Don't Ignore the Symbolism

Many have finished their first week of teaching in post-secondary around Canada and the US this week in whatever ways that happened for them. Twitter has been filled with expressions of anxiety and questions about what next and what can be done individually and collectively to reposition the importance of humanity and care in all levels of education and pedagogy.

It's a lot for many and I will probably say this at least 14 different times this semester, we need acknowledge that it is a lot, for the instructors, for the students, and for the staff because when we stop acknowledging that it is a lot or start to support the education-system wide desire to make everything "normal" or 2019 or erase what folk have been living through for 3 years, we do ourselves and students a disservice. 

Today I want to focus on symbolism and how we need to be attuned to the kinds of symbols we encounter in our educational work. The etymology of symbol comes from Greek for a watchword, and later from the Latin for a mark or summary. We are surrounded by symbols every day, but sometimes we don't recognize them until much later. We don't know what they are summarizing until we reflect. I started thinking about symbols this week because I was thinking about my plants, but then realized there was a real connection to everything else (because you know that is how symbols and systems work). Let me explain.

So I had to come to my parents' house last month because the medical system where I live has and continues to fail me. I acknowledge the privilege of being able to go many many hours away to see if I could get better care, and how many do not have that. I am grateful- and am feeling a bit better than I have been in a while, and also am grateful to be able to get the booster that I can take here when it would have probably taken me until April or more to get it where I live. I knew I would be away for a while so I brought 4 of my favourite plants with me (because I don't trust my neighbour to water them). 2 of the 4 plants are ivy. I bought a bunch of ivy house plants last year because, well I am an academic nerd, and the ivy symbolism I felt was something I needed after working at home since early 2020. Of the 4 plants I brought here only 1 is actually surviving and it is not the ivies, it is the spider plant. My ivies have died; probably because it has been -40 here for more than a week, there is rarely any sun, and my parents' house has almost no insulation. It is cold in this house. The ivies decided to curl up and call it a day. 

I mean the symbolism of losing the plants I liked the most, the ones that had connection to the work I do is not lost on me. It's coincidence you say, it's cause it's cold where you are. Sure, maybe, but also maybe the universe is trying to tell me and all of us who work in academe to pay attention. I am choosing to not ignore the symbolism.

I am choosing to not ignore the symbolism because I am reading my students intro survey responses and seeing other instructors talking about their experiences as the semester starts. I am noticing students are being more vocal about what they need, about the realities of what they are working through both within the educational system and with their other life responsibilities. The fact that students are in general being more trusting and more honest gives me hope. They are reaching out because they want their instructors to know what is going on, and instructors are giving more of those opportunities because they also want students to know they care about what is going on. The fact that this is happening more and more is also symbolic. It is symbolic of the need to recreate and redefine relationships of trust in education. It is symbolic of the old systems of not knowing who are students in your class  simply does not and cannot work any more. The older systems need to curl up and call it a day. The older systems of disconnection do not serve in this new world. Many harmful decisions are being made based on those older systems of disconnect.

Maybe you are noticing this too. Maybe you are having more students reach out to you. Maybe you have decided that you need to be honest with your students just as they are honest with you and to build that trust to get through the semester in a meaningful way. This is really symbolic of a shift that is happening in pedagogy. It is symbolic of a shift that the systems of "return to normal" are not acknowledging. 

So I guess today I'm saying don't ignore the fact that ivies are dying and they are trying to pretend they are not. Maybe they need to die in order that a more caring humanized approach to pedagogy and education can survive.