I have been thinking a lot this past week about what we read in The Everyday Writing Center and discussed at the last meeting about the "beginner mind," and how this concept applies to tutoring. I think that many people, myself included, are afraid of the beginner mind. We want to have an expert mind, or at least to appear to be experts. Being an expert means being comfortable with what we are doing, not uncertain, able to navigate through tasks easily. Being a beginner means facing uncertainty everywhere and getting things wrong sometimes. But being a beginner is the only way to ever become an expert.
I think this concept relates to some of the other blog posts this week in which tutors have mentioned that students are sometimes afraid of coming into the Writing Center, especially Kate's post about the tutees bringing boyfriends and friends to sessions for security. It comes from fear of the beginner mind, fear of being unsure and not yet confident in one's abilities. Some students who come into the Writing Center definitely feel this, especially when working on assignments for beginning writing courses.
In some of the sessions I've had, the tutees seemed reluctant to talk. When I would offer a suggestion and ask them what they thought about it, hoping that they would say something in response so that we could begin a conversation about the writing, sometimes they would just nod and say, "Okay," like they wanted to take what I had said as an instruction for revising their paper, which wasn't what I meant at all. Then I would have to try another approach at getting them to talk about their writing. I think this is because, as beginners, what we want is definite instructions on how to move forward - anything else seems foggy and complicated.
Another thing that keeps coming up is when I ask a tutee if he or she has any questions, and many of them simply say no. I understand this very well. I remember, when I was younger, in high school or just beginning college, I would always say no when a teacher asked if I had any questions. I thought that asking a question would mean that I hadn't understood the material, which would make it look like I hadn't been paying attention, and I didn't want anyone to think that. This is another fear related to the beginner mind.
The question is, how can we make students who come into the Writing Center feel like being a beginner is not a bad thing, but a great thing because it means that they are free to learn anything?
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I wonder if sometimes that beginners misdefine expertise. I've found that experts, in practice are those that are most able to facilitate and maintain a beginners stance towards knowledge and expertise. Those who know that they don't know seem to know the most. Weird how this works, but I think it has something to say about an ethical relationship to how we think, create, and share knowledge.
ReplyDeleteShould I tell tutees --I really dislike the term cause of the hierarchical top-bottom relationship still implied; I prefer visitors and this includes myself, or even better citizens because all citizens have a voice about affairs even when there are specific citizens that assume positions of different responsibility within a social sphere-- still I should that they know stuff when they think they don't? Who am I to say I know they know?
I think these are important questions, and difficult questions. Certainly I, and we know some stuff about writing. But, so do the people who come to the WC. For me fostering or leveling out the playing field that we all have information to contribute is a good start in working towards making the relationship more horizontal.
What I do, like I said in our meeting - is to begin the session with this in mind. If right from the start, you establish a level ground to the tutee, they should let that initial guard down. What I do is subtly remind them that I am a student as well; with a demanding work schedule, normal humanly problems, and academic struggles just as they have. I think that just the fact of them knowing that you (tutor) haven't always been a writing guru helps them to see that you're their for their growth, not their critique.
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