Re: Nothing runs like. . . -Reply

[Latisha LaRue <kfischer@keller.clarke.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


Just attending to audience, Jonny.  I knew Centurians wouldn't be as 
interested in the Boogers story as *some* folks I know;)  Gotta give it to 
you, though, Jon-boy.  You sure know how to pick 'em!
			Katie

On Thu, 22 Feb 1996, Jon Olson wrote:

> 
> >>> 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
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