I've been tagged

Priscilla from Rathbone Images tagged me and now I have to tell you 8 things that you don't know about me. Coming up with 8 things has taken me a couple days. I'm not sure if I am that open or if I just don't have anything about me that is exciting enough to be a secret, but here is what I came up with. (If you already knew this about me, then pretend it is a surprise.)

1. I don't think everyone should go to college. Of course, I have to clarify that. I've noticed that college is earning the reputation of grade 13, and I don't think that graduating high school and going directly to a 4 year institution is best for everyone. Some people will benefit more from technical training, military service (preferably not in wartime), associates degrees, or even work experience more than they will from grade 13. I do think that there are parts of a liberal arts education that will benefit everyone no matter what choices they pursue in life, but I think it is unfair that we make them wait for college to share these skills and experiences. I also think that their rising costs are becoming ridiculous.

2. I am a first generation college graduate. I know you don't know this, because I didn't know it until after I graduated. Just think of all the support I could have needed and all the campus resources I could have turned to if I had only known. I don't think that I actually faced the lack of family support that many first generation undergraduates deal with, but I now understand what it might have been like. My grandmother was so proud when I graduated. That's when she told me that I was the first in our family to finish. It wasn't until after I told her that I was starting my masters that she said, "More school?! Don't you think you need to acting like an adult and getting a job?"

3. I will dedicate part of my life to Sesame Workshop. I am passionate about Higher Education, and I have a lifetime to add what I can to it, but I also have to spend some time on this cause. I got my BA in Public Relations to work for an organization like this. Their mission is incredible and the work they are doing around the world is amazing. I want to be a part of that.

4. I think that honors students and at risk students have a lot of the same needs when starting college. I think that they have these needs for different reasons, but both groups need special attention. They need help learning how to manage their time, learning study skills, and learning how and when to ask for help. Many 4.0 students are 4.0 because they weren't challenged in high school so they don't immediately know how to handle the challenges that college offers.

5. I want to teach a class in Second Life. I've never taught a class, and I would like to do that too, but I am very excited about the opportunities that online communication and virtual communities are opening up. I think they have the potential to completely change the purpose of higher education and continue to push the sage on the stage cliche out of universities to make room for an interactive and interdisciplinary place. That and having cat people in my class seems pretty cool too.

6. I'm thinking about getting another Master's degree. I know that two masters' don't equal a PhD, but I think I want to learn some Sociology. One of my field's worst weaknesses is the lack of research. I want to prioritize that in my life, and I am thinking that studying some Sociology might be a way to pursue that. Then again, Psychology sounds awfully fun too...

7. I use to be really good at math. I'm not saying you don't know this, but being a communications undergrad I ran into a lot of situations where it was assumed that I was no good at it. Sadly, I'm not good any more because I haven't used it so I've forgotten a lot. Now when I look at an algebra or calculus problem I don't know where to begin, but I recognize that I use to. I loved proofs in high school!

8. Completely not education related: I have a favorite stained glass window. I didn't know I could have a favorite stained glass window until I actually discovered it. I grew up Catholic so I've visited many churches and awed at many windows, but this one took my breath away. It is hidden away in a corner room of a magnificent church in Aachon, Germany. If you ever find yourself wandering around Aachon, I recommend you see it.

Now for the 8 blogs I must tag. This is a selfish list of people I want to post. Some because I don't want them to be abandoned, some because they make me smile, and others just because they have me curious.
Ashgeb
Adamanthenes
BookSpaz
Knee of the Curve
Singularity
The twenty-fourth year
My little blog
Polished Rose

Added Bonus: A warm fuzzy moment

A while ago I posted about a study that placed students struggling in math in two different extra classes. One class was taught study skills and the other was taught how the brain works. This week someone googled child struggling with math and came to my blog. It makes me feel wonderful that there is a possibility that my blog might have provided interesting or useful information for a complete stranger. I'm feeling warm and fuzzy inside about it, so I wanted to share.

It's Alive!

At the end of last semester I was exhausted, sleep deprived, and dealing with finals stress. I was so happy when the students left and the campus cleared out. I felt like there was a possibility of finding a moment to breathe. Today is the first day of class, and I didn't realize how much I missed having everyone here. It is so nice to have the campus alive again, and it has a special type of excitement right now. Everything is optimistic and welcoming. The freshman are excited; the upperclassmen are greeting and hugging friends they haven't seen in months. Nobody is worried about bad grades, and the dreading of tests and large assignments hasn't begun. I realize that I am able to find this so wonderful because of all the work people have put into welcome week. I wouldn't blame them if they are feeling they way I feel by the end of the semester, but I'm glad that I can enjoy today refreshed and excited. I had forgotten the little things about it being full, like how quick a walk across campus seems when there are a half a dozen acquaintances to to smile and wave at along the way. It is going to be a great day.

Campus Visit: WKU

This weekend my little brother graduated from boot camp at Ft. Knox in Kentucky. My friend Cindy and drove up to watch the ceremony. Since we were driving right past Western Kentucky University we decided to stop by on the way home and visit the Honors College. I had the opportunity to meet a couple of the honors people and learn a bit about their program during a conference at UCA this summer. Unfortunately, I didn't know how long I was going to be at Ft. Knox so I couldn't really make plans with them. Despite us just dropping by, we were warmly welcomed, and given tours of both the office and the campus. It was a beautiful campus!
Here is the Honors Center. They are currently working on a lot of big changes to that little house. I will be really neat to see in a few months time.



Here are several of the honors residential halls. It was a slightly honors heavy tour, but when you have honors alums talking to an honors director, that is bound to happen.
This is the Mass Media and Technology building. I took a picture of it because it is clearly a beautiful building, but I was also excited to see mass media and technology written side by side in stone. Too often I find them to be two separate groups of people that don't talk to each other enough.


This is the Gunthrie memorial and tower. They are a beautiful focal point on campus and I believe that it is the tower that is being used in the WKU logo.

This is the huge and breathtaking student center called Downing University Center. It is just as gorgeous inside.


This colonnade is another beautiful spot on campus. If I remember correctly the colonnade was left from their old stadium. In place of where the field was, there is now the fine arts building. They are now fully prepared to have gatherings both inside and out. This colonnade is also part of the logo for the honors program there.


Here are just a couple more this campus is beautiful pictures:

It was really nice to visit another campus. UCA has spoiled me, and I owe this campus a lot, but it is the only institution that I've been at. I've been here for six years and it can easily become a whole little world of its own. It is fun to get out every so often and see what is going on elsewhere.

Growing Up is Hard to Do

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got the sense in Europe that they seem to think many of the services we offer students at the Higher Ed level are babying them. I agree with a lot of their education ideals and policies, and the students I met were incredibly mature. So, I've been wondering if I agree with that. I've come to the conclusion that I don't think offering them these services is babying them, but we don't always treat them like adults either. Sometimes this is our own fault, and other times it is out of our control. For example, something that is completely my fault is that I call them kids. I'm barely older then them, and I'm a student myself, but using the term kids keeps me from thinking of them as adults. I could be argued that because I am so close to them in age it is important that make that distinction between us. Good or bad, because I use that term I treat them differently.

Something that we have less control over would be working along with parents who refuse to treat them like adults. One of the students I advised came in with his father. His father sat down across from me at the desk which forced his son into a corner chair. He then explained to me that he was there because "my son is not yet 18." He continued to talk to me like his son wasn't in the room and we were discussing legal issues. When ever I tried to talk to the student, he wouldn't look at me and always looked to dad to answer for him. It was very hard to treat him like an adult.

Of course the difference between us and Europe is cultural. During our pre-trip, how not to be insulting in Europe meetings, we were told that if we end up talking to any children, we should treat them the same way we treat adults. Many cultures believe that the transition from child to adult can be made over night. The child just has to reach a certain age, participate in a ceremony, or have some important event happen. In America we don't go from child to adult. We go from infant to terrible twos, to toddler, to child, to adolescent, to young adult, to adulthood. Then we still get to look forward to middle aged, over the hill, and retiree. I've watched as society has embraced the term tween. I was never a tween. I may have been a preteen, but if so I didn't know it. Why do we have so many stages?

When I was in psychology* the leading theorist in cognitive development was Piaget. He presented 4 stages of development. According to his theory we begin the final stage as a preteen and we may never finish that development. The theories that I know of that have been adapted from or are related to Piaget usually have somewhere between three and five stages. Six stages wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think I have ever seen it. Since studying that I have learned about the psychological process that students may go through when faced with certain situations, but not any continual psychological development of students. I am not claiming that there is not any more brain development. What I'd like to point out is that I haven't heard of any more so I am assuming that most people haven't heard of any more. Why then, is society accepting these different stages? Are they being presented to us by psychologists, or are they being presented to us by advertisers. Did the people who develop and market Bratz realize how desperately eleven and twelve year old girls want to be thirteen and create the classification tween to market directly to them.

I'm generally in support of direct marketing and audience targeting, but we have added a slew of transitions to the growing up process. Are we making it easier or harder to grow up. I understand that if you transition from child to adult over night you could could be given a load of responsibility that you are not prepared for and the expectations can be daunting, but are baby steps making it better? Or are they just making it easier to put off accepting those responsibilities? Is it making it harder for adults to give those responsibilities? That may feed right back into my generation's work ethic. We still have stages of growing to transition through so we haven't been given responsibility. Since we haven't had responsibility, we don't care about it or know how to handle it.


*Disclaimer: I have not studied much psychology. As an undergrad I only took a general education psychology course, and as a graduate I've taken a student development course that had some psychology theories in it, but it was not a psychology based course. I think it is fair to believe that my psychology education is at or above the American average so I think it is enough to be applicable to my topic. I do welcome any additional information because I find this topic fascinating.

Thinking Blogger Award

I'm far over due for posting my awardees for the Thinking Blogger Award. Why do I get to pass out this award? Well, because Jenn found me interesting enough to award my blog with it. The reason that I have not yet fufilled my duty is simple. The majority of blogs I read have been awarded (so I won't be contributing anything by awarding them) or their written by professional writers/bloggers. I don't want to award them, because it just doesn't seem right. They make a living out of making us think so it would actually be a disappointment if their blogs didn't follow through. I've spent the past 2+ months searching for blogs that I consider worthy of an award. I definitely ended up with more blogs that I read regularly, but they all already had the before mentioned issues.

Here is what I've decided to do. There is one blog that I knew I wanted to award the moment that I was privileged enough to receive my award. I will award that award, share some of the interesting blogs that I've been reading, and save my other four awards for future blogs that I discover.

And now, I award the Thinking Blogger Award to Random Pointless Ramblings. I doubt he would realize the value that I find in his blog, I find it deeper and more insightful than he would ever give it credit. This blog is a commentary on our generation. He makes his observations both as an insider and an outcast, and I find it fascinating.

Here are some other blogs that I would recommend if you haven't checked them out already:
I can't sew at all but I love A Dress a Day
Collin Vs. Blog
Rathbone Images is the blog of our wedding photographers. I love their photography so much that I keep up with their blog. They just got back from a trip to Mexico and took some fantastic photos.
Neil Gaiman's Journal
Barbara's Blog is written by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Yarn Harlot makes me laugh on a daily basis and has some of the most beautiful creations I've ever seen.

Here is more information about the Thinking Blogger Award and the rules that I am doing a horrible job of following.

The Generation X Work Ethic

This article has become a flaming debate on an issue that I've been thinking about for a long time. This is the first time that I have ever looked at it in the light of a generational difference, and not just a difference between me and others. Let me start with the article, I think that Jennifer Epstein got one major thing wrong. She shouldn't have equated the use of technology with the differences in work habits. We can discuss work ethic as a generational difference, and we can discuss technology use as a generational difference, but we can't link the two of them.

Now for the things that I've been mulling over for a while now. I don't brag on myself often, but I have found it to be continually true that I have a uniquely strong and dedicated work ethic. I find it very difficult to claim because it is my work ethic. It is part of me, and it seems normal. I don't try to have a good work ethic, it is my mindset and it is difficult for me to understand people thinking about these things in a way other than I do. Before I build myself up too much, let me say that I am not all work and no play. But I do separate work and play. They each have their own time and necessity, but work does fund and fuel play.

The reason I've decide that this is a unique view, is because of how easy it is for me to be successful. I have always immensely impressed my supervisors by showing up on time, dressing appropriately, and doing my job efficiently. I couldn't figure out why they they were so impressed with me. Then one day, I listened as a co-worker explained to me how to balance out the tasks she was given with MySpace, Facebook, and text messaging so that they are not too tedious or boring. The task she was referring to took her three days to accomplish, and I could have done it with the better part of the afternoon. In my opinion, it would be much more tedious to do a mundane task sporadically for three days than nonstop for an afternoon. I also know the definition of time theft, and it would bother me to spend that much time not working when there was work to be done.

This is the situation that lead me to think about my work ethic as unusual. I started trying to pay more attention to my peers and how they are doing their work. I remembered the student in my thesis class that were up in arms about the need to turn in progress reports on their projects, the co-workers who avoided projects and tasks, and my fellow graduate students who demanded an extra day off of class. I decided that I was different.

Now, with my example, I've gone and brought technology into the conversation by mentioning MySpace, Facebook, and cellphones. I have and check my Facebook, MySpace, and Freindster accounts, I (poorly) manage two blogs, and I'm an active lurker on three online forums. I listen to podcasts, audiobooks, and music on my iPod. I have a cell phone that I carry around with me constantly, and a PDA that I use to carry around all the time until I started using Google Calendar. I don't think that technologically savvy necessitates nor leads to the difference that I'm seeing. Studies have been done on the positive effects of music in the workplace. It is not bad to have music at work, the iPod is an issue because it blocks people out. It closes the user off from the people they may have to interact with. I'll admit that it is bad customer service, and probably bad coworker relations, but it is not bad work ethic.

So If I don't think technology has anything to do with it, who do I plan on blaming? I agree with the comment posted by Dan Close that it is a maturity issue and not a generational difference. However, I am starting to think that my generation is not held to the same standard and isn't forced to maturity as soon. For that there are probably an uncountable number of causes. As far as education is concerned, I think that grade inflation plays a huge role, and the fact that being a student is no longer a full time job promotes this. I just got back from three weeks in Europe. I spent some of that time touring universities to learn about student services overseas. One of the most remarkable differences I saw happened when we would ask our hosts what kind of student services they offered and how the supported different student needs. Their response was almost always a more appropriate form of We don't do that at the university; if you baby them forever, they will never grow up.

Love it or Hate it

Since I've started my internship at the advising center, several people have asked me if I love it or hate it. I've been assured that it is a very polarized option. Now that I am in my final week, I can make the assessment, and I am definitely in the realm of love it. That said, I think that I am with in the spectrum and not on the polar end.

I know that it is not over, and I shouldn't get all nostalgic yet, but this has been a great experience. Every day I get to meet a half a dozen new students and talk with them about what they want to be when they grow up. I get to give advice both as a past student and a current professional. The best part about it, is that in each one of them I can see the excitement about getting to go to college. Some of them are overflowing, and others it is just a twinkle in the eye situation, but all of them are radiating that anxiousness and energy.

I would like to spend some time in the advising center when it is not a peak period before I make any commitments, but I think I could happily do this for the rest of my life. It is a big deal for me to say that considering all the second guessing I've been doing lately. I love meeting the students. I love hearing about their aspirations. I love talking with them about their potential when they haven't decided on their aspirations. All of that appeals to my human interaction side, and then I get to work out their schedules which appeals to my problem solving side. Each student brings along an new little puzzle for me to solve. I have to fit all of the pieces that are their classes, their work schedules, and their study patterns (or sleep patterns) together to make a first semester course load that will promote their academic success.

You must be asking why I'm reluctant to put myself all the way to the end of the love it spectrum. Part of it is probably because of the questioning that I've been doing lately. Part of it is not knowing what the rest of the semester is like. The final part is that I'm not sure it will challenge me in the way that I read about in Maslow's Self Actualization. A friend was trying to explain to me that it is a drought or flood situation. Part of the year there is seemingly nothing to do, and then pre-registration comes and you are seeing students non-stop. I think whether or not I love this job hinges on that drought period and my supervisor. If I had the freedom to fill that drought time with research and projects that inspire and motivate me, it would be incredible. If I felt like that time was spent improving education, it would be everything I could ask for. However, I see the possibility that my personal higher ed interests can not be pursued during that time. Just because there are not students here, doesn't mean that there isn't anything to do. It is that time that will determine how much I love this job.