I'm taking a little break from writing my seminar papers right now. Oh, wow, am I tired! But it looks like I'll have these suckers done and in by the very last possible moment, so that's...not good, exactly, but OK. And where my on-again-off-again troubles with writing are concerned, I'll happily settle for OK.
Hey! I'm not the only student in the science library tonight! Another girl just walked by. I've got company! I'm not the only person on campus with absolutely no life!
Oh, and here's something that makes me feel queer (in the old-fashioned sense of "odd," not in the new-fangled sense of "interested in having sex with other girls," although the latter sense also applies, of course.) Where was I? Oh, yeah. Today I met with the instructor I'll be assisting in Latin instruction for the fall and winter terms and--get this!--she wants the undergrads to address me, not as "Alusru", but as "Mrs. Blogstrom." She explained that she feels it's important for grad students to insist on their authority. Now, my philosophy has always been that I want students to trust and respect me as a sympathetic source of clear and accurate information, and not as a figure personally invested with authority...but, hey, this isn't my class to run. (She says, investing the instructor-role with final authority.)
My advisor, I think, has a better sense of the grad student position; he says it is a position of ritual humiliation, which takes rather a lot of personal courage to remain in for year after year. And I think...well, I think that one ought not to enter grad school unless one is the sort of person who finds criticism and correction to be things that help in the development of a powerful, individual voice and sense of self, rather than things that crush one's soul.
Off to write material for my teachers to criticize and correct, la la la! Yay, humiliation!
Hey! I'm not the only student in the science library tonight! Another girl just walked by. I've got company! I'm not the only person on campus with absolutely no life!
Oh, and here's something that makes me feel queer (in the old-fashioned sense of "odd," not in the new-fangled sense of "interested in having sex with other girls," although the latter sense also applies, of course.) Where was I? Oh, yeah. Today I met with the instructor I'll be assisting in Latin instruction for the fall and winter terms and--get this!--she wants the undergrads to address me, not as "Alusru", but as "Mrs. Blogstrom." She explained that she feels it's important for grad students to insist on their authority. Now, my philosophy has always been that I want students to trust and respect me as a sympathetic source of clear and accurate information, and not as a figure personally invested with authority...but, hey, this isn't my class to run. (She says, investing the instructor-role with final authority.)
My advisor, I think, has a better sense of the grad student position; he says it is a position of ritual humiliation, which takes rather a lot of personal courage to remain in for year after year. And I think...well, I think that one ought not to enter grad school unless one is the sort of person who finds criticism and correction to be things that help in the development of a powerful, individual voice and sense of self, rather than things that crush one's soul.
Off to write material for my teachers to criticize and correct, la la la! Yay, humiliation!
Comments
Well! I had thought that hazing was being driven out in most places, but it seems to have been renamed and thriving in academia! Hang in there, it will be your turn soon.
I can hear a plaintive call for juice….
And actually, the bird is currently eager to (1) attack my new coffee pot and (2) make a nest in the bookcase next to the computer. So far, no glug-glugging. I'll keep you posted, though.