Note to my fellow academics
Kept brief because I came down with a stomach bug three hours ago.
(Shout out to lydiabell and mirander: onset was very sudden, might want to stock up on ginger ale. I'm so very, very sorry.)
One of the reasons I continue to call myself an academic rather than just a teacher, despite doing very little formal research and working on a level of higher learning that is, like, one or two inches higher than high school, relatively speaking, is that I think it captures something fundamental about myself. I don't just teach. I learn. Even if my learning is no longer organized, my basic approach to life is that when something new comes along, something that interests me or that I'm going to have to engage for one reason or another, I research it. I Google, and I read books, and I listen to those who know more than I do. I do not do so uncritically, but it is a thing I do. One of the reasons I defend the appropriateness of academic discourse in fandom is that it is, for me, a tool of learning.
So I say this to (some) of my fellow academics: you are forgetting that part of your job. You are forgetting that expertise in one area can mean squat in the area just a few sections down the shelf. You are forgetting to shut up and listen as well as speak.
Stop that.
Because seriously, when I read people commenting about how they don't like academics, it makes me sad, but right now, I can't really argue with them. Just...shut up for a while, will you?
(Note: this is not a call for sympathy, reassurance, or support. I am not the person who needs those right now.)
(Shout out to lydiabell and mirander: onset was very sudden, might want to stock up on ginger ale. I'm so very, very sorry.)
One of the reasons I continue to call myself an academic rather than just a teacher, despite doing very little formal research and working on a level of higher learning that is, like, one or two inches higher than high school, relatively speaking, is that I think it captures something fundamental about myself. I don't just teach. I learn. Even if my learning is no longer organized, my basic approach to life is that when something new comes along, something that interests me or that I'm going to have to engage for one reason or another, I research it. I Google, and I read books, and I listen to those who know more than I do. I do not do so uncritically, but it is a thing I do. One of the reasons I defend the appropriateness of academic discourse in fandom is that it is, for me, a tool of learning.
So I say this to (some) of my fellow academics: you are forgetting that part of your job. You are forgetting that expertise in one area can mean squat in the area just a few sections down the shelf. You are forgetting to shut up and listen as well as speak.
Stop that.
Because seriously, when I read people commenting about how they don't like academics, it makes me sad, but right now, I can't really argue with them. Just...shut up for a while, will you?
(Note: this is not a call for sympathy, reassurance, or support. I am not the person who needs those right now.)