Carpe Datum

Random Easter Stuff

Too much depressing news today, and I'm too tired to dig for the links, but these stories are easy to find at the first few blogs in my sidebar. Let's see, turns out torture and abuse were (are?) more or less routine in Iraqi prisons, and the ok for that came down from on high. Nothing new there, but since there won't be any hearings, etc., then there's nothing making easy-to-broadcast news, so the networks revert to Michael Jackson, etc.

Turns out most of the Republicans making fanatic pro-life stands on the Shiavo case have a whole bunch of hypocrisy on that issue in their backgrounds (including Bush, Frist and DeLay). Again, nothing new there, Republicans are hypocrites on nearly everything, it seems, but about the only time it is reported, it gets the "but Democrats are just as bad" treatment. As if.

There's just so much, on some days, I'm just too overwhelmed to post about any one thing. That's just two of about ten stories I read about today that drained my energy and reminded me just how much the ConservaBorg are fucking up America. Bleh.

I will say, though, that Easter today worked out pretty well. Poor Michelle was not feeling well this morning (after being the Easter trooper last night and getting everything done for them while I was falling asleep), but she rebounded by about midday, and we got to see my dad and stepmom. They had some fun things set up for the kids, and the kids ended up with a lot of candy, a little money, and a few cool gifts today. They even behaved well pretty much the whole day, except for Cody throwing an empty laundry basket that hit Daniel accidentally, but no harm done, and he got the clean up the backyard for his trouble, which needed doing anyway.

This week will be busy, because it ends with an essay exam in my survey course. Going to be flooded with emails all week, then a weekend full of grading after that. Plus, we have two more candidates (the last of six) to interview for a position in the department. At this point, I really don't care who we pick, because they're all pretty much equally useless when it comes to teaching chops, and the department needs good teachers to recruit good students. Since they need research money and grant writing success even more, only the usual lip service will be paid to teaching skills, I imagine.

I got a little ego boost a few weeks ago when the faculty in our department all attended a meeting called by the upper division students (all 10-12 of them). First question on the agenda was why do I not teach more upper division classes. I told them mainly it is because I'm happy doing what I'm doing, and plus blah blah blah many other reasons that are good for the department. But what they were really saying is that they wish someone else in our department could teach in such a way that they didn't have to learn everything out of a book.

Not that they're all bad. I'm sure some of them teach their classes a lot better than I could teach the same material. It's just really hard, and the students are going to struggle with it no matter what. When I was taking the same set of classes, I didn't have any good teachers to write home about, so I ended up learning it from my peers. I was lucky to be surrounded by a lot of smart people who were patient and friendly, and they wanted me to get done so they could have a seventh player for Diplomacy or another ultimate frisbee player or someone else to drive to the movie from the dorm, etc.

Anyway, we told the students they're stuck with the usual teachers for upper division, and they'll have to gut it out. Unfortunately for them, from what I've seen so far, the new faculty member we're going to get (if it is one of these six) is going to be a clear downgrade from the one we currently have, teaching-wise. I hope I'm wrong.

Posted by Observer at March 27, 2005 08:05 PM