Teaching Comparative

Appreciating ambiguity

Not long ago, someone asked me why I stay involved with teaching comparative politics. After all, I retired from high school teaching four years ago. My accountant says that my book publishing venture is fortunately a hobby that pays for itself. She tells me I could better help pay my youngest son's college tuition if I was a greeter at Wal-Mart.

Part of my response to explain why I keep working to promote teaching of comparative politics is that I think the course is one of the more important courses students can study.

• The subject matter offers opportunities to expand our frames of reference.
• Comparisons teach us that there aren't single, simple answers to big questions.
• The comparative disciplines offer academic and intellectual methods for making sense out of variety and alternatives.

All these things are more and more important in today's global economics, politics, society, and culture.

Of course it's easy for all of us to see evidence that reinforces what we believe is true, so it wasn't difficult for me to see this message in the March issue of Fast Company, a business journal.

Columnist Dr. Kerry J. Sulkowicz answered a question about keeping up with advances in technology and the effects of globalization. Maybe there is advice here to offer your students.

The Corporate Shrink

"...[A]dvice on how to cope with a world of fast and furious change. Bottom line: You better have a taste for ambiguity and uncertainty.

"I'm convinced that in the future, the most successful among us will be those who understand that they are citizens of the world. Keeping up with the effects of globalization takes both openness and work--openness to learning, reading, and seeing the world, and work to adapt to the competitive, intellectual, and cultural shifts before they bite you in the rear...

"[T]he pace of technological development has long outstripped our human capacity to use that technology, including our brains' ability to process information and to do actual work...

"The biggest variable in all this change is you, especially your personal flexibility and your open-mindedness to listening and learning... I'll go even further: With rapid globalization and technological innovation, the more you can tolerate or even enjoy ambiguity, uncertainty, and change, the more successful you'll be."

Teach comparative politics; teach ambiguity. (If you've read my book, you'll recognize that theme.)

posted by Ken Wedding @ 10:28 PM