When I read that Harvard professor Howard Gardner conducted a five-year study of college students and found that 45% have a transactional attitude towards their college education, it caught my attention. He states that our goal should be cultivating a transformational attitude towards their education. Gardner explains that a transactional attitude sees college only as a means to get a career. In contrast, a transformational attitude is one that, while earning their degree, their experience becomes a means to ask and reflect on their beliefs and values. Though the study discussion focused on college students, it got me thinking about how we approach life. In short, why do we do what we do?
Much like our students, though, we tend to have a transactional attitude toward our work, creative processes, and lives. We sometimes look like we have lost our spark and joy for learning, living, and thriving. We don’t want to figure things out; we want the blueprint. And while the blueprint is sometimes useful, if we don’t allow time for the process and failures, how will we engage in transformative lessons to foster our creative process and strengthen our tacit knowledge?
Sometimes, I think we have lost our way in our current capitalist economic system. It is like the balance has tipped completely, overshadowing the intrinsic value of living to learn because it is joyful or doing our job for the sheer sense of worth. Those in charge seem to be concerned with profit at the expense of their most valuable assets, the people they hire. Thus, they want more work for less money. Alongside, the dollar’s value decreases, and its acquisition power weakens. Things are overall more expensive.
Amid this context, we might feel we lack the choice to love our job and give it all because we are not valued. Loyalty does not seem to be significantly rewarded, chipping away little by little at our joy for our job.
This week, I had one of the hardest conversations of my career (with the administration). Compared to other instructors in my area, I make a third less while having the same degree and qualifications. Two factors would account for a percentage: one is time served, and the other is rank. However, the sum difference is hardly justified by those factors. I am scheduled to have a second conversation soon. Until then, I must wait.
My life’s value does not hinge on my job. I love what I do. No matter how bad a day I have, I soar when I enter the classroom. I love talking to the students about the process of being a designer, the ups and downs, the inevitable creative blocks, and the tips to unlock ideas. I rejoice with their progress and ideas.
I don’t work transactionally, though I have boundaries to protect my family time, creative time, and research. I had been aware of the pay discrepancy in the back of my head, but I had not woken up to it. When I did, it hit me hard.
A transactional attitude towards life and work is probably an easier, more efficient, and more effective way to go through life’s ups and downs. When you work with college students, however, who are looking to learn but also belong and feel that they matter, a transactional attitude helps no one. Relationships are symbiotic. Students change me as much as I change them as they progress in their pursuit of degrees. No one prepares you for the transformational and profound experience of being part of someone else’s growth. This is especially true in small cohorts and programs.
Why do I do what I do? Because there is nothing more meaningful to me than sharing what I have learned with others. When I see a spark of joy in their eyes because something clicked, it makes my day. Every time. Yes, it is hard sometimes. Dealing with people is frequently messy and not linear. And yes, as time goes by, their college experience and memories will be replaced by other life moments that are much more transformational. That’s as it should be. But, while we are together in that classroom, I am committed to transforming their minds as much as they transform mine.
Alma Hoffmann is a freelance designer, design educator, author of Sketching as Design Thinking, and editor at Smashing Magazine. This is an edited version of a post originally published on Temperamental amusing shenanigans, Alma’s Substack dedicated to design, life, and everything in between.
Header image by Ikhsan Fauzi on Unsplash.
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