On Stewardship

Short post (am I losing my drive?).

 Stewardship is an interesting thing and really something that should be brought beyond the specific contexts it does (religion and the environment). There's all sorts of things that are not ours and yet we are responsible for them. Protecting them, helping them grow and so forth. It's a good way of framing our responsibilities and remember the importance of the work we are doing.

I write about this because the other day I mentioned that my students are my stewardship. Which isn't a normal way of thinking about being a TA but maybe academia would suck a little less if we did think about it this way. For this semester, I'm in charge of helping this set of students have what they need so that they can learn about this topic. The university has entrusted me with these students and they (can choose to) trust me. I may not be responsible for their success but I am responsible for giving them the tools they need to succeed.

Do my students frustrate me? Yes, absolutely. Undergrads are undergrads and as annoying as I was as an undergrad, undergrads here are going to be worse because they're on average younger and less experienced with the world. Are they awful writers who ask dumb questions answered in the syllabus, assignment prompts or lecture? Yep. Would it be nice if they cared about their grades while doing work and not after I've already graded? Definitely.

But they're my students. I do want them to succeed because why wouldn't I? Even the annoying ones don't deserve to do poorly in life. They have lives ahead of them and while this class may not count for much, it's what's in their lives right now.

By framing their learning in this class as my stewardship, I'm putting more emphasis on my responsibility to help them. And hopefully that trickles down a bit, while helping me be more patient, caring and able to see how I can serve them.

This is really disjointed even for a ramble but whatever