This is move-in weekend at UND. I love this part of university life – new faces arriving on campus with great hopes for the future. I have always said that one of the great benefits of being a university prof is the opportunity to be part of this annual process of renewal.
Age is becoming an issue. I have worked on a college campus as a prof since 1975. At the faculty meeting on Thursday, one of my age mates announced he was retiring. He is going to work part time doing distance education from Denver. The time for me to make a similar announcement grows nearer. Not quite yet.
Relating is becoming a little more difficult. I used to relate to new students using experiences with my own kids. Now, as one by one my kids have graduated, even this basis for comparison has slipped away.
You would think working with technology would help, but the messages in this field even seem designed to convince me I am out of date – an immigrant instead of a native. However, I was looking through my Flickr account and I came across an image that helped.
This is a screen capture I generated about a month ago with granddaughter Addie. As a young technology user yet to reach her second birthday, Addie likes to use the computer to talk with “grandpy”. She uses a computer to send video over the Internet and at her age I had yet to experience television. Actually, Addie’s television experiences are limited as well, but that is a parental decision.
So, I walk about campus watching freshpersons exploring with their parents while simultaneously texting to their friends who are back home or showing up at other campuses around the country. I don’t even carry a cell phone. Despite the technical skills that I do have I suppose these students may find me hopelessly dated and unable to relate.
Then, it occurs to me. It is all a matter of perspective and an inevitable part of the grand process. Generations are different and understanding is not always easy. Perhaps these new college students are also already dated and maybe too old to see. The new college students may not understand my life style or values, but Addie cannot understand why they don’t go back to their dorm rooms and contact their own grandpys on the computer. Maybe they just don’t know how yet. Maybe their moms are not there to help.
Change happens and we can always learn from each other as long as we recognize that our perspective is just a perspective.
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