We knew it was a long shot

Today was the last day I could expect to receive a phone call asking for an interview at MLA.  Looks like that won't be happening.  I won't receive definitive rejection letters for quite some time, if at all, but the silence is indication enough.  I had an enormous amount of confidence in the Baylor application particularly--the post is one I'm well qualified for, and I would seem to fit their profile.  However, the academic job market being what it is, I'm sure they were snowed under with far more impressive portfolios than mine.  I'm frustrated that I was so unaccountably confident in what amounted to a pipe-dream, but can't dwell on it too much; there is still plenty to do in the coming weeks and months, and there is another job season next Fall.  The Triathlete has been helpful in coming up with all sorts of bright sides to look at, but some of this disappointment I'm just going to have to sit with for a while, especially since it's more than just me I'm concerned about.  Getting the family away from NWTN was always the better part of my motivation. That's still the aim, but it looks like it's going to have to be a longer-term process than I had hoped.

Adventures in Parenting, Vol. 42

After watching several unfortunate things happen in Number One's classroom over the first half of this academic year, we took our concerns to the principal at the elementary school.  My greatest concern is that his teacher appears to be relatively stupid and rigid, and relatively incompetent at math and science. We didn't say those things directly, and we did admit that he is not always the most detail-oriented child in the world, but we made it clear that we don't like the direction of the class.

She defended her teacher to a certain degree, as we expected she would. She also explained that the teacher in question likes to plan everything to the nth degree, and likes to have clearly delineated "black" and "white" areas in her classroom and her teaching.  Which may be a nicer way of saying that she is in fact not the brightest star in the MES sky.

Not sure what difference it will make, but perhaps it serves as a warning shot.  She also offered The Triathlete a spot on her "Parents' Advisory Board," which at least gives us a way to have an advocate more closely associated with the school administration.

Looking backward, forward

That ship has sailed, so to speak

I suppose it's the fate of a person who spends a lot of time studying that he should find it hard to inhabit the present.  At the very least, that's true of me.  I have studied for several hours today, and every line I read about the English Reformation makes me wish I had studied more of this stuff back when I had the resources of UNC at my fingertips.  I guess it's a truism that one doesn't know what one should have studied until one is finished with the project at hand--at least when "the project at hand" is a doctoral thesis.

At any rate, I'm glad I have spent the last several years studying this stuff, even if my progress has been far less speedy than I would like.  Until recently I had been hopeful that I would shortly have the opportunity to spend even more time and energy on it.  That does not seem to be the case anymore, alas.  I'll have to continue picking at it . . . though naturally I'll get to do a lot of picking this next six months.

Research Leave, Day 1

It's all about momentum.  I have plenty of books to read, and plenty of things to write, but they will not get done if I allow myself too much leisure. In other news, this comes along just at the right time.  I was tapped out this past semester, as can be seen by the month-plus between postings on this blog.  I would like to use this forum as a way to keep myself accountable.  To have to report on my progress: maybe it will help.