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Final Thoughts
“I considered how Durst [2006] aptly considers all the balances the composition teacher must face: binaries, power, identities both personal and of the field. However, as Durst implies, the composition teacher has the unique position of lighting the way for students...Perhaps it is the role of the composition instructor to light up the dark.” -- A reading response from my composition theory course, dated September 18, 2022
As graduate students are all too aware, it can be tempting, even easy, to get caught up in what cannot be done. There are days or longer periods where the labor is far too great, the pressures too high, the frustrations tipping into boiling temperatures. We cannot ignore the darkness, the heaviness, the precarity, nor does it serve us to try. Recently, I was a guest speaker for the graduate student teacher orientation at my institution. In response to a question on balancing teaching and research, I explained how, while I was lucky enough to have them entwined, I didn’t begin that way. But teaching brought me a unique perspective on my research and how my interests might be harnessed to improve student experiences, in addition to satiating my own curiosities. In brief, I described teaching as that work of lighting the way. This piece does not exhaust the possibilities for teaching radically or queerly. In fact, I would argue it is just a scratch on the surface. There is far more to be said, far more to be discovered, far more to posit. My central point in presenting this work, for offering this collection of archival evidence and accompanying strategies, is that even in an academic world that is sometimes unfriendly, sometimes restrictive, sometimes harmful, we as graduate students can still find ways to honor ourselves and our students. Though there is always more to be done, we might choose to see that insurmountable task as opportunity, rather than burden. There is always potential to light up the dark.