Blog Post 6 - Hockman

I like to think of myself as a collaborative teacher and researcher but always a student. I will not devote this blog post to a philosophical tirade, but you reader should know this: We are always students of every thing.

For purposes of our graduate student positions, I currently most associate with being a student. Although I have spent much time working professionally since my bachelor's degree, I find myself falling back into the student "grind." I worry about grades (oh geez too much!). The stress of keeping up (and sometimes not)with readings, assignments, and collaborative discussions proves at times a challenge. I am in awe and have much respect for our instructors and faculty, so I am anxious in their offices and weird when I smile and wave in the hallway. Yes, you are right; I am a child. Oh, and calling them by their first names?! Still trying to get that straight. My teachers (and some peers - definitely friends) are equivalent to celebrities.

Now, how do I see the teacher and scholar thing fitting in? My advisor Paul Heilker keeps me sane. I am very grateful for his encouraging words as I bud into a scholar and young researcher. Writing this blog makes me ask, how do we define a "scholar"? I define researcher as someone who actively does research in some capacity. But a scholar? Should I assume this to mean someone that can take the research to a higher level of thinking and creation? Wikipedia defines scholarship as "the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public."

What about when I am on Christmas break and I read an article that enlightens my being, I then unconsciously us that knowledge in my life at a later date? Do I have to directly share this material to be a true scholar or engage in true scholarship? There is a reason for this tangent - At this point in the semester, I am reconciling the academic scholarship requirements with my personal scholarly inclinations and ruminations. Were I to pursue academe as a career, I would assume this reconciliation a continual, asymptotic process.