Non-traditional Students in the Writing Center

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged! I have been absolutely swamped with work. Anyways, this is a bit of my free writing from class today and my thoughts on some things that we talked about!

          We read about a lot of non-traditional students in the writing center, but it seems to me that these students don't frequent the Richmond writing center the same way that they might at a big university.  Smith specifically references older people who go back to school after being in the workforce or not completing their degree originally. As a small, expensive private school, I wouldn't expect that many people would choose Richmond to finish their degrees. I would expect they would choose larger public schools. This being said, I wonder if this article really applies to the Richmond writing center. The one thing that I thought did apply to our writing center was the issue of some of the students being product focused rather than process focused. I think regardless of whether someone has been in the workforce or not, the majority of people are product focused, especially in a competitive environment like Richmond. Both traditional and non-traditional students are driven to succeed and because of this many people are product-focused, with the exception of those who are genuinely concerned with writing, such as English tutors. What does it even mean to be a non-traditional student? Does this mean people who are not college age? It seems to me that we should have an individual approach for everyone who comes into the writing center, rather than grouping them based on their age or whether or not they fit our traditional stereotypes of a college student.  I think if you go into a session with pre-conceived notions about the best way to go about a consultation just because of the person's age, you are already discrediting the fact that he or she is an individual with his or her own writing needs. Rather than saying "Oh this is a non-traditional older student, so I need to approach our session in this way," we should be saying "Oh this is an individual student that I need to approach in a unique way just like every other student that comes into the center."

Gardner says,

"Given my earlier linkage between 'several non-traditional students' and the label 'quickfixer,' the terms themselves may lead us to practice based only upon generalizations and stereotypes."

        I think this is a very important point and one that we need to remember. We need to be vigilant in trying to avoid consulting based on stereotypes rather than individuals. 

         Also, we touched on the issue of the power struggle with a non-traditional student. Since they are older, it seems a bit awkward to be telling them what to do or acting smarter then they are. They are our "superiors" and most of us were raised to be respectful to our elders, but just because we are helping them with their writing doesn't mean that we are disrespecting them in any way. They are coming into the writing center because they are acknowledging that they need help and that we have the skills to help them, so I seriously doubt that they will be offended when you try to help them. Of course, it may feel awkward, but we should remember that we are facilitators of writing and are not given this position to be authoritative. As long as we keep the same respect for the non-traditional students that we are expected to have for traditional students, there is no reason that our consultation should feel disrespectful or uncomfortable. These people want to learn and want to improve just as much as anyone else and we shouldn't withhold our comments or wisdom for fear of insulting them.