“What did you learn today at school?” This question was asked each afternoon, by one or both of my parents as I arrived home. My mother often recounts the lengthy recitations, complete with visual examples, I would excitedly share in my early years of education; for there were those periods of teenage angst and loathing, that found my responses limited to ‘not much’ or ‘nothing’. As the years have flown, and my relationship with education has proceeded to inform every corner of my life, I found myself back in that exuberant, example sharing state this past Saturday, when after arriving home my husband asked, “How’d the conference go?”
Saturday’s conference, The 5th Annual Marian E. Wright Writing Center Conference, to be exact, took place April 2, 2016, and those in attendance learned, laughed, queried, and commented on a variety of subjects, presented by tutors, professors, directors, and coordinators from U of M Flint, Mott Community, and Lansing Community colleges. A former tutor, present May graduate of Wayne State University Law School, and founder of this conference, Bobbi Coates, shared that, “As writing center tutors, we inspire each other, we teach each other, and we learn from each other,” and that is exactly what this conference has afforded every attendee for the past 5 years.
We all need to pursue and participate in learning opportunities, such as this past Saturday’s conference, for as my grandmother always insisted, “If you stop learning, you stop growing; and if you stop growing, you die,” which as I matured became clearer, and is a truism that affects all life’s travelers. If we, not just writing center tutors, but each and every one of life’s scholars, do not continue to learn and grow by sharing, listening, and questioning, there are many planes of death we will experience before the final ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ variety that will claim us all eventually.
This year’s Marian E. Wright Writing Center Conference, and those in the years to follow, are sure to stave off a few of those planes, and elevate the skills and talents of those tutors dedicated to fulfilling our Writing Center’s Mission: To be critical readers and listeners who provide helpful feedback to writers and speakers.
For a look inside this year’s conference head to Twitter:
#Mewwc16 #WritingCenter #Conference https://storify.com/TangledInKnotts/marian-e-wright-writing-center-conference …