{"id":116281,"date":"2018-06-01T08:54:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T12:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=116281"},"modified":"2018-08-17T15:36:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T19:36:48","slug":"baccalaureate-address-by-mara-tieken-learn-to-live-with-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/06\/01\/baccalaureate-address-by-mara-tieken-learn-to-live-with-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Baccalaureate Address by Mara Tieken: \u2018Learn to live with uncertainty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am so honored to be asked to speak to y\u2019all today.<\/p>\n<p>But, to be honest, I\u2019m kind of an ironic choice for a college graduation speech. Yes, I study higher education \u2014 or, what\u2019s known by researchers as \u201ccollege access and success.\u201d But my own college experience felt like anything but \u201csuccess.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"highlight-box \"><\/p>\n<p class=\"highlight-title\">Baccalaureate Address<\/p>\n<p>This is address was given by Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken on May 26, 2018, during the annual Baccalaureate Service. The Baccalaureate speaker is chosen by the senior class.<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/section>\n<p>I attended a school much like yours: It is a small, selective, private liberal arts college in northern New England. I arrived with high hopes; college, after all, is supposed to be a one-way ticket to adulthood, to a good job, to happiness and security and meaning. For me, though, it was none of those things.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mara Tieken&#039;s Address\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/272938208?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>My first year was tough. I was far from home and miserably homesick, yet I knew I couldn\u2019t go back. I hated my own pre-orientation wilderness trip. It seemed like everyone else already knew one another, and four days without a shower was about three days too many. Campus wasn\u2019t much better. Two feet of dirty laundry covered our dorm room floor, and it was often hard to find someone to sit with at dinner. I spent my time studying for biology tests that I\u2019d go on to fail and trying to find a sport I was good at or a club I enjoyed. By the end of my first year, the only thing I knew for certain was that I would <em>not<\/em> be pre-med.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The more time I spent in college, the bigger and more complicated the world seemed to grow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Over the next three years, I wandered from major to major; I landed in psychology only because I ran out of time to drop it and move on to something else. My jobs and extracurricular pursuits were just as varied; I sold fruit at a farmstand, I did snake demos for a local museum, I took a drawing class. The more time I spent in college, the bigger and more complicated the world seemed to grow\u2014and the less sure I was about my place in it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_116379\" style=\"width: 1929px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0468.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116379\" class=\"wp-image-116379 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0468.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0468.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0468-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0468-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0468-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-116379\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken, who delivered the 2018 Baccalaureate Address, teaches her Short Term course, &#8220;Community Organizing for Social Justice,&#8221; on May 9, 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Junior year, after more than a few anxious phone calls from my parents, I identified something of a career path. I would get my teaching certificate, and I would spend my senior year doing my teaching practicum at a local school. This came as a complete shock to my family: I hated public speaking, my own K-12 experience wasn\u2019t the happiest, and my dad was still holding out for engineering. But after taking one education course, it seemed to me as if a life in education would be interesting and urgent and necessary \u2014 and, besides, I just needed a plan.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>How was it that my college classmates and I could have so much while my students could have so little?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I began my practicum teaching in a poor rural community about 45 minutes from campus. I quickly discovered that while my fifth-graders were smart, hardworking, and deserving, there are winners and losers in the struggle for educational resources, and somehow, they were on the losing end.<\/p>\n<p>And I, it turned out, was making out pretty well. So while my fifth-graders often came to school hungry, back on campus I had five dining halls where I could eat as much as I wanted. While this elementary school couldn\u2019t afford computers in its classrooms, back on campus there were more computers than students, all with free printing and free software and free maintenance. While the school\u2019s PTO would hold bake sales to purchase more books, back on campus I had access to a nine-story library, well-known for its ample collection and for the privacy and seclusion of its many aisles, which students often used for pursuits more recreational than academic.<\/p>\n<p>How was it, I wondered, that my college classmates and I could have so much \u2014 more, in fact, than we would ever need \u2014 while my students could have so little? How was it that this college had so many books and supplies and staff and buildings, while this tiny rural school couldn\u2019t give all of its students pencils? It\u2019s not like they\u2019d get the opportunity for this kind of college education later; without basic resources, my students would not have the academic preparation they\u2019d need to get them to college. This wasn\u2019t fair \u2014 and I was going to do something about it. I was going to be a teacher.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By the time I was sitting where you are today, I had a major I knew I wouldn\u2019t use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But the problem was, I was a pretty bad teacher. Perhaps this was most clear on my first day of teaching alone, without the assistance of my mentor teacher. The day ended when my math lesson dissolved into student-led rebellion, counting blocks began flying across the classroom, a student went missing, and someone called the principal.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_116376\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0357.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116376\" class=\"wp-image-116376 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0357-900x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0357-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0357-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0357-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0357.jpg 1919w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-116376\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken observes as students in her Short Term course, &#8220;Community Organizing for Social Justice,&#8221; break into small discussion groups. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We found the missing student handcuffed to a tree outside \u2014 it\u2019s still not clear to me <em>why<\/em> he had handcuffs, but apparently he would rather chain himself to a tree than suffer another minute in my classroom. Teaching was hard, it turned out, and just because I liked kids and went to a good college and wanted to teach didn\u2019t mean I was any good at it. I had a lot more to learn.<\/p>\n<p>So, by the time I was sitting where you are today, I had a major I knew I wouldn\u2019t use. I had an understanding that the field that I wanted to go into \u2014 education \u2014 had some major inequalities. I had remarkably few ideas for what to do about those inequalities. And I had a growing fear that my teaching could actually make things worse. In short, I would leave college with more questions, more doubt, and more uncertainty than I had when I arrived.<\/p>\n<p>But maybe none of this rings true for you. You are, after all, the Bates Class of 2018, and, after spending four years with you, I know that you are a talented, brilliant group. You have many reasons to be proud.<\/p>\n<p>You entered Bates in the fall of 2014. You trickled in: some arrived early for team training and long hours in the weight room, others came for AESOP and days of mountains and kayaks and campfires. Finally, you were all here on campus, spending your first night together. September was a blur: dinners with your JAs, the scramble for classes, the occasional less-than-informed conversation about your common read, <em>The Remedy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>You survived your first winter, with its apocalyptic snows, and you witnessed your first Puddle Jump, questioning, perhaps, the good sense of Bates\u2019 older students. After a beautiful Short Term and a blur of a summer, you were back again, and now you were thinking about a major and maybe getting settled into a club or a campus job or fieldwork in Lewiston. And then it was junior year, and many of you were gone \u2014 scattered in universities and communities across the globe \u2014 and others stayed on campus, digging deeper into interests and commitments right here, at a place that was, maybe, starting to feel a bit like home.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_116374\" style=\"width: 1929px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0041.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116374\" class=\"wp-image-116374 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0041.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0041.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0041-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0041-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/05\/180509_Community_Organizing_Tieken_0041-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-116374\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken, who delivered the 2018 Baccalaureate Address, teaches her Short Term course, &#8220;Community Organizing for Social Justice&#8221; on May 9, 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>And then, suddenly, it was senior year, a year of projects and capstones and long hours in the library, in the lab, in the field. Time with friends and classmates felt a bit sweeter, maybe a little more precious, because now, it was clear, this time was limited. You knew that soon, you\u2019d be sitting right here.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Maybe my story \u2014 my college experience of questioning, of floundering, of indecision \u2014 rings true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now you have four years of memories. You\u2019ll remember binding your thesis and practicing for Sankofa and climbing Mount David to watch the sunrise. You\u2019ll remember paint parties on the Library Quad and late nights in the Den during finals week and the hammocks that hang like cocoons across campus on the first warm day. And you\u2019ll remember people: classmates and professors, deans and teammates, Commons staff and friends.<\/p>\n<p>And maybe your Bates experience is just this neat, filled only with these kinds of memories and, of course, your many, many accomplishments; that list truly was impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Or, maybe my story \u2014 my college experience of questioning, of floundering, of indecision \u2014 rings true, at least in part. I\u2019ve heard about a few tests that were failed, classes that were slept through, deadlines that were missed. Maybe you didn\u2019t get the part, or you were cut from the team. Maybe you, too, jumped from major to major, and your transcript now shows no discernible pattern of anything. Maybe you\u2019re still questioning what you want to do; maybe there is no post-graduation plan. Maybe you\u2019re feeling a little caught between places right now, no longer so sure where \u201chome\u201d is. Maybe college was a bit harder and more uncomfortable than everyone makes it out to be.<\/p>\n<p>Seventeen years ago, I was right where you are today, perched on the eve of graduation, trying to make sense of college. I didn\u2019t understand it then, and, even now, as someone who studies higher education, I still don\u2019t fully understand college, our complicated experiences of it, and the benefits and costs it carries. And, if the many, many, many weeks it took me to write these words is any indication, I really don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This skill \u2014 the ability to live with uncertainty \u2014 has served me better than any other skill I developed in college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But I do know this.<\/p>\n<p>During college, I learned how to make mistakes. I learned how to listen, and I learned how to learn from others, including the handcuff kid \u2014 Cody \u2014 who taught me how to be a more responsive, more aware, more caring teacher. I learned how to love questions, how to know what I didn\u2019t know, how to ask for help, how to live with uncertainty. And it is this skill \u2014 the ability to live with uncertainty \u2014 that has served me better than any other skill I developed in college. Because the uncertainties keep on coming. They come as you try to build a home and a family and a community, they come as you try to support yourself and those you love, they come as you try to figure out your values and how to live them.<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s the other thing I learned: I learned that an elite college education \u2014 even one that was sometimes uncomfortable and spotted with failure \u2014 is an extraordinary privilege. It brings resources and opportunities: books, computers, labs, travel. It confers long-term advantages: better jobs, higher salaries, better health, improved civic engagement. And it means benefits it probably shouldn\u2019t: I was hired into my first teaching position without an interview, solely on the college name at the top of my transcript. This is what privilege looks like.<\/p>\n<p>You are members of an elite group. For every 100 ninth-graders, only 20 will graduate on time and earn a bachelor&#8217;s degree within six years\u2019 time, and only the smallest fraction of these degrees will be from highly selective schools.<\/p>\n<p>And this college pipeline is raced, classed, and placed in all sorts of ways: students of color, poor students, and rural students are much less likely to enjoy these opportunities than white students, wealthier students, and suburban and urban students.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I think that we talk about college all wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We live in a very unequal world, and I was reminded of this every day of my teaching practicum and every day of teaching since then. A relative few have access to the kind of educational opportunity that you and I lucked into, and so this privilege brings with it responsibility&#8230;and, for me, this meant a responsibility to ensure that my students have the same kind of opportunities I had.<\/p>\n<p>I think that we talk about college all wrong. We suggest that college is about certainty, about answers, about figuring it all out. We suggest that, tomorrow, you will step off that stage into adulthood, a fully formed, confident, knowledgeable adult.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a lie. College is more about questions than answers, more about confusion than certainty, more about the mistakes than the successes. And, honestly, things don\u2019t get much clearer after college; we\u2019re all just muddling through, trying to figure things out, learning as we go. But, hopefully, Bates prepared you well for this. We taught you to chase the questions and run headlong into challenge, and you have \u2014 in the studio, in the lab, in the community.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Just because you don\u2019t have it all figured out doesn\u2019t let you off the hook.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So don\u2019t worry too much if you haven\u2019t found the right job, figured out the next step, or decided what you want to be when you grow up \u2014 and, if you think you have, be ready to change your mind. If you do what you\u2019ve been doing \u2014 staying curious, exploring, asking questions \u2014 you\u2019ll be fine. Your education is not finished.<\/p>\n<p>But just because you don\u2019t have it all figured out doesn\u2019t let you off the hook; you have a responsibility. Because here\u2019s the other problem with how we talk about college. We talk about it as if it\u2019s an individual commodity, a resource for you, and you alone, to use and to enjoy. But education is a public good \u2014 a society\u2019s obligation and a society\u2019s resource. And you, too, are the recipient of an extraordinary amount of educational privilege. No matter your path to Bates, you are now one of the lucky winners of the educational lottery \u2014 and so you have a responsibility to use this privilege not just for yourself, but for others, too.<\/p>\n<p>Some of you are well-aware of this privilege, and you\u2019ve already been struggling with how to think about it and what to do with it; for others, this awareness is new.<\/p>\n<p>And I can\u2019t tell you how to use this privilege or what, for you, this responsibility will mean. That\u2019s your question \u2014 your uncertainty \u2014 to wrestle with. And I know you will; you\u2019ve already started.<\/p>\n<p>So yes, college brings complexity and responsibility, questions and commitments. And that is exactly why it is such fantastic preparation for the rest of life.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you. Class of 2018, I will miss you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uncertainty \u2014 and the ability to face challenges and tough questions head-on \u2014 is a feature, not a bug, of a Bates education. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":116376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,243,11012],"tags":[1203,10831],"class_list":["post-116281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-annual-events","category-student-life","tag-baccalaureate","tag-commencement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116281"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116462,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116281\/revisions\/116462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}