Category: Series

The Attention Gym I: Building Capacity for Attentiveness in the Classroom

This post discusses the importance of learning how to pay attention for undergraduate students, highlighting its decline in today’s digital age. It emphasizes fostering students’ attentiveness through classroom practices, framing the learning environment as an “attention gym” or a workout for the mind. Through various exercises, assignments, and reflections educators can help students reclaim focus and develop essential skills for vocational discernment.

A series on how to help our students strengthen their abilities to pay attention to their lives, the world, and their vocations.

Fred Rogers

In a 2022 Atlantic article about Fred Rogers, Adelia Moore recounts her experience in the 1970s as a one-time guest on an episode of his television show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and her subsequent friendship with him. In addition to his “gentleness, kindness, and empathy,” she describes the most magnetic and distinctive part of Mr. Rogers’ persona as his attentiveness, claiming that the character trait that made him such a powerful figure was “his capacity to pay attention.” This capacity, she laments, has become increasingly rare in today’s world.

Attention as a necessary and threatened resource has been on the minds of many (if not all) of us in higher education for a long time, especially those of us who think about undergraduate education in vocational terms. For obvious reasons, that concern intensified during and after the pandemic: on this blog in 2021, Jason Stevens argued that attention may be the resource most under threat in our current moment. In the last decade, several books—by authors like Tim Wu, Jenny Odell, and Chris Hayes—attest to this ongoing and worsening threat. Jonathan Haidt, author of the widely read The Anxious Generation, has recently said that he increasingly sees the assault on children’s attention as on par with the mental health consequences he attributes to children’s smartphone use.

My contention is that, in order to help students develop their attentive faculties, we must not only help them see the problem clearly (which so many of them are already acutely aware of); we also need to give them active ways of reclaiming and strengthening their capacity for sustained focus. One way to do that is to name the classroom an attention gym—a space where a key goal is to develop the muscles we need to become more attentive people.

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Teaching Shakespeare as Vocational Formation

The writer reflects on her complex relationship with teaching Shakespeare, acknowledging a history of not fully understanding his work. However, through teaching, she’s realized Shakespeare’s plays prompt essential vocational reflections and discussions about life’s ambiguities. These challenges evoke meaningful insights for students, shaping their perspectives on personal struggles and societal issues.

The Cobbe Portrait of William Shakespeare (circa 1610), public domain.

The first post in a series on Shakespeare, pedagogy, and the power of literature to help us navigate ambiguity in our callings.

I am a teacher of Shakespeare with a fraught relationship with the Bard. Every time I walk into my upper-level Shakespeare seminar, I hear notes of vocational dissonance, and my imposter syndrome surges.

This tension may have begun when I received a lower-than-expected grade on my Hamlet paper in the ninth grade. Or maybe because most of the performances of his work that I saw before adulthood (and after, if I’m honest) left me feeling like I didn’t quite understand what was going on. Even as I completed my dissertation on 16th-century British literature, my advisor had to nudge me: “You know, you should really let Shakespeare make an appearance.” I did, but reluctantly.

My resistance to Shakespeare wasn’t a response to his canonicity or to problematic depictions of sex, gender, or race—though these issues can be good reasons to evaluate when and how we teach his plays. Perhaps like others who feel pressured by our culture to like Shakespeare but don’t particularly enjoy or understand his work, I resisted him because his plays resisted my interpretive grasp.

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You Are Not Enough: Limitations Are Essential for a Healthy Vocation

This post discusses the importance of recognizing and embracing personal limitations in professional and academic life. It emphasizes that acknowledging these limits can lead to healthier work-life balance, reduced burnout, and greater vocational fulfillment. The authors advocate for strategic decision-making regarding commitments to enhance well-being and productivity.

A co-authored series on what faculty members need to thrive vocationally.

If we’re being honest, most of us hesitate to admit to our limitations. Instead, we overpromise, overcommit, and sometimes even burn out. We often attempt to skirt our limitations, power through them, or ignore them and hope they won’t trip us again. Yet doing so can lead to a downward spiral of feeling inadequate, hoping that accomplishing something might raise our spirits, but then we reach our limits and feel inadequate once more.

scrabble letter tiles spelling limits
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What if, instead of dodging our limitations or carefully hiding them from others, we accepted them openly and graciously—and considered them as central to a healthy vocation?

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Recognizing and Valuing the Identities of Student-Athletes

This post discusses the deep connection between student-athletes’ identities and their athletic experiences, as they often dedicate significant time to mastering their sport. This focus can limit their exploration of other interests and vocational opportunities. Educators are encouraged to understand this context and foster holistic support for student-athletes’ academic and personal growth.

A series on vocation and student-athletes.

young athlete training outdoors in arizona
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According to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of intentional work at a particular skill to achieve mastery. For student-athletes, especially those who have practiced their sport since childhood, they often reach this status by the time they reach middle school. For educators who work with collegiate student-athletes, we must recognize that they have spent most of their time and energy building mastery in their sport, and they view the work ethic, dedication, and diligence needed in this context very differently from how they master skills in academic settings.

For example, in a straw poll in one of my classes, students indicated that some of them started playing sports as early as the age of three. When these students reach college, they have experienced most major emotional, intellectual, and physical milestones as an athlete. Their athletic identity developed right alongside their identity as an individual: being a student-athlete is deeply rooted in who they are, not just something they do. If we do not understand the context and depth of this identification and its importance, then it can be challenging for faculty and staff members to work with our student-athletes.

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Why Vocation Is Never Solitary

This explores the relationship between self-awareness, vocational exploration, and community feedback. It emphasizes the importance of balancing individual and collective identities, suggesting that insights from trusted others can reveal strengths and blind spots. The Johari window tool is recommended for deeper self-understanding and growth in vocational contexts.

A series drawing on a therapist’s insights into play, wandering, and presence in relation to vocational exploration and discernment.

In the first post of my series, I offered a method of reviewing your childhood self at play as a way to provide insight into your being-role, an aspect of yourself that is necessary to cultivate to flourish vocationally. This approach could suggest incorrectly that vocational exploration is primarily inward focused and solitary. But vocational understanding requires more than introspection. From our earliest moments, self-understanding emerges in relationships with others whom we trust and who can clarify strengths or needs that develop latent attributes within us. Exploring vocation requires both inward and “other-ward” attention.

collage photo of woman
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In this post, I offer a reminder that we are never simply an “I” unto ourselves. U.S. culture—especially in academic contexts—heavily skews toward individualistic notions of the self, yet there is always a “we” in any “me.” Many of our collective networks speak powerfully to our identities and the manifest forms of our vocations if given the opportunity. Social psychology posits that in any one individual there are many varied selves dependent on the social environment. The self that you reveal to your family at home around the dinner table is notably different from the one you present at a professional conference. Both are authentically you, but specific aspects of the self are more dominant in each environment. Often different aspects of ourselves may be more visible in a particular social context and therefore may be witnessed more directly by those in our life and somewhat obscure from our own recognition.

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What’s Next? The Dignity of Work in a Culture of Climbing

The author reflects on the impact of the “What’s next?” mentality, which can lead to stress and dissatisfaction among students focused on future achievements. He contrasts this attitude with the need to feel contentment in our present work and lives. Promoting a sense of dignity in labor may help cultivate healthier aspirations and appreciation for the present.

A series on vocation, the dignity of labor, and the misconceptions that prevent us from valuing all work.

My favorite show of all time is The West Wing, and the evidence of that love is everywhere. Questions from the series adorn my computer at work. I have Toby’s rubber brainstorming ball in my office. I devoured podcasts about the show years after it went off the air. I’ve bought my wife West Wing gifts, as she has for me. And it’s possible that two of my kids were named after characters from the show (okay, that was a coincidence). The most famous line from the show is probably the oft-repeated phrase, “What’s next?” These words are President Bartlet’s motto as he navigates his days in the Oval Office—his way of saying that the present task is done, and it is time to turn our attention to other matters. I love its crisp, clear, directional tone and the way he uses this phrase to lead his team through their shared work together. As I’ve watched the series over and over, these words have wormed their way into my lexicon as well. I’m guessing my fellow West Wing fans can relate!

There is another way of asking that question, though, that is less helpful, particularly for those of us who work in the field of vocation. I remember when my son—who is about to start college this fall—was in the eighth grade and visited a local high school. The guidance counselor, not surprisingly, asked him what kind of college he hoped to get into one day. He rattled off an answer and the counselor responded that if he wanted to get into that college, he would have to test out of freshman level math that day, as an eighth grader. It was disheartening to see the way a middle-school student tied his college hopes to the outcome of an exam he had to take at age 14. This exam created an overwhelming amount of undue stress. In his mind, it carried the fortunes not of his next step of high school, but his next-next step.

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Sustaining Our Vocations with Purpose and Joy

This post introduces a co-authored series addressing the vocational challenges faculty members face in higher education. The authors share their personal experiences as they reflect on their own vocational shifts at work. They emphasize the need for a sustainable approach to vocation, highlighting key themes like recognizing limits, the importance of community, and cultivating joy in their work to support faculty thriving.

The first post in a co-authored series on what faculty members need to thrive vocationally.

female teacher looking stressed
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After receiving the news that I, Elisabeth, had been awarded tenure and promoted in the spring of 2023 at age 39, I felt elated—and then, immediately burned out. Certainly, the summer before, when I submitted my application, had been arduous. My family sold and bought a house, we moved, my husband started a new job, my kids started at new schools, and we all got COVID. Then the school year seemed to fill every possible nook and cranny of time. As news of this milestone spread, colleagues asked, “How do you feel?” I answered, “I need to figure out how to do this job sustainably and with joy. Or I need to do something else.”

I, Kristin, accepted my first job as an assistant professor in 2021 when I was 37 years old, following five years of graduate school and ten years as a high school teacher. I enjoyed teaching but was ready to pursue research and writing more intentionally. By the time I turned 40, I had developed seven different courses across four programs and was serving on several committees, mostly unrelated to my research. I realized I needed to pivot and try again, or I would never reach my research goals before going up for tenure.

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Building a Vocational Praxis of Teamwork

This post explores how community-engaged learning (CEL) fosters vocational exploration through teamwork. It highlights the transformative potential of collaborative experiences, enabling students to enhance communication skills and discover their personal and communal responsibilities. Real-life examples illustrate how teamwork can significantly impact personal growth and understanding of vocation as a shared journey.

A series on the role that community-engaged learning can play in vocational exploration and discernment.

silver and black pens on a black surface
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As previous posts in this series have illustrated, community-engaged learning (CEL) is a powerful pedagogy for facilitating vocational exploration. This post builds on those insights to show how opportunities for teamwork in CEL projects can further deepen vocational work. Most faculty members recognize that teamwork enables students to construct knowledge together, simulating the kind of collaboration, problem-solving, and communication that is ubiquitous in professional environments. Indeed, teamwork promotes the vital skills that the National Association of Colleges and Employers heralds, which include the following:

  • Careful listening,
  • Understanding and asking appropriate questions,
  • Managing conflict and making compromises,
  • Interacting with and respecting diverse viewpoints and personalities
  • Meeting ambiguity with resilience and agility,
  • Meeting one’s responsibilities, and
  • Developing strong, positive working relationships.

But teamwork also empowers students to discover their gifts and talents, to consider their life purpose, and to examine how their life journeys are, as Erin VanLaningham writes, not “singular paths,” but rather roads intersecting with and affected by others. Teamwork shows how our lives are “called forth by others,” in Jason Mahn’s framing, because it enables us to build new relationships in purposeful communities. This post provides an example of an intentionally designed teamwork experience in a CEL seminar to show how this high-impact practice of collaboration can be marshaled for vocational discovery.

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Theatre for Vocational Discernment

Theatre plays a significant role in vocational exploration and community-building by encouraging students to take risks and engage deeply with their identities. Through acting classes and other theatre-related experiences, students discover their purpose and develop confidence, fostering essential skills for their future vocations and creating a supportive community environment.

A series on the role of theatre in vocation, with a focus on how it supports community-building, the uncommon good, and vocational exploration and discernment for all our students.

theater audience applauding performers on stage
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Lights up on theatre acting classroom, full equally of theatre and non-theatre students. Students stand in a circle.

STUDENT

(To the theatre instructor)

Wait, what are you asking me to do? Make a weird sound?

THEATRE INSTRUCTOR

Yes! Anything you feel inside, just let it out.

STUDENT

Um, okay, sorry, I don’t know if I’m doing this right.

THEATRE INSTRUCTOR

Try not to worry if it’s right, anything that comes out is fine. The goal is to take the risk to be silly and discover it’s okay.

team in a huddle
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STUDENT

(Looks around nervously and blurts out)

BAAAHHHH!!!

(Class erupts in applause and laughter.)

OTHER STUDENTS

(overlapped adlibbing)

Yes, that was great! Loved it! So good! Knew you could do it! Fun!

Lights fade as STUDENT can’t help but smile out of pride.

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Re-discovering Life’s Purposes through Childhood Play

This post discusses the importance of understanding one’s vocational identity through the exploration of “being-roles,” which are modes of existence reflecting innate attributes. The author emphasizes the value of childhood experiences and play in revealing these roles, suggesting that vocational discernment is a continuous process of self-discovery and narrative evolution.

The first post in a series drawing on a therapist’s insights into play, wandering, and presence in relation to vocational exploration and discernment.

happy children in mantles playing outdoors
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As a therapist for almost two decades, I’ve listened many times to clients voice their vocational confusion as they ask, with a gnawing ache, “Who am I?” and “What is my life for?” and “Is this all there is?”

The ages of my clients have varied widely, but their quest for meaning and the identity distress they’ve experienced are similar. In his work on psychosocial development over the course of our lives, Erik Erickson recognized identity, relationships, and service as innate human crises to be resolved during different ages. He noted that, in adolescence, we struggle with identity vs. role confusion; in middle adulthood, generativity vs. stagnation; and in late adulthood, integrity vs. despair. Identity formation and meaning making are not single developmental tasks but recurring psychological negotiations across the lifespan.

As we negotiate these phases, psychologists Dan McAdams and Kate McLean theorize that people develop a “narrative,” an evolving life story, that helps them make sense of transitions, challenges, and their place in the world. As a result, questions of meaning may re-emerge during young adulthood, midlife, and retirement, when individuals are often revising the stories that they tell about themselves. These theories about our developmental stages and narrative identity suggest that vocational angst is not a failure of direction, but a recurring process of meaning reconstruction throughout one’s life.

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