some updates

though the days of photographer-me are over for the moment, i just updated my photo site with some pictures of prague i found to steal from josh. check them out if my media accompaniment from my blog entry was not sufficient to prove that i was there, seeing lots of beautiful things. or just, you know, if you are curious. this one to the left josh took of me being touristy in our loch lomond trip. ah, those were the days when documenting visually was possible. my dad actually said i should get a new camera but i haven't even had time to really pursue the idea. one day.

i got my sociology of education paper back today, which counts for 25% of my grade, and i got a high b+, which i am not too unhappy with (especially considering the grades of those around me).
my comments said:
you provide an effective description of the situation, and a clear account of the social constraints (mainly gender norms) and opportunities that led you to this class. you write clearly and interestingly about your previous lack of awareness of gender, and of how being perceived as 'other' contributed to that awareness. you also use the role of the teacher as an opportunity to reflect on the limitations of gender in itself as an explanation.
you could have said more, however, about your reciprocal role in shaping the context. sociology is about the relationshp between social structures and individuals in both directions, at many levels. at the level of the kind of small social group you are talking about here, there must have been some influence by you on the context. how did the male students react to this counter-stereotypical student, both in the sense of her being female, and also in the sense that she had (presumably) been known previously to have been mainly intereted in humanities and social sciences? what attitude did they adpt towards your requests for help, and towards your academic success at the end of the class? how did your presence in the class affect the teacher, in her own identity as well as in her professional role? thus the essay is written as if you were an observer, but also is candid enough to make clear that you could never have been only that; you were a participant, and that would bear sociological anaylsis too.

i don't know if i'm cut out for this social mumbo-jumbo. i will have to talk to the professor before my really long, 75% of my grade essay at the end. speaking of, my meeting with my english professor went well today. while i was talking to him about all of my many ideas, he interrupted me laughing and said that he had read an essay about teaching that said that ideally students should come to see a professor in office hours in this state of "rich bewilderment." i thought it was nice and complimentary.
tonight, though i feel myself resisting the idea, i must hole myself up in my room with mann and nietzsche and my rich bewilderment, and make some decisions about how to write this thing. john arrives tomorrow, and we are going to do so many things. i expect the rich bewilderment will continue.
wish me luck in balancing it all.