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   StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:22:14 JST StillIRise1963

   If I were 40/30 years younger, I'd be losing my fucking mind right now.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:22:13 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 Ask me about teaching college

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:28:34 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 Well, students are stressed, anxious, struggling in a way that threatens to squeeze out the joy. I mean, college has always been a time of nascent awareness of the sheer magnitude of the world’s problems, and the indignation and distress that comes with that. But this is something else. One of my advisees said to me a couple years ago: “It feels like the world is going to hell, and only the chosen few are going to survive.”

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     StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:28:35 JST StillIRise1963

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands Tell me everything!

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:31:26 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 Everything I just said applies far more broadly, of course; we’re all going through the wringer right now. But it hits differently when it mixes with the narrative of college preparing you for life, maybe •determining• your life. This is it! This is your chance to survive! Wait, it doesn’t all make sense now? You don’t feel 100% prepared? Probably you’re doomed then! Work harder! Achieve more somehow!!

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:36:36 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 Yes to all this: https://mastodon.world/@StillIRise1963/111603790674148754

     It •is• really sad. The joyful, mischievous, exploratory, chaotic side of college comes much harder to students now than it did in my day — which is sad, because •that• is a crucial part of what’s going to truly help them learn and grow, and also of what’s going to help them save the world.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:37:45 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 I don’t want to overstate. The students are wonderful, and their lives are not joyless, not at all. But the balance has shifted; the undertones are different.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:48:26 JST Paul Cantrell

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     • Prof Prachi Srivastava

     @prachisrivas @StillIRise1963 (I’m glad you had a good doctoral experience! That world is such a mixed bag.)

     I once told a class about some of my college escapes: secretly running ethernet to the un-networked dorms, blocking off the street with traffic cones on a summer night and moving all the lounge furniture out into the street…

     …and they looked at me with utter incomprehension. They apparently don’t do shenanigans like that anymore.

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     Prof Prachi Srivastava (prachisrivas@masto.ai)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:48:27 JST Prof Prachi Srivastava

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands

     I'm with you. I had energy and made time for things I"m not sure I would have now - student elections, student journalism, volunteering, and my ongoing interests. It was a great time. Less so time for those things during my PhD, but certainly during undergrad and master's - and my doctoral experience was still pretty wonderful.

     @StillIRise1963

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:50:19 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 YES. Very, very, very few things make me as hopeful about the future as my students. They are such excellent human beings.

     The world might yet be in good hands, if only we can make sure it and they survive long enough for them to be running it.

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     StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:50:20 JST StillIRise1963

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands I get it. I see it too. I also see amazing hope for the future when I read applications.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:57:41 JST Paul Cantrell

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     • Prof Prachi Srivastava

     @prachisrivas @StillIRise1963 I wonder about the repercussions. I doubt the institutional repercussions would be anything worse than the kind of “please stop that” we’d get back in my day. I expect the •fear• of repercussions is far greater now: students feel vulnerable in some deep way now that I think was much less common 25 years ago.

     But most of all: I don’t think they have time or energy for the shenanigans. They’re barely keeping their heads above water.

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     Prof Prachi Srivastava (prachisrivas@masto.ai)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:57:42 JST Prof Prachi Srivastava

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands

     I think there would be serious repercussions to those things now.

     On the doctoral experience - it was absolutely lovely (not perfect) and Oxford is still one of my happiest places.

     @StillIRise1963

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:58:29 JST Paul Cantrell

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     @StillIRise1963 Yup. Want it and want to work for it. And it seems to me that the baseline expectation of kindness and mutual caring has increased.

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     StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 07:58:30 JST StillIRise1963

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands Exactly! I like them a lot. Really good people who want change.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 08:04:00 JST Paul Cantrell

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     • Prof Prachi Srivastava

     @prachisrivas @StillIRise1963 Yes. Social media always comes up in these conversations, as two theories: (1) the pressure of the panopticon, as you posit, and (2) screen time displacing meaningful action / interaction. I think there’s a little to (2), and a lot to (1).

     Additionally, I think the stakes of college just feel higher now, per upthread. I tend to think folks grossly underestimate that factor. Social media’s on the public’s radar; this other part isn’t so much.

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     Prof Prachi Srivastava (prachisrivas@masto.ai)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 08:04:01 JST Prof Prachi Srivastava

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands

     Agreed on the swimming to stay alive.

     As for repercussions, nothing students do these days is away from the gaze of social media. I think that adds a layer of pressure we certainly did not have.

     @StillIRise1963

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 08:46:23 JST Paul Cantrell

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     • Prof Prachi Srivastava

     @prachisrivas @StillIRise1963 Yes. Very much agreed on both counts.

     Re the second: I do hear that discussed, but in cartoonish terms by those decrying “woke ideology” etc. I wonder whether all that noise — and the nature of the people making it — is serving to drown out the very real problems caused by the increased difficulty of having a community-level (not private, not global) conversation.

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     Prof Prachi Srivastava (prachisrivas@masto.ai)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 08:46:24 JST Prof Prachi Srivastava

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands

     I think for researchers of education and social mobility, the latter has been apparent for some years but perhaps it is not discussed in such terms in public discourse.

     RE: Social media - I think the incentives are perverse for universities as well. If a unit doesn't take action on certain issues, why didn't it, or if it did, why did it? Should it or should it not have? There is more 'publicness' to certain micro-decisions. I think that is less talked about.

     @StillIRise1963

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 09:22:04 JST Paul Cantrell

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     • Prof Prachi Srivastava

     @prachisrivas @StillIRise1963 We’re on the same page here, I think.

     My institution had a painful case study: a controversial art exhibit made it all the way to the opinion page of the NYT, with the actual (fascinating, painful, nuanced, difficult) facts of the matter utterly lost in the noise. In all the public yelling over fictional problems, real ones were lost and left unresolved.

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     Prof Prachi Srivastava (prachisrivas@masto.ai)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Dec-2023 09:22:05 JST Prof Prachi Srivastava

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     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands

     Yeah, I hear that too but it isn't what I mean - far from it. Much more about equity and social justice and fairness to students and to the community. The discourse is usurped.

     @StillIRise1963