depend on me. I could be dead or living in another county and it would go on. We have already won the future."

Many adults talk about the apathy of students now and how there is a lack of protesting like they had in the 1960s.



I'm not so sure current students are more apathic, but instead are active in different ways, e.g. on the internet rather than out on the street. Voter turnout among 18-25 year olds in national elections suggests that current students are actually more engaged now than in the past. I think the real question is what form of activism is more effective, or is it a mix of both?