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Articles Conference Reviews |
2008OpenGerbenOpening Session: Cheryl Glenn Composition instructors are often like the opening act at a rock show. They are allotted a small amount of time to warm the audience up to the headliner shortly following. Such is the case for many first-year writing courses, stomping and singing tuneless songs before majors are declared and grad school applications are turned in. It often makes no difference how good this opening act is either; even if the openers put together a show with more energy, stage presence, and staying power than the eventual headliner, they still walk on stage to a half-full auditorium. The audience expects something. The audience expects them to prove something, as if simply occupying the stage and making it that far isn’t enough already. Such is the misunderstood plight of many composition instructors I know. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that we have a chip on our shoulder. It’s just simply that, well, being an opener isn’t as sexy as being a headliner. It’s the same auditorium, same stage, and even same audience, but after sometimes raucous sets we still walk off to only a smattering of applause, perhaps counting on the odd student to show up sometime in the future to say, “Oh yeah, I remember you! You know, your set ended up being much better than the main show.” But yeah, don’t count on it. This was the mentality that I brought with me to the Opening Session at CCCC 2008 this year in New Orleans. Because of a genetic disposition to wake up no sooner than 8 a.m., and a longer-than-life line at the hotel café, I was unable to hear the opening speakers or see the anonymous musician tearing his shirt off in front of a conference room full of academics. Also, as a result of my tardiness I was forced to sit along the wall in the back of the room, which lead me to view much of the keynote address via the video screens to either side of stage as opposed to identifying the blurry flash of hair at the podium that I took to be Cheryl Glenn, current chair of CCCC. Still, I was there, and as a first-time attendant at CCCC, it was enough just to feel the buzz in the room as the speakers delivered their openings. Nerdy, yes, absolutely, but in some ways it was like the rock concert I described above. Except for this brief instant, composition was taking center stage. After an incredible humbling, yet inspiration acceptance speech by Patricia Bizzell—this year’s winner of the Exemplar Award Winner—Kathleen Blake Yancey delivered what can only be described as a rabble-rousing speech touching on issues spanning the reaches of CCCC, NCTE, NCLB, and just about any education-related topic you can think of. She was applauded, received hoots and hollers, and was generally just appreciated for the good-natured passion that she incited in the packed room. Later, when Cheryl Glenn joked that Yancey would be a good candidate for Secretary of Education, the crowd was again brought to outbursts of glee and agreement. It was also where my conference-meets-concert analogy makes the most sense. Glenn’s keynote address followed. Interestingly within the first few minutes she assured everyone that her speech would be short. I highly doubt, by that point, anyone was concerned. Glenn’s talk was largely about “owning up” and working together across differences. She gave verbal nods to a handful of the most recent CCCC Chairs to demonstrate her drive to build bridges to the work of the past, and foundations for coalitions of the future. There her speech was often filled with humility and humor, it was delivered in a calm and steady tone that had the effect of making attendants want to march out of the room and change the world right away. Her examples foregrounded difficulties but always ended on a theme of hope that through teaching we can change things for the better. And although no one was calling for an encore when she announced she was done, everyone did exit into the hallway energized and ready to build coalitions in the sessions that followed. |