By "it" in the blog title, I mean, of course, the huge commercial box truck who decided I wasn't scooting it off the highway off ramp quickly enough. I, personally, prefer to use the "toot my horn twice quickly and wave while probably (I'll admit it) cursing under my breath" tactic, but this guy chose plan B.
I'm OK, and my poor battered car will get fixed, but it means I'm sore and achy and not in the mood to blog. Thank goodness I have not one but two JD Robb books (1 book and one novella) to cuddle up with while my neck loosens. I did find something I posted on a forum on Facebook that I thought was interesting. This was from the Open Minds forum, started by a really cool colleague of mine (from graduate school and a year of teaching at CU).
The topic was begun by a student bemoaning all the "unessential" classes that make up his core curriculum. Not something to say in front of a Wakie.
Allow me to pop my head in here even though I'm not a former student of Cathy's, but a colleague. I teach at a school which seems to have adopted the first poster's thoughts -- every class should directly affect the student's career path. This works great for some people -- if you had asked my sister what her career path was at age 4, she could have told you. She wanted to be a veterinarian then, she is a veterinarian now, and she couldn't be happier. The vast majority of us, however, are far from that determined at age 17 or 18 when we enter college. I went to a school where students did not declare their majors until junior year although most blended core classes and upper levels as soon as they leaned towards a major -- especially English majors not wanting to be saddled with 5 upper level writing courses in one semester, and I'm thankful for that delayed declaration system as I flopped around departments through much of my freshman year and had a blast doing it.
As for the "pointless" nature of some classes: nothing you take in college is pointless because truly smart people are the ones who learn to absorb information and then apply what they have learned to every part of their lives. As your eighth grade teacher told you that you would use algebra later (and you do), there is something valuable in knowledge itself. I won't speak to every department, but you take British literature to learn some incredibly important things that your 18 years on the planet might not have revealed (because no one knows at 18 -- definitely me included).
Good authors build their works as intricately as an architect plans a structure. Simply put, literature keeps your ego in check. Turn on the television in America today, and within five minutes the uneducated feel that the problems we face today are unique, brand new, and utterly destructive (and usually caused by one person or group and that person or group alone). A scholar of British literature need only read Shakespeare to realize that hundreds of years ago, people were pretty much as they are today -- often kind but sometimes truly diabolical. People have hurt each other throughout time, and somehow the human race survives.
All people begin in middle age to face their own mortality -- their fears of facing old age in the current climate of upheaval. The scholar of ancient literature, however, remembers that Odysseus faced almost identical perils (he thinks: "I spent much of my life working in battle for my descendants and what do I have to show for it -- how will Telemachus and Penelope survive if I am not there to protect and provide for them?").
So, literature shows you that you are not unique. It serves to show the patterns of humanity. It can comfort you by showing you that you are not alone but rather the latest incarnation of a journey billions have taken, and survived. There are other benefits of literature (you get to try out your interpretation skills and see how people throughout written history have dealt with situations to their benefit or peril), but the whole interconnectedness is my area of study.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
I love the smell of anger in the morning.....
I never write in the morning. I'm a creature of habit and the morning is for perusing the news with a cup of coffee, and petting the cat before the dog wakes up and destroys the calm of the house. I usually wait until the day has passed before I muster up the faculties to reflect.
A shorter way of saying this is that my brain is rarely running at full capacity, and I have nothing to say. Today, not so much.
I've been reading a lot about the election lately. I've been blessed or cursed (changes depending on my mood) with a group of incredibly bright and incredibly inquisitive students this semester. They challenge me and make me defend my beliefs every bit as much as I ask them to defend theirs. We're growing as a unit, and I include my own process in there just as much as theirs. Any professor will tell you that we are never done learning, changing, and trying to find some idea of truth.
I have to read both sides of the argument, as is my duty as a teacher and a citizen. Know what I found out? University professors are, apparently, "naive ideologues." We singlehandedly got Obama elected because we unfairly influenced our students and forced them to vote for Obama through a series of academic and pseudo-intellectual coercions.
Hunh? Has the author ever MET a teenager?
I can't get my students to come to class the requisite number of days or turn in papers on time, and I supposedly hold absolute dominion over their political leanings?
I won't lie and say that wouldn't be very cool, but, I think most professors would use that control in far different ways.
Just for the record, if I could wave my hands and make my students do my bidding, I would forget about politics altogether. I'd form a crime family, not a political action committee. I'd get them to found a Suzanne-based religion and put up statues, not support one particular candidate. At the very least, if I held ultimate sway over my 120 shiny new voters, I would urge them to picket the university to give me a ridiculously high salary, not to worry about the cares and concerns of others. Since I have beenie-weenie, raman noodle months even though I'm in my 30's, this is obviously not the case.
I don't care so much about what people say about me. I'm comfortable with who I am. Took me almost 3 deacades, but here I sit. What does concern me is that these types of comments insult my students. They are doing their best to become the adults they want to be. They've entrusted me with a part of the responsibility of helping them along the way. They don't know everything; this is true, but darn it, they are getting closer at the same time they are realizing they'll never know everything (perhaps some pundits could learn the same lesson).
They're sponges, but I'm not the only water laying around.
Yes, conservative folks, I'm liberal. Shockingly so. I advocate a conspiracy of compassion and duty in my classes -- duty to your fellow man, not duty to me or a particular cause. I unilaterally advocate volunteerism and try to find ways that my students can serve their community and gain valuable insight all at one go. And the world WILL be a better place for my pushiness.
Sometimes, it even works.
Still, students challenge my beliefs and my pushiness. They are supposed to. THAT is what I am teaching them. I tell them that every great thinker who has ever existed was once a scared kid who knew little. I don't believe that anyone has ever emerged fully formed with all wisdom since Athena burts forth from Zeus' head. I tell them that they can all be Mill, or Bacon, or Kant if they study work, and think. They could even be Nietzsche, although I wish them more happiness than that.
I remind those who question my methods that there was a time when professors pushed a lot more ideology on their students than they do today -- during the Vietnam conflict. This is perhaps the high point of professorial influence in recent history. Many students were saved from going to Vietnam by professors who doled out A's to keep young boys out of the draft. In circumstances like this, I sure do believe those boys thought they owed their professors (who were saving their lives) some sort of due.
But students today aren't under those conditions. They choose their course in life, and they answer to no one, really, but themselves. They are, at their core, teenagers and young adults. They are cranky and obstinate and not interested in marching in line behind anyone but themselves.
And I applaud them for that.
I also remind everyone that those college kids during the Vietnam Conflict? Those ones who were in college when professors were almost unilaterally pushing them to continue their peace protests (students themselves sparked that, not professors)? They turned out so liberal that they helped elect Ronald Reagan twice. They bought into the "greed is good" philosophy of the eighties. They elected George Bush and later his son..... twice. They comprise a fair percentage of the Republican party now.....
Sure, university faculty have a tendency to be liberal. But we aren't stupid and a part of liberalism today is a philosophy to live and let live. We encourage openness to new ideas and as spirit of compassion to your fellow man. Developmental writing teachers like me teach Jackson's "The Lottery" every semester and we do fear tradition for tradition's sake. We ask our leaders of tomorrow to look into their lives and question every aspect. That's the point of the academy.
But the academy is just a school of thought. It is not meant to be a permanent resting place for all. It is a foundation for all who attend, but a stopping place for only a few. We give students the basis for critical thought and exploration and then send them into the real world. What they do then is completely up to them, and we sit in our crowded offices and wait to hear what happens.
Whatever they choose, we wish them well. The most important thing we do is to let them do as they wish and as their conscience dictates. We attempt to give them roots and wings, and hope for the best. It's all we can do, all we should do, and all we hope to do.
Except for maybe that statue thing -- that would be cool.
A shorter way of saying this is that my brain is rarely running at full capacity, and I have nothing to say. Today, not so much.
I've been reading a lot about the election lately. I've been blessed or cursed (changes depending on my mood) with a group of incredibly bright and incredibly inquisitive students this semester. They challenge me and make me defend my beliefs every bit as much as I ask them to defend theirs. We're growing as a unit, and I include my own process in there just as much as theirs. Any professor will tell you that we are never done learning, changing, and trying to find some idea of truth.
I have to read both sides of the argument, as is my duty as a teacher and a citizen. Know what I found out? University professors are, apparently, "naive ideologues." We singlehandedly got Obama elected because we unfairly influenced our students and forced them to vote for Obama through a series of academic and pseudo-intellectual coercions.
Hunh? Has the author ever MET a teenager?
I can't get my students to come to class the requisite number of days or turn in papers on time, and I supposedly hold absolute dominion over their political leanings?
I won't lie and say that wouldn't be very cool, but, I think most professors would use that control in far different ways.
Just for the record, if I could wave my hands and make my students do my bidding, I would forget about politics altogether. I'd form a crime family, not a political action committee. I'd get them to found a Suzanne-based religion and put up statues, not support one particular candidate. At the very least, if I held ultimate sway over my 120 shiny new voters, I would urge them to picket the university to give me a ridiculously high salary, not to worry about the cares and concerns of others. Since I have beenie-weenie, raman noodle months even though I'm in my 30's, this is obviously not the case.
I don't care so much about what people say about me. I'm comfortable with who I am. Took me almost 3 deacades, but here I sit. What does concern me is that these types of comments insult my students. They are doing their best to become the adults they want to be. They've entrusted me with a part of the responsibility of helping them along the way. They don't know everything; this is true, but darn it, they are getting closer at the same time they are realizing they'll never know everything (perhaps some pundits could learn the same lesson).
They're sponges, but I'm not the only water laying around.
Yes, conservative folks, I'm liberal. Shockingly so. I advocate a conspiracy of compassion and duty in my classes -- duty to your fellow man, not duty to me or a particular cause. I unilaterally advocate volunteerism and try to find ways that my students can serve their community and gain valuable insight all at one go. And the world WILL be a better place for my pushiness.
Sometimes, it even works.
Still, students challenge my beliefs and my pushiness. They are supposed to. THAT is what I am teaching them. I tell them that every great thinker who has ever existed was once a scared kid who knew little. I don't believe that anyone has ever emerged fully formed with all wisdom since Athena burts forth from Zeus' head. I tell them that they can all be Mill, or Bacon, or Kant if they study work, and think. They could even be Nietzsche, although I wish them more happiness than that.
I remind those who question my methods that there was a time when professors pushed a lot more ideology on their students than they do today -- during the Vietnam conflict. This is perhaps the high point of professorial influence in recent history. Many students were saved from going to Vietnam by professors who doled out A's to keep young boys out of the draft. In circumstances like this, I sure do believe those boys thought they owed their professors (who were saving their lives) some sort of due.
But students today aren't under those conditions. They choose their course in life, and they answer to no one, really, but themselves. They are, at their core, teenagers and young adults. They are cranky and obstinate and not interested in marching in line behind anyone but themselves.
And I applaud them for that.
I also remind everyone that those college kids during the Vietnam Conflict? Those ones who were in college when professors were almost unilaterally pushing them to continue their peace protests (students themselves sparked that, not professors)? They turned out so liberal that they helped elect Ronald Reagan twice. They bought into the "greed is good" philosophy of the eighties. They elected George Bush and later his son..... twice. They comprise a fair percentage of the Republican party now.....
Sure, university faculty have a tendency to be liberal. But we aren't stupid and a part of liberalism today is a philosophy to live and let live. We encourage openness to new ideas and as spirit of compassion to your fellow man. Developmental writing teachers like me teach Jackson's "The Lottery" every semester and we do fear tradition for tradition's sake. We ask our leaders of tomorrow to look into their lives and question every aspect. That's the point of the academy.
But the academy is just a school of thought. It is not meant to be a permanent resting place for all. It is a foundation for all who attend, but a stopping place for only a few. We give students the basis for critical thought and exploration and then send them into the real world. What they do then is completely up to them, and we sit in our crowded offices and wait to hear what happens.
Whatever they choose, we wish them well. The most important thing we do is to let them do as they wish and as their conscience dictates. We attempt to give them roots and wings, and hope for the best. It's all we can do, all we should do, and all we hope to do.
Except for maybe that statue thing -- that would be cool.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama Nation
Well, it's over. Now what?
Today was my favorite kind of teaching day. Plans went out the window, paper deadlines got extended, I got to see the sparkle in 120 pairs of eyes, and some truly cool folks sidled a little closer to adulthood. I was surprised and thrilled at how many of them felt changed by the process.
Over the past few weeks, I've written about how I sometimes feel out of touch with my students -- that the 18 year difference in our ages actually FEELS like there's a whole person in between me and them. Not today. Today, either they took a giant leap towards becoming adults, or I floated backwards and became enamoured once again in the mystique that is voting.
They were full of talk today. One thing a decade of teaching has taught me is that when they are on a roll, that's when the true learning occurs. I don't turn discussion back to our papers. Kwame Appiah will be there in the morning. They talked about the importance of technology in the new administration. They discussed the role they felt they could play in politics now. When I asked them the Republican question, "Do you feel you were manipulated by the Obama campaign?" (I've heard that the "flash" and "bells and whistles" of the Obama campaign were there only to woo the unsophisticated new voters) they responded with wisdom beyond their years, in my opinion. One student simply said, "Obama's campaign didn't manipulate me. It approached me in my terms. I was listening and I responded."
One even likened it to the process of reverse autoethnography and transculturation (when two cultures meet up and one explains itself to the other using the others' language). Am I in the presence of some smart cookies or what?
Living with Ed is on, and this has been a long day. We have a new President and he has enough work ahead of him for both of us and quite a few of you as well. So I leave you with my final thought last night --
(To Barack Obama): Well, you did it. You've been given your shot. You have brought us together, and we are behind you. We need you. So, please, please, please.....
don't fuck it up.
Today was my favorite kind of teaching day. Plans went out the window, paper deadlines got extended, I got to see the sparkle in 120 pairs of eyes, and some truly cool folks sidled a little closer to adulthood. I was surprised and thrilled at how many of them felt changed by the process.
Over the past few weeks, I've written about how I sometimes feel out of touch with my students -- that the 18 year difference in our ages actually FEELS like there's a whole person in between me and them. Not today. Today, either they took a giant leap towards becoming adults, or I floated backwards and became enamoured once again in the mystique that is voting.
They were full of talk today. One thing a decade of teaching has taught me is that when they are on a roll, that's when the true learning occurs. I don't turn discussion back to our papers. Kwame Appiah will be there in the morning. They talked about the importance of technology in the new administration. They discussed the role they felt they could play in politics now. When I asked them the Republican question, "Do you feel you were manipulated by the Obama campaign?" (I've heard that the "flash" and "bells and whistles" of the Obama campaign were there only to woo the unsophisticated new voters) they responded with wisdom beyond their years, in my opinion. One student simply said, "Obama's campaign didn't manipulate me. It approached me in my terms. I was listening and I responded."
One even likened it to the process of reverse autoethnography and transculturation (when two cultures meet up and one explains itself to the other using the others' language). Am I in the presence of some smart cookies or what?
Living with Ed is on, and this has been a long day. We have a new President and he has enough work ahead of him for both of us and quite a few of you as well. So I leave you with my final thought last night --
(To Barack Obama): Well, you did it. You've been given your shot. You have brought us together, and we are behind you. We need you. So, please, please, please.....
don't fuck it up.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Psst.... is it over yet?
Ssh... don't tell, but I think it's over. I hope it's over.
As I sit at command central watching the election returns, I see a glimpse of the cranky old woman I will one day (probably not too far from now) become. If I have to live through another four years of the guy (or pretty much the guy) who brought us such old tyme favorites as the Department of Homeland Security and The Patriot Act, I think I'm gonna skip out on all my responsibilities and sneak over the border. Canada or Mexico? Guess I'll have to decide whether I want to surf or ski.
I love Election Day, but if I ever have a heart attack, ten to one this will be why.
I've been "encouraged" both directly and indirectly over the course of this semester to abandon politics in the classroom. There have been editorials on the subject (but NOT on me specifically, thank goodness) and admonitions from departments and other faculty members. No one has come out and made a rule, but the general message we receive from above seems to tell us to be nice and never offer an opinion about anything outside of a pre-approved curriculum. Normally, we are encouraged to rotate classes around a text but to also include our own materials as bolsters to the campus-wide texts. It's a nice setup. In short, the department says, "here are some tough essays. They have many meanings. You supplement. Begin."
Now, though, the message appears to be hazier. I am not into conspiracy theory by any stretch, but the message is changing, and I don't feel comfortable with its path. I shouldn't talk politics in the classroom? In a course focused on popular culture? In an election year?
I notice small things in this election and it makes me sad. I'm not going to talk about Sarah Palin's admissions (during a crank call supposedly from the "Prime Minister of France" but really from some radio disc jockey) that she enjoys shooting animals from a helicopter. I will interject that if a student told me he liked to kill animals, I think there is a special form I have to fill out, but whatever. I won't dwell.
I'm talking about a hard edge that seems to have appeared on the edges of some of my students over the course of this election. I graduated from a school whose mission is "Pro Humanitate" (for humanity), so I was thrilled when I was allowed to use the NU Reads book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. The school even booked him in a private huge event in Matthews Arena. I even got to meet him at a faculty reception (I'm not proud -- imagine a junior high school girl meeting the Jonas Brothers one on one and you have an idea of how I acted -- then again, meeting an author and activist I like IS meeting a rock star for me, so.....).
My students were engaged. They were excited. They applauded his efforts and remembered contributing to "Pennies for Peace" in grade school and the warm fuzzy feeling they got from helping someone in need. (For the uninitiated, Mortenson builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and recently became the first infidel to win the Star of Pakistan for his efforts. And if anyone wants to make a snarky comment, terrorists graduate from madrassas; often, these are the only schools available to the children of rural Pakistan; he builds schools so these children won't go to madrassas.) Then, they started watching the final days of the campaign. And things changed.
When did "community organizer" become synonymous with "socialist?"
When did community action become a dirty word?
When did we form "sides" to an election and attack not the candidates and their positions, but each other?
I don't mean to say that there have been dust ups in my class. We're still to refined for that. I can't even put my finger on what has changed or why, but they seem colder, harder, and I miss the unabashed passion they had at the beginning of the semester. I don't know why, and maybe I'm wrong, but I blame this election.
I also blame my tied hands when it comes to helping them evaluate what they see and feel. I think there's no better place for young people to explore and examine their ideals than in a freshman writing class whose very foundation is the fact that we ask them to accept responsibility for their thought. I step back from any perceived authority over their thoughts. My favorite quote we discuss comes in the first day's reading of the introduction of the book -- I don't have it with me so I'll paraphrase: Young people in college sit in libraries reading Cicero, Locke, and Bacon forgetting that at one time Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were merely young people sitting in libraries reading others.
My job is not to correct comma splices and improve spelling (although thanks to a new trend of teaching grammar and mechanics through the magical process of osmosis in high school). It is to foster a sense of creative thinking. I usually deal in hypotheticals, but once in a while (every four years) I get the opportunity to talk about something that does have a direct impact on my students. The person elected President tonight will make policy that contributes to the state of the job market they will face when they graduate. His policies will affect the housing market in which they will attempt to buy their first house. His foreign policy will shape how the rest of the world views America as my students attempt to jump into the global marketplace. How can they not be concerned?
They are, and my hands are tied. It isn't appropriate.
Where SHOULD our students learn to express and explore their feelings? Are there places more appropriate than among professors the university considers learned enough to teach them? Perhaps that grammar osmosis thing will open up a "political thought" branch and students will one day wake and KNOW.
Maybe they should pick a channel and make Charlie Gibson or Anderson Cooper their personal life coach.
Maybe Matt Damon will speak again.
The truth is that professors are not the hideous liberal gestapo we are often made out to be. Universities are, actually, quite conservative. My personal take on why faculty tend to be more liberal in their thinking is that we, admittedly, live in a world of concepts and ideals. We are professionally trained to see people and things for what they could be rather than what they are (incidentally, this makes us good teachers but hopeless and constantly disappointed daters). Primarily, though, I think the reason is that when you get a group of people together whose only purpose is the pursuit of truth, they have a tendency to think alike. And while we are, as a whole, generally left-leaning, we are also exhaustive in our search to see if what we felt yesterday still applies in today's world. We self-regulate and constantly seek to further our own understanding of ourselves and our world. Every day, I have to accommodate 114 disparate and different opinions in with my own. And every 4 months, I get a new 114 opinions to weave into my own understanding. Can all professions say this? Not in exactly the same way.
Despite this, I get to go in tomorrow and see many shiny new voters. I'm darn proud of them. Our views may be different, but our aim is the same, at least for now. We want to be a part of this process. Maybe one day I'll talk about how it felt to vote for the first time, but this is long and Obama's 206 current votes aren't enough to make me turn off CNN and that compelling touch screen they keep using (is it just me and G or is that thing freakin' sweet?).
To all my students, congratulations guys. You earned your place at the big kids table. In class, I'm supposed to shut up, but here I can say you did it! You're part of the process now. You did your duty, and that's all I can ever ask of you.
Happy election day, one and all.
As I sit at command central watching the election returns, I see a glimpse of the cranky old woman I will one day (probably not too far from now) become. If I have to live through another four years of the guy (or pretty much the guy) who brought us such old tyme favorites as the Department of Homeland Security and The Patriot Act, I think I'm gonna skip out on all my responsibilities and sneak over the border. Canada or Mexico? Guess I'll have to decide whether I want to surf or ski.
I love Election Day, but if I ever have a heart attack, ten to one this will be why.
I've been "encouraged" both directly and indirectly over the course of this semester to abandon politics in the classroom. There have been editorials on the subject (but NOT on me specifically, thank goodness) and admonitions from departments and other faculty members. No one has come out and made a rule, but the general message we receive from above seems to tell us to be nice and never offer an opinion about anything outside of a pre-approved curriculum. Normally, we are encouraged to rotate classes around a text but to also include our own materials as bolsters to the campus-wide texts. It's a nice setup. In short, the department says, "here are some tough essays. They have many meanings. You supplement. Begin."
Now, though, the message appears to be hazier. I am not into conspiracy theory by any stretch, but the message is changing, and I don't feel comfortable with its path. I shouldn't talk politics in the classroom? In a course focused on popular culture? In an election year?
I notice small things in this election and it makes me sad. I'm not going to talk about Sarah Palin's admissions (during a crank call supposedly from the "Prime Minister of France" but really from some radio disc jockey) that she enjoys shooting animals from a helicopter. I will interject that if a student told me he liked to kill animals, I think there is a special form I have to fill out, but whatever. I won't dwell.
I'm talking about a hard edge that seems to have appeared on the edges of some of my students over the course of this election. I graduated from a school whose mission is "Pro Humanitate" (for humanity), so I was thrilled when I was allowed to use the NU Reads book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. The school even booked him in a private huge event in Matthews Arena. I even got to meet him at a faculty reception (I'm not proud -- imagine a junior high school girl meeting the Jonas Brothers one on one and you have an idea of how I acted -- then again, meeting an author and activist I like IS meeting a rock star for me, so.....).
My students were engaged. They were excited. They applauded his efforts and remembered contributing to "Pennies for Peace" in grade school and the warm fuzzy feeling they got from helping someone in need. (For the uninitiated, Mortenson builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and recently became the first infidel to win the Star of Pakistan for his efforts. And if anyone wants to make a snarky comment, terrorists graduate from madrassas; often, these are the only schools available to the children of rural Pakistan; he builds schools so these children won't go to madrassas.) Then, they started watching the final days of the campaign. And things changed.
When did "community organizer" become synonymous with "socialist?"
When did community action become a dirty word?
When did we form "sides" to an election and attack not the candidates and their positions, but each other?
I don't mean to say that there have been dust ups in my class. We're still to refined for that. I can't even put my finger on what has changed or why, but they seem colder, harder, and I miss the unabashed passion they had at the beginning of the semester. I don't know why, and maybe I'm wrong, but I blame this election.
I also blame my tied hands when it comes to helping them evaluate what they see and feel. I think there's no better place for young people to explore and examine their ideals than in a freshman writing class whose very foundation is the fact that we ask them to accept responsibility for their thought. I step back from any perceived authority over their thoughts. My favorite quote we discuss comes in the first day's reading of the introduction of the book -- I don't have it with me so I'll paraphrase: Young people in college sit in libraries reading Cicero, Locke, and Bacon forgetting that at one time Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were merely young people sitting in libraries reading others.
My job is not to correct comma splices and improve spelling (although thanks to a new trend of teaching grammar and mechanics through the magical process of osmosis in high school). It is to foster a sense of creative thinking. I usually deal in hypotheticals, but once in a while (every four years) I get the opportunity to talk about something that does have a direct impact on my students. The person elected President tonight will make policy that contributes to the state of the job market they will face when they graduate. His policies will affect the housing market in which they will attempt to buy their first house. His foreign policy will shape how the rest of the world views America as my students attempt to jump into the global marketplace. How can they not be concerned?
They are, and my hands are tied. It isn't appropriate.
Where SHOULD our students learn to express and explore their feelings? Are there places more appropriate than among professors the university considers learned enough to teach them? Perhaps that grammar osmosis thing will open up a "political thought" branch and students will one day wake and KNOW.
Maybe they should pick a channel and make Charlie Gibson or Anderson Cooper their personal life coach.
Maybe Matt Damon will speak again.
The truth is that professors are not the hideous liberal gestapo we are often made out to be. Universities are, actually, quite conservative. My personal take on why faculty tend to be more liberal in their thinking is that we, admittedly, live in a world of concepts and ideals. We are professionally trained to see people and things for what they could be rather than what they are (incidentally, this makes us good teachers but hopeless and constantly disappointed daters). Primarily, though, I think the reason is that when you get a group of people together whose only purpose is the pursuit of truth, they have a tendency to think alike. And while we are, as a whole, generally left-leaning, we are also exhaustive in our search to see if what we felt yesterday still applies in today's world. We self-regulate and constantly seek to further our own understanding of ourselves and our world. Every day, I have to accommodate 114 disparate and different opinions in with my own. And every 4 months, I get a new 114 opinions to weave into my own understanding. Can all professions say this? Not in exactly the same way.
Despite this, I get to go in tomorrow and see many shiny new voters. I'm darn proud of them. Our views may be different, but our aim is the same, at least for now. We want to be a part of this process. Maybe one day I'll talk about how it felt to vote for the first time, but this is long and Obama's 206 current votes aren't enough to make me turn off CNN and that compelling touch screen they keep using (is it just me and G or is that thing freakin' sweet?).
To all my students, congratulations guys. You earned your place at the big kids table. In class, I'm supposed to shut up, but here I can say you did it! You're part of the process now. You did your duty, and that's all I can ever ask of you.
Happy election day, one and all.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Discord
This weekend sucked. I think I would have rather worked.
Actually, it started out well enough. Dinner with the in-laws to show off our handy dandy home improvements. There was adequate ooo-ing and aw-ing at my sweet community fish tank and the Crimefighter's tank-o-beasties. Boogie is adored by his grandparents, so that was cool. The cats had to be quarantined as they cause instant near-death to their grandfather, but we anticipated that. They were even impressed, if unfamiliar with all of our ecologically friendly improvements like the rainwater collection system and the composter. OK, there were few raised eyebrows at the pile-o-rotting food in the backyard and they were a little frightened when the neighbor mowed his yard not once but twice during their four hour visit, but Steve frightens us all.
Today, though, was a day I hope I never have to do over. Ever had one of those? I believe the basis is that Boogie goes in tomorrow for his pre-treatment workup and tensions are high. We'll almost certainly be able to get rid of the heartworms as my little guy hasn't been alive long enough to have a truly nasty infestation, but the Crimefighter and I react to fear in different ways, neither very productive, and we're both terrified, so we are at each other's throats.
To top it off, weekends mean water changes for both tanks, never a fun thing. This week, the main filter in the cichlid tank decided to quit. This means a $250 trip to the PetSmart (it almost meant a $400 trip to Uncle Ned's, but we're trying to save since heartworms cost close to a grand to cure, plus the guys at Uncle Ned's were being wanky tonight). We drove all the way to the next town, plopped down money we hadn't intended to spend, brought the filter home and loaded it up, and ..... nothing. PetSmart sold us a non-working filter -- and it was the "top" of their line. Fortunately, the PetSmart is next door to the vet where Boogie is going in the morning, and Gerry had more than a little dose of mad going on. We're terrified that the remaining filter won't keep the beasties alive until tomorrow. Plus, all the bacteria in the main filter is dead. I won't even go into the time and effort it takes to grow a cichlid tank from fry to adults. They aren't exactly $4 guppies.
I also forgot to get my car inspected on Friday which means I have to drive the Crimefighter's Crimefighting Rocket to work tomorrow. While the Audi is a hot car, I realize where Gerry's affections lie, and I'm always a bundle of nerves when I drive it. To be honest, it's REALLY nice to pull up to stoplights and have people mouth, "I want that." At first, I thought people in Milford were incredibly forward; then I figured out it really wasn't me, but the wheels. Oh well. It's really better this way. There's not much call for barely pubescent boys in my life, so let them envy the rocket.
So, every animal is in minor crisis, except my cats. At this point, I'm scared to go check on them. It would cap off a gloriously suck-fest-y day to have them agitated again.
Wish my boy luck tomorrow. I'm really hoping they can't find much trace of worm activity in his blood. He's been on preventative for a year, and I'm not happy with Heartgard at this moment.
I am working my way through all the things I promised I would do -- slowly. Jane Eyre is coming along, although I did take a little Christopher Moore break. We all need one of those every now and then. I finished A Dirty Job: A Novel. Not too long ago, I got my hands temporarily on the audio version of his best work, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. a must read if ever there was one. Lamb is better, but Dirty Job was pretty good. Bad Christopher Moore is better than anything else I've read in a while. But now that that is done, I have two days before the two new Robb's are out, so I need to catch up on Jane and sit with my boy while he recuperates.
Actually, it started out well enough. Dinner with the in-laws to show off our handy dandy home improvements. There was adequate ooo-ing and aw-ing at my sweet community fish tank and the Crimefighter's tank-o-beasties. Boogie is adored by his grandparents, so that was cool. The cats had to be quarantined as they cause instant near-death to their grandfather, but we anticipated that. They were even impressed, if unfamiliar with all of our ecologically friendly improvements like the rainwater collection system and the composter. OK, there were few raised eyebrows at the pile-o-rotting food in the backyard and they were a little frightened when the neighbor mowed his yard not once but twice during their four hour visit, but Steve frightens us all.
Today, though, was a day I hope I never have to do over. Ever had one of those? I believe the basis is that Boogie goes in tomorrow for his pre-treatment workup and tensions are high. We'll almost certainly be able to get rid of the heartworms as my little guy hasn't been alive long enough to have a truly nasty infestation, but the Crimefighter and I react to fear in different ways, neither very productive, and we're both terrified, so we are at each other's throats.
To top it off, weekends mean water changes for both tanks, never a fun thing. This week, the main filter in the cichlid tank decided to quit. This means a $250 trip to the PetSmart (it almost meant a $400 trip to Uncle Ned's, but we're trying to save since heartworms cost close to a grand to cure, plus the guys at Uncle Ned's were being wanky tonight). We drove all the way to the next town, plopped down money we hadn't intended to spend, brought the filter home and loaded it up, and ..... nothing. PetSmart sold us a non-working filter -- and it was the "top" of their line. Fortunately, the PetSmart is next door to the vet where Boogie is going in the morning, and Gerry had more than a little dose of mad going on. We're terrified that the remaining filter won't keep the beasties alive until tomorrow. Plus, all the bacteria in the main filter is dead. I won't even go into the time and effort it takes to grow a cichlid tank from fry to adults. They aren't exactly $4 guppies.
I also forgot to get my car inspected on Friday which means I have to drive the Crimefighter's Crimefighting Rocket to work tomorrow. While the Audi is a hot car, I realize where Gerry's affections lie, and I'm always a bundle of nerves when I drive it. To be honest, it's REALLY nice to pull up to stoplights and have people mouth, "I want that." At first, I thought people in Milford were incredibly forward; then I figured out it really wasn't me, but the wheels. Oh well. It's really better this way. There's not much call for barely pubescent boys in my life, so let them envy the rocket.
So, every animal is in minor crisis, except my cats. At this point, I'm scared to go check on them. It would cap off a gloriously suck-fest-y day to have them agitated again.
Wish my boy luck tomorrow. I'm really hoping they can't find much trace of worm activity in his blood. He's been on preventative for a year, and I'm not happy with Heartgard at this moment.
I am working my way through all the things I promised I would do -- slowly. Jane Eyre is coming along, although I did take a little Christopher Moore break. We all need one of those every now and then. I finished A Dirty Job: A Novel. Not too long ago, I got my hands temporarily on the audio version of his best work, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. a must read if ever there was one. Lamb is better, but Dirty Job was pretty good. Bad Christopher Moore is better than anything else I've read in a while. But now that that is done, I have two days before the two new Robb's are out, so I need to catch up on Jane and sit with my boy while he recuperates.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)