After I placed my $100.30 order with Barnes and Noble, I received a notice that, based on my order, I might also be interested in Jack Turner’s Spice: The History of a Temptation.  I did, but could find no way to add the recommended book to my order.  Therefore, I contacted customer service.

Emely informed me that I would have to place a new order to get the additional book.  Barnes and Noble sells Turner’s book for $14.98.  Therefore, it would have cost me an additional $3.99 for shipping and handling because my new order would be less than $25.00.  The $100.30 I had spent 15 minutes earlier was irrelevant.

The conversation continued:

Steven: Although I generally like Barnes and Noble, several of your policies make it difficult to effectively shop Barnes and Noble on-line. As a result, I do not spend as much money with you as I might.

Emely: We respect your feedback on this, Steven.

Steven: I am glad that you respect my feedback. But that does not change the fact that I would like to add a $14.98 book to my $100 order.

Steven: I can purchase the book at Amazon.com for $11.56 which seems to be a better option than spending my money with you.

Emely: That would be your option, Steven.

Emely: Is there anything else I can still assist you aside from this?

Before I could type in my response—that Emely could help me cancel my order—she disconnected our chat session.  Even though I appreciate Barnes and Noble’s recommendation that I might enjoy Spice: The History of a Temptation,  I have already exercised my option to purchase it from Amazon–as well as another book I had on my “Save for Later” list at Barnes and Noble (for a combined savings of $12.83).  Amazon should be grateful to Emely’s manager and a culture at Barnes and Noble that does not value trained employees who can exercise effective critical thinking skills to benefit their business.

In reflecting on my conversation with Emely, I realize that early in my teaching career, I would organize classes so that my students played Emely’s role.  They didn’t need to be responsible for anything that happened in the course.  They could just follow the script I had provided them.

As I turned more and more responsibility over to my students, classes became more difficult to teach because people who are empowered challenge us and force us out of our comfort zones.  Image if Emely would be rewarded for telling her supervisor that she should have the authority to wave the postage and handling for a customer who wanted to order Spice: The History of a Temptation?  Such empowerment would be unsettling, but consider the benefits to Barnes and Noble!

My order last evening included a DVD for Dante’s Inferno (2010); a film that a team of students have decided to screen in my film class even though they knew I was reluctant to do so.¹  The students are meeting outside of class today—something they have been regularly doing—to continue designing a poster and handouts.  They also have plans to continue meeting next week during semester break to continue working on their presentation which will take two days of class.  The nature of the assignment does not require the extensive work that these film students are doing.  But empowered students work harder and learn more than sheep who allow professors to think for them.

Earlier this week, while presenting information from a Global Roundtables event held on our campus, I had planned a theoretical discussion about assessing the credibility of conspiracy theories.  But my lesson was set aside by an empowered student who introduced Alex Jones into the lesson.  We went to Mr. Jones’ YouTube channel and watched Socialism = Black Genocide.  This resulted in a lively discussion based on the theory that the Democratic Party has consciously implemented social policies designed to keep African Americans down.  It was neither the video I would have chosen nor direction I would have taken, but the resulting discussion ended up being better than I had planned.

I realize that it is easier to manage a workforce/classroom of Emelys.  But what is the cost of saving $3.99 in postage and handling vs. the learning the takes place when we empower our students?

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

¹I have addressed the issue of supporting students who wanted to screen Dante’s Inferno in “Students and Academic Freedom.”

---

---