There I was in the middle of yet another meeting designed to inform me of all the ways I'm failing to follow proper campus purchasing procedures--frequently-changing procedures for which I was never trained and that until recently were not even part of my job description--when I had a sudden epiphany: the procedures in question were so completely obvious to the expert that she couldn't imagine that they wouldn't be similarly obvious to me.
I mean, aren't we all born with an inherent ability to distinguish between a requisition and a payment request? Don't we just innately know which online form must be submitted before the event and which one comes after? Don't we come out of the womb aware that one of these procedures requires a detailed quote while the other requires an invoice? And if we bobble the procedures and submit an invoice with the wrong online form, aren't we just about the stupidest people ever to have walked the earth?
I don't even want to go back and count all the times I've griped about the constant struggle to figure out campus budgeting and purchasing procedures; just thinking about it wears me out. But today I'm interested in the deeper issue: why would someone who has developed a specific area of expertise assume that whatever is obvious to her must also be obvious to others?
What would this attitude look like in my discipline?
Okay, class, you must all have come to college well aware of how to construct an effective thesis statement, so let's not look at any examples or discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Just write me a good thesis--and if you don't know what that means, what's wrong with you?
Dear colleagues, I had intended to organize a workshop to help you design writing assignments to discourage plagiarism, but the methods are so incredibly obvious to me that I can't see the point, so never mind.
So you say you're struggling to understand Charles Chesnutt's dialect tales? Just look at the words on the page! The meaning is obvious!
These examples are, of course, ridiculous. If I assume that whatever is obvious to me must also be obvious to others, then why am I here? And if we all adopt this attitude, then why does any institution of higher education need to exist?
Fortunately, ignorance is a renewable resource--that's what keeps us all in business. I am willing to admit my ignorance and gather the knowledge required to fulfill my duties--but I'll never learn if the experts assume that what I need to know must already be completely obvious.
2 comments:
It is SO ANNOYING when people do that.. just assume that whatever it is is obvious. I do hope you've found a way to explain the problem to the person in charge of the campus purchasing. Do you think part of the issue, on a college campus, is that some admins feel unappreciated? That with so many very intelligent faculty, they feel "less than"...and take delight in showing ways in which the "Ph.D's are stupid" ?
That could certainly be part of the problem. And I'm sure I've had colleagues who have treated the business office staff with contempt in the past, which doesn't help the situation. At this point, though, we are all similarly unappreciated, and we need to find a way to work together more effectively.
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