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07.24.2005
In American Government we were talking about equal rights legislation and it included affirmative action. I think the whole notion of race is absurd. I tried to vocalize my disbelief in response to the notion that affirmative action helps minorities in poverty achieve potential which might be unobtainable due to economic hardship.
My suggestion? Forget race and go with the notion of allowing lower standards to economically disadvantaged kids (if one is inclined to keep affirmative action). It seems to me that the same argument that there might be some black kid who is an Einstein but unable to get into college because he went to a poor school applies to whites and any other race. The key component is not the race, but the economic situation.
I also tried to raise the issue of who qualifies as a racial minority? What sprang to mind was Mark Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson." How does one determine if one qualifies a race when it becomes dilluted to the point of 1/32nd? (Curiously, it seems to me that while race has been abondoned scientifically- there is no "black gene" - it lingers on in other parts of academia as a sort of anachronism or psuedo-science. Perhaps ethnicity would be a better phrase to include the concept of race.)
Well, then, to get back to my point, the last few minutes of class was taken up by a discussion of whether or not homosexuals should be protected by the equal rights legislation. This sparked some debate on whether homosexuality is a genetic trait or a mere preference/choice. This seemed to determine for most people if the legislation applied. Those in favor of coverage argued that homosexuality was innate and immutable and those in disagreement felt it was a choice, and those unlike race or sex.
Also, I received test 2 back in Spanish yesterday. I scored a 95% on the test and a 97% on the first quiz for Lession 3. So far, so good.
11.06.2002
He said, "She has a lovely face; / God in his mercy lend her grace."
It took me some time to think of where it was from. It finally occurred to me while I was writing this entry. It is from Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot."
Here are the three Discussion questions I answered:
A2. Discuss Keat's Capacity for friendship and family life and its role in his career.
B2. Discuss Shelley's hatred of tyranny.
C2. Discuss Byron as an athlete and soldier.
(I'll give my answers when I have more time.)
In class we also evaluated our instructor. I gave him high marks. He's a fabulous teacher and the class is quite engrossing. I made only two criticisms. The first was a comment suggesting that the course would be improved by an Internet presence. It could be a clearinghouse for all the course material handed out. The other, more pressing suggestion, was that there be some syllabus for readings which covers the entire semester rather than handing it out piecemeal.
Now for my rant. . .
My British Literature class seems to be going the way of my Spanish Class. Spanish was cancelled last Friday due to illness. Then Monday we wasted the period watching some lame movie about Mexico. The oral presentation of the conversation from the book which we were suppose to do last Friday was rescheduled for today and the oral composition, which has yet to be returned to us, is scheduled for this Friday. While we sat in the classroom watching the video, the instructor sat at her table (not really a desk) grading the quizes we took last Wednesday.
How does this relate to British Literature? The next two class sessions have been cancelled. Friday the instructor has a conference to attend and Monday he has a doctor's appointment. I have no problem with these things, appointments with doctors are very important. I just wish class wasn't cancelled. It's a two fold feeling. First, I paid to attend a certain number of lecture hours by the professor. Second of all, the English department has the strictest guidelines for attendence. Couldn't he have assigned a substitute to carry on the lectures. . . or a movie to watch? Instead he suggested that we spend the time working on the next paper which is due on the 20th.
11.04.2002
Friday afternoon I was driving down the interstate listening to an audiobook of Anne Fadiman's " Ex Libris: confessions of a common reader" when suddenly I realized that I blundered on my English test earlier that day. I had only partially described the Elgin Marbles. I had gotten so far as to describe them as greek statues in relief from the frieze... and that's where I stopped. I had been looking for the name fo the building other than Parthenon. The word, Acropolis, was mentioned by the tape and I threw my hands up immediately realizing what I had done. I had planned to come up with the name and then add in that the marbles were named in honor of Lord Elgin who brought the statues, made of marble, to England from a war-torn Greece and sold them to the British Museum. Perhaps, even state that Greece has claimed the marbles as their own as national property, a claim which Britain refuses to acknowldge. The marbles are immortalized in the sonnet about the statues by John Keats upon viewing them in the British Museum.
Today in class we read over a few more Tennyson poems.
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