Editor\u27s Note, Early College Folio, Volume 1, Issue 2 (May 2022

Carey Arendell, Julia

English

Bard College

Early College FolioDigital by Necessity Volume 1, Issue 2 | Spring 2022Editor’s NoteJulia Carey ArendellBard Early College New Orleans Just as the river where I step is not the same, and is, so I am as I am not.    — HeraclitusHeraclitus has gotten me through this pandemic. I don’t need to outline the stressors and challenges we’ve all experienced since March 2020; what we worried for or struggled through was both deeply subjective and broadly shared by many others. Just as I grow and change and learn new ways of teaching, learning, and being human, the world shifts again and offers a new challenge or perspective. I take a new step in a new way through the river, and though the direction may be the same, the water that rushes around me is not, in fact, the same river. The school may stay the same, but the students who flow in are always changing. The courses may meet the same requirements, but their content and readings shift, the conversations unique to the group and the moment in which they meet. The delivery, once in person with pen and paper, now is often conveyed through chat boxes, slideshows, Google Docs, and masks.In reading through this issue, “Digital by Necessity,” I am struck not only by the impact the pandemic has had on students, faculty, and administrators, but also by the resilience, responsiveness, and creativity of our community. I hope that you will find inspiration in the scripts, art, and thoughtful presentations of each of these pieces and perhaps solace and gratefulness, as I have. When we can shift from the burden of what we “have” to do through necessity to looking for the opportunities for growth and support that change provides, we can truly find what we are capable of as individuals and teams. Our work, where we center our time and what we offer to each other, is how we know and believe in each other. Keeping that centered can help us bridge these rivers that constantly shift our perspective, and keep us afloat through Zoom screens with no cameras on and work-from-home days when we may not interact with anyone in the flesh. As it is spring, a time of completion and commencement, we feel the movement and shifting even more, as students matriculate and mature, and faculty and admin teams turn over. What feels difficult and necessary now, both in grief and celebration, will give way to something new, and we will once again turn to the work, our own and of our students, to learn what we can do and who we are. The river where you set your foot just now is gone—those waters  giving way to this, now this.    — HeraclitusVolume 1, Issue 2 | Spring  2022

Editor\u27s Note

https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&amp;context=earlycollegefolio

Editor\u27s Note

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