In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Category: Education

What I’ve Been Reading Since I Haven’t Been Writing

Now featuring fruits and vegetables! And mustard!

Feminism:
• Considerable pissing matches criticizing the “nice” guy/jerk binary between three notable feminist bloggers and an MRA. See Hugo Schwyzer (the instigator of criticism), Amanda, and Kameron Hurley.

• I rediscovered this old post at Rad Geek, Why Libertarians Need Feminism. Great read.

• Also at Rad Geek, who has been blogging for me this week, looks at the pro-choice/pro-life binary.

• The Progressive Protestant discusses abortion and the church from a pro-choice point of view.

• Lynn at Noli Irritate Leones looks at Goldman’s perspective on anarchism and violence. She is also looking for other anarchist views on violence, so if anyone has any suggestions, cruise on over and leave a comment.

Education:
• Erin of Critical Mass highlights a NYTimes article that details the “sad state” of literacy in American high schools. Unfortunately she, and most of her commenters, are removed enough from the pre-service programs to know that we are already working on it.

• Testing Companies Mine for Gold: An article that details how testing companies benefit from NCLB testing initiatives, and students benefit little.

• Madame Zenobia (whose kickass template made my day) has designed a class around hip hop studies. The text for the course sounds good enough to read on my own: That’s The Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader.

Politics:
• Ophelia Payne finds a story at Fair.org detailing what happened to a NYTimes expose on the hump in GWB’s back during the presidential debates. As she says, even if he did have a receiver, he’s still a crappy cheater.

• Dr. Myers writes a great parable comparing plumbing to creationism politics.

• Daddy Alan Keyes kicks his daughter, Maya Keyes, out of the house when she comes out as a lesbian. Well, at least he’s consistent. I hate to say this, but Cheney 1 – Keyes 0.

Entertainment:
• Straight Outta White Suburbia: A look at Nina Gordon’s cover of N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” and why the author finds it offensive. I listened to it myself and it wasn’t clever or ironic. Not only has it been done too many times before, this version was just lame. Sorry, chica, but Kim Deal has it all over you.

• James Dobson suggests that parents keep track of their daughters’ menstrual cycles. Now that’s entertainment.

• How to Save the World shows how the “free” market ruins entertainment media.

• Dr. B. briefly looks at the Onion A.V,’s recent interview with Will Wright, creator of The Sims, and his decision to make versatile partnering relationships within the game.

• The movie Million Dollar Baby is discussed at Subversive Harmony, and although she is critical of many of the movie’s premises, finds it an enjoyable watch.

Blogging:
• Krista compiles a list of things she wishes someone would have told her when she began blogging.

• Atheist bloggers unite at the Carnival of the Godless. Some very good posts there, and some not so good. Still an awesome idea. (It appears COTG 2 is already out, hosted at Pharyngula.)

Other Anomalies:
• On the Evolution of the Female Orgasm.

• My new favorite blog, The Examining Room of Dr. Charles, features stories based on true experiences starring fictional characters. If this guy weren’t a doctor, I’d strongly suggest he write a novel.

To Read: “Will in the World”

Is it summer yet?

The Shakespeare class is going well enough — or would be if the prof hadn’t agreed to the 7:30am class time, or didn’t turn out the lights and play quiet, wordy movies of Shakespearean plays, or if that person behind me didn’t lay a stank morning fart every day as though his or her classmates wouldn’t notice. I’ve kept up with the reading and been to all of the classes but one when I was sick last week.

I still don’t care about Shakespeare. I have managed to rebel against most canonical literature since the earliest days of my schooling, sticking with minority authors and my fascination with autobiographical theory and the creation of identity. Shakespeare was unfortunately ruined for me in the early days of middle school when a teacher forced me to read Hamlet and memorize a soliloquy that I promptly forgot about until the night before the exam. I failed that test and moved along, thankful that there are a bazillion movies of Shakespeare’s plays.

This time it isn’t so easy. Despite the use of film in the class, I must do the reading. Yet my prof isn’t so big on the historical or linguistic context in which the plays were written, something I could latch onto and run with, but more with the performative aspects of the plays. I’m already floundering and disengaged.

(I fear I picked the wrong major.)

I was pleased when my sister called last week and said she had the perfect book to ease my malaise. It arrived in the mail this weekend. According to Amazon, Will In the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare is “not just the life story of the world’s most revered writer. It is the story, too, of 16th- and 17th-century England writ large, the story of religious upheaval and political intrigue, of country festivals and brutal public executions, of the court and the theater, of Stratford and London, of martyrdom and recusancy, of witchcraft and magic, of love and death: in short, of the private but engaged William Shakespeare in his remarkable world.”

Being the lay history buff that I am, I hope this will be my key to undoing the disenchantment with this particular course, especially easing my sense of inadequacy with this material with the Shakespeare-based state teaching licensure tests ahead of me this semester.

After all the necessary phone calls are made and other reading assignments done for the day, I’ll be reading this book. Updates if anyone is interested.

Knitting, Beans, Ed Blog and Summers

I made a lengthy post on my ed blog in response to a dissenting commenter on the Summers controversy.

In other news, I have a substitute job this Wednesday working with two little ones in a special needs classroom as a para-professional. One is sight-impaired and the other is hearing-impaired. I hope that the two years of ASL I’ve slogged through might pay off in a real world situation with one of the kids.

Today I have next to no responsibilities (for once). I got another wild Crockpot hair up my butt and decided to cook Navy beans and sausage for dinner — and what’s funny is that I’ve never really liked them. I had a craving. I also plan on preparing a sock so someone can help me pick up stitches along the heel flap at tonight’s knitting group, knitting a bit more on the Klaralund, doing some laundry, and reading a lot of Shakespeare that I don’t care about. In addition, I may add more to the ed blog on some issues I’ve been mulling over.

Other than that, today is a day for sweatpants. Excellent.

New Ed Blog

Required to keep a running journal for an education class this semester, I have decided to set up another blog.

Topics covered include our class readings and meetings, and later on in the semester, my final formal educational experience in the classroom before student teaching. I may also cover some experiences substitute teaching, as I plan to do this semester.

I’m not promising anything special (at all), but come by and comment if you’d like.