Trenchwork

This has been my Fall term kickoff week. I’ve had one lecture with the local university; other lectures, exams, and coursework are crowding the horizon but for now I have a couple weeks’ break with them. It was also the first week of the LIT 207 class with SNHU.

I’ve done a fair amount with the Norwegian uni over the past year, and as I set up materials and watched the flurry of activity on the literature class’s discussion board, I have to confess that I have missed the routines and expectations of the American system. Monday was a holiday, but by Wednesday, virtually all the class had responded to half the assignments scheduled for this first week, and which are not due until tomorrow. It strikes me that the Norwegian university system does its students a disservice by not building regular interaction into part of the course requirements, or by not expecting that level of activity. Ultimately, they survive, but I find myself wondering if they come away with the richness of experience I wish for my own students in the U.S. system. Certainly that is not to say that all American students have that experience, either; while I hope for it, I cannot even guarantee it for my own students since so very much depends on them. Yet, I’m half convinced that North America’s stricter structure and higher degree of active engagement in the higher education system paves the way for these students in order to facilitate that possibility. I rather fear that the troops I meet here are far too often left with wandering and solitary paths—and while learning is an individual experience, it is so much often more easily attained (and enjoyed) when one has company.

Nevertheless, I cannot say how pleased I am with the level of engagement I’ve seen with my American students this week. They’re an eclectic group, literally circling the country, and I’m very much looking forward to working with them.