As students get ready to begin the academic year and return to post-secondary, or begin a new program, I imagine there’s some questioning around “is this the right choice for me” and “this is definitely the right choice for me” in light of the options that are not post-secondary. For me, even when it was the expected path after secondary school, the question of “is this the right major for me?” was my internal musing about the right choice.
Now, in the last weeks of August, while I appreciate the quieter corridors during the summer weeks, I look forward to the first week of September. I have an unparalleled vicarious enjoyment of the first week of the semester and the buzz of students trying to find their way, figuring out the weeks and months ahead. That buzz is a reminder of the promise and hope of what it means to be in post-secondary schooling and the possibilities this type of educational experience can offer.
There is no competing with other types of educational experiences, be they the learning done through life, or intentional pursuits of other kinds of development, such as learning on the job. Post-secondary can be a bubble, a temporary insulation, or conversely, a mirror of the other challenging educational experiences.
Side thought: One of my favourite authors, Erna Brodber, uses the metaphor of the kumbla in the novel Jane and Lousia will Soon Come Home. The kumbla is the protection and insulation of family, with strict regulations enforced on girl children to ensure that they are prepared to handle life on the outside of the cocoon. But if one stays in the kumbla too long, growth can be stunted and the child becomes weak and ill-equipped to survive outside of the bubble. I think the kumbla concept can tell us something about post-secondary too.
Educators can choose to curate distinctive educational experiences that are meaningful and enriching. While there are constraints in the design of post-secondary learning contexts, there are also possibilities! I’m surprised that I still have this excitement for the start of the academic year. It’s different from when I was a child, or a teen, or a young adult, or a new teacher. But the enthusiasm that bubbles up, it’s the one constant that reinvigorates my optimism in the value of what we offer in post-secondary institutions. I don’t know specifically what happened throughout my schooling that continuously reaffirmed my optimism in what happens here, but my excitement has not waned. Maybe it is because I have this unwavering hope captured in Maxine Greene’s words:
In many respects, teaching and learning are matters of breaking through barriers—of expectation, of boredom, of predefinition. To teach, at least in one dimension, is to provide persons with the knacks and know-how they need in order to teach themselves.
(Greene, 1995, p. 14)
Where do I come in, in the lives that pass through these corridors, maybe with whispered hopes and dreams for a self that will be different by graduation? I’m committed to working with educators as they curate these distinctive educational experiences for their students, with possibilities upon possibilities for being, becoming, and blossoming.
Inspirations
Brodber, E. (1980). Jane and Louisa will soon come home. New Beacon Books.
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. Jossey-Bass.
Galicia S. T. Blackman 