One of the cardinal rules of teaching is to know thy audience. This is particularly important given that the generation gap between ourselves and our students inevitably grows over time. To paraphrase the deeply profound line from Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused: you get older … they stay the same age.
When we keep our finger on the pulse of the changing undergraduate culture of our institutions and the individual identities of our students, we are better able to connect in the classroom. This is not about making them like us. Rather, it is about establishing the necessary rapport to drive home subject matter effectively. Some of the most effective learning environments are those that connect what our students learn to their overall life experience. Making the effort to know where our students are coming from also helps us to maintain our own empathy levels, a feeling that is sometimes fleeting after one too many student emails addressing us by “hey.”
