Showing Appreciation

This week I have been thinking about how we share our appreciation for others. The pandemic has demonstrated, more than other times in our lives, how important it is to let others know we appreciate them for who they are, what they mean to us, and what they may have done to support us. It also has highlighted how there are two kinds of people in this world, undershow-ers, and overshow-ers. 

Undershow-ers rarely tell you that you are appreciated verbally because maybe that is not how they show things, so they may show you in other ways but not as often, like with cookies or flowers, or a poem. Some categories of undershow-ers just don't show appreciation at all. These people may be too wrapped up in their individualism or ladder climbing to stop and appreciate all that has gotten them to where they are. So we need to be careful about undershow-ers, because one set of undershow-ers just show things in the way they are capable of doing so when they can, while the other set will never show appreciation and you either have to be okay with that, or find ways to minimize how much you need to interact with them.

Overshow-ers are the opposite. I am an overshow-er, I have been told I am an overshow-er, some people feel uncomfortable about how overshow-y I am. I can't help it. That is just how I am. If I appreciate you, you will know it, trust me. I will probably tell you a thousand times, I will probably buy you random presents for no reason when I can just to show you that I am thinking of you and I appreciate you. 

But I have been thinking about how we show this appreciation in higher education. Like what does higher education appreciation look like? Is it tenure? Is a continuing status? Is it being hired as a sessional for 10 years teaching the same course? Is it a letter for your portfolio/dossier? Is it an award? Is an email? A text message? I have been questioning and wondering about the differences between what the systems acknowledge as appreciation, and what human beings need as appreciation and recognition because I think those are two very different things. And because they are two very different things, that is how folk become burnt out, or disillusioned, or not motivated, or choose to leave academe. 

The same goes for how we show students our appreciation, which I think doesn't happen nearly as much as it should. That is probably why when that "don't say thank you for sharing" article was making the rounds a few months ago it hit a nerve with some folks in academe. "Thank you for sharing" is often the "easiest" way of showing appreciation towards students, so to say we shouldn't do that kind of leaves folk with hard decisions to fill that gap. You can show appreciation by having students co-create syllabi or assessments or activities. You can show appreciation by having activities in class that allow learners to bring their whole selves to the class if they feel comfortable doing so. Showing students appreciation means being aware of the systems that you working within, the power dynamics you are trying to question, and the excitement that a collaborative learning environment can bring. 

So I ask you, how do you show appreciation to both your colleagues and your students? Let's crowdsource a list of great things and show our appreciation a lot more, because folk need it!