Running Head: FINAL THOUGHTS

CSP 565: Theory II Final Thoughts and Action Steps Katie Mey Western Illinois University

FINAL THOUGHTS You asked us to write something short about what it is we plan to do with what

we have learned in dialogue through this class. I spent a long time considering what it is that I feel like I can do and what I am willing to do to continue my own learning or facilitate the learning of others regarding dealing with these differences we perceive in a way that allows us to deal with each other as human beings. Like a good philosopher, I ran through many thought experiments about what I could say and what I could and would do in various possible situations to preach this gospel from the various pulpits I occupy in my life. After a few days, I was disappointed to find what seemed like a disappointingly short list of plausible and likely action steps. I felt like because I could not be sure that I could and would accomplish some executable task- develop some wonderful workshop or conference or class -that would save us all from ourselves I had nothing to tell you. But I was fortunate enough to have a few interactions with students I work with in the past two days that helped me realize how anti-the point of everything my initial train of thought regarding this assignment had been. The entire semester we have been talking about how hard it is to just stay in the room with each other and try to engage honestly and authentically in dialogue. Though I think there is merit to the idea that I might, at some point in the future, feel that I have the resources and capacity to put together an environment such as a workshop or class that might provide conditions that are more likely to facilitate this kind of dialogue for those who participate in it, the fact that I do not feel so positioned right now is not what is keeping me from incorporating what we have learned into my praxis. What is stopping me is my continued failure to realize that my praxis is not limited to my formal, documented, publicly demonstrated, professional capacities. Praxis is my way of being, and I can incorporate what I have

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learned about the need for dialogical relationships and the importance of recognizing and respecting one another as human beings , or to be human better, into my praxis simply (or not so simply) by being this way in the world. I may not be able to collaboratively plan a workshop that successfully brings students on board to engage around these ideas and learn these things together as a large group before I leave this program. I can, however, act according to this knowledge to the best of my ability in all of the interactions that I have with these students, large and small.

I can, for instance, hold on to the concept of our shared humanity in order to help me listen to two students who are having extreme difficulties working together talk ad nauseum about the failings of one another without becoming bored or losing my temper or throwing up my hands in frustration. If I chose to do so, I can use this awareness to build my own empathy for their experience as novice human beings trying to figure out how to be in relation to one another successfully. If I can develop this empathy, I can stay in the room, so to speak, to hear their struggle and consider the very real pain they are experiencing as they are forced by their context to encounter the other's rough edges and sharp angles over and over again without the ability to make sense of each other as authentic human beings. I can see how, because they lack the ability to really hear or see one another or themselves, they are experiencing these encounters as if their eyes and ears are useless to them- they are unable to avoid running into each other's human roughness and thus they are unavoidably bruising and impaling themselves and one another. I can see that they are doing so through no fault of their own- they honestly do not yet know how to use their sensory capacities any differently to navigate their

FINAL THOUGHTS environment, yet they are being asked to carry out responsibilities that require this knowledge for success. They are being set up for failure because they have not yet been taught to pay attention to their shared humanity first or how to do so. They are not intentionally difficult people, nor are they simply not cut out to carry out what they are being asked, nor are they less human as a result of their inabilities. Rather, they are people in need of the same things I am- practice at being human.

We all need to learn to be better humans, we all need to learn how to see and hear better, and we can do so together. What I can do, then, to bring these concepts into my praxis is to actually practice them as often and in as many areas of my life as possible. I can teach others and continue to learn myself by trying it out (this whole being a good human thing, that is) as honestly and openly as possible. If I can do this even when it does not feel good, despite it not always advancing my status by the measure of society, and even when others cannot do the same in return, and despite not knowing how to do so in each instance a priori, I am taking action based on what we learned. I am making my walk in line with my talk, as you might say. I think that, really, this is all that any of us may be able to do to really take action on what we have learned. It is the only place that we can start to do the work, because in order for any of the 'big' formal or 'professional' things we might aspire to do to be in line with what we learned- to be manifestations of these concepts in action in the world -all of the action that leads to their occurrence must also be in line with these concepts. The praxis is not the resulting event or occurrence, its the way of being and therefore doing that leads to the results. So, in order to take action on what we have learned together, I am going to do my best to keep learning it, and to make this learning a part of my praxis recognizing that I will never achieve 'results' that

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manifest these concepts, but instead that my way of being is the action- that being a better human is a way of being and acting -and that this action is the goal. That way, I will never be finished until I run out of opportunities for praxis. I know I will have opportunities for praxis until I run out of opportunities to be human better. Since we, as human beings, have the capacity to evolve ourselves, I expect will not happen until I can no longer be human, as I should always have the opportunity to be a better human and therefore be human better.

Thats my plan. I hope that it is on the right track. Thank you for spending time with is this semester. I have very much enjoyed considering our praxis and your comments. Have a good break.