Balancing our lives beyond the classroom
By Mandi Rice
In her opinion piece last week, “College is hard…,” Anna McCormally summarized a reason that college is hard for many Earlham students: there are so many voluntary things to do with your time, and it’s tempting to do them all at once.
In this piece, I’d like to address students whose obligations outside the classroom are not so easily given up, and suggest that the College as a whole might benefit from discussing the issue of balance.
For some of us, the work study job McCormally suggests we quit is also a job paying for our tuition. Or we send some of the money home, to help our families that are struggling, or we spend it on medicines or rent. In my experience, it’s hard to drop these kinds of obligations.
It’s hard to know how many students are in situations like these, since there can be pressure not to talk about them; however, I can’t imagine such instances have declined during this recession.
The college, as far as I know, doesn’t have financial resources to help students in such situations. The least some of us could ask for is a little compassion from professors—which, as I read it, was exactly what Leifheit and Busch were doing in their first article.
In fact, I thought their suggestion was brave. It can be scary to admit when you’re in over your head in any respect, and it shows integrity to speak that truth anyway.
Talking to professors about personal issues is about more than getting extensions or pity. They’ve been through tough times too, and can be one source of support and wisdom. What’s more, sometimes they’re facing the same issues, like caring for a sick parent.
McCormally’s piece, in contrast, showcases just the kind of reaction I’d feared from my professors, the kind of reaction that keeps people from speaking out — “if you have so many priorities above schoolwork … why are you here?”
Here’s the key: The question of balancing commitments inside and outside the classroom is not limited to students from poor families, or students with an “overwhelming lifestyle.”
It’s not limited to students. Everyone here is sacrificing some alternate version of their life — more time with siblings or spouses, the opportunity to work some other great job, education in a first language, etc. Those can be painful value judgments to make.
A more useful response to Busch’s and Leifheit’s piece might acknowledge the ways that we all balance values and activities we hold dear, and the impact that has on us. The newest version of Principles and Practices addresses this under Simplicity, with queries like “How do I work to keep my commitments in a healthy balance?”
That document suggests that these questions are foundational to the College, and to the people in it. So why is there not more discussion about how we make such choices?
The College strives to be a community that “seeks the intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing of its members.” I think that means that, as we are able, we strive to support each other beyond the limits of a syllabus.
Professors have lives outside of the classroom, full of financial obligations, health concerns, family commitments and other complications. So do students. Maybe faculty-student relationships can acknowledge that territory, too.
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