Feedback on Comps

Cohort 30 Burnaby

July 2016

Master of Education in Educational Practice Field Programs,

Faculty of Education

Simon Fraser University

Dr. Michael Ling & Dr. Sue Barber

Jenny Hughes

 

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Sue would like to thank you so much for making the effort to get to the presentations despite your injury. Our class has certainly benefitted from hearing how your inquiry about trying to help students at an alternative school develop self-regulation skills has come full circle. Along with your images and videos, you have helped all of us realize the full impact of what it is like to be a teacher in your school. It takes a very special person with incredible gifts of love and caring to take on these responsibilities and our whole class appreciates the impact you are having on these students’ lives.

 

You provided so many telling examples of what you do on a daily basis, such as something as simple as telling students you love them, and getting the message across that you believe in them and have faith in their ability to succeed. It was also very moving when you said that you don’t read their school reports; it only proves this is a hurting person with a lot of problems that have resulted in more problems. This speaks to your ability to see a whole human being and to be that person in their life who is fully supportive. Sue also appreciated your narrative about your family that so clearly identifies where you come from. Maybe you are modest, but maybe also you don’t see yourself as being particularly special when you come from a family of special people.

 

Something crucial to remember is that the other side of the job is not so evident, and that is self-care must play a more significant role in your life than in other teachers’. In the future, it will be necessary to commit to a plan to schedule down time, when you are completely away from the weight of your responsibilities. Sue also urges you to continue to fight for the funding your school needs. You might choose to continue to do research on the impact your school has on the students’ lives after they leave school. Possibly, there could be an extension of this program put in place for students who need support out in the world but in an adult community that is safe and they can rely on. It will be important for you to partner with like-minded and committed educators and spread the work around.

 

Thanks for the tremendous difference you are making in so many lives.

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Dr. Sue Barber

 

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Dear Jenny,

 

I am always fascinated by the relationship, indeed, the dynamic, between families and the paths we choose in life. You spoke in your paper so movingly of how your family, with your mother as a teacher and coach at the local high school, your father as a lawyer for those who are often marginalized by society and by the legal system, your sister “your life-long adventure partner,” and it conjured up for me an impression of a life that has been filled with love, yet not in a smothering way, but a love that has invited you to be ‘you,’ and to be ‘you’ out in the world, active, and involved, a life that of honesty about the realities of other people’s lives, and of the importance of compassion and understanding.

 

Please excuse what might seem like my dime-store inferences, but when I look at the pictures you shared, of your parents on the motor-bike en route to Haida Gwaii, and the one of the four of you on the bank of the Squamish River on Family Day this year, what I feel I see is a grounding of support and love, support in authenticity, in independence, and in compassion for others, and joy and vitality at being with each other, and at being alive. It doesn’t surprise me that you have chosen this path, Jenny, but I do find it inspiring, humbling, and deeply moving.

 

Both your written comp and your oral presentation were such fine embodiments of all these qualities, Jenny. They both rang true, and rang clear, with a voice that is so authentic, unaffected, genuine, creative, a voice that is both sensitive and bold at the same time. You, Jenny, indeed do have an impressive voice, both literally and figuratively. Your descriptions of your students and your C2 are cleareyed, yet compassionate, evocative and engaging, but never a false, or florid, or meaningless turn of phrase in the mix. A sentence like “growing up in a small town you quickly learn: that everyone is always watching, that not everyone has been dealt the same cards (of life), and that everyone has a story.” A line like that, that displays insight, humanity, and clarity of prose in a compact few words, is the kind of thing Annie Dillard, or Mary Oliver might write, and that is not the only example in your work, nor in your presentation (I’m recalling in my notes from our comps weekend this one: “I want to move from being the teacher who does damage control, to helping students control damage in their own lives.” Indeed. And, you have a ‘voice’ in terms of the substance of what you are saying, what and whom you are advocating for, and a vision for what you are aiming to provide for your students, one that is forward-looking and yet aware of the realities and complexities of their, and your, situations.

 

Your paper, Jenny, was a superb embodiment of what a comp should be. You drew on and distilled the ideas from relevant literature, you clearly and methodically described what you did, what you learned, what you want to do Feedback on Comps, Cohort 30 Burnaby July 2016 Master of Education in Educational Practice Field Programs, Faculty of Education Simon Fraser University Dr. Michael Ling & Dr. Sue Barber further. Your application of Gordon Neufeld’s ideas, your use of Meyer’s lenses of ‘living inquiry,’ your wonderful insight that literature is data, sharing transcripts of conversations, your fine use of the ASRI as a tool in your inquiry, your astute reflections or analyses on an idea or an incident or on the importance of your critical friends (Avio, Lynda, Jo-Anne, and Martin), all of these are more than sufficient elements in a successful Comp. But I feel you went deeper than all this, Jenny, you presented yourself, and your students as fully fleshed out and alive beings in the complex ‘dance’ that is embodied in the socio-politics of our time. You make dignity and humanity a priority, even in the face of incidents that might challenge our compassion.

 

This inquiry work, if done deeply, is really ultimately ‘soul work,’ and you indeed embarked on that kind of journey, fearlessly, and steadfastly. As Thomas Moore, the author of Care of the Soul wrote: “...to the soul, the most minute details and the most ordinary activities, carried out with mindfulness and art, have an effect far beyond their apparent insignificance.” This is what I think you have attended to, Jenny, the seemingly ‘minute details’ and ‘ordinary activities’ of life at ‘Altie,’ details and activities that might be censured, denied, punished, in other settings. So, thank you, Jenny, for being you, and representing your inquiry and your journey so fully, and deeply. I’m absolutely deeelighted that you are continuing a Commonplace Book. And, I want to wish you well with the Well-Ahead Project, and your “11th semester” ;-) and would really look forward to hearing about that in time!

 

Brava, Jenny, and all the best.

 

M 

 

PS – and I too hope you’ve healed well and fully from your injury, and as Sue said, kudos and our gratitude to you for so unflinchingly and joyfully attending and participating so fully in the whole Comps weekend, when you could have begged off…but I know that wouldn’t be ‘you’ to want to do that!