Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

So Heidi and Lisa E. have requested pregnancy photos.  I hate to break it to you, but at just under three months with my first baby, there isn’t anything to see just yet.  I’ll spare you pictures of my current self, since that would put you in the awkward position of having to ask whether the bump you see is baby or just my normal “extra.”  Right now, it’s just me 🙂   When I think there’s actually something to see, though, I am willing to subject myself to such things.  This is, after all, just the beginning of what I understand will be a lifetime of embarrassment related to our children . . .

On a slightly more bubbly note, I got to hear our child’s heartbeat on Tuesday.  It’s there, it’s fast, and I was thoroughly awed 🙂

Erin

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.

- Sylvia Plath

And, no, this doesn’t mean that we’re getting a cellphone.

Another high school friend of mine is getting married.  Not just a classmate, but a good friend who was part of the lunchtable group from middle school on out.  That makes three of us out of eight or so.  I think it’s official: that season of life has begun in earnest.

In some ways, it seems like it’s the second time around for the wedding season.  That is, of course, only because I watched many of Sydney’s friends go through it first.  Within two weeks of our engagement I attended two Sydney’s-friend weddings, and I realized he was actually lagging behind the rest of his group.  Sydney?  Slow?  You betcha.  But my friends were astonished that I was getting married, since I was on the early side of things for that group.  You have to remember that Sydney and I are six years apart in age.

It makes for an interesting situation every now and then, as when I realized I was mailing off four baby gifts and three wedding presents this past summer (the former to his friends, the latter to my friends).  Sometimes I wonder if we’ll always be straddling the waves, of if at some point everyone we know will be at the same spot.  I suppose not: that would take all the fun out of life!

Erin

Growing up with a car-obsessed brother, I got to know my makers and models and the rough cost of the pricey cars he had pictures of around his room.  I’m not sure if that stood me in good stead over the weekend or deepened my disgust when I walked through a small parking lot filled with student cars and saw perfect examples from his boyhood list.  Lots of BMWs, Audis, and Lexus, nearly all of which were SUVs.  And not old junkers inherited from their parents, either; these cars were as newly-minted as the driver’s-licenses of their owners.  No wonder these kids scoff at their instructors: we know and they know that you can’t support a Lexus habit on a teacher’s salary.

Pricey needn’t stop there: Sydney saw a guy driving a Lamborghini through campus the other day . . .

Erin

Partly as a result of the recent turmoil on Wall Street, there has been more discussion of Republican and Democratic economic policies. This strikes me as a salutary shift. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that much of the discussion is based on false/misleading information. For example, here are two claims that I’ve heard very often recently: (1) the current Bush administration created a lax environment for Wall Street firms by extensive deregulation and (2) the same Bush administration slashed taxes on the very wealthy. Can anyone tell me a bit more about this? The reason I ask is that I thought both deregulation and the cutting of taxes might more fairly be attributed to the Clinton administration than to the Bush administration. If that’s right, then it would be misleading at best to blame the Republicans for those actions. But I don’t know enough about either administration’s activities to be confident about that. So does anyone know more about this?

Sydney

Sydney’s off to another conference this weekend (this one closer, shorter, and just for fun), so I’m on my own.

Last night we watched two episodes of “Blue Planet” and shelled pinto beans.  Who says you can’t farm by sitting on the couch?

I love my students.  Really I do.  But students en masse can be outrageously frustrating.  When they learn to pay attention to other people on the sidewalk, not block the way by walking in slow-moving groups, and not zig-zag because they happen to be talking to or texting someone in California, I will be a happier woman.  I have always been a brisk walker, so you can imagine my frustration with the current scene.  I need to start giving Sydney piggy-back rides to the car so that I don’t feel the need to walk faster than the current flow (which is, I have to say, a snail’s pace).

After a few weeks of feeling like my work ground to a halt, I emailed my advisor this morning with a copy of my revised prospectus, the abstract of a paper I had accepted to a conference, and notice of another paper I’m presenting at the grad student workshop here.  By the end of it, I was feeling quite chipper; who knew writing your advisor could be such an upper?  By the way, Lisa E., the conference is in Boston next March–I’m coming your way!

The cat and I will enjoy some quiet time at home, and tomorrow morning I’m going to take advantage of the cool, beautiful, dry fall weather to take a walk or hike.  I’m determined not to miss fall this year just because I have my nose buried in a book!

Erin

Thus far I’ve left Sydney to make the political posts, since I have felt I’m getting my fill from what are rather lengthy discussions with him at home and all the media I’ve been able to get my hands on. I’m a moderate of long standing, back when it was okay to be a moderate (even at way-liberal Yale) and even now that extremism is “in”. (Un)fortunately that means I have a lot of work to do before the election is actually here: weighing, watching, reading, assessing. But I share much of Sydney’s frustration with the level of political discourse I’ve been hearing recently.

There has been far too much “discussion” along the following lines: 1) We are all academics 2) We must all be very intelligent 3) Intelligent people all vote the for the best candidate 4) Candidate X is obviously best 5) Thus we are all voting for X. I can follow that much (even if I don’t think it’s a great argument), but I can’t say I can see my way to understanding the further conclusion that 6) The other party being comprised of idiots, we can now proceed to trash them in this room full of kindred spirits. Idiots is putting it mildly: horrible, evil, degrading, soul-sucking idiots is more like it. This from many who would normally be hesitant to assert that we have souls. Each day I come home without opening my mouth in these discussions is one more day that I surprise myself . . .

I live in liberal New York. Not just New York, but very-liberal Ithaca. Add to that that I live in an academic community and the liberalness is almost without exception. Obama is the man here. My problem with that is that, though my home state isn’t perfect in many respects, the fact that Iowa is split politically makes it much less likely that one there would presume to know your political opinion and then start trashing the other side.  The political discussion may be a bit too wary to get into the meat of the matter at times (I’ve been having very, very careful political discussions with family and friends from home), but it’s a heck of a lot better than the wink-wink, nod-nod presumption I’m getting around here.  Being from a rural state can indeed have its advantages.

Erin

This is the first semester in awhile that I find myself not in the front of a classroom, responsible for 17 or more minds. Instead, I’m a student in another’s classroom, mucking my way through French with the rest. I’ve come to the following conclusion: a teacher should not be a bad student. In sitting in another’s classroom, I should be as eager and as compliant as all the rest of his students. He doesn’t need a silent judge as he goes about his daily work. I will admit that I did work very hard to make sure I was in the classroom of a native speaker of French who was also an experienced teacher, and not one whose style and accent might frustrate me. But I did that when I was an undergraduate, too 🙂

Just after class today I sat down in the department across from a new teacher who was happily chatting her way through a conference with her student. Her style of teaching and mine differ so drastically that I was really put to it: teaching seems to be like church music, in which people vary not only in taste, but also in their assessment of the degree to which they think the issue has ethical weight. To what extent does teaching simply have rules of right or wrong that limit the kinds of variation we might find acceptable? In the case of this afternoon, I frequently felt my eyes widening, and I couldn’t help but feel the profession was being dealt a blow in that hour. But many may feel that way about my own teaching 🙂

On the question of acceptable variation, I wondered what you might think about the following topics (or others you’ve seen arise in your teaching/student days):

1) Is it possible to get too chummy with one’s students? Or should one do something to ensure a bit of distance between oneself and the student–“professionalizing” one’s language and behavior?

2) Is it appropriate to talk to one student, perhaps a favorite student, about the rest of the class?

3) Is it okay to trash other scholars or viewpoints in a conference with a student, or should one always model respectful consideration of all options and scholarly argument?

4) Is it appropriate to swear in front of one’s students?

5) Is it okay to socialize with one’s students outside the classroom?

6) If one disagrees with how the student was taught by a previous instructor, what is an appropriate way to acknowledge that without trashing that teacher or that method?

Erin

Last night Sydney and I “put up” the corn.  All 121 ears of it!  That means we can look forward to 30 wonderful mashed-potatoes-and-corn meals in the next year.  Yum.  What you may not know is that Sydney grows super-sweet corn.  It doesn’t need butter.  It doesn’t need anything.  It’s just fantastically delicious.  We were eating while we were cooking and freezing all evening long.

By the time we finished things up late last night, our kitchen was covered in little corn bits, so the kitchen got a thorough cleaning, which it needed anyway.  A spotless kitchen and a full freezer–a very satisfying night.

Erin