I have been of the opinion so far that although I like doing the blog, and some people maybe like reading the blog, that all in all it doesn't really serve anything like a purpose.
But maybe I was wrong.
Tomorrow is the day of orientation where students first get to meet their own department. As option coordinator I have to be one of the stiff intimidating bodies up on the stage when we do the welcome thing. As part of that I will have to speak. The group will be highlighting some of the central concepts of the School of Drama. I will be talking about education.
The central concepts (ie "Pillars") come from strategic planning work we did ages ago, and although I am certain that education is a pillar, and I might be able to riff on why it is a pillar, this morning when we went over it I could not for the life of me remember what our actual reasoning was, or what I had said last year.
Then I came home and found this.
Which is the blog post I did after tomorrow's session last year, and there it was, everything I did say and everything I wanted to say but didn't.
"I got to extemporize about Education. My big points were to be sure to recognize the resources around you, to be aware of opportunities for inter-disciplinary experiences, and to take ownership of one's own education in order to maximize and create more opportunities for one's self. I was just getting to the part about how our program is not a service environment, but rather a collaboration between students and faculty and maybe to use a quote that Kevin had given me: "it is the responsibility of universities to but together talented people and then duck." when I paused just a hair to long and Liz said thank you. Which is too bad because I never got to talk about learning more than just skills, but to appreciate the artform, establish a level of professionalism, learn to learn, and to learn from and to teach all the people around you."
So there's everything I needed. Quick print, a little highlighting, and I'm ready to go for the morning. Cool.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Maybe not too useless afterall
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1 comment:
You've hit on something that I think about sometimes. One of the challenges of blogging--at least I see this in myself--is that it becomes very performance-oriented. I become so focussed on creating a certain reader experience, or getting across a certain point about myself or about life or whatever, that I lose touch with the fact that the medium is first and foremost a journal.
And one of the major benefits of journaling is that it provides us with a tangible record of where we've been, mentally. It helps us recognize patterns and recurring themes, it makes us stretch the writing muscles, and it releases pressure on the brain!
Whether other people are reading and enjoying should really be secondary. At least for me. It's hard to remember that, though, because I am a professional and invest whether or not people willingly read me with all sorts of Meaning. "If people aren't reading me for free," I worry, "they probably won't pay for the privilege!"
Which is not a place I need to go!
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