Swimming

Contrary to what some people may think, I do not think that I know everything. In fact, I do not feel that I know very much. There is a lot for me to learn...

When a new employee comes to work for me, I tend to provide minimal guidance. I inform him or her of the minimum legal and clinical requirements that must be met and then allow the person to utilize his or her personal techniques to get the job done. My theory is that the person may have a perspective that will work better than my own. Perhaps he or she has experiences that I do not, which will allow him or her to effectively work with our clients in a way that I never thought of before. I figure that I will allow each my employees the opportunity to sink or swim. However, as their supervisor, I think it is my duty to make sure that I do not allow them to drown.

As an instructor, I am the same way. I inform my students of their assignments, explain the basic criteria and then allow them to decide on the specifics, including format, etc. I do this because I do not want to limit their thinking. I do not want to stifle their creativity...

Tonight I read 42 of the most varied papers ever. Some were great. Some were garbage. Some students obviously worked hard on the assignment. Some did not even have the courtesy to run spellcheck. It is obvious by the variation in the quality of papers that not everyone understood the assignment. Perhaps the guidelines provided were not specific enough. Perhaps they should have been more explicit. As I assign grades to each paper, I wonder how my students will react. Will they take responsiblity for their perceived levels of effort? Or, will they blame me or the instructions for the grades assigned? Each quarter, I re-evaluate my syllabus. Should I keep this assignment? Should I delete this one? How did the assignment benefit students last quarter? Can I improve on how this assignment will serve as a learning tool for students? These questions filter through my mind again tonight as I contemplate the effectiveness of this assignment. Yet, when it comes down to it, I know I will not change things. I will not provide more direction. I will not be more specific. I do not want to limit the possiblities. I do not want to place boundaries on students' intelligence or imagination.

As with my employees, I will allow my students the opportunity to sink or swim, but I will not allow them to drown....