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Not a Five Paragraph Essay
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 Not a Five Paragraph Essay |
topic started 7/27/2005; 12:13:21 PM
last post 7/27/2005; 12:13:21 PM |
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 Dan Mitchell - Not a Five Paragraph Essay 
7/27/2005; 12:13:21 PM (reads: 2852, responses:
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In no particular order, some thoughts and recollections of my dear colleague John Lovas.
I don't recall exactly when I came to know John as a friend, but it was sometime early in my sixteen-year tenure as a member of the full time faculty at De Anza College. At first he was simply one of those senior faculty members who seemed to understand those things that are often mysterious to new faculty, and who was able and willing to articulate them.
One of my earliest specific recollections is of a time when I was concerned about missing a class to attend a conference. I didn't want to leave my students in the lurch, and I was probably obsessing about how to get a substitute or perhaps wondering whether I should even go. Somehow I ended up talking to John about this. As John would frequently do, he responded to my concerns with a notion that was pretty much the polar opposite of what I was thinking. To paraphrase, he said, "You know, Dan, your students may survive a day without you. In fact," he said with that wry smile that we all remember," there is a pretty good chance that they may even enjoy the day off."
I still think of this virtually every time I have to miss a class. As a new teacher who was probably still undergoing tenure review this odd little bit of "John Wisdom" was very important to hear. First, it reminded me that, stunning as it may seem, I am not the center of my students' lives. Second, as I understood as I came to know John better, he was reminding me that learning is about the students, not the teacher.
That idea was key to John's teaching in a very real way. While as conscious as anyone of the technical aspects of writing, it seemed to me that his passion was engaging students with writing as a tool of personal expression. Beyond the proverbial five-paragraph essay, John had his students writing and considering just about every form imaginable, from poetry to street texts. As John wrote on May 31, 2005 at his blog:
And so the teaching challenge is to get the student to connect the banalites to real experiences, observations, or recollections. When that happens, there's a real chance for a paper worth reading.
Recently John and I worked together to understand blogging and its potential in education. He started his own blog over a year ago where he wrote significant material every day for a year or more, finally allowing himself a few days off after posting hundreds of daily messages. Then he moved to having his students use blogs as a writing tool. They experimented with class blogs, collaborative group blogs, and individual blogs.
John loved to talk - but you already knew that. ;-)
As he and I worked together over the past few years we encountered one another more frequently around campus; in the quad outside the Administration building, in the mail room, and walkng cross campus. On virtually every occassion, "Hi, John" would turn into a 90 minute conversation. (Yes, I like to talk, too.) Most of these encounters would occur late in the afternoon when many faculty had perhaps left the campus for the day. It became a regular event for me to call my wife to say, "Sorry, I'll be late again." (Pause) "Yeah, John."
Recognizing that the most minimal greeting ("Hi, John.") would likely lead to well over an hour of conversation that neither of us could break off, eventually we adopted a mutual but unspoken arrangement. When we encountered one another we would stop and think about our responsibilities during the next couple of hours. If they were minimal or flexible, we'd launch into conversation. If not, one or both of us would smile and say, "No time today" and we'd keep walking, knowing that to stop at all meant that we would miss our appointments. In truth, most of the time we stopped and talked.
These conversations covered a wide range of topics. John, of course, knew the history and personalities of De Anza College as well or better than virtually anyone. I came to value this knowledge more and more during my tenure as Academic Senate President, when understanding the precedents and history of the place became more important to me. John also had great hopes for renewing and revitalizing the campus community. We spoke of his desire to see faculty debates and discussions. And, of course, we would talk about blogging, usually with the goal of figuring out how to use it as a tool for effective teaching and learning. On occasion he had opinions about Bay Area sports teams.
The reality of John's absence hit me on a late June afternoon as I walked across the campus between the L-Quad and the Administration building. I think that I come to anticipate running into him as I crossed this part of campus. On this day I understood that I would not meet my friend this way again, and I felt the loss deeply. However, as I looked around the campus I began to understand the deep and enduring effect of a personality like John's, and my sense of loss was tempered by gratitude for the chance to know John as a friend and colleague.
Dan Mitchell
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