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Explication on VanderMey: Remarks on Habit

Within Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21st Century, Chapter 5, James

VanderMey, a professor of English and Humanities, wrote a speech titled Remarks on Habit,

which was given at the 35th Annual Honors Convocation for Mid Michigan Community College,

which addressed (much like the title) habits.

VanderMey describes many aspects of the topic habit and elaborates on how they arent

always a bad thing. First, He starts out appreciating the accomplishments of the soon to be

graduates before him and continues to a small piece of history back to the first Honors

Convocation. Following, VanderMey brings up the topic of habit, MMCC has the HABIT of

honoring its top students in all fields and degree programs. Its been a good habit, and it still is

(p12). He then, elaborates on the topic of habit and what lead him to use the topic of habit in the

first place. He figured it was something understated and not discussed enough and asked himself

...what all had made it possible for each of you to be as successful as you have been(p12),

referring to the students in front of him. Next, he tells his audience how habits have a bad

reputation and are usually thought as a bad attribute. Nicely tied in after, is his own bad habit of

over researching for a topic and not leaving enough time to actually write without staying up way

too late. He defines habit as a tendency to act, say, or think in a certain way...a readiness that

has grown into our body... (p13). He notes opinions of philosopher, playwright, and novelist,

Jean Paul Sartre. Sum of it being good habits dont exist, they are something that we get stuck in

and are eventually consumed by. VanderMey took this opportunity to reiterate not only is a

habit something that takes shelter within you, but it is something that develops to help you

succeed.
Moreover, there are many good habit that VanderMey hopes is passed to the students at

Mid Michigan Community College, referred to as proficiencies (p13). He list them:

The good habits of analytical inquiry

The good habits of using information resources

The good habits of engaging with diverse perspectives

The good habits of ethical reflection and reasoning

The good habits of quantitative fluency

The good habits of communicative fluency

The good habits of learning collaboratively and cooperatively

The good habits of responsiveness to civic, social, economic and environmental

challenges (p14). He discusses a chart in which elaborates on these, then discusses how

they aren't just acquired and are something that is learned throughout time. One isnt simply born

to think a certain way, their brain isnt hardwired to develop one way. We are all blank slates that

are conditioned into several different directions. A fellow student may find it better to solve a

math problem one way, while another might see that way as too complicated and know a so

called easier way to achieve the same answer, and others might see it completely impossible to

do at all. Its not at anyones fault, its not a habit or a flaw, its just simply so. It is the way in

which we are taught, told, conditioned into. Eventually those ways arent just ways anymore,

they become us (p15). These ways, these tendencies, theses behaviors have the potential to

reach across boundaries...separate fields and disciplines because they are good habits that you

can use in all kinds of situations and apply to new fields(p15).

In conclusion, VanderMey argues yes, we form bad habits, but not all habits are bad. He

discusses his own bad habit of over researching which leads to not having enough time to write
his paper. In turn, then leads to staying up too late to get it written in time without losing sleep.

But even though one may have a habit of thinking differently than others, is it not necessarily a

bad thing. Habits can be many things. They can be good, bad, or downright irritating. Whichever

they might be, they are apart of us and we either condition them into something useful or they

consume us.

Works Cited
Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21st Century. 2nd ed., New York, New York, Pearson

Education, 2016.

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