Kairos

I tend to encourage my students to write on topics and questions that relate to their intended fields of study, without considering that there may be more immediate problems or issues they might wish to address.  Crowley and Hawhee’s essay has made me reconsider this approach.  I need to keep in mind that students are not only taking my class, and that they have a wide knowledge base to pull from at any given point.  If a question or problem in one of their general education courses strikes them as particularly interesting, perhaps it is the place of the composition classroom to allow for investigation and critical thinking.  I like the idea of a “weblike relationship” that can evolve from various courses, assignments, historical moments, and personal insights.

In my own experience, classes that are taken simultaneously do converse with one another and allow for the moments of kairos that Crowley and Hawkee mention.  It may be the result of coincidence or happenstance, but it seems that if we could encourage students to recognize and take advantage of these moments, they would not only find composition courses more immediate and meaningful, but they will be able to relate these issues to their personal lives.  Perhaps a student is struggling with an issue that is completely unknown to the instructor, but in a moment of kairos is able to use the atmosphere of the composition classroom to express and potentially resolve the problem.