forgiveness

In honor of the Dalai Lama'a visit to our fair county, the wonderful protesters of the Chinese crackdown on Tibet following the torch; a film about forgiveness that really gets at the heart of a major issue of contemporary American society. The Power of Forgiveness is surprisingly engaging and moving. I'm thinking about organizing a screening for all of my sorely abused family and friends when I finally finish grad school... too heavy handed?

funny little grad student sittin' on a fence, tryin' to make a paper out of 49 cent(ence)s; or:bumbling through another day

The Contents of my Brain: A brief overview.

1. Songs about mud written by second graders
2. Likely causes and potential effects of hypertension in labor for a woman who is consistently hypotensive
3. How the hell do I make a rubric for a 30 second improvisation by a first grader in the first month of school and why is my prof making me? why am I letting him make me? why am I submitting to this patriarchal, hierarchical, money-grab anyway?
4. The outline of a k-5 curriculum map that aligns the essential questions in music with the art curriculum and classroom curricula and allows for unified assessments by music teachers and how I'm going to present it to my boss on Thursday and my colleagues after that in a way that everybody feels like it was their idea and is motivated to go make it work.
5. Why is there not a midwifery class offered in Washtenaw county? Everybody is talking about these distance learning things... we have so many resources here! Why is someone not teaching it?
[I would so do it if I didn't need to learn everything first! In fact, I've been realizing lately that I'm reading my text books like a teacher (imagine that!). i.e. I try to see each topic in context and make the kind of connections I would need in order to explain it to someone else. In fact, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I usually fall asleep at night doing something vaguely like lecturing myself on whatever wisdom Anne Frye has just imparted via the big purple book.]
6. The application of Critical Pedagogy to Music Education, or why a Brazilian radical named Paulo and his thoughts about cultural reproduction and social hegemony are profoundly relevant to a guitar slinging ypsilantian midwife wannabe and her kids and their songs about mud.

Today was my first day of prenatals at "the office." I didn't feel any more awkward or inadequate than I anticipated (which was plenty). I think the main point sometimes, is to just do things so that they're done. It really is hard for me to believe that It's almost three years since I was the pregnant person struggling to get up from the broken blue chairs, and I was anxious about being on the other side of the room.
I did, however, have a sweet little conversation with the German high school exchange student who was there to observe the midwives. She was talking about how different maternity care is here in the US, and I told her how I was hoping - for everyone's sake - that some change was on its way. She replied with earnest, wide eyed, 11th grade confidence, "Oh, but it is! And you are a part of it." And, awkward and inadequate and overwhelmed as I felt (feel), I believed her.