Nothing runs like. . . -Reply

[Jon Olson <olsonj@cla.orst.edu>]

Thank you, Katie.  It is indeed an exhilirating story.  But, when you
posted it to wcenter, why did you take out the part about Boogers
McGee?  --Jon-boy, olsonj@cla.orst.edu

>>> Latisha LaRue <kfischer@keller.clarke.edu>  2/22/96, 11:28am >>>
Jon Olson says I should send this to wcenter and I do whatever Jon
says  cuz he IS the Kumbaya man:)  It is about the w.l. satellite
session we  had at the John Deere plant yesterday.
			Katie

***********************
Oh Deere, it was exhilerating, it was exhausting, it was unlike
anything  I have ever experienced before (ok, ok there was that time
once. . . ).   First, the lab goddess, Carrie, who accompanied me and
I had to be cleared  through John Deere security to gain entracne to
the plant -- I guess we  looked like corporate spies or something
(the earrings scare them every  time).  As we approached our
outpost/outback w.l. space, I saw 12 clients  lined up waiting for
us, two of us.  Fortunately, we'd scheduled  appointments ahead of
time but some of these folks thought they could  just sort of come
along and Carrie and I would each read two papers at a  time and hold
two conferences at a time.  The positionedness was most  definitely
not interfacing well.  I guess collaborative teaming really  has
taken hold in the corporate world.  How I longed for a backhoe to 
clear away all the confusion.
	Anyway, we had a bunch of engineers that afternoon.  It  was wild. 
One of them had put all these chapter titles in his three-page  book
critique, things like "Detail" and "Outcomes" and the like.  When I 
asked him where these titles came from, he said, "Oh, when the 
engineering division writes reports, those are the headers we have to
 use."  All of them that both of us saw tended to move from summary 
sentences of the book they were reviewing, to sentences about Deere 
practices, to sentences of their own thoughts about corporate 
"reengineering" -- all without tags so it was impossible to tell
whose  ideas were being related.  And they wanted a stencil, a
template --  "Well, can you just tell me how many sentences should be
in each  paragraph and which paragraph to put first, second, third,
and what the  topic sentences should be for each?"  Now that I think
about it, it was  as if they wanted to have a template so they could
just stamp out the  parts the way their machines undoubtedly
manufacture gears and tractor  seats.  They were eager to learn and
several made apointments to come on  campus to the "real" w.l.
	Like so many adult students just returning to college that I've 
worked with in class and in the lab before, there were those
wonderful  bright moments when they found the pull cord for the light
in the dark,  moments when Carrie or I commented, "Nice sentence
structure, " or "Wow!   The way you move us into a book critique with
a story about stopping off at  MacDonalds is a wonderful way to
begin!" and they'd sit up in the chair  and smile and mumble, "What? 
Me?  I did that?"  You know these same  moments, friends.  They are
what makes us go bleary-eyed into those  classrooms and labs and
centers time and time again.

	And then there was Mike. . . "I don't wanna talk to you about the 
jackass paper, Katie.  I'm a Vietnam Vet.  I been keeping a journal 
since the first day I landed over there.  I have stories to write." 
Mike  is coming into the lab for an hour with me next Tuesday.
	They were all so appreciative. They are all so hell-bent on 
"getting it right."  It was wonderful.  I think I will have "stories
to  write" from this experience, but I am most interested now in just
 experiencing these students and the stories they bring into the lab,
 wherever that lab might be.

And there it is, the report from the field -- Was that ok, Jon-boy?

Katie Fischer