Adventures in parenting, vol. 24

This video was shot by The Baby.  See if you can figure out the part where he knows he's going to get caught.

Monday Update, Memorial Edition

• Uncle Hal was a WWII vet.  I didn't know that for years & years . . . he never talked about it.  I will be proud for any one or all three of my boys to serve in the Armed Forces, if that's what they wish to do.
  
• Number One Son had soccer camp all week last week . . . which amounted to just a couple of hours of playing soccer every morning.  Still, he had a good time with it.  While he played soccer, I did some work in the office, and actually had a major breakthrough in terms of where my research should go for the foreseeable future.
  
• This week's moment of serendipity:  I discovered a good deal on the bike I've been wanting for a very very very long time.  A 2010 Raleigh One Way for several hundred dollars cheaper than the usual retail.  It's an incredibly lovely bike:  steel, single speed, and WHITE!  It should arrive this week via FedEx. 
  
• Speaking of bikes, we drove up yesterday to Mayfield, KY to visit friends--he's a colleague of mine, and we've made a few visits up to their house--and while the children all went swimming, he and I went for a 30 mile bike ride.  The roads up there are lovely . . . even when they are reflecting 95 degree heat up into the face of the rider.  Time well spent, especially given what we're going to do on June 11.
  
• More strawberries!  We picked another zillion quarts on Saturday.
  
• The children cannot stop talking about the upcoming beach trip.

It's a bubble.

One of the more irritating things about working in the academy is that especially in the humanities, we seem so slow to react to what's actually going on in the culture. If we're not too slow to react, then we are prone to paying far too much attention to stupid crap rather than meaningful knowledge.

The worst part is, I'm busting my ass to give my students the best, while many of my colleagues give the profession a bad name...and the culture is taking notice. I don't think it's any coincidence that state appropriations for higher education keep going downward; we continually ask for more money, yet you should hear the way we tend to talk about our fellow citizens and the elected leadership of the state. Seems to me that if you go to a group with hat in hand, best to play nice.

And yes, I recognize that it's a far more complicated problem than what I've mentioned above. But the fact remains: this is a conversation that needs to be happening in every department on every campus.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » PAYING STUDENTS NOT TO GO TO COLLEGE: “The winners were announced today for a new fellowship that h…

More here, and here, if you can bear to read it.

Monday Update, One Day Late Edition

Dude's clothes are awesome (and no doubt expensive . . .
but check out that bike!!

• Don't look now, but The Runner and I may have gotten one step ahead of the yard . . . for now.  It has helped that it hasn't been raining all day every day. If I could find a way to make the roses thrive and a way to deal with (i.e., eliminate) the Diodia Virginiana, I'd consider my yardening a total success.
• We are two weekdays into summer now.  by 7:00 yesterday morning, the two older boys were already bickering.  This morning, Number One got up at 5:30 and turned on the TV.  Only two days down.
• On the upside (and this is quite the upside), the runner and two of the three boys picked strawberries on Saturday (the littlest one was there too, but he didn't really pick any strawberries).  Which means our freezer is once more filling up with strawberry jam, and we are once more eating lots of strawberry-centric foods.  I tell The Runner that I'll never refuse fruit to the children, so they take advantage.  Pictures of recent hijinks here.
• Bike riding:  I have gone on three rides since Thursday, each of more than 15 miles.  For me, that's a big change from the past couple of years. The Runner is supportive of my spending a lot of time in the saddle, even if that means she is *ahem* saddled with the children.  For that I am most thankful.  I'll be especially thankful while riding that Metric Century up in Illinois a couple of weeks from now. 
• Course Evaluations from the Spring came in.  In a surprising development, I was most often (80+% of the time) called "enthusiastic" in the classroom.  Okay, so perhaps not that surprising.  One student did call me smart, though!
• Project Kick My Own Ass (hereafter PKMOA) is going fairly well so far this week:  yesterday, though weather forestalled a long bike ride, I did spend all afternoon doing yard work.  The academic part of the project is complicated by: a) the closure of the second floor of the library (yeah, that's the floor with all the study carrels and the books); and b)the mysterious failure of the overhead lights in my office.  The floor lamp and desk lamp provide adequate illumination for casual work, but the more intense stuff has become that much more challenging.
• Attempting to cultivate focus.

In which Piers takes a big step.

I allowed a friend to talk me into this event, held in Metropolis IL:

June 11:  SuperTrek Bike Ride.  Bike riders young and old start the ride at Fort Massac and can choose one of several routes.  Rest stops await riders in various locations.  For more information, call 800-949-5740.  Entry fee.

We're riding the 64-mile route, of course.  I told him that at this point I'm only interested in finishing the course, not in doing it in style or particularly quickly.  Still.  I imagine it will be a most humbling experience.  

Wondering if the river flooding will complicate or cancel the event.

(the shirt says "shut up, legs!" . . . a famous Jens Voigt utterance)

the $4000 question

The question:  did my online Shakespeare class make the grade?

The answer:  yes, it's good enough.

I'm glad . . . the money kinda helps repay the mental strain & stress of teaching a 5th class this term.  Now, are there questions worth asking about evaluating a course based on its adherence to a rubric containing items like

1.3 Etiquette expectations (sometimes called “netiquette”) for online discussions, email, and other forms of communication are stated clearly.

...but I will also admit that this online teaching methodology, along with its quirks, is something I need to get a handle on as my profession changes.  One of the worst fates I can imagine is to become even more of a dinosaur in this business. 

In all honesty, I don't feel like I did a great job, and I have some serious concerns about Blackboard 9 . . . but I'll gladly take whatever kudos get tossed my direction.

One year ago today

Monday Update, End of Semester Edition

• I got so sick on Thursday that I had to come home in a rush. . . on a day I had reserved for calculation of final grades for my 5 classes.  Well.  I did calculate grades, albeit in a kind of delirium due to some severe gastrointestinal difficulty.  Thus, a grueling semester comes to an end.  I slept that whole afternoon.
  
• It was a pleasure to see ELC, my university scholar, come to the triumphant end of her career.  Won't see another like her for quite some time, I fear.  I'm going to miss seeing her every week (and often more than once a week).
  
• There have only been a couple of complaints about grades, so I'm feeling pretty sanguine about all that . . . it was a grueling semester.  I could use about three or four straight days of nothing but sleep.  Toward the end there I could tell that the toll was more than just fatigue:  chronic heartburn, permanent fog of the brain, etc. 
  
• The Runner has done a remarkable job keeping her head above two or three situations that would have dinged up other people--situations where she was being implicitly asked to take a side, and where she adroitly managed to not get dragged in. 
  
• The week of dreaded clutch repair on the 2001 CR-V ended up costing a paltry $215 . . . felt like getting an extra paycheck!

In which Piers is tempted to hate.

We left FBC in this town several months ago, determined that the pastor was the sort that could not be trusted to do the right thing, and concerned about their focus on a new $9M building project that was proposed and approved so quickly that there was never an opportunity for the church to really discuss what was going on.

The going phrase was, "it's not a money thing, it's a faith thing."  The financial secretary of the church said, "can we do this?  No.  Can God do it?  Yes."

Well, cut to this week when The Runner has a conversation with the daughter of FBC's music minister--he has been increasingly marginalized due to personnel and philosophical changes.  Apparently, this week, he was abruptly asked to resign because they had some information on some indiscretions on his part.  The next day, his computer was gone.  On Wednesday, the church held a business meeting in which his resignation was announced and in which his accuser stood up and told her story to the entire church.  Apparently, four years ago, he hugged her in a way that made her uncomfortable, and said a couple of things that made her uncomfortable, and in the intervening four years she continued to sing in the choir yet never found the "right time" to make the crucial allegation.  During this sham of a business meeting, they also had the gall to talk about how this was all an attack by Satan on a church that is clearly "moving in the direction God wants" or some other bullshit like that. 

He, of course, was not allowed to defend himself.

Here's my take, and the reason I used the word "hate" above:  since the new pastor arrived, he has struck me as an authoritarian type.  It quickly became clear that he was not interested in fitting into the church he found, but wanted to reshape the church in his own image.  The music minister did not fit into that plan.  Because of the music minister's relatively foolish actions (whatever their motivation, which none of us can know), he was left open to an attack orchestrated by those who wanted him gone.  And so, he's out--and his career and reputation is finished.  And as for this woman and her husband, who are congratulating themselves (literally, as happened in a conversation with The Runner) for being so brave in their public destruction of a man's reputation:  I hope they take great comfort that they won.

This is a textbook case of how an outside pastor comes into a church and basically becomes the sole decision maker, building his own little kingdom.  If the music minister's life needs to be ruined in this cause, so be it.  I hate him, and I despise all the so-called "leaders" at the church who have bowed and scraped and essentially allowed this clearly dishonest, power-hungry man to become a petty tyrant.

These lines from "Lycidas" seem appropriate:

Last came, and last did go,
The Pilot of the Galilean lake,
Two massy Keyes he bore of metals twain,
(The Golden opes, the Iron shuts amain)
He shook his Miter'd locks, and stern bespake,
How well could I have spar'd for thee young swain,
Anow of such as for their bellies sake,
Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold?
Of other care they little reck'ning make,
Then how to scramble at the shearers feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest.
Blind mouthes! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A Sheep-hook, or have learn'd ought els the least
That to the faithfull Herdmans art belongs!
What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;
And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel Pipes of wretched straw,
The hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:
Besides what the grim Woolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing sed,
But that two-handed engine at the door,
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.

Monday Update, Exam Week edition

some people's azaleas bloom all at once.  Ours take turns.
Saved the best for last.

1.  The CR-V is finally showing her age:  yesterday afternoon, all of a sudden, the clutch just wouldn't work properly.  I guess I can probably drive the thing to the shop, but it'll be rough going.  Makes me very sad...I know clutch repair isn't cheap.

2.  I bought The Runner a new camera for Mother's Day.  She'd been talking about how much she likes the one Honey uses, so now she has one of her own.  The Runner is a difficult person to buy for, so I was happy to see that she was genuinely happy to get it.

3.  Speaking of The Runner, she ran the Iris 5K in Dresden on Saturday, and came in first in the women's 30-39 division--while pushing the younger two in the stroller.  And she was all smiles while doing it. 

4.  We have become a house where strep infections are de rigueur . . . and thus, both The Kindergartner and Little Red are getting their tonsils taken out in late June.  I used to think that tonsillectomies were just a childhood rite of passage (especially thanks to Richard Scarry), but still, we're not saying anything about it to either of them for now.

5.  Now that classes are over, Piers is becoming ever more hermit-like.  Though I will say that the group in my upper level class, the group I just said goodbye to, was a fun bunch.  They had some interesting teacher horror stories to share . . . and some fellow-student horror stories, from classes I was actually teaching.  Apparently, I blocked out some of the details.

6.  Apropos of the photo above, it's always a shock in the spring when all the plants get going and the grass gets growing and we have to catch up from months of neglect of the yard (pretty much from right after the Pig Pickin' every year).   The insane amounts of rain haven't helped either.  But this year we have two adults at full capacity, so it should continue to run more smoothly. 

Adventures with Students, vol. 31

I try very hard to be a patient, compassionate, encouraging person.  Every semester I run into a few students who stumble for one reason or another (sometimes their fault, sometimes not).  Every semester I have a couple of students who are just not quite as socially adroit as their peers.  I try to work with them as best I know how; having challenging students is just part of the work, after all, and I've been teaching college classes for a decade (!) now. 



But this year absolutely takes the cake.  There have been too many.  I have simply run out of patience, especially with those who just keep pushing and essentially provide no effort in return.  There is one student who will fail my lit class, and there will be a huge uproar because of all the "challenges" she has had to face.  Well, I'll see your "challenges" and raise you the single mom trying to finish up while essentially escaping from an abusive boyfriend.  I'll see your "challenges" and raise you the mother of nine whose children are spread out over a couple of decades, who finished her work for me yesterday while trying to corral two boys here on campus. 

Sigh.  I'm tired. 

On the upside:  I am proud of my University Scholar, ELC--a bright and beautiful young woman heading to law school and probably an eventual judgeship.  Not going to see another one like her around here any time soon.  

Adventures with Students, vol. 30

I have seen some of the most interesting people and situations this term--most of them varying in their intensity but not their tenor.  It's been a lot of sadness.  On Friday, for instance, I got this in a written response to the class period:

My girlfriend and I have been together for almost three years now.  We had decided it may be time to get married once we graduate but after today I am seriously reconsidering this.  I don't think I am quite ready to give up everything you were talking about.  I just turned 20, and I plan to graduate in a little less than two years, so that would put me at 22.  I think I'm gonna have to put the marriage thing off for awhile.  I'm telling my girlfriend it was because of you.  Haha

I'm not sure what I said to cause this reaction.  We were studying Rasselas, for what it's worth.

I'm not going to email him and tell him he's making the right call--though I think he is.  He has seemed remarkably unhappy.

Monday Update, Half Marathon Edition.

1.  We went to Nashville to support The Runner in her third half-marathon.  We camped out at FBC and waited for her to run by on Broadway, which she did, and then we met her at the end of the race.  She looked like she had barely run three miles--and though she said it "kicked her tail," it turns out that she ran a personal best.  We were most proud of her, and the weather was perfect.  I got her a banana split to celebrate.

2.  This week's illness courtesy of The Vulcan Baby--maybe.  Not sure what his deal is, but he's been running a fever and managed to throw up his entire lunch and breakfast in his car seat about 30 minutes into our drive home yesterday.

3.  My honors student passed her honors thesis defense with flying colors on Friday.  Everyone was really impressed with her work, and I was proud to be her advisor & friend.

4.  Today is the last day of class for this term.  Not a day too early, either.  Good heavens, what a grind.

5.  I received good news on Friday; The Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs informed me that he has recommended my application for tenure and promotion to the Chancellor.  It's now a fait accompli, but it's bemusing to watch the process drag on...and on...and on...