Embracing Neurodiversity

Oct 042012
 
 October 4, 2012

Poetry is something that baffles me, but occasionally allows me an insight that seems a form of the sublime. I often do not understand it. I often avoid it. And yet, I decided senior year to take a T.S. Eliot seminar with Victor Strandberg. Much of the semester I toiled through hazy ideas of what the lines may mean. Then in the midst of Four Quartets, I had a moment of epiphany, and felt I had experienced knowledge so much deeper than mere comprehension. It was a powerful experience, and one that I was afforded because of the opportunity to immerse myself in the lyrical language, to become accustomed to that type of sensibility, that type of neurology.

I am thinking about lyrical language as a type of neurology because of a couple of recent articles (one from the Chronicle, and one from DukeToday) about Ralph Savarese, a visiting fellow at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. He is a poet and English professor, but has also worked extensively in the field of autism research, in large part because of the experience of raising his adopted son DJ, a classical autistic. He points out that while it has been traditionally assumed that autistics cannot comprehend figurative language, he thinks they are in fact well suited for literary language, if given the opportunity to strive towards literacy and/or develop their own unique neurology.

He asks that we think of autism as a form of neurodiversity, rather than a disability or disease. The problem for classical autistics is not always that they cannot comprehend or express certain concepts, but that we are not patient or accommodating enough to allow them to be conveyed. We can embrace this concept on a broader level for how we relate to all types of people.  If we think of a certain neurology as a “culture,” then we should know to be respectful of diversity among these cultures. That might mean those who speak other primary languages, those who have not assimilated to an online culture and do not think in modern technological terms, or those who do not easily retain numbers. (I will readily put myself in the latter category—retelling a story or interesting news item can go woefully awry when I try to quote a figure…was it in the thousands or millions?)

Savarese’s research is fascinating to me, and makes me more aware of how I relate both to other people, and other forms of comprehension and expression. I’ve just checked out Savarese’s book, Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption, so perhaps I’ll have more to report soon.

Practice Your Craft (A Lesson for Myself)

Sep 122012
 
 September 12, 2012

I wrote part of this post on a legal pad. Does that sound completely foreign? What would cause me to write things out in pen and ink, when typing in a Word document is basically ubiquitous and so much faster? Well for one, I still hold out for cursive writing, and will defend its increased speed and easier flow compared to print. But regardless, the process is certainly more measured and deliberate, and I think that’s just what I needed.

I was thinking a lot about the process of writing this weekend. I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, after watching the video of Ann Patchett’s talk to the Duke Class of 2016, and reading about Maya Angelou’s speech to the same group.

Maya Angelou gave her annual address to my class in 2007, and I was awed. She is a master of words, stringing them together with the rhythms of jazz and with the weight of history. Her language consumes. I’m not sure what Angelou’s writing process is, whether she sits down with a legal pad or a notebook or a laptop, but she clearly focuses on expression in a very deliberate way. She also pays attention to her influences—both literary and familial—and urges others to do so.

When I pay attention to Angelou as an influence on me, I find myself focusing my speech, phrasing in a way that will make the most impact, and delighting in an expression that truly does justice to my thoughts. I write and speak with greater intentionality when I have a clear and non-distracted focus on something that inspires me.

I do know a little more about Ann Patchett’s writing process. She shared that when she starts to formulate a storyline, she builds it up in her mind, it becomes absolutely the most inspired storyline anyone has ever conceived, and then… “everything that is glittery and gorgeous and full of life” comes out on paper and is dead. Anyone who has tried to produce anything—not just writing—has most likely experienced this block. Even in these short blog posts, I feel the agony and disappointment of translating my mind’s work into a reality. As Patchett says, going from “head to hand is the death of dreams!”

The solution is simple, yet tremendous: focused and devoted practice, until you make “a clear passageway from head to hand.” She attributes her success as a writer to the fact that she can sit for eight hours a day and simply practice the art of writing. Neither Patchett nor Angelou woke up one day as Great Writers, and they only qualify as such because they work at it. Every day. All the time. Malcolm Gladwell made popular in his book Outliers the theory that the most successful in any field—from Bill Gates to the Beatles—have put in at least 10,000 hours of practice at their craft. Mastery isn’t something one simply acquires; it’s something one earns, little by little.

This is probably not a message we want to hear. But hopefully the craft we are practicing is something that we love. Investing time and energy includes us in a community of that craft, at whatever level we may be. I found it a little bit easier to put pen to paper when I was immersed in the language of Angelou as a literary influence, and in the frame of mind of a writer. So focus on the things that give you inspiration, enjoy being in the community of your craft, and then practice producing your own work. In an incremental, disciplined process, you will start to make your own contributions.

First Week of Class: Conversations and Cupcakes

Aug 312012
 
 August 31, 2012

I’m coming back from an Open House hosted at the Kenan Institute this afternoon, and it was a perfect cap to the first week of class. Allow me to recount quickly my building enthusiasm going into the weekend (in small part, I will admit, due to the delicious cupcake I just enjoyed at the open house…thanks Daisy Cakes!)

Starting Monday morning, the atmosphere was noticeably different. First, when I entered the door there was a fresh Chronicle waiting for me to peruse over my morning coffee. That has become a ritual more now than as a student, as part of my attempt to stay well informed of campus affairs. New Kenan signage (including a revamped logo) was in place around the building. Most importantly, students were again wandering the halls of West Duke. Some were wandering into our office suite and needing slight redirection to their Math 31 class.  That’s all part of the job at a university, though, and one that I really love. If you were one of those students, come back and chat after class sometime—just don’t ask me for help with Math 31!

Some of the students I saw in West Duke this week were recently returned from DukeEngage Dublin, the same program where I got my start with Kenan four years ago, so I was very excited to hear about their experiences. I think they would all go back in a heartbeat, by the way. Other students were new to Kenan, as part of the latest FOCUS cluster in Ethics, Leadership, and Global Citizenship. In counterbalance to the eager and promising group of freshmen, we also have a group of Ethics Certificate students participating in a Discussions in Ethics course, and they are mainly upperclassmen with distinguished track records at Duke and serious deliberations already completed about the role ethics plays in their studies.

Going on up the ladder, we have a new set of Graduate Fellows who will be participating in our Monday Seminar Series. The kick-off seminar this week was led by Graduate Fellow Shana Starobin, who also added excitement to the week with the news of her participation in a White House forum on hunger. You can read about her experience, and her work on food insecurity, on the Nicholas School website as well as in this Chronicle Q&A. And of course our faculty are back in the office on a more regular basis, discussing exciting plans for the coming year, and enlivening conversations in general.

It was the interactions and the conversations with both old and new faces at Kenan that made for such an exciting week. Let it be known that I am an extrovert and a noted small-talker, so an increase in the number of people around me is likely a good thing. But the layers of connections become more intricate and rewarding with each school year, as I am starting to see. I have a broader network with both students and faculty around the university. I have a fuller knowledge base with which to guide new connections, such as a freshman interested in getting involved in x or y, or a new senior fellow wondering just how the institute model fits into the university.

Each first week of class brings the prospect of expansive new learning as well as meaningful relationship building. Paramount to both of these things is a healthy amount of dialogue and conversation. Whether that’s through a specific program or an informal hallway chat, Kenan works hard to promote a space for such conversation. One of our catch phrases is “think and do.” Perhaps we should add an intermediary along the lines of, “think, talk it out with the interesting and informed people around you, and do.” I know my work, this blog included, benefits from such a process. So here’s looking forward to the upcoming conversations this school year will bring. Best served, of course, over cupcakes.

Perceptions vs. Realities

Aug 292012
 
 August 29, 2012

Let’s lay the negative stereotypes aside, please.

Another year at Duke has begun. I’m having trouble acknowledging the fact that it has now been five years since I unpacked, went through Orientation Week, and started class for the first time.  Yes, I feel a bit older this year, and the freshmen seem a little younger. But that process of how exactly to fit comfortably into life at Duke is still very near.

Hopefully students are invigorated by all the messages that this is their time, that they can pursue anything that they wish, in any number of creative ways. They should take these messages to heart, because Duke means it. But we all know there are some negative stereotypes lurking as well. Effortless perfection has for several years been the theme of campus culture—the bright, engaged kid making incredible strides in his or her field, and yet feeling internally overwhelmed and forced to make compromising decisions to maintain self-image. If there is any word I would use to describe a Duke student, it is intense. We have to succeed, so we do what we must.

But must we lie, cheat, steal, and sleep around in a YOLO whirlwind through the four shortest years of our life? Well, apparently not. Let me introduce you to two different studies that came out last spring, and which I hope will be a good foothold for the coming year. One is a report on Duke Social Relationships, and the other on Integrity in Undergraduate Life at Duke. It turns out students have healthier relationships, and value integrity more highly, than perceptions suggest. The Duke Social Relationships Project found that students do have meaningful friendships and relationships, and build a strong sense of belonging through any number of routes, but particularly through academic engagement. As a Chronicle editorial put it last spring, well-being is within our grasp.

I did my fair share of contributing to the “work hard, play hard” stereotype, and then bemoaning its effects on college lifestyles, such as the lack of a dating scene. I probably could have figured out the lifestyle I was comfortable with for myself a lot easier if I had gotten the notions of a student body full of crazed, social climbing competitors out of my head. It turns out there were a lot less of them than I thought.

The integrity report also gave me quite a reality check.  This rigorously constructed and executed research project, conducted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and the Academic Integrity Council, gives us real insight into how students both think and act, inside and outside the classroom. Compared to a similar study five year ago, there were marked reductions in several areas of dishonesty, yet the perception of dishonest behavior was far higher than reported cases. Again, let’s embrace the positive reality that a life at Duke should be, and usually is, one of integrity both inside and outside the classroom.

Besides the fact that our perceptions just don’t match the realities for either study, there are a couple of interesting ways that these two studies intersect. One is in an area I’ll call the ethics of collaboration. Innovative, collaborative education is a prime way to promote the holistic sense of belonging that comes with academic endeavors. It involves increased engagement with faculty, peers, and real-world problem-solving situations. It is also clearly the direction in which the university is heading, with curricular experiments such as DukeImmerse, a focus on interdisciplinary programs and initiatives, as well as undergraduate opportunities for vertically integrated research projects. But with this emerging model of education comes understandable confusion about standards and practice, what should count as collaborative versus individual effort. The two categories in which academic dishonesty had increased were related to collaborative, team-based work. A conclusion of the report was that “Duke has a real opportunity to establish clear, consistent strategies and best practices in communicating integrity standards for teamwork.” I’m going to challenge students—along with the administration—to think proactively about what those standards should be.

Another finding from the integrity survey links back to the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. Students had clear ideas of what was ethical versus unethical, and were largely not engaging in the unethical behaviors. And yet, they were averse to taking action against dishonest behavior, overwhelmingly because it was “not my business.” While it’s common to have a strong individual sense of integrity, we don’t always translate that to the campus at large. The small percentage of dishonest behavior becomes conflated to the point that we think it applies more broadly than it does! We are a generation that advocates for tolerance—a good thing in many, many cases.  But there is a danger when our tolerance borders on moral relativism.

Yes, we are intense. But, on a personal level at least, we are also very intentional in what we care about. Let’s be a little more intentional in how we care for the university as a whole. That means affirming the positive realities of our campus culture, taking pride in a community of integrity, and proactively thinking about how to move forward with these conceptions of life at Duke.  Future classes will thank us for it.

Project Change: Learning to Lead in Durham

Aug 132012
 
 August 13, 2012

Prepare to be changed.  This is the message we give 21 incoming Duke freshmen when they arrive in Durham for Project Change, Kenan’s pre-orientation program.  Admittedly any student heading off to college is going to expect some changes.  Leaving home, meeting new friends, discovering and defining interests—as a proud alumna I can say wholeheartedly that Duke is a fantastic place to do these things.  And Duke is becoming more and more recognized for promoting the idea that change should not just happen “inside the walls of the university.”  One of three core tenets displayed on the Duke Admissions site is engaged immersion.  That immersion could take place literally anywhere in the world.  But what about right outside the walls of the university?  What about in Durham, North Carolina, the city of residence for at least the next four years of students’ lives?

Admittedly there is more interaction than there used to be.  I have actually been living in Durham for seven years now (hard to believe— that is almost a third of my life!), first as a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Math.  I’m not sure we ever ventured further than the shops and restaurants of nearby 9th Street.  As a college student my classmates and I had more freedom to roam, but there seemed to be this invisible wall at the end of Brightleaf Square, especially as an underclassman.  Throughout this period, though, there has been increasing hype about Durham’s revitalization and food scene.  So maybe Duke students are venturing into Durham a bit more for the hip new bar or restaurant—I know I took satisfaction in introducing my friends to Motorco Music Hall senior year— and walking further downtown without joking about getting robbed at gunpoint is indeed a positive step.  I should also point out that there is great enthusiasm for “engaging” with the Durham community, through all manner of service-learning courses, tutoring programs, and volunteer opportunities.

In order to integrate these ideas about how students might be a part of Durham, Project Change tries to delve a little deeper into students’ perceptions of it.  We want students to participate in the life of their new community, to contribute to its well-being.  But we will challenge the perceived contribution they can make as a group of young adults new to the city, unaware of its strengths and weaknesses, as well as its people.  They no doubt have creative ideas and energetic spirits.  And Durham certainly benefits from the intelligent, innovative minds of Duke students, who have and will continue to make an important impact.  But just how can they be ethical leaders in this new place?  They can learn a lot from the incredible organizations and people that they will meet during Project Change, from those who are already tapped into the heartbeat of the community.  In figuring out how they will engage with Durham, they will first need to do a great deal of listening, paying attention, relating to the community around them.  Notice we are the ones to be changed.

We also, of course, want students to enjoy being residents!  Our strategy is to send kids headlong into the city upon arrival and learn what it has to offer.  That means a crash course in its history, its geography, its attractions, and yes, its food scene.  The discoveries may come through any manner of wacky activities—from intense team competitions, group puzzle-solving, and even a few fabled game show challenges.  (A highlight of the week for me is judging some of these events!)  Part of the experience is working through the initial discomfort of being unsettled, and relying on both new classmates and new neighbors to find their way around.  Ultimately they will be proud of what they know, and will be way ahead of the game for their next four years in Durham.

We hosted a reunion this spring for the first four Project Change classes, as the inaugural class was about to graduate and head into the wider world. They have new communities to inhabit, and I think are rightly humbled by how much they don’t yet know and what they hope to contribute.  It will be another opportunity to learn, engage, and eventually be enriched by a mutual relationship with a new place.  For the freshmen about to arrive, I hope they are ready to do that with Duke and with Durham.

It’s going to be a fun and crazy week for all of us.  As one Project Change student said last year, it taught him to “try new things on a gigantic new scale.”  Look out for more on our antics and adventures this week, and perhaps some of the changes that come about for this new cohort of Durham residents.

Welcome from the Kenan Insider

Aug 122012
 
 August 12, 2012

Hello all! I am glad you have found your way to the redesigned Kenan Institute for Ethics website, and welcome to The Kenan Insider!  As my tagline says, I will use this space to discuss happenings both at the Institute and at Duke, and to think about what it may mean to “live the ethical life.”  Allow me to tell you a little about my insider’s perspective.

A 2011 graduate of Duke, I have just completed a full year working at the Kenan Institute, and couldn’t be happier.  My first exposure to Kenan was through DukeEngage Dublin after my freshman year, which inspired me to complete the Ethics Certificate Program.  Through these experiences and others, Kenan provided cohesion to my academic experience unlike anything else at Duke.  So when I was interested in entering the field of higher education, there was no better fit than my own alma mater, and the program that had helped define my goals and interests.  Now I get to see things from the operational side, and am constantly learning more about the university – in many ways I am more informed about university life now than I was as a student!  While gaining practical skills, I also have first-hand knowledge of interesting content coming out of any one of our centers and initiatives.  Working with students who are in a position similar to mine just a few years ago is also extremely gratifying.

Some highlights from the year were planning for the 2012 Kenan Distinguished Lecture in Ethics featuring Professor Paul Ekman; working with a talented team from the Institute to sponsor this year’s Duke Winter Forum on Refugees, Rights, and Resettlement; and hosting all manner of fascinating speakers through our Monday Seminar Series.  All of these events brought together interesting subsets of the university, and all probed at real-world ethical challenges in a way that kept my brain spinning!

Right now I am very interested in concepts of community, and how we engage with the groups we belong to.  With this framework in mind, I am excited about helping lead Kenan’s pre-orientation program Project Change this week – look out for more on that soon.  This framework also leads me to think about how both individuals, and institutions like Kenan, should be citizens of the university community.  That will be an ongoing exploration.

I’m looking forward to covering our diverse work at Kenan, and hope to illustrate ways in which research, education, and practice can together promote more nuanced ethical reflection.  There’s always something exciting going on around here, so stay tuned!  Feel free to offer your feedback, or let me know of interesting news on campus.

Best wishes for the upcoming year, from the Kenan Insider!

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