What's Next?

Now I remember why I don't watch much TV. It's nearly impossible to turn it on and not hear about a man who thinks he can live outside the traditional bounds of life and not suffer the consequences. Not to to be sexist, there are women who fit definition too, but it seems that men are the ones pushing the envelope lately. (Mrs. Sanford just filed for divorce; it was announced during a Tiger Woods item on CNN.) So I am here to tell you that I am SICK of hearing about Tiger Woods. This is a perfect example of the fact that what people can do physically is not nearly as important as what kind of a person they are. America's airwaves are filled with examples of accomplishments by athletes, only to be followed by the shame of their moral failures. How sad that these athletes, musicians, performers, and others build up the public's expectations, then fail to carry through. Many youngsters idolize athletes like Tiger Woods, then find out that they are just as likely to fail th...

It's been a long semester, as you can tell by the fact that I last blogged in August. During the semester I am so busy planning classes and teaching that I just don't have time to write, but today, the fall 2009 semester is officially over for me. I've graded four sets of exams, computed final grades, and submitted the last of them to the registrar. Today, I took a day for me. Well, not totally for me. I attended a board meeting for the Statesboro Youth Chorale at noon. The SYC is an important addition to the community, especially in a time when so many schools are cutting back on music and art programs, so it's worth the time and effort I can give. I just compelted a brochure for January 2010 try-outs, a good use of my skills. At 2:45 p.m. I got my hair cut at Serenity Day Spa, a place where I really feel at home. There's nothing to make a body feel better than a good-looking haircut! Then I went on to visit Jenny and Erica at the Statesboro Magazine. Lord, how th...

I am appalled at the recent behavior of Americans addressing the health care debate. According to the New York Times and a variety of local papers, town hall meetings are turning hostile, eliminating communication between audience and speaker (a speaker who usually has to escape before he or she needs "health care"). What is happening in these forums? And what are these hostile Americans thinking? What's happening in these hostile forums is that Americans, most of whom have read nothing about the current state of health care, are NOT thinking, They are listening to TV pundits telling them that the current Democratic administration is leading us all to socialism and that we must protest change. Instead of reading a variety of imformation, most Americans watch these TV talking heads--who are also undereducated aoout health care--and believe what they hear. Don't Americans realize that these talking heads are just that? They are EARNING THEIR LIVING fomenting the uproar ...

It’s been a hectic week: actress Farrah Fawcett and singer Michael Jackson died, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sandford took his turn at the “I was unfaithful to my wife” podium. Sanford was followed immediately by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, stepping down “for the good of Alaska.” To all of these media-driven experiences I make the ungrateful comment, “So what?” I ask that ungraceful question because in fact, to me as an American citizen, none of those things is important. Not one of the events I mentioned above will change my political, religious, or philosophical points of view, nor will they affect how I treat the family and friends who surround me. They won't improve my work, my income, or make me happier. All they really do is make me turn off the TV. I am far more interested in how the American conversation on health care is progressing; what options are offered, how are they received, and what can the House and Senate do to develop viable compromise. I am far more interested in...

What is with men in politics? I know they are risk-takers, and their initial egocentricity that gets them elected in the first place. But once they are in office, do their brains drop to their genitals? Or do they lack morals in the first place, and just hoodwink the electorate for as long as they can get away with it? Mark Sanford, after treating his wife and family like a despicable cad, lying to the office staff that has to cover for him, has finally admitted that he is allowing his penis rather than his brain to lead his life. And now he says he'll resign as head of the Republican Governor's Association? Hell, no! He should resign as Governor of South Carolina. When the population of a state elects a Governor, they are, in essence, hiring that person to represent their interests for four years. What has he been doing for the last four years? Forget the fact that I disagree with his politics; forget that he was stupid enough to refuse economic stimulus money that would have...

Every once in a while I read a book that I'd like to put on a reading list for every American. This time it's Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason. It's clear from Jacoby's writing and her content that she is an American intellectual of the highest order. To get the full meaning of her prose, I found myself re-reading paragraphs, asking myself if I agree with her ideas, reviewing the framework she uses to make her points, and looking at her bibliography to assess her sources. From her bibliography, I've found at least three more books I want to read. What is her point? Jacoby believes that America has settled into an age of anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism, as evidenced by the huge numbers of Americans who do not know--or never learned--the basics of science, the primary events of American history, and critical reading skills. Her point is that Americans believe what they are told without giving thought to who is speaking or writing, and that we ...

The variety of my students always amazes me. Some students have direct paths to their futures, with lots of energy and action already underway. Some students are reluctant to put their toes in the water, reluctant to make decisions that will affect their lives, yet others welcome it. I wonder why? Actually, I know why. We are always the product of our parents and our homes. Who our parents are will always make us what we become. Whether we choose to follow in their footsteps, or whether we choose to do the exact opposite, our parents have made us what we are. This truth means even more to me now that Lily, my first grandchild, is part of my life. As I watch her mother care for her, and as I remember caring for my daughter, I wish I could have MY mother here to see the progression she --and her mother--started many years ago. I hope that I've retained my mother's best qualities and passed them alongto my daughter, so that years from now, Lily will look back and smile as her moth...

When I agreed to teach during A term this summer, I didn't realize I'd have to leave a brand-new granddaughter in Savannah. She was born one week ago today, and she has brought a whole new and unexpected genre of joy into my life--a life which, unfortunately, is still based on regular employment. So this morning at 8 a.m. I showed up at COE2158 to teach ENGL1102 to a mixed group of students, all very different from the freshmen I encounter in the fall. Many are sophomores, a few are freshmen or juniors. some of them dropped their previous 1102 classes because they did not like the readings or the professor. Some just plain don't like to write. Many don't read, or don't like to read; they'd rather be elsewhere. A couple are readers. It's a whole new group of digital natives. Until I get to know them better, I will continue the plan I laid out in my syllabus. We'll do one individual paper, blogs, quizzes, an annotated bib, and then move to group work. This...

Is it my students? Or is it me? In lab today, I listened to students sneezing, coughing, and honking. No wonder I have a sore throat. And at the end of the semester, when they all have an opportunity to talk together about their projects, they each sit at the computer and play games or read their Facebook pages. Don't they care? I want everyone to succeed, but logic tells me that students only succeed as much as they want to. It's not hard for a teacher to tell who wants to excel and who doesn't care. I'm looking forward to final presentations. Mrs. B

It's very difficult to know if I'm doing the right thing for my students. Part of me wants to give them books and stories to read, just like I did in my college years. I read books by a variety of writers, wrote essays about the characters and the plot, and got an A on most of them, because I loved to read and write. But the world has changed in just the blink of an eye. As television changed my generation, the Internet has changed these students into digital natives. Their experiences are all digitally based, and the majority of them do their reading on the Web, the cell phone, the iPod, or the xBox. The difference is certainly not in ability; it's in attention span. I can read for hours, but many of them have difficulty reading for more than a few minutes. Many do all their reading online, where they find it hard to keep from straying into games, Facebook, or e-mail. While they can absorb information, they are more likely to enjoy doing it in small bytes. To be fair, my ...

I keep telling myself that it's good for me to be in New York City. The question is: why? In the midst of a wedding weekend, we traveled the Long Island Railroad from Syosset on Long Island into Penn Station, then walked to Macy's (loved the old wooden escalators). Then to Rockefeller Center, and then to the subway terminal, and then to the WTC site, and then to the subway terminal, and then to Canal Street, and then to the subway, and on and on and on. Every once in a while I checked to make certain my feet were still there, because by Canal Street they were numb. It was wonderful to hear the on-street musicians, to smell the unusual food smells, and to view the international sea of faces on every corner. It was wonderful for the first few blocks, and still good for the next few. But after that, I felt the old, overwhelming sense of claustrophobia closing in on me. The crowds became more dense as the day wore on, and I became more sensitive to the noise and confusion. My feet ...

After reading Snoop, students in my ENGL 1102 classes are creating businesses based on the personality information they learned from Gosling's book. In each class, groups are creating detective agencies, car sales agencies, temporary employment agencies, matchmaking organizations, senior living environments, construction compnaies, and my personal favorite, a company that programs iPods for the technologically challenged. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of these project. Each group will be required to offer a Powerpoint presentation and produce ads, brochures, a business description, a client survey, and a news article about their product or service. This is a major effort that requires group work and meets a variety of the learning outcomes mandated for this class, so I am looking forward to seeing the results. In the mean time, the students are anticipating spring break, making it difficult for them to focus on projects that require concentration. I feel like I...

Last fall Basic Books published Snoop , a book by University of Texas psychology professor Sam Gosling. Gosling's research has demonstrated that an individual's personality can be profiled according to the "stuff" he surrounds himself with. His premise is very appealing. So in each section of ENGL 1102 I asked students to take the simple 10-item test that shows them which aspect of the "Big Five" personality domain they were strongest in: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. I don't think any of them were surprise by the result, and the group was about as evenly divided as I expected. The only domain we were short on is agreeableness. Now they have to write a critical analysis of the book. (What! We have to read the WHOLE BOOK?!!) Most, however, are finding that the further they get into it, the more they are taking to the concept of snooping. Being a "snoop" is one way of seeing into the problems and is...

As a working writer, I get to interview some interesting people, and today's work was no exception. I met a chief of police this morning who gave me a whole new perspective on the economy. Okay, that seems like a disconnect; let me explain. It seems that home and auto burglaries are steadily increasing as the economy becomes more bleak. This chief heads a bedroom community police force that is dealing with a growing number of daytime home break-ins that result in theft of large-screen TVs, electronics, cash, and jewelry. How to handle it? He has a few ideas. The officer in charge of community relations has put the word out to churches, asking congregations to announce the problem and for individuals to call if they see anything unusual in their neighborhoods. The force is trying to rebuild its neighborhood watch program, and they are trying to get the word out through local media. When I was younger, economic issues were a problem, but like most Americans, I've grown used to h...

Tavis Smiley came home to south Georgia this evening to share a message that gave me and, I hope, the rest of the audience a clearer picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. I am old enough to remember King, but it surprised me when Smiley reminded the packed house at Georgia Southern University's Performing Arts Center that King led the civil rights movement at 26, and received the Nobel Prize for Peace in his early 30s. He was shot dead at 39, and his death has been the force that kept the civil rights movement focused on the future. Smiley, an African-American radio and television personality who has captured the voice and feel of America, pointed out that Martin Luther King would have been 80 this year. "And he would still be seeking justice for all and holding all Americans, both black and white, accountable to advance the cause of justice." Noting that many Americans were delighted to be preparing for the inauguration of America's first African-American president, Smi...

My dream job is finally available. FBI, here I come! When I logged on to CNN today and found that the FBI is hiring, ( cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/05/fbi.hiring.binge/index.html ) my heart tripped the tango. I've always wanted to follow in the steps of one of my literary heroes, Mrs. Pollifax, the delightful grandmotherly woman who gets assignments that take her all over the world as a courier and spy. Ooops. Wait, it's the CIA that sends people all over the world. The FBI handles problems in the U.S. Okay, I can still live with that. Apparently this is the largest job posting for FBI agents since 2001, and it includes openings for more than 2,000 support personnel as well. I wonder if the FBI is trying to hire some of the financial folks and automakers who got pink-slipped at the end of 2008? Or is bail-out money going to the FBI? When most employers--including state governments--are letting people go, where does the FBI get money for new hires? The lengthy list of openings includes...

There's an old saying that the year will go the way the stock market goes for the first week of January. I hope that's true, because today's market went above 9,000 for the first time since November. Any ray of sunshine helps! I was delighted to say goodbye to 2008, which was a tough year all the way around. While I dealt with the death of friends and family and a job change, many Americans faced mortgage foreclosures, job losses, and economic failure. I count myself lucky to be employed, and I am especially looking forward to my first grandchild in 2009. So other than a grandchild, what do I think 2009 will bring? Here are my predictions and educated guesses: 1. Barack Obama will show us that he has more good sense, common sense, and downright intelligence than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. He has already demonstrated this by choosing cabinet-level staff that are experienced and educated in their areas and willing to work together. With a "can do" staff...