Woops

Summer classes started today.   I thought they started next week.  My bad, students.  My bad.

WTTW: VII

Word to the Wise: If you’re ever teaching a class about how people overstate the effects of the media and you use the example of violence by asking everyone in class to raise their hand if they’ve seen a violent film and then asking the students to keep their hands raised if they’ve ever killed someone, you need to be prepared for someone to keep their hand raised…especially if you teach near a military base.

Yup, That Seems About Right

From Daily Routines comes this account from C.S. Lewis about his ideal working day.  After reading it the only thing I could think to change was to throw in a friend or two and some wife time (oh, and a dog on the walk).  Otherwise, this seems just about perfect to me.  It’s long so you’ll have to click on through the break to read it all. 

One Thing-Race and Ethnicity

One half of seventonine is fond of boiling things down to their essence, really getting at the core of a situation and summing up complex information and experiences in as few words as possible.  To that end, we’ll be offering an occasional series of quotes or brief summations that we think captures what we try to do or teach on a daily basis.  This series will be called “One Thing.”

If I could only teach my students one thing about race and ethnicity it would be the following quote from Thomas Shapiro’s book, “The Hidden Cost of Being African American,”

Advantaged groups not only control important resources and institutions, they attempt to make their advantages appear legitimate in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of the disadvantaged.

That about sums up what I just spent 3 hours a week over the course of 3 months trying to get my students to understand.

Calling the Postman. Come pick this up.

As much as we hate to, some of us at seventonine mail it in on some days.  Today, was one of those days.

The good thing is that this doesn’t happen all that often.  The better thing is that there will be more opportunities where we will actually put a lot more effort into making the things that we’re leading better for everyone.

Why We’re ready for the Semester to End: Traffic Patterns

Seventonine is just really, really tired of having to watch the same two people make out and fondle each other in the student center every MWF on our way to the office from class.  We’re looking forward to a different schedule which, hopefully, will not include these two hobbits who should be reading or studying or in their dormrooms or something, anything, besides fornicating on the student center couches.  At first it was cute.  That was 3 months ago.

Job Risks

Chalky Pants

Random Thoughts

I don’t know that these things are connected, but something tells me that they are somehow:

1. I have no idea how I could sustain this energy level for 20 years, or an entire semester.  Class takes so much energy and also provides so much in return.  I want to give as much as I can in a sustainable way.  I think the trick is to push it right to the limit so that I leave with just a little more energy returned to me than I gave.  The difficult part, aside from trying to make such a calculation, is that what I get out of class is directly related to what I put into it.  The more I give, the more I get…but there is a point of diminishing returns-otherwise known as burnout.

2. It is, I think, the greatest frustration in my life that when I look at other people, they do not truly understand the depths of my love for them.  I wish there was some way to communicate these feelings better.  I wish my students, coworkers, the girl running the register at the grocery store, could understand in some way the way that I feel about them.  But then, to tell them would just be creepy.

3. Carbon Leaf is really, really underrated band.  Seriously, check out their myspace page for some samples.  I’ve got a thing for lead singers who don’t play instruments yet still manage to pull it off.  I think it’s so much more genuine than most of the lead singers who just learn a few chords and use the guitar as a prop more than anything else.  Shit or get off the pot, you know.  Anyway, Let Your Troubles Roll By and Life Less Ordinary are great songs.