Day: September 2, 2015

I’ve been teaching my students about socialization again, and I’ve been using the Hot-Crazy matrix as a tool for understanding how some people think and questioning why. I keep on expecting the matrix to piss people off–especially women who are, by the nature of the matrix, utterly demeaned and devalued. My expectations always fall short. In truth, the ladies laugh and say, ‘that’s true because I know someone who is hot and crazy and women are always crazy.’ When I follow up by asking if they themselves are crazy, the answer is always no.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the world from this: We always tend to act against our own self-interests if doing so makes us feel part of an in-crowd or aloof. We see it in politics when the ultra-poor appalachians are voting for the super rich republicans who want to release restrictions on businesses and cut the ‘welfare state’ services that the appalachians need to survive. I saw it with the Hot-crazy where all of the women in the class loved the video and laughed alongside the guys but never identified themselves as someone being discussed in the video.

I don’t have a clue what to do with this information. I know it is real and it is problematic overall, but I don’t know how to apply my understanding in any way that isn’t evil–i.e. me taking advantage of that situation to create my own empire.

I just wish we didn’t all work in stereotypes and existed in a realm where individuals were seen as such and not classified and grouped and tagged like so many sheep…

I was reminded by a student today that what we do in the classroom matters long beyond the reach of the classroom. It is an important reminder, because already I found myself becoming detached from the experiences of the composition classroom–not because I don’t love teaching those courses, but because the creative writing students so obviously want to be in that space and the others seem trapped there; required to live out their semester under my reluctant authority. Yet this isn’t true. The encouraging message came from a composition student and yet another pulled me aside earlier in the day to just say hi and let me know he was still around. So, I learned something: The energy and desire with which we approach a task translates to those receiving that task.

One of the things that make me the happiest is when students are successful and they light up and they act as though something they’ve learned has impact beyond the classroom. I’m not the best classroom teacher. I’m not necessarily the guy you want as your technical writing instructor. As a novelist I’m about creating a piece of writing that tells a story and does so in an engaging way. I can work you through the rules of syntax, but my heart lives in the ability to help you discover both voice and desire for the craft of writing. This combination lends itself well to the creative writing prefix, but often falls flat with composition where students are likely to have a history of stern, essay driven instruction. In truth, the discovery process drives my teaching vs. the structure of an essay. I want them to learn something and then discover the voice with which to share that something to an audience.