On the Naming of Things
This will be the third version of the blog post I said I would submit for the week of April 4-8. Perhaps there are ways to interpret April 10 as a day within this range. More likely: I’ve not met my obligation. This is not for lack of trying. The first draft produced a few pages on my East Central Writing Center Association Conference presentation. Too egocentric. The second draft gravitated toward narration of my teaching origins, inspired by a question Jill Crane asked while sitting down for a meal at ECWCA. Eh, too maudlin.
So here’s the third draft. We’ll see what happens.
Lately, there’s been a bit of conversation surrounding the role of writing centers, about what it is we’re supposed to be doing and how we should go about doing it. Actually, strike that. What I mean is that I’ve been attempting to generate and engage in some conversation about the role of writing centers, about what it is we’re supposed to be doing, and how we’re going to go about doing it. This question has been on my mind for some time, but I’ve addressed it with palatable urgency since becoming director of Marian University’s center in Fall ’15.
And it could be that this question is largely rhetorical, although if so, it’s been an effective tool as my recent conference presentations were all generated in response to it. I’ve found myself thinking more about this question lately, thinking it possible I’m close to an answer. Which is to say: I think maybe I’ve known the answer all along, but I’ve been biding my time in the off chance continued percolation will enhance my understanding and prevent me from saying something too simplistic.
But first: I was driving to Marian this afternoon, a Sunday, to attend the student achievement awards ceremony when the answer to this question finally hit me. Earlier in the week, Lydia, who normally tutors early Sunday afternoon, had requested off because she was to receive an award today. In the resulting conversation, it became apparent no one was available to take her shift because a significant number of tutors were also receiving awards, and KC was involved in the Out of the Darkness Walk (along with Rachel Carroll, also walking). We needed to delay our regular opening time this Sunday because of the number of tutors who were either being recognized for their academic and community achievements or who were actively pursuing their commitment to shape the world into a more just place.
That brings me to this:
writing centers are in the business of making the world a better place. As cliched as that may sound, it remains true.
Our work is to serve others, our community, and ourselves through language, one word and sentence and paragraph and document at a time. By doing that, we demystify the approaches to challenges, the abstract becomes concrete, and the naming of a thing becomes the first step in making it real. Words matter. Literacy matters. And we prove it every day by sitting and learning and collaborating with everyone who walks through our door or sits down next to us.
Writing centers provide a space to listen and question, to investigate thinking and to challenge our own literate processes by
being brave enough to have conversations that matter
and demonstrating what it means to ask questions. Sometimes easy questions, but often difficult ones too. About ourselves. About others. About the supposed nature of things. When centers facilitate this type of interaction, everyone involved in the process is encouraged to think critically and— more importantly— to act upon critical thought.
How will we know if we achieve this level of engagement? There are probably a few ways to assess this, but I feel like we’re on the right path when we are forced to remain closed when no one can work because so many peer tutors are receiving academic achievement and service awards. I feel like we’re heading in the right direction when our tutors present at national and regional conferences and influence broader conversations about the role writing centers should have on campuses and in communities. When tutors engage in original research, labor alongside Indianapolis community members, draft multiple novels, and write publicly with brutal honesty about personal struggles… well, it’s hard to not feel genuine hope the world will at least be an okayish place.
Yes, this post sounds largely self-serving.
Our tutors are the best!
But in thinking about the essential purpose of a writing center, I keep coming back to the idea that a center should be space for the collaborative investigation of self and community. How we investigate is through writing, language and literacy. But it is essential that we investigate. This should also be true for those who work within the center and collaborate with others. If we’re actually doing what we say we’re doing, our peer tutors will establish themselves as scholars, as intellectual and social advocates who are not content with the current order of things because they have practiced the act of questioning them. If our center is doing what we’ve set out to do, these tutors— and everyone with whom they work— will know they are capable and responsible for charting their own path forward. They will know the world is eager for them to name the things they will alter and maintain, curate and create.
As of today, I’m feeling confident and proud that we’re getting there.
-M.L.