Greetings!
This weekend feels in many ways very much like a period of transition. Monday I start a new job — one I had before, actually — but this time I will be working remotely, which means that I have to rearrange my home work space today.
This is also a transition weekend for political candidates. Primary winners can catch their breath, give thanks, and prepare for the long and short of a race to November, knowing for sure — if they didn’t know before — who they’ll be facing in the general election.
It’s also approaching transition time for students, especially high school seniors, including many who are about to head off to college campuses in September. Some, perhaps, will become the first ever in the history of their families to have such an opportunity.
These observations were triggered in part by an article on ‘belonging’ we are publishing today. The writer is focused specifically on the experiences of college students, and what they and the schools that admitted them should be doing to ensure the best possible outcomes.
But her piece got me to thinking about my own experiences, some of which were extracted from my memory bank last week by the talented interviewing skills of Stephanie Phelps for her weekly radio program.1
Taken from my prep school's website from a vantage that did not exist when i arrived in 1960. But outside the window is unchanged.
At age 14 I was plucked fresh from the 9th grade and deposited in the New Hampshire wilderness, to be educated and indoctrinated in the ways of the world. I was unceremoniously deposited alongside the scions of the white men who ruled the worlds of finance and manufacturing and politics and diplomacy and academia. I was barely 5’ tall, weighed less a hundred pounds, and as it turned out, at first bested my 750 or so new campus mates only in one narrow arena. I could play the dozens2, which meant I had quick wits and a sense of humor that enabled me initially to defend myself against the taunts, disdain, and ignorance of other insecure adolescents until I could establish an ego base that would get me to adulthood with some combination of competence and confidence.
Not that I understood any of that at the time.
The article by Michelle Samura places the importance of ‘belonging’ front and center as key to learning. My personal experience, stemming from the days before there were black student support services, is that her insights are key. They also represent a different facet of the self-esteem issue that has been identified as front and center to successful learning.
Read Samura’s piece here.
Speaking of higher education, Tri-C has a new president. The brother is a lawyer, an educator, and a preacher! Check him out here.
Also, you might find delight in Marilou Johanek’s righteous unloading on this Menace II [a Democratic] Society, aka Ohio congressman Jim Jordan.
See you tomorrow!
As always, thanks for reading!
R. T. Andrews
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1 “Another Look at Life” is broadcast Fridays from 11a-Noon on WOVU-FM/95.9, the low-power radio station owned by Burten Bell Carr. Station programming is live-streamed here. Programming is not generally archived but if we expect to receive a recording of our appearance, which we are likely to post on this site.
2 If you don't know this game, wellllll, … read this article for edification, insight and delight.
