May 2012
2 posts
5 tags
What We're Missing
My grandma tells me that she would have gone to law school, if it had been an option for her. She went to the free city college instead and became a secretary and excellent typist (if you want to see my grandma laugh until she cries, play her this video over and over).
Everyone has favorite stories, and I think about my grandma’s. The year before kindergarten, she would fold her picture...
5 tags
April 2012
2 posts
3 tags
The Place Where We Are Right
by Yehuda Amichai
From the place where we are right Flowers will never grow In the spring. The place where we are right Is hard and trampled Like a yard. But doubts and loves Dig up the world Like a mole, a plow. And a whisper will be heard in the place Where the ruined House once stood.
January 2012
4 posts
3 tags
State of the Classroom
I had some extra time with my sixth grade history class today, so we talked about the State of the Union address. I had some definite favorite and least favorite parts (though I was watching by myself, I said both “blech” and “thank you!” out loud over the course of the speech), but I wasn’t sure what to think of Obama’s educational vision of forcing kids to...
3 tags
“This was a snapshot of what my own deep friendships could lead to:...”
– Transformation and Transcendence: The Power of Female Friendship at The Rumpus
I love female friendships and also I loved this essay. Read it! It features a group of women called The Wrinklies… not sure what more you could want.
Un(der)known Writers: Martin Luther King Jr. →
thenewinquiry:
“I’m sure that you have read that arresting little story from the pen of Washington Irving entitled Rip Van Winkle. The thing that we usually remember about this story is that Rip Van Winkle slept 20 years. But there is another point in that story that is almost always completely overlooked: it was a sign on the inn in the little town on the Hudson from which Rip went up...
December 2011
1 post
Things not to do with middle schoolers
Leah is blogging about being a first-year middle school teacher!!!
decomposingclassroom:
1. Tell them to stand on their chair and “get high” so they can see the demo going on.
2. Over enunciate “quantitative” when we’re talking about quantitative and qualitative observations.
3. In bringing in trash to make conclusions and deductions, bring in an empty cardboard container from a women’s...
November 2011
5 posts
2 tags
“The only monument civil society ever gets is itself, and the satisfaction of...”
– Ms. Civil Society v. Mr. Unaccountable by the great Rebecca Solnit. Read it!
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Guest Post: Some Balls Are For Everyone
When my friend Leah originally told me this story over the phone, the rendition was repeatedly interrupted with my cackling and shocked exclamations. Hope you enjoy as much as I did!
I taught myself how to juggle when I was ten, went to circus camp at 13, and ultimately served as president of my college’s juggling club: the Anti-Gravity Society. So, when the patriarchy tells me that girls can’t...
5 tags
Whose Streets
One charming aspect of my new neighborhood in Oakland is that people block the streets. If my neighbors can’t find an open spot by the sidewalk, they park where they are and throw on their hazard lights while they run in to take care of something. When I pull out of the driveway so that my roommate can get into the garage, other cars just have to pass against traffic. A couple weeks ago,...
October 2011
5 posts
Occupations
I was driving to a vegetarian diner in Berkeley the other day when I saw two protesters standing by themselves in the street’s median. The man held up a sign saying “Occupy the Media,” with a crude drawing of an old-fashioned TV. I laughed out loud, thinking that standing with a friend in the middle of a random street holding up a piece of poster board must be one of the most...
2 tags
On Cat-Calling
I recently moved to a new neighborhood in which cat-calling is much more prevalent than it was in any of my past neighborhoods. The walk-by comments are generally ‘complimentary’ and not especially vulgar. I’m a little bit surprised by how much I hate it. First off, I should make it clear that I’m a pretty friendly person and generally enjoy talking to strangers:
The other...
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“Or: Going to a bar, with my boyfriend, with the activist friends he’d made...”
– Please read Sady Doyle’s essay on class, gender, family, violence, protest, and pain at Tiger Beatdown
2 tags
1 tag
September 2011
1 post
4 tags
Fine, Fresh, Fierce
A few weeks ago, I went with some friends to a bar with a dance floor. The last time I had attended this establishment, a man quickly decided to fall in love with me, which was fun until I discovered that he had attended an anti-abortion rally earlier that day. (He realized that I was an activist, and told me about the protest hoping to impress me.) This time, I wasn’t looking for romance,...
August 2011
1 post
July 2011
1 post
June 2011
1 post
3 tags
May 2011
3 posts
4 tags
“Selflessness” is a self-destructive, codependent behavior pattern that our...”
– - Sady Doyle
As a teacher, my (traditionally female) profession often seems to demand selflessness, and I have also unreasonably expected it of myself. This take-down is so on target. I would also add that during my most ‘selfless’ summer, my “unhealthy and unhappy life”...
5 tags
“With archival photographs and reproductions of cycling posters, “Wheels” is as...”
– I’ll give you three guesses for the context of this quote.
Nope, it’s not Tucker Max trying to express classy interests.
Good try, but it is in fact not a creepy old man on the Home Shopping Network.
What’s that you say? A New York Times special section on children’s...
Get it into your body →
adamconover:
I really like this short piece by Kevin Mullaney.
I’m learning to play guitar. It is a tough, slow process. […] The first time I try a chord on the guitar, it may physically hurt. It feels awkward. My fingers can’t make that shape. And if they can make that shape, I might take an inordinate amount of time to switch from that chord to any other. So should I give up? Should I say,...
April 2011
3 posts
1 tag
“It holds true in just about every aspect of what feminism is about. The more...”
– Dan Solomon, “Why Feminism is also Dude-ism”
“[I have] been asked, on occasion, why someone like myself, with pretensions to...”
– Isaac Asimov, in the introduction to his Treasury of Humor
March 2011
5 posts
1 tag
Relax, by Ellen Bass
Bad things are going to happen.
Your tomatoes will grow a fungus
and your cat will get run over.
Someone will leave the bag with the ice cream
melting in the car and throw
your blue cashmere sweater in the dryer.
Your husband will sleep
with a girl your daughter’s age, her breasts spilling
out of her blouse. Or your wife
will remember she’s a lesbian
and leave you for the...
4 tags
Guest Post: Notes From the Mathiarchy
I recently received this dispatch from my friend Mary, who updates us on life as a talented female student and reminds me of one of the many reasons I am happy to be out of college.
I am in an accelerated math class at my community college, where two semesters of material are covered in one. I really like the format of the class because it emphasizes creating a learning community and working in...
February 2011
1 post
Man Hater: Part I
For some reason, discussing my man-hatred seemed like a great thing to do with a man I was about to date. I was talking about feminism with a guy I had recently met at a conference. I had been distinctly uninterested in socializing with most of the other men in our program, and I was trying to explain why.
“I guess I don’t actually hate men,” I said. “I hate certain oppressive behaviors...
January 2011
2 posts
1 tag
What the Living Do
by Marie Howe
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there. And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of. It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through the open living-room windows because the...
December 2010
2 posts
WatchI was talking to a friend yesterday about the difference between comedy that is racist or sexist (etc.) and comedy that subverts racism or sexism (etc.). Talking about race is not inherently racist, but making racist comments and claiming they are ironic is often reprehensible. Here, Louis C-K with a good example of cutting anti-racist comedy. And Jay Leno laughing strangely, as usual.
5 tags
November 2010
1 post
October 2010
1 post
3 tags
"Ladies first," I snorted.
This story has a happy ending:
A couple weeks ago, my student Billy gleefully told me that he and Adam had spent the weekend collaborating on a book, and that they were already up to the fourth chapter. I was pleased that they chose to spend their free time writing, and assumed their product would be similar to my serious elementary school efforts, with each chapter being a handwritten page or...
September 2010
8 posts
More Notes from the Tinyarchy
One of my current 5th grade students, let’s call him Adam, is fun and imaginative. I’ve been trying to catch up on contemporary elementary school literature, and I just read this amazing book called The Name of This Book is Secret. If this book had existed when I was in 5th grade, it most likely would have been my favorite book - full of dumb jokes, spying, twins, synesthesia - what...
Value-Added Teachers
The other day I went to visit the school where I student taught last year. Last year, half of my students were English Learners and many of my students received free or reduced-price lunch. It is an urban public school which has been struggling to raise standardized test scores, having been designated for ‘Program Improvement’ and threatened with No Child Left Behind...
3 tags
Mail Bag!
I received an excellent email from my friend Ujamaa in response to this blog. She is currently overseas, teaching and writing excellent emails. Patriarchy goes international! Since I have never much liked soccer (basketball’s where it’s at), I’ll leave it to her:
“So I was meeting my “friend” (more like closest thing to a friend but not really a friend)...
“Both mothers and teachers (both male and female) experience a similar cultural...”
– Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other
August 2010
2 posts
