And What About Service?
By Sandra L. Dixon,
Ph.D.
University professors build their careers
by revealing new ways to perceive the world. They take great
pride in their research and publications. The popularity of their
courses often hinges on their scholarly production. What academically
motivated undergraduate student would not want to attend lectures
given by the person who wrote their course text or who offered
them new insights into physical, emotional, or spiritual realities?
A professor can recognize a direct proportionality between her
research and teaching, and, hopefully, the students benefit from
this phenomenon.
Although teaching and research can easily be juxtaposed throughout a professor's career, a third aspect of a college-level educator's life is not so simply incorporated: service. Without a doubt, teachers perform great acts of service every time they walk into a classroom. The very fact that they willingly share their knowledge and experience with others constitutes service; that is, they readily give assistance when it is needed or sought.
I like to think that the verb "serve" suggests just as much excitement and creativity as the words "teach" and "research." Frequently, the ability to offer help depends on effective communication—an integral component of a lesson plan. Any teacher-researcher must be able to convey sophisticated ideas to initiated and uninitiated listeners.
Consequently, offering to assist in community affairs can prove to be a natural extension of an academic's career.
When a professor can combine her love of communication in a service project, an exceptional professional experience results. I find such a blending of interests rewarding because as a U.S.-born professor of Spanish and Portuguese, the concept of effective communication has multiple meanings for me. I speak, write, and read in three languages, and I can understand these languages in spoken and written forms. Having the advantage of being literate in three languages, I try to encourage my students to achieve a similar literacy level in whichever language they may study.
For years, I took literacy for granted. Throughout 16 years of teaching in a department of multilingual colleagues, I rarely recognized how unusual it was to pick up a local newspaper and then to go to my computer to find out what was happening in any Spanish-speaking country on CNN-Español. It was the normal order of things to get the latest news on the energy crisis from a Brazilian perspective from Folha de São Paulo. With all of these resources at my fingertips, I could read about anywhere in the world. As an added advantage, I could live certain historical moments in the language in which they occurred.
All of my complacency about literacy suffered a blow in 1993 when I joined Literacy Volunteers of Monongalia and Preston Counties. After going through the training session, I was assigned a student with whom I am happily still working. As I reflect on these past years, I can appreciate this service opportunity as a truly exceptional professional experience. Most certainly, I bring my expertise as a teacher to the tutoring sessions, but I also bring an open mind which can understand three distinct systems of expressing ideas. Often, I call upon these linguistic resources to help me in explaining the spelling irregularities and the grammatical idiosyncracies so commonly found in English.
My private odyssey from self-satisfied academic to committed literacy worker was replete with setbacks, small frustrations, and joyous revelations. Through it all, I realized that my awareness of illiteracy among Morgantown residents was what would compel me to inform others. It would drive me to work harder in the classroom to impress upon my students that they should not be complacent about their literacy, taking their communication skills for granted.
According to the 1990 census, 10,000 adults in Monongalia County did not finish high school. Although this statistic does not specifically indicate that these adults cannot read and/or write, it does suggest that perhaps they lack the skills and knowledge to successfully cope with daily living. In the course of a day, an adult may have to read preparation instructions on a food package; read and fill out job, loan, or credit card forms; write a note to a child's teacher; read instructions on how to operate a microwave oven, VCR, or CD player; and end a child's day with a bedtime story. None of these situations should make a person feel anxious or powerless. Writing, like speaking, is a way to affirm one's presence and existence in the world, while reading is the principal method of acquiring information. Without the skills to adequately express oneself in these ways, a person cannot be a full participant in today's society. As a result of developing strong reading and writing skills, an individual becomes a more articulate speaker, thereby facilitating communication.
The ability to transmit ideas, desires, and emotions can be developed so that others can understand us; not just our words, but also who we really are. Good communication skills are always prized in any profession, but most notably they are indispensable in teaching. As professional communicators, university professors daily offer help and understanding to their students, but as citizens with specialized knowledge and a high level of communicative abilities, professors can innovatively assist in local service projects. By utilizing the creativity displayed in the classroom and by calling upon the perseverance shown in their research, academics are able to contribute more than they may imagine to the community within and beyond the university campus.