Re: Magic

[bobbie silk <bsilk@keller.clarke.edu>]

Good point, Beth.  But, even in issues concerned with assessment, I'm
inclined to find value in the metaphor of "magic" in writing center work. 
(Do assessors and generalizers understand the value of a metaphor in
improving understanding?) In the writing center I think the metaphor works
in two ways. 

One is from the point of view of the audience or magician's assistant
witnessing the magic.  In fact, I like the idea of thinking of myself and
other writing tutors as magician's assistants--handing the writer a silk
tophat, a plain white handkerchief, or a saw to cut the lady in half.  The
magic occurs in the mind of the writer, in the learning process, and in
the application of learning.  When I see that happen, I am still struck
with wonder.

Another way in which I think the metaphor of magic works is, indeed, from
the point of view of the magician.  Many years ago, I became curious about
the processes of stage magic, so I did some research.  What I discovered
was that a magician must be not only a showman but also adept (wordplay
intended) at misdirection and engineering (in order to plan and construct
the devices used in stage effects).  Depending on the kind of magic he or
she does, the magician might also spend hours every day training the body
and especially the fingers for dexterity and flexibility.  Stage magic is
precisely planned, carefully constructed, and performed with tremendous
focus on timing.

While researching, I also discovered that magicians are secretive.  I used
to think this was just a matter of pride--kind of like Aunt Betty's
refusal to share her prize-winning recipe for cranberry-apple pie--or
perhaps a matter of copyright.  But now I understand that magic--to be
magic and not simply displays of dexterity and engineering--requires that
features of the process be effaced.  The goal of stage magic is not the
trickery itself but the effect of wonderment in the mind of the audience.

This leads me back to the idea that the *real* magic of the writing center
is in the mind of the writer--the combination of experience, perception,
brain chemicals, and electricity that creates learning.  The tutor
contributes to the writer's exprience and perception, but the magic
happens in that place most hidden from us, our own heads.

Some of the resistance to assessment that I hear in Jon's messages and the
messages of others may be related to our fear of losing the
wonderment/learning--our own and our clients'.  I don't suppose we should
be afraid of this, since nobody really knows *exactly* how learning
happens anyway.  Of course, try telling that to your local state
legislator (who is more interested in getting votes than understanding
education).  I think what frightens most people about assessment is that a
few people think the way our profession used to think about writing
instruction--product not process.  Commodification is the bane of our
culture, not just because it destroys the magic (what some would call
"illusion" and I would call original thought) but because it threatens to
codify and prescribe what is situation-dependent and necessarily variable
and flexible.

I think the fear is that, even when we show them the false bottom in the
tophat, the trapdoor in the cabinet, and the rainbow scarves up our
sleeves, they won't understand the value because they won't see the effect
in the mind of the writer.

Which does NOT mean, as Beth says, that we shouldn't show them the
trapdoor.  (Hmmmm......)

  --Bobbie
    bsilk@titan.iwu.edu

On Thu, 26 Sep 1996 EBOQUET@fair1.fairfield.edu wrote:

> I must admit, I'm a little bothered by our discussion of the "magic" of the
> writing center.  I can't disagree that things happen here that seem magical at
> times, but I'm afraid to put it in those terms, particularly to people who
> still don't have an understanding of the systematic, careful ways that we work
> with writers.  It reminds me of the "mystery of teaching" formulation that
> people occasionally appeal to.  What does that mean?  Of course there are
> things about which we can't generalize--the ways that a class gels, for
> example--but that doesn't mean that there isn't much that we *can* say about
> what happens in our classrooms or our writing centers.
> 
[snip]