First to Jyotsana’s point: I think it needs to be a ‘movement’ similar to the women’s march that is girded by a dedicated and connected leadership group. If it’s already under way at VT, I’m not aware of it.

Secondly, thank you, Abram, for your astute observations. There are a couple of things you said that have helped me think a little deeper about Palmer’s sentiments.

“Students have a sad buffet with limited direction. We are left overwhelmed. There is no room for failures and no time for feelings. This is a failure of the system not the student.”

It is so true that it is difficult to see beyond your immediate circumstances, particularly when we are pushed to our limits. I actually left public school teaching with similar sentiments: there was little time for what mattered – working with students on learning experiences that created opportunities for more learning – and too much time spent dealing with things that didn’t – teachers with bad attitudes (toward students, toward colleagues, toward parents), reporting expectations that were about beaurocracy rather than student success, parents who felt no shame in making a federal case out of a poor grade on a test. It felt overwhelming to me to try and do something within the melee.

“Feelings are directly related to passion, and when we are passionate we do better work.”

I could not agree more. When we are passionate, we are committed. When we’re committed, we are invested in success. When we are invested in success, we plan for it and work toward it, checking ourselves along the way.
Imagine if we (students) were ‘graded’ on our passion quotient instead of simply fulfilling someone else’s expectations. What depth of potential could be tapped then? And what would we learn about ourselves as humans?