Re: confidentiality

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

Forgive me for jumping into a conversation I've missed most of. 
(Periodically, for some reason, the wcenter server kicks me off the
subscription list--apparently to remind me to be grateful that I'm allowed
to subscribe at all.)  The question of confidentiality troubles me.  I
quote Steve's comment on what we might consider a legal issue:  "I do not
think the same 'confidentiality' that applies to learning disabilities
holds for writing center appointments.  I do not think there is any
expressed or implied 'confidence' involved in the writing center visit."
Lately I've been thinking about this issue from a more personal
perspective. 

I *do* believe that the writing center consultation should have the same
confidentiality regardless of who the client is.  However, when I joined
Katie Fischer in sharing the directorship of the Clarke College Writing
Lab this past fall, I found in place an instructor notification system
that was well-accepted by all concerned, both faculty and clients. In
fact, I seem to be the only one who has a problem with it.  Of course, I'm
also one of those apparently AR-types who believes I should not mark on a
writer's paper (or I should use pencil if I do).  Since more than a few
fine people do NOT share my convictions on these issues, I've had to
examine my motives.

I admit I have certain personal rules for tutoring.  I've decided that not
marking on papers, describing sessions from the writer's perspective
(instead of using "I"), and maintaining confidentiality are matters of
philosophical discipline for me--like the bricks in my herb garden. 

When I finally got my own home and yard, I made a small, somehwat formal
herb garden.  I put down rows of bricks--defining the areas for each herb
(and with the foolhardy notion that I could keep mint from spreading). But
over the seasons the bricks sagged into the soil and shifted. The garden
lost shape and looked raggedy.  I'm planning to lay a frame of redwood
just under the soil around the outside edge of the garden, hoping to keep
the bricks from shifting too much. I don't want to set the bricks in
concrete--who knows when I'll change my mind about the size and shape of
the garden.

When I tried to figure out what was going on with my resistance to
instructor-notification, the bricks in the herb garden popped into my
mind.  I realized that confidentiality--the brick on the surface--
represents my desire to serve the *students* rather than the system; not
marking on the paper represents my effort to maintain my respect for the
writer (where she is NOW and where she has to go by *her* will more than
mine); supressing the "I" in session records reminds me to prompt and to
*listen* to the writer.  But I've found it too easy to let the evidence of
my philosophy become unexamined "rules" set in concrete.

I've learned a lot from gardening--such as that mint will have its own way
no matter what I do, that perennials are more mortal than gardening
catalogs let on, and that change is the only thing I can count on. 
However, I am holding on to some faith in philosophical self-discipline
and redwood.

  --(yearning for spring) Bobbie
    bsilk@keller.clarke.edu