Wondering

Plato, Aristotle, Montaigne, Heidegger all traced the beginning of philosophy back to wonder. Rodolphe Gasche, a student of Derrida's links wonder to aporia -- that moment where our current way of thinking gets stuck in its own devices. So, how do we cultivate wonder? If wonder precedes and informs philosophical thinking, what makes wonder? And, as some read Gasche, philosophy hovers behind play, then wonder precedes even play. What, then, does it mean to wonder?

To Heart or Hate Grading

I got my first stack of papers this week and set out to get at least halfway through over the weekend. Usually, any attempt at tackling the majority of a stack leaves me wiped out and grumpy. However, this weekend, I had almost all Saturday to pace myself while the family was at the Renaissance Festival (the font while loading is the best part of the page, I think). As I graded, I realized "Hey, I like this." And then I had to ask why I liked it. Usually, as Nedra Reynolds points out in her book, Portfolio Keeping, I am one of those professors who really doesn't like that part of the job. I'd rather just sit and talk about the writing and what the student can do to improve it, like a tutoring session. Alas, students want written comments and, I think it provides a record of my reactions we can both reflect upon at the end of the semester when they argue about what they learned and I distribute grades.

So, there I was, totally jazzed about grading. Only I realized was doing more than that. The essays my students wrote provided me with an opportunity I hadn't really gotten in the first two weeks of class. I got to sit down with them and know them through their writing. I wasn't rushed into evaluative mode, but, rather, settled into a mode that was open to their texts, their voices, and the choices they made as they wrote.

Sadly, this didn't last as long as I hoped it would. After I graded half the papers, I had to grade the rest in smaller increments during the week. That meant under more time pressure -- after conferences with the students whose papers I had already completed, in between teaching classes, or -- more often -- in front of the TV after the kids had gone to bed. I tried to remain as open and relaxed about the grading process, but I don't think I accomplished that. I felt more quick to judge and less accountable to each student as an individual. I still graded on the same criteria and often pointed out many of the same things in the last half of papers, but somehow I feel the quality of my responses didn't match their predecessors. I'll have to grade the next stack in reverse order from this one.

We're Beer! We're Here!

Newly available in Iowa:Here, look closer:
And we are oh, so happy! The 22 oz. commemorative bottles bear a label that reads "FIGBRAI: Fat's Inagural Bike Ride Across Iowa." Mmmmmmmmmm.

A Happy Shambles

I had figured my new job would involve a fair bit of repairing an old or damaged system. After all, the WPA person here had a degree in literature, taught women's lit courses and published in women's lit; the director of the state Writing Project: an Americanist; director of the writing center: former grad student.... There is a minor in professional writing, but that is administered and taught largely by a wonderful colleague whose degree is in professional and technical writing. She has her hands full there, but outside of us two, there are no other faculty or staff with specialties in writing.

Much of this I knew when I accepted the job. I liked the potential and the room to grow. Where others may have blanched, I saw challenge. So, during the first three weeks here, I have scheduled meetings with the WPA person, the Department Chair, the Director of the Writing Center, a retiring specialist in writing (by way of a minor), and the Dean of the college. So far from what I have learned, the administration realizes its predicament. Certainly, the President of the university wants to replicate the atmosphere he was used to at Iowa State. My chair is behind me and as far as WPA and Writing Center folks, I am enthusiastic about their creativity and open attitude.

In my meetings, I have been using the phrase "initiating a conversation about writing" at this university and I think this is apt. From what I can tell, until fairly recently administration did not take writing seriously and/or relied on a basic skills theory of writing. At one point, what was supposed to be an entrance exam assessing student writing skills had a 50% rate of student failure. Another 50% failed it after taking it a second time. The 25% who could not pass the exam often had to take FYC as a remedial course and/or during one of their final years as an undergraduate. Currently, everyone has to take FYC, even though it still is taught mainly by adjuncts, a few graduate students, and some full-time faculty. However, FYC is still considered remedial by a large segment of the university community. So, there is one thing that needs to be discussed.

Part of this conversation is deeper, though. During orientation lunch, I brazenly (perhaps too brazenly) discussed how rhetoric was the foundation of a liberal undergraduate education, even the foundation of the scientific method. There was some silence at the table, but some curiosity, too, before the Provost interrupted and began her speech. Thankfully, I was off the hook. However, it seems that the conversation about writing here is still fairly shallow: its a basic skill that students ought to have been taught in high school or community college. Then they get upset when students can't write. Worse, they lump all these students together: second language writers with minority writers working against hegemony with less privileged economic class writers with those who just don't know the material. No wonder the administration has that desperate look in their eyes.

I am listening, happily, amidst the shambles.

First Week

So, I'm done with my first week as Assistant Professor. Can't say it wasn't anything terribly new. But it was kind of alienating in a weird way. Not because the folks here aren't nice -- they are. But the first week is a transition.

The first department meeting isn't until next week and the small day to day stuff just isn't in place yet. Other faculty stop by intermittently with a tentative look and questions of "Are you settled in yet?" or comments about how busy and hectic the first week usually is (it's not for me, really, until I get papers). There's a tension between folks wanting to welcome you but not be taking up too much of your time, either. On top of this, students don't know me yet and are not likely to stop by and talk about the issue I raised regarding portfolio keeping. Even the grad students I have aren't lining up for my office hours or stopping by to discuss their thesis project.

And why would it be any different? I am sure these things will happen in time. I am getting to know and talk a more with students in the major. I even chatted with a grad student of mine in the Department office today. Still, the experience of it can be odd. I am here but not of here, if that makes sense. I must let my roots grow down.

My Birthday with Barack

Yes, I had a BBQ dinner with Senator Obama. I have to admit it ranks up there with meeting Sting as far as brushes with fame go... or at least admittedly with men far better looking than I. Now, that it was my birthday was even cooler but I assume you don't really want to know all that. You want to know: What did you think? Will you vote for him? Was he "real"? Maybe even, why should I vote for him so early in the race to '08? I can't honestly say this guy has some magic quality that demands anyone should support him beyond the policies he has already outlined. But, I can tell you what I know. But first, a funny story...

A Funny Story
When Obama arrived in his RV, he had to wait for the media to set up.

From inside, we could see them file past the front windows lugging their boom mics, cameras, etc. After they did, the Senator came out and began greeting relatives of the hosts who had assembled on the front lawn. Then, we saw the media folks file the other way past the windows and rather hurriedly. From out the side window, then, we could see Barack at the neighbor's porch -- suddenly filled with about ten people wielding their own personal cameras and craning their necks. Definitely a political move, but what else ya gonna do?

Character
First, he's cool, but in that politician way. He's no dummy. He knows the tricks of persuasion as any politician does. He's very gracious when he meets you and takes time to say your name, to get it right and to make you feel included. He makes eye contact. He's also casual and yet careful in his speech and movement. As I said, he's a politician. He's "on" at venues like this and unavoidably so.

But what he takes time for and what he does in the interactions spoke a lot, too. As we were running overlong in our group conversation, he made a concerted effort to politely remind us that he wanted to get everyone's question in. At that moment, he knew there were still three people who had not asked their question and -- here's the important point -- he knew which three people out of the ten of us.

Third, he really thinks about what he says when he talks. He does not spout platitudes or talking points. His speech is less polished and he doesn't hesitate to stutter a little, backtrack, or clarify. In this forum, at least, he seemed to genuinely respond to questions he said he had not heard before that moment. Jess, who saw him speak last Wednesday, said she had the same impression.

But I think what I have written here could be said of most politicians, at least the good ones, no matter which side of the aisle they claim to sit. So, why Barack? Why not Edwards? Why not Clinton? Hell, why not go for Kucinich at this point just in the hope that it moves the Dems more"left"? Responses to the first two candidates should be obvious -- Edwards is a hypocrite (even if a well-intentioned one) and Clinton is just too polarizing. The difference between Kucinich and Obama, though is a tough one.


Economy
Where Obama is inexperienced, Kucinich is at least a veteran of political office. Yes, Kucinich is the strongest supporter of unions on nay ticket, he's vegan, he's a member of the Green party in all but name. But Naomi Klein's recent talk "Lost Worlds" and her book, The Shock Doctrine, has been weighing heavily on my mind. I think her analysis is sharp, her view of history insightful, and she's one of the sharpest thinkers we've got. But, if unfettered capitalism is bad for recovering communist countries, why should we think we can shock our own economy out of its excesses? If we withdrew from NAFTA and GATT as Kucinich has declared he would, what would happen? What void would be left and what would move into it?

Obama, on the other hand, recognizes the wide berth needed to steer the ship of the U.S. state. He may be inexperienced compared to some, but he's got a clear picture of just how much can be accomplished without precipitating disaster. Obama's health care reform works similarly -- we can't go to single-payer without untold consequences from large players like Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. He admitted that were he design a health care system from scratch, single-payer would be it. But we have to work with what we have.

Education
As far as education goes, I have both the most respect for his plan and the most questions. He talked a lot about including actual teachers in formulating education policy -- something other Dems are only just now starting to do. I also like his stance on limited standardized testing, whole child education, and pairing experienced teachers with newer ones as a form of merit for the experienced ones AND as a professional development opportunity for the newer. But this is where my question comes in -- he characterized this pairing and professional development model as a form of "assessment" instead of how NCLB does it. But I was confused over what was being assessed -- the teacher, the student, or the school. And how does an assessment of one bear on an assessment of another? Moreover, when I pressed him on the question of who does the assessment, he said he was in favor of a nation-wide consensus agreed upon "by experts." This puzzles me, too. Who determines an "expert?" Moreover, I tried to steer him toward some response regarding the diversity of the U.S. population and honoring different cultural norms. Sadly, his consensus response doesn't seem compatible with this.

That criticism aside, he is capable of seeing these points. He commented on how disillusioned teachers are under NCLB and on how the students who fail do so largely because they do not "fit" anywhere in the current was we school our children. Yet, his response seems to be simply that we educate poor and disadvantaged earlier and earlier like their white, middle-class counterparts. In effect, it's a 0-12 public education system. I would agree with him on the problem, but not the solution. The ways we assess child, teacher, and school have to accept difference -- racial, cultural, economic, regional, etc.

Fin
Explanations like the ten of us got are hard to come by on national news. So, it will be up to his team to see how he gets the message out. Certainly, he has the money. I think he's got the talent and the drive. He's better than what we have now, but what isn't? But I think I learned something today about this whole crazy election stuff -- it really is just a big job interview. That's all. Who do you really want to do this job? Does experience matter over principles? Does crude pragmatism translate to success? Or does the past record at many different levels transfer to the one being sought out by a candidate? If you have really looked at all the available candidates and you have a favorite, vote for that person. No. Matter. What. Anyone. Else. Says.

Chill Out!

My sympathies to those of you in places like St. Louis, Nashville, and Georgia!