Link to What's New This Week. Issue for Week of September 12, 2004

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Current Issue: Volume 21, No. 3
Week of September 12, 2004

Our new listserv, TRANSFORM

Please subscribe to our new listserv. Nathlyn helped me create it today. UWP students may also subscribe. Send an e-mail to: join-transform@lists.csudh.edu. No subject needed; message: join. You will receive an answer saying that we have received the request to joing. You must answer that to get subscribed. That's it.

Then send e-mail to transform@lists.csudh.edu Your message will go to all of you who subscribe to transform. That means that you won't need to wait till I can post your message on the threads of discussion, or a shared reading, or a blog. Everybody can stay current, and I can slow down a little. My little red flying dog thanks you for that. I screwed up Wednesday evening and gave the wrong instruction to a few of you to subscribe, but Pat says the above worked right. Good luck. jeanne

By the way, everyone at CSUDH: Pat would like to announce that, contrary to popular opinion, she does not hatch the magic numbers. UWP, please ignore this message. We have magic numbers and dancing unicorns at CSUDH because we're in California. It's weird. jeanne

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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: September 10, 2004
Latest Update: September 15, 2004
E-Mail Icon jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:
Hypotheticals? What if . . .we noticed the results of our unstated assumptions???

Celia Piz wrote on Friday:

" Jeanne I tried to download information on obesity on your website and I was unable to do it. (I fixed it.) However, there is something that interests me, that was brought to my attention last semester and again this semester. In my classrooms I noticed that there are about five people I would say that are quite large. It makes me feel uncomfortable when I see them having trouble sitting in their desks because the desks aren't big enough for larger people. I think this is an issue that needs to be brought to the attention of someone in CSUDH and everywhere else. I think these individuals should be able to come to class and sit comfortably in their desks since they too are paying for their education. What can we do?"

jeanne's version of Dwayne Sanders trying to squeeze into a classroom desk.

Monologic Nonanswerability and the Body:
Our Lack of Sensitivity to Increasing Body Size

Friday, October 10, 2003: The unstated assumption to which I refer here is that we all come in roughly the same size. I will never be able to erase this picture of Dwayne Sanders trying to fit his frame into the inadequate space of a classroom seat for three hours of serious discussion. I figure this counts right up there with putting corsets on women. I sometimes have trouble fitting into these contraptions. Has anyone ever thought of making them conform to real bodies?

Notice that this is a little harder to see as an answerability issue because, after all, the seats are same for all: equality. No perpetrator. No intent. No fit. Structural violence. Structural violence is harm that occurs to another, not as the direct result of one Person meaning to hurt one Other, but simply because the rules that have grown up in an insensitive bureaucracy result in harm all by themselves. When I eat in the school cafeteria, the table comes up to just below my chin. I'll bet that's more comfortable for Dwayne. But when Dwayne tries to sit in the classroom desk, there is no way to do so comfortably. Here the rules, the unstated assumptions harm any of us that don't fit into the normative expectation for size.

I used to tear the seatbelt off in my car and tuck it under my arm because I choked on it if I didn't do that. This year, finally, the new car has an adjustment so the seat belt can be lowered not to choke me. Of course, I keep trying to make it one notch lower because I shrank a little as I got older, but that was too far beyond the normative expectation for size.

Lots of our normative expectations, and the unstated assumptions on which they are based, are about the body. Only recently have we really begun to pay attention to the body, and its needs, and stop trying to stuff it into a corset or a classroom seat. jeanne

For further discussion go to Planning an Exhibit on Obesity This file takes Celia's question of "what can we do about it" and provides you with step by step directions.

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Discussion Topics:

Attention: jeanne and Pat are supposed to be at a conference in New Orleans next week. Watch here for messages in case we have to make last minute plans to avoid hurricane, especially since a new hurricane is reportedly on its way: it's called Jeanne! (Thurber said "My life and welcome to it.") May affect next Thursday, September 23, 2004. jeanne

Topic of the Week Hypotheticals? What if . . .we noticed the resultsof our unstated assumptions???

  • On Obesity Detailed instructions on creating awareness through shared dicussion and visual sociology exhibits.

jeanne's Lecture Notes:

Planned Discussions for Week of September 12, 2004:

Technical Stuff:

Substantive Stuff:

  • Shared Reading: Overtime and the Fair Labor Standards Act Important to the election. Bush and the Republicans are opposing provisions of the Act. Important discussion as part of campaign understanding. This may include police officers, corrections officers. Be aware. Added September 12, 2004.

  • Questions raised by last week's discussion on outsourcing By Carly James, CSUDH.

  • A reader asks how to move her local area to prohibit cat declawing, a cruel and painful surgery often inflicted on urban domestic cats. Can we help her with some governance discourse? On the Declawing of Cats Both Wisconsin and California have problems with feral cats as predators. How does that relate to the issue of declawing cats? Can you sort out the key issues and the irrelevant issues in answering Linda LaFrance's plea to stop cat declawing.

    Agencies: Which ones are involved?
    Law: Is cat declawing illegal in some countries? How can that help Linda's project?
    Women and Poverty: Is the condition exacerbated or minimized in poor areas? How would you describe this issues importance to poverty areas? Consider teaching empathy and understanding of pain and sensitivity to our children.

  • On the Presidential Elections:

    The 2004 Elections—A Turning Point for the U.S. Left. Introduction. By Eric Mann. This introductory chapter is available online. And this is the sort of material that you will not get on the traditional media. Left, even radical left perspective. Be sure as you read it, you are thinking about what the other perspectives are on these issues, and notice that the left is not a united group anymore than is the right or any other perspective. More in next week's issue. jeanne

    In direct response to Carly James, who wrote:

    "Can we talk a little bit more about this in class and why George W. is so bad for the country, I want cold hard facts. I am not pro Bush, I just need to know why he is bad for my country."

    And I've put up a new file on campaign issues: Comparing Candidates on the Issues We'll build the file slowly as we gather material and discuss it.

    Carly, here are other resources:

Open Access Discussion Threads: Current, Fall 2004

Open Access Blogs on Less Formal Discussions:

Syllabi for Fall 2004

Nota Bene: Several unanticipated factors have caused some changes to our CSUDH syllabi. A couple of real important books aren't available. So we've agreed to use the shared reading materials to make up for that loss. We've also agreed that, given that requisite change in focus, we would like to increase the field component of all classes this semester to reach out in the interest of community transformation. But that means extra field time that I don't want you taking from your substantive study of issues. So we have restructured the workshop and performance elements of moot court to cover many more performances than originally planned. These performances will be scheduled, TBA, when they fit your schedules, and we can then integrate the moot court course with the substantive courses, so that you will receive credit for the field work you are doing. That means add Moot Court so you can receive credit through that activity planned course, and notice that you have to add Soc 370 and Soc 370A. Pat will get any magic numbers needed. jeanne

  • Mentoring

  • Conferences

    Conference in New Orleans in September:

    Freeing the Feminine Other:

    Hypertext Gallery Exhibit from Fall 2004

     

    Hypertext Project Map
    Link on Section Titles for Hypertext Poem and Different Sections of Table of Contents.

    Academic Support

    Using Academic Language Effectively

    Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

    and Careers

    • Resumes:

    • Letters of Recommendation:

      • Letters of Recommendation: How to get me to respond to your request. Many of you need letters. If you will follow this format, I can do them quickly and make them good.
      • Dog Letters If you do not give me adequate information, but do manage to get my attention, you may end up with a dog letter. That is a letter that says that you work well with people, that you are enthusiastic, that you persist at getting things done, and that everyone likes you. Of course, my dog gets along well with people, brings his ball to them, is enthusiastic, and persists at getting them to take his ball. Everyone likes my dog. That's a dog letter. It's so general it could be about my dog. jeanne

    • Reports and Studies on Employment and the Job Market

    Play:

  • Hampton Hampster Dance 2 Link not working Monday afternoon. Try later. jeanne

    Site has grown a little confusing, but the music is cheerful and the hamsters are cute and you cna still move them around. I didn't have time to figure it all out. You play with it. jeanne

  • Intellectual Play

    The 2004 Elections—A Turning Point for the U.S. Left. Introduction. By Eric Mann. This introductory chapter is available online. And this is the sort of material that you will not get on the traditional media. Left, even radical left perspective. Be sure as you read it, you are thinking about what the other perspectives are on these issues, and notice that the left is not a united group anymore than is the right or any other perspective. More in next week's issue. jeanne

    In direct response to Carly James, who wrote:

    "Can we talk a little bit more about this in class and why George W. is so bad for the country, I want cold hard facts. I am not pro Bush, I just need to know why he is bad for my country."

    And I've put up a new file on campaign issues: Comparing Candidates on the Issues We'll build the file slowly as we gather material and discuss it.

    Carly, here are other resources:

    That Was Fun! Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs

    Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:

    Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.

    Include:
    • A sentence or two about what you want to share with us.
    • The name of the teacher whose class you were in.
    • The name of the class.
    • The name of the school. We're not picky. We'll honor teachers in any school, any level. This might be a good idea to help young children learn to say "thank you" and encourage meaningful practice in all our schools. We could even start with pre-school. This is a skill needed in answerability. To discover that what you think matters is to end silencing. Even home schooling. You can send photos or drawings, too.

    • See the first entries at Sneaky Strokes and Good Dogs

    You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:

    • Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
    Individual copyrights by other authors may apply.