so very busy and exhausted and overwhelmed and...
E has given up her morning nap. I generally blogged, tidied up, and took care of self-grooming during this time. The house is a mess, my teeth are fuzzy and my hair greasy, and the obvious.
I am eagerly anticipating next semester - no teaching! My thoughts on this life, the academic one (always tempered by the all-the-time me), swing wildly between 2 poles. Some days I am invincible, a happy parent of a wonderful child and a budding sociologist with an exciting and important research agenda. Other days I cannot tell if it is mental fatigue or physical exhaustion weighing me down but all the same I cannot imagine a life in which I am any more than the something less than part-time academic/educator-in-training that I am now - at least until E and any subsequent siblings are off to school.
detours and derailments. some days they are a pleasure and others...
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
[rant]
I don't have much time because I have to go downstairs and start cutting up fall vegetables for roasting however, I just sat down to check my email and am doubly annoyed.
First, human subjects is still stringing me along.
Second, I received an email from a student. Not inherently problematic but get this:
This student has been registered for my class since the beginning. I first heard from her the third week of classes (via email) in which she explained her reasons for being a no-show up to that point. I sent her the syllabus and suggested that she should read it. I told her that I run a tight ship and that she had already missed 2 assignments and a quiz that could not be made up. She said that she would be able to catch up. She attended not the next class but the class after that and vanished for the next 4. Today she emailed me explaining why she was absent the last 2 weeks, asked for make-up work and inquired into what she needed to know for the impending midterm.
You've got to be kidding me!
What I want to say is:
THERE IS NO MAKE-UP!
THE EXAM WILL COVER 5 WEEKS OF MATERIAL ABOUT WHICH YOU KNOW NOTHING AND A BOOK YOU INDICATE YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF MUCH LESS PURCHASED AND READ IN ITS ENTIRETY.
I AM HAPPY TO SPEAK WITH YOU ABOUT HOW TO APPROACH COLLEGE EDUCATION BUT PLEASE DROP MY CLASS.
First, human subjects is still stringing me along.
Second, I received an email from a student. Not inherently problematic but get this:
This student has been registered for my class since the beginning. I first heard from her the third week of classes (via email) in which she explained her reasons for being a no-show up to that point. I sent her the syllabus and suggested that she should read it. I told her that I run a tight ship and that she had already missed 2 assignments and a quiz that could not be made up. She said that she would be able to catch up. She attended not the next class but the class after that and vanished for the next 4. Today she emailed me explaining why she was absent the last 2 weeks, asked for make-up work and inquired into what she needed to know for the impending midterm.
You've got to be kidding me!
What I want to say is:
THERE IS NO MAKE-UP!
THE EXAM WILL COVER 5 WEEKS OF MATERIAL ABOUT WHICH YOU KNOW NOTHING AND A BOOK YOU INDICATE YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF MUCH LESS PURCHASED AND READ IN ITS ENTIRETY.
I AM HAPPY TO SPEAK WITH YOU ABOUT HOW TO APPROACH COLLEGE EDUCATION BUT PLEASE DROP MY CLASS.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
release me!
In all seriousness, IRB, you are messing up my life right now. Not only should I have been collecting data THIS WEEK, I cannot complete a research fellowship application requesting support for research that I do not yet have permission to do.
In my experience, the second you say you are going to be looking at how racial, ethnic and religious difference is interpreted and managed, they assume you are out to do harm. Even if you are gathering data on TECHNIQUES and CURRICULA they claim up and down that the people WHO WILL NOT EVEN APPEAR IN YOUR RESEARCH PRODUCT are at risk.
This is really an interesting case of the university managing knowledge production. I mean, I say I want to go hang out in a poor neighborhood to look at racial tensions and that's fine. Poor people are interesting reading and they don't sue. You say you want to find out how notions of diversity are produced and disseminated by power players and next thing you know we've been strung along for 2 months and asked to navigate all kinds hoops and hurdles clearly designed to get you just to give up.
In my experience, the second you say you are going to be looking at how racial, ethnic and religious difference is interpreted and managed, they assume you are out to do harm. Even if you are gathering data on TECHNIQUES and CURRICULA they claim up and down that the people WHO WILL NOT EVEN APPEAR IN YOUR RESEARCH PRODUCT are at risk.
This is really an interesting case of the university managing knowledge production. I mean, I say I want to go hang out in a poor neighborhood to look at racial tensions and that's fine. Poor people are interesting reading and they don't sue. You say you want to find out how notions of diversity are produced and disseminated by power players and next thing you know we've been strung along for 2 months and asked to navigate all kinds hoops and hurdles clearly designed to get you just to give up.
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