I have been traveling a great deal over the past few months and have had little time to respond to my email. I have received multiple requests for comments and discussion on Tolkien’s literature from people claiming to be high school students whose teachers told them to seek out Tolkien scholars on the Internet.
As near as I can determine, these messages appear to be coming from real people (at least, I can find references to them on various social media sites where high school students are known to hang out). Nonetheless, I don’t know what to make of them.
The questions I receive are pretty interesting and thought-provoking. On the one hand, I’d like to respond to them but I have not had time. On the other hand, I don’t know if some really clever students are looking for short-cuts in their homework.
It seems to me that if high school literature teachers want to give their students assignments that require contacting appropriate scholars on the Internet, those teachers should do a little legwork in advance of the students. Or, at the very least, they should work with the students to provide a means for the contactees to seek verification from teacher email accounts.
I like the idea that some educators may be encouraging their students to use the Internet to contact people who are active in literary scholarship. The Internet can certainly facilitate broad discussions that won’t occur in the classroom.
But I am concerned that the lack of credibility in these requests may lead some people (regrettably including me) to feel reluctant to respond; or that the idea may be abused by students who apply their creativity in the wrong way.
I think it would be better for the teachers to ask their students to submit contact information for scholars and experts to the teachers, who can then send out invitations to participate in some sort of limited discussion forum.
When I first became involved with online Tolkien readers and fans in the 1990s, we often saw young people post obvious homework assignments to discussion groups, asking for help (in some cases asking that someone else do the work for them). These recent requests don’t really resemble those early homework questions.
If there are educators out there who want their students to reach out to critics and scholars, I think they should give thought to creating a more formal process, one that can be carefully monitored and administrated. I would enjoy being able to participate in such forums but I don’t know how much time I could devote to them.
At the very least, if the teachers contact me first, I can determine whether I’ll even have time to take student questions. I am sure that must be true for other people who have published books and essays about Tolkien.