The "Education" Thread

[HamburgerBoy]

You reminded me that I once had a student named Drew, and while I later discovered that people referred to him as a he, I first used "she" to describe him (something like "She doesn't have a lab partner, can she join your group?). Because I have a bit of a slur I'm hoping that people thought I was just saying "he". Kind of a Miley Cyrus face and dyke haircut and slight lisp, really ultra androgynous.

 

[Einherjar86]

Looks like I may be teaching an Intro to Lit course next semester. If so, I'm super stoked

Nice! Potential readings...?

 

[unknown]

Drown by Junot Diaz
Ask the Dust by John Fante
White Boy Shuffle (I forget the author)
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
and maybe Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

The part I'm stuck on is I also have to teach drama, and I'm trying to focus the class on people in relation to their places. All of the plays I know have nothing to do with that

 

[Einherjar86]

People being characters, or authors; or both?

The first thing that comes to mind is Beckett, who was deeply involved in the Anglo-European scene of modernism, but whose plays often portray characters in placeless, decontextualized settings. Could be a neat twist to the theme.

 

[unknown]

Both characters and authors. Yeah I could see Beckett fitting in with that theme. I'd like to find something more modern, but I'll keep it as a backup

 

[Einherjar86]

My kids are reading Neuromancer. We're 150 pages in, and we've talked a good deal about it. I love this fucking book, but it's really not the easiest thing to read. Gibson's prose is highly stylized and quite obscurantist, so it's difficult to tell what's going on. I'm feeling the confusion on my students' behalf, but they've made good points about it.

It's the perfect novel to study for a class on simulation.

 

[Dak]

Just bought this. Interested to see how much it helps.

 

[unknown]

so my lit class got cancelled. Super bummed about that. My division coordinator didn't elaborate as to why other than it wasn't her decision and that it came down from the boss.

 

[Einherjar86]

That blows man, sorry.

I had my students read journal articles today on Neuromancer; what a fucking disaster.

 

[unknown]

Yeah such is life. I still have 5 classes for next semester, which is plenty, but 6 gives me that nice cushion.

Anything in particular about the articles your student's couldn't get into?

 

[Einherjar86]

I think the complaint I heard most often was: "It was just really confusing."

No, I think you just didn't spend enough time on it because it was a long weekend.

 

[unknown]

Yeah I get that from students when we read Foucault or Butler. I usually introduce them with light theory like Anzaldua, Boroditsky or David Bartholomae. They're usually able to trek along and comment on the articles. I warn them ahead of time if something is going to be dense, and I'll usually have an assignment along with it that I call a One Pager, which is where they have to summarize the text in one single spaced page as much as they can without inserting their own opinions

 

[Einherjar86]

I was surprised because my students handled Baudrillard surprisingly well earlier this semester. One of the articles was even on Baudrillard and Neuromancer, and the students that read that article just stared at me blankly when I asked them about it. I was thinking "come on guys, you've read Baudrillard!" It was frustrating.

Perhaps I got my hopes up too much. In the future I'll likely scaffold more, maybe work through a scholarly article with them before sending them off to do one on their own.

 

[unknown]

yup. All about settin em up

 

[Einherjar86]

Well, I got some exciting news yesterday. I submitted an abstract to the NeMLA (Northeastern regional division of the Modern Language Association) conference next year, and it was accepted. My panel is on the changing image of the metropolis in 20th-century fiction, and my paper will be on Samuel Delaney's Dahlgren.

 

[Dak]

Dahlgren.

The Dolphgrin:

 

[Einherjar86]

That's how I feel right now. And autocorrect misspelled the title: Dhalgren.

 

[Dak]

Well now I have the Dolphgrin goin' on. I had an abstract for some preliminary findings from my undergrad thesis accepted for the NC Psych Undergrad Conference in November.

 

[Einherjar86]

Nice! That's great news.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Today before my historical writing course I had a surprising conversation with one of my classmates. She's an anti-social type (head-shaved, arms covered in cuts), so there haven't been too many openings for conversation. We both got there early and she commented on a Mastodon shirt I was wearing. This led to talking about everything from the Melvins, shoegaze, death metal, Elliot Smith, and Stravinsky. It was probably the most enjoyable conversation I've had with somebody since I enrolled at Morgan State. After class, I walked with her to continue the conversation and it turns out that she identifies as a communist who has actually read Das Kapital, so I enjoyed exploring the conversation further. It was funny though because I was following her through an urban area that would make many of white suburbia gasp and I got the impression from her that she felt odd about having a white guy with her. Maybe it was something else, but, regardless, I took the cue and went to my car.

I'm so starved of any sort of intellectual reciprocation with students at this institution. There was a different that I had a discussion with about Machiavelli earlier this semester, but I haven't been able to find him since then. I'm taking some philosophy and economics next semester, so maybe I'll have better luck with finding people to converse with over academic topics then.