Progress

Higher ed is an interesting collection of people and personalities. Despite what the common narrative may have one think, not everyone is a far-left bleeding heart liberal. Yes, the prevailing perspective from the faculty is progressive. But isn't that what one would expect from those who are literally leading the world in cutting edge research? Does one ever research with the hope of regressing the field? But progressiveness should not be conflated with liberal ideology. I would say, present company included, that academia is filled with people who are selfish (some to a narcissistic level) and obsessive. How else can you explain the level of hyperfixation required to make a life's pursuit out of understanding the most obscure topics? But, life as a faculty member is more than just research and, depending on the personality, that can be an issue.

Currently, we're about halfway through the semester and that means it's time to schedule advising appointments with the students. Not everyone in the ivory tower has a feels a duty to lookout for those below. So when it comes to advising the students on what to take the next semester or how to prepare for post-grad life, you find many who think it is a waste of time because part of being an adult is to figure it out yourself. To them, advising is just a hoop to jump through in order to complete your own agenda or research or whatever scholarly pursuits you are enamored with. I tend to lean the opposite way. I don't know if I would say that advising students is my favorite part of the job. But one of the most beneficial aspects of being within the university system (and why so many of us are progressive) is that we are interacting with the burgeoning minds of the youth. Watching young adults go through four of the most formative years of their lives is both exciting and endearing. It is a constant reminder of how seemingly simple occurrences in my everyday life were once problems that I needed to solve for the first time. Or rather, fail to solve multiple times before figuring it out.

I am currently wrapping up Stoner by John Williams and have been enjoying it on multiple fronts. First, it is written in such a way that it reads so easily for the level of emotion that it brings. Maybe it's because it takes place in Central Missouri, so not too far from where I grew up, but I also find the people in the story completely relatable. The titular character is someone who grew up in rural America, the son of two blue collar parents with no formal education, and goes off to university in order to come back home and help progress life there. Once at school, he finds out there is an entire world out there for him to experience and his life changes trajectory completely. In addition to all of that, it reminds me that universities and academia have been facing many of the same issues since at least the 1910s. And I think that can be said for a lot of what we see in life.

In some circles, being a progressive is seen as either a merit badge or a scarlet letter. But, as I journey further and further into this "fiction only" reading quest and visit more and more classics, I find that there really isn't such a thing as being a progressive on human issues. I'm finding the world has been facing the same problems for centuries; there are just different players involved. And what some consider progressive is simply empathy.

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