Intellectual Curiosity and Success in Communications
My great friend Les Potter wrote an insightful essay questioning the lack of curiosity among the Millennial students he teaches at Towson University in Maryland. When someone of Les’s caliber as a teacher, and with 35 years of experience as a professional communicator, brings a topic like this to light, believe me, my ears perk up.
Not only did Les sum up the prevailing lack of curiosity of today’s college students, but he also gave several examples of areas in which students could question him to gain greater understanding of the profession. For example, Les says, “As a manager who hired, trained, and terminated many employees in my career, the ability and willingness to ask probing questions is a competitive advantage for job seekers.”
I concur completely and would take it a step further, adding that I have never seen a person who lacks curiosity succeed in communications. Individuals become superstars in the business world when they ask probing questions, evaluate situations, and then derive new initiatives based on deft critical thinking. Curiosity is central at every point in this process.
I wrote a lengthy comment supporting Les’s statements, providing what I see as a problem among many of my USF students. Below is an edited and expanded version of that post.
The “challenge” I have with my students is twofold — they don’t understand much (if anything) about the business world, thus they have no idea how they “fit” into the picture and many lack what I call “intellectual curiosity.”
Here’s an example: many students enter the public relations sequence at USF with little or no idea what PR/communications is. Somewhere, someone told them that this would be a good major for them, usually having to do with “being good with people.” It seems outrageous, but many future PR majors enter the sequence with no understanding of writing, research, or strategic thinking skills. When they encounter their PR professors, most do not say to themselves, “Here’s my chance to actually talk to someone who worked in the field I chose for my major.”
Due to entrance requirements and prerequisites, most students enter our three-semester program still not knowing much about the PR major, even though they are already juniors. Then the first semester, they take “Principles of Public Relations.” For the first time, they finally have a PR prof teaching them about their major. However, getting them involved or asking meaningful questions is grueling. Many act as if it is just another course to get through, even though it is the first time they have formally encountered anything at all to do with public relations.
The next semester is the meat of the program — three courses: “Writing for PR,” “Public Relations Research,” and “Public Relations: Issues, Practices, and Problems” (a case study course). After one 15-week intro course, they are slammed with these three, but it is finally a course load in their major. It is difficult work, but rather than rejoice that they will finally get to know what PR/communications is, they complain about the amount of work and toughness.
At a point where their curiosity should be at its highest, many check out based on the workload. Most do not read the required materials my colleagues and I assign, even if it is timely essays and short articles drawn from important PR periodicals, such as PRWeek, Ragan newsletters, and blogs. Some students sit in class and say nothing for 15 weeks, despite my pleas for them to engage. Others make no effort at all.
However, there are a handful each semester that do the work, read the material, engage with the profession, and ask great questions and provide thoughtful commentary. I guess this is why we all continue to teach.
A casual reader might read Les’s essay or my commentary and think that we are out of touch with today’s students or doing something wrong, since they are not more engaged. However, in discussions with colleagues across disciplines around the country and overseas, I sense that this mindset among today’s young people is widespread.
Let me end this long post with this: I thoroughly enjoy teaching and like all my students as individuals. I want them to achieve all their hopes and aspirations. However, I know that some of them are not cut out for a career as professional communicators, at least not when I have them in class. Perhaps some magic switch will kick in at some later date, which for their sake I hope does. But, I do know that a trait all my very best students share is intellectual curiosity and a drive for success that I can’t define. The two traits go hand-in-hand.
May 26th, 2009 at 14:31
I can’t even begin to imagine how frustrating it is to see hundreds of kids go through the program and not know why they are there. Clearly, being a professional teaching us about the industry, you have some kind of passion. I imagine it takes a lot out of you when there is no passion in the classroom. Now I know why you are so heavily invested in the success of those who are.
You’re absolutely right when you say that most of us are there because somewhere along the lines, someone told us we’re “good with people”. A little about my journey:
I had been both pre-law and pre-med (at two other schools) before I decided I wanted to do the PR program at USF. I came to this conclusion after sitting myself down and saying: “Okay Sydney, what are you good at?” I realized I am naturally social, well-spoken, can write fairly well and, wait for it, am good with people.
So I enrolled. For my Writing for Mass Media course, I did an informational interview with one of my mom’s coworkers from Florida Hospital. She is 6 years older than me, old enough to know something but young enough to get where I am.
Fast forward to Fall 2008. It wasn’t until PRSSA National Conference that I found my calling, my passion. The lightbulb went off when I met Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist. She was talking about mentors and how important they are, and I figured, who better to mentor me than the lady that is speaking about mentors. So I approached her, we communicated and long story short, I’m moving to Chicago in August.
If there is some way to get the “What is PR?” part out in the open before junior year, that would be awesome. I had so many classmates saying “wow, this isn’t really for me” after we did our presentations for Advanced at the Gala.
What, then, do you do in the event that you know that they aren’t cut out to be communicators? Do you pass them, allow them to graduate, and they can’t figure out why they aren’t employed? Or better yet, why nobody wants to work with them? Or do you advise them to pursue another major?
End Novel.
May 26th, 2009 at 15:17
Hi Sydney, thanks for sharing your journey, which is interesting and helps explain my point. Think about what you might possibly be doing if you had half-assed that Writing for Mass Media assignment or never gone to the PRSSA Conference?
Instead, you set the groundwork for your current success by doing that little bit more — a combination of intellectual curiosity and internal demand for more/success/etc. Most of your colleagues do not go that extra distance, even though anyone with half a brain can see the positives.
Another example is your self-directed interest in social media. Any student can start a blog and talk about communications. At USF, you and Meg Roberts are star examples of the great things that can happen and we have many others who used blogging as a way to launch their careers. But, I would say that 98 percent don’t do it, even though Dr. Burns and I beg them to.
Your comment about Advanced students bums me out too much to comment on, but I know it’s true. I don’t hold anything against students who aren’t cut out to be communicators or decide that they would rather do something else. I have a really talented former student who is getting ready for law school–blech! I still wrote her a sparkling letter of recommendation.
For those who aren’t cut out, I’ve got two minds. First, if they do the work in my classes, I pass them and hope the spark hits them later. I also create a classroom setting that enables questioning, so often students will talk to me in private about such doubts. Then, we can go through options. I won’t fail anyone who does the work I ask them to do. Perhaps I should do more to dissuade them, but I’m an optimist, so I hope the light bulb will go off for them.
May 26th, 2009 at 23:55
I truly wish I could say you were wrong because it would have made my classes much more stimulating. It’s disturbing sitting in a room knowing that your classmates are frustrated that you’re asking questions and participating in discussion. I always felt like the mute faces were thinking that if everyone would just say nothing then the professor would get their words out sooner and class may last 10 minutes less. But those 10 minutes saved would make the other hour of class dreadfully boring. Actively participating in class makes it significantly more interesting.
But Sydney is right, these same mute students are the ones frustrated that they have a four year degree and no job. And they stay professionally mute waiting for something to fall in their laps. I’m not sure what the answer is, if there is one at all. I believe it’s a result of the culture. I’m not sure where society went wrong in raising the youth of America.