I see an environment where members’ talents are discursively engaged to the betterment of the community, as a self-reinforcing thing. The more receptive community members are to each other’s talents and perspectives, the more our attempts at contribution are acknowledged and honored, the more empowerment we will experience, and the more dedication we will model for others in turn.

In this chicken-and-egg situation, I place slightly more importance on the element of acknowledgement and validation of each others’ contributions. Too many good-willed attempts to get involved and meet some need of the community, become fragmented and even counterproductive when other community members don’t adequately reach out to integrate and align efforts. I’ve started to practice thanking people when I see them putting attention into their “beloved community”, knowing how much I have wished for that appreciation at times.

Thank you for your honesty — and it’s great to hear your voice on the “Dean’s Blog”!

I agree with what you say — the process towards engaging social justice issues is slow. And I agree that this campus, this school, Middlebury, has tremendous potential. I’ve said as much to Ron and Alison plenty of times.

But we have to face some facts, I think: the MLK Keynote, yesterday, was, well, woefully attended. It was embarrassing to me and I had no explanation when MP12 asked me, “Why? Is this what happens at Midd?”

Why, then? Are we looking into this?

1/2 of Palana was there, too, the other half working. This brings up another problem I think: “minorities,” for lack of a better word, and international students are the student labor class on campus; this mirrors everything else associated with labor on our campus, our community and our cities. With all the potential we have at Midd, this is the best we can come up with? The most challenged students, those needing the most time to work on developing their skills and knowledge are the ones that do the labor on campus. That’s justice in the Dr. King world?

Then, as was raised during the “read in” of Dr. Akom’s article on Eco-Apartheid, Monday at the CCSRE, we have the problem of quality of life and the actual “apartheid” that takes place in our stress-driven, production-driven classrooms where certain members of our community, students that is, usually of color, are punished because their respective backgrounds don’t meet the ideals of the punishing compression of our semester and the amount of work that students must undertake.

We’re not asking these tough questions. We’re not examining alternatives. We’re not putting our shoulders to the creative wheel and trying to imagine a healthier alternative. We never wonder, for instance, why J-Term is enjoyed by so many and why, right now during J-Term, students are already talking about how they dread the coming of the Spring term. Why are dread and education accepted as synonymous? And are the relationship between dread, education and social justice?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do spend every day — and every class I teach — trying to understand how what I do relates to students in equitable ways.