By Meaghan Summers
The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse tells the story of a young girl named Mila who had been raised by dolphins. She had no concept of the human world and spoke like her dolphin brethren; she swam, ate, and lived under the supervision of the slick “nose speaker[s]” (Hesse 159). This was one of my favorite novels as a child, but, now, I realize how well it relates to writing center work.
Hesse’s novel reminds us how difficult it is to assimilate into another culture. To describe this struggle, Hesse utilizes certain words that can be read in light of two cultures: dolphin and human. For instance, the word “beach.” While “beach” is usually associated with a vacation or a pleasurable experience, for Mila, it refers to her home and makes her remember being captured by humans. For writing center tutors, words can mean one thing, but, for the writers, they can mean something different. Understanding cultural and experiential discrepancies can alleviate considerable misunderstandings and technical shortcomings. Therefore, tutors must try and not make people uncomfortable or feel inferior due to cultural dissimilarities. Hesse details this feeling of inferiority well: “They look at me like I am stupid like a shark” (104). The academic culture that writers are thrown into could be as uncomfortable for them as the human culture was for Mila.
In addition to being conscious of cultures, tutors need to pay attention to writers’ specific requirements. For example, a student may enter a session wanting to look at organization. If tutors spend the majority of the session fine-tuning minute grammar mistakes, the writer may not benefit much. Hesse’s novel contains plentiful grammatical errors to draw attention to Mila’s fleeting personhood, but the scientists working to integrate her into society do not focus on that. Instead, they encourage her actions just as tutors can prioritize approaches that encourage the writing process over sentence-level work.
Finally, tutors must be prepared for their writers to fail. Even if we do everything asked of us, writers still falter. Not every paper receives an A, and that should be okay. In Hesse’s novel, the scientists begin to realize that Mila is just not meant for the human world, so they release her from it. Similarly, tutors should release their writers from the expectation of perfection. Part of learning is making mistakes, and no tutor can correct (or detect) all of them.
Hesse, Karen. The Music of Dolphins. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1996. Print.
My name’s Meaghan, and I’m a Junior English major and writing center advisor at Wittenberg Univeristy. I like to say I’m a favorite book whose pages are open to suggestions. My cover is unbreakable and my confidence unshakable. An unusual poet, lover of language, and devoted writing center advisor wrapped all in one person. Talk about a deal!