Conversations
I had an interesting conversation with a student tonight. She mentioned that she had just transitioned from English language learner classes to “regular” college classes.
The writing class she ended up in focuses on political themes and she said she felt completely unprepared for political language. I hadn’t really thought about that. Sure the classes prepare you for basic college English, but then you end up in a Writing 121 that focuses on the 60s and you’re trying to decipher peacenik-speak anti-hippie rhetoric. Or you end up in the writing class focused on popular culture references that are completely out of your framework. Most of the time students have no idea what kind of writing class it will turn out to be. As far as I know it’s completely at the discretion of the instructor. Sure the student could drop the class and try to take a different section, but that’s a total crapshoot when you’re competing with thousands of other students for the right spot in the right class at the right time on the right campus. Ugh, I don’t envy them.
What she didn’t say, but would have been completely justified in doing so, was that on top of this there’s the added layer of research language for which no one had prepared her either. As we looked at a few results in a fairly basic database search I could see her almost physically shrinking away from the screen. I backed up a few steps and tried to give her a basic rundown of what a database is and does (she’d already identified a need for articles, not books) and I think that was working for her.
I think on a more fundamental level she was struggling to understand why I was being so helpful. Maybe she was trying to figure out why someone had sent her to me in the first place (I got the distinct impression she didn’t wander in on her own). I finally realized she just hadn’t ever worked with a librarian. Once I figured that out I could assert the it’s my job factor in a convincing manner. I think we’re in good shape for a future visit.
I just wish her paper wasn’t due Monday. Or that she’d come in sooner. Something. It’s hard to go from zero to research in a short period of time.
