Assorted bits

A few things to say, here:

* I'm feeling much better. No more blech. Sorry about the TMI Sunday morning.

* Elli, however, isn't feeling particularly good. Looks like it may be my turn to take care of her now.

* WoW folks: Don't expect to see me in Azeroth much for a couple of weeks; I have 4 long papers to write (and two short ones) in the next three weeks. I might pop on for an hour if I find myself in dire need of academic decompression, but don't hold your breath. I'll be back, though.

(no subject)

Someone else posted this as a comment to something I'd said about finding out an opinion of mine was twenty years old and no longer accurate to teaching today:

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I sometimes wonder how much of the politicing involved in attempts to "control" the teaching profession come from impressions that are, indeed, 20 years old and no longer accurate.

How much of it is people who are now in power acting out against what they perceived as gross incompetence when they were teenagers at the height of an egocentric world-view?

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It's an interesting question, I think. Many of the things I hated when Mrs. Johnston (my senior year English teacher) did, I now recognize as decent teaching methods designed to bring students out of the "it's Shakespeare, so it's dull" mentality and into recognizing two key points: that Shakespeare is meant to be performed, not just read, and that there is much there to be mined for our own lives, 300+ years later. Back then, I just thought she was a pain in the ass for trying to make me read lines out loud (I loved the play; I hated reading out loud in class) and doing scenes in front of the class with her.

I've also, in my arguments discussions with my father-in-law about education, argued that many of the things he's worried about in public schools just don't happen often these days (in my experience, which is, of course, in no way definitive) and some of the things my sister-in-law was taught in education classes are now considered bad ideas.

Times change, but our perceptions are often clouded by who we were when we first encountered them.