Monday, January 28, 2013

Why Teaching is Awesome

Jodi O'Brien & Judith Howard (1996):

"As teachers, we are not mere conduits of facts and figures. Our power to educate lies in our ability to demonstrate how we use knowledge as a means of naming, sorting, and evaluating experience. Through this process, commonly referred to as 'critical thinking,' we model for our students how one comes to develop the habits of mind. [...] This is not an abstract, detached activity. It is an activity whereby the instructor acts as a role model for the process of critical reflection. The responsibility in this process lies in the willingness to speak and to be accountable to the consequences of the positions one takes. [...] An effective critical analysis of difference requires us first to examine our own position, then to determine what we have to contribute to discussions of race, class, sexuality, gender, age and other systems based on our own position, and finally, to teach from this position...neither apologetic[ally] nor evangelistic[ally]. [...] We cannot leave our character undetermined and/or at the door when we enter the classroom."

Friday, January 25, 2013

The Girl You Marry

Felicity, Season 2, Episode 1

Ben: Felicity and I, we might start dating. [looks at roommate Sean.] What the hell is that expression?
Sean: Well, Felicity is...not exactly the girl you date.
Ben: Oh she's not?
Sean: No, she's the girl you marry. I swear-- I'm 8 years older than you. I mean when you were born, I was already in little league. I mean that's a lifetime of experience. ... listen to me, I like Felicity, but you're not ready for that. You know, she is this thoughtful, challenging, complicated girl who examines the world she sees and you're-- you're-- you're like this idiot. I mean it's not your fault, you're a young guy. I'm tellin' you man, you get caught up in this, and it's drama, and it's pain, and you've blown the relationship for the rest of your life.
Ben: I like her. I can't help it. We idiots like Felicity.

This script's content, while implicitly intriguing to me, is actually a little oversimplified. It doesn't deal with the fact that Julie, Ben's previous girlfriend, was no immature girl. But yet, maybe I can see Felicity's 'superiority' when it comes down to being mysterious, many-sided, and more real and compelling in her spirit, in that she is often truly conflicted and undergoes an internal process of decision-making, rather than being impulsive or over-emotional, or steered by emotions, like Julie. (But, I want to clearly say that the world needs its Julie's and they too will be married, LOL.) Felicity is both feminine and human, beautiful and complex. She's never really settled in her mind about a lot of things and comes to conclusions herself, without trying to gather over-thorough advice or weigh in on what others think. That being said, she's had some serious character blunders and missteps. I wouldn't want to be Felicity, for that.  (I don't mean that in a self-righteous way, only that I can only imagine the inner turmoil and despair those decisions and their fallouts must have caused her.)

On another note, I think Sean's stance is an interesting one that represents majority culture's approach to man-woman relationships. The young guy gets this free pass to be dumb for a while. If there's any nugget of truth to be gleaned from this, it's that a 'girl you marry' should be on her toes for the dumb ones. Which would lead either to the conclusion that she befriend them but not fall in love with them, so retain a cool distance, or else accept that they're currently dumb and the time's not right. And if it's the time for her, than he's not the one.


Saturday, January 19, 2013

Thank God for Poets

I just stumbled upon this poem again. A 7th-year student in the sociology department first exposed me to it. I heard it again this morning as it was alluded to in an episode of the TV show "Felicity" -- the line about "let the more loving one be me."

How powerful! I often face this feeling like it's a weakness, but thank God for poets who make these human impulses seem more worthy. 

W.H. Auden, "The More Loving One"

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.


How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.


Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.


Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Looking at Old Things in a New Way

I remember being puzzled for a long time about what Jesus meant when he said old wineskins can't hold new wine. In the same way, a new life, a new way of living, can't be carried on while still using the old containers that got us through, day to day. 'Containers' in a metaphorical sense, say those logics and rules-to-live-by that we accessed and used on a daily basis, as much as and as perfunctorily as Tupperware. Jesus' way of living and understanding God turned it all upside down. Time to throw out those mauve-colored, flower-imprinted 70's Rubbermaids, folks, and bring in the Gladware!

Now I get it, more than I used to, anyway, and in a new way. And I would like to offer two positive spins on the New Wineskins phenomenon, which I am now convinced that God throws our way throughout the entire duration of our lives. That's right, He's so dynamic that He sees fit to make our ways of doing things inoperable, obsolete, or just utterly unfitting when we grow spiritually. A girl growing in faith can't sport those dying, old, loosened, unsupportive, and -- let's be honest, homely -- brown flats forever. She needs tighter, more fitting boots (or whatever kind of shoes) that she can wear confidently on the new stretch of sidewalk she's on now. The old ones just won't ever do anymore.

I think only God can give us the power to see old things in new ways. This can be a blessing readily felt and discerned as such, as in the case of example one. Or it can be an immensely painful, gradual revelation or turn-of-plans that God delivers, which forces you to see the old things in new ways, because the old has gone and exists no longer. Imagine it as much as you want, pine for it, and so on, but it is no longer a fact and therefore no longer a reality. Reality has changed and He calls us to see the new reality for what it really is. And to assess all that He is now calling us to.

Example one. This past summer, I spent eight weeks collecting data on alternative certification programs. When the time came to write up my results at the end of the summer, I was thoroughly tired of the data. I had become overexposed to it. I pushed through completing that final report, but it felt like a mere formality, and the finished product didn't do the data justice. I put the data away for four months. And reluctantly picked it back up again in December to write my business final paper. And with the help of my professor, I can honestly say that data and my passion for it was 100% resuscitated. The way I had looked at it -- as boring, dead, with no potential for creating anything interesting -- was totally transformed by December 17th at 5:00 p.m., when I had finished writing about how the data did in fact exhibit trends of resource partitioning theory. I can't explain the experience as anything other than a miracle! My spark and love for a subject matter dear to me became dear to me again!

Example two. This one is harder to stomach, but I have faith that God will bring my understanding of it (dare I even say, appreciation of it?) to the same point of gratitude later in life, when I can understand it better. As it is now, in this instance, which I will leave more vague, I face many happy memories that are now squarely in the past and can't be drawn up to be true again. I have to somehow let the former things stay in the past, not dwell on where my life once was and where it is now. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and where I am. It's all God's doing. But the loss of that blessed shady vine He gave me to comfort me in the sun-scorched places of life (I'm drawing on two Biblical images here, one in Jonah and the other in Psalms [I think?]), it's very hard to do without now. I am slowly learning to appreciate God as the Giver of all good things, but that all good things can't remain. Because maybe they can't hold us where we are anymore, like this once could.

Now's time to have faith.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Melding Identities


Taken from Julie Park's blog:
“We tried to see how people who have to deal with seemingly in-conflict culture or gender identities cope,” Dr. Cheng told me. Their conclusion was that people who have found a way to reconcile their two identities — Asian-Americans, for example, or women who work in male-dominated jobs like engineering — are the best at finding creative solutions to problems.
“Those who see their identities as compatible, they are better at combining ideas from the two identities to come up with something new,” Dr. Cheng said. “While those who also share these two social identities, but see them as being in conflict, they cannot come up with new ideas.”

Monday, January 7, 2013

The Toothless Comb

On a cold, Minnesota, post-Christmas night, Grandma, Mom, and I walked over to the local Walgreens for fun. Yes, fun. Walgreens has always been a favorite diversion of mine. Apparently for them, too -- I didn't even suggest it!

In my non-structured state of mind (I'm on a long academic break, remember), I entertained the thought, What trinket do I want/need/could use but otherwise forget in crammed everyday life? I know, a comb! With my new, long hair, I discontinued use of a brush. Now I only use combs. My great transparent one with rainbow colors that T bought me from WalMart on one otherwise average Saturday of errands is now severely handicapped with about 7 missing teeth in the middle of it.

So I found a cute Conair one in the hair accessories isle of this Walgreens, one that was white with hot pink and lime green holly-looking accents. $3.49. OK, I thought, I can hang with that.

Both Mom and Grandmas assumed I must have gotten it for a dollar. And they're not bargain kind of girls. I felt bad saying, "No, it was full price." Anyway, I was pleased with my purchase.

Just a week later, I snapped its first tooth. No more perfect comb! But nothing stays perfect for long. And it's OK, too -- the comb still does its job!

Why I love Mississippi

"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." -- William Faulkner