Friday, October 25, 2013

And it's Friday

* Being slightly involved in MLP fandom has its drawbacks. I was starting in on paired-sample t tests this morning and discussing the type of data that are appropriate for them, and mentioned that one type of data that works is paired plot designs (where a field is divided in two and each half received a different treatment). I looked at "paired plot" as I had written it on the board, thought something very different (and MLP fandom related) and nearly started giggling.

(Well, at least I didn't say "split plot," that really might have got me giggling: "Is your plot broken?" "No, why?" "It's got a crack in it!")

* There's been some discussion on ITFF of this essay about Leaving Academe.

I don't know. On the one hand, I get why people leave: some departments or some campuses do become dysfunctional. Or a department hires someone who's a chaos agent and makes everyone else miserable (I pray every time we do a new hire that we don't wind up inadvertently doing that). Or people lose their enthusiasm for teaching or research, or or or.

But it really kind of....offends me (yeah, I'm gonna say it) to hear the guy say "the tenured, whom he [another writer whose essay he is discussing] believes have been hand-selected for mediocrity and obsequiousness." 

Uh, yeah. Great way to hate on your (former) colleagues. (The "mediocrity" thing gets my back up, I suppose, because I secretly fear that I AM mediocre. Despite receiving two "outstandings" and  "commendable" on my latest post-tenure review. And despite the well-known meme that it's usually the people who are doing ok who worry about being incompetent and the truly incompetent seem convinced of their own greatness). I would argue, at least in my department, there's far less toadying and mediocrity than there is in your average corporate setting. (My brother is a corporate refugee; he has shared stories). We're polite/civil to each other, but if someone puts forward a spectacularly stupid idea, we tell them just what we think of it.

I don't know. Again, to me, this comes down to "you have your reasons for what you do but those reasons do not necessarily apply to others." One-size-fits-all really fits nobody. 

(I also wonder how much of the bitterness that comes out in the "I left academia" essays is actually a bit of sour grapes. From what I've heard of the typical corporate job - not just from my brother but from friends who are, actually, like he was, in an insurance company - it sounds really awful, like there's far more pettiness and stupid rules and rah-rah junk that I'd hate than there is in academia. Though we might be headed there, there is a tendency to let the corporate mentality creep in) 

* Actually, I have similar feelings about the Hallowe'en discussion going on. (Short summary: some schools want to ban the wearing of costumes/having of parties to avoid the risk of offense). I don't know. When I was a kid there were kids in my school who didn't do Hallowe'en for whatever reason. They didn't dress up and I don't remember if they took part in the parties or not. I don't remember ever thinking very much about it - this is just what their family chooses to do, just as mine chooses to celebrate - though I am sure, American public schools being what they are, that they got some taunting for that. (Which is unfortunate, but I don't think the holiday should be wholesale banned.) I think the kids who chose not to take part were given the option of going and hanging out in the library or something....or maybe some years there was even an alternative? I can't remember.

I remember that Halloween, at least in primary grades, was something I hugely looked forward to - getting to wear a costume, most years they did a "parade" (taking half an hour or so in the afternoon and having everyone line up and walk around the school or grounds - some years they did it at the end of the day and parents were welcome to come and take pictures; I know my parents have photos of both my brother and me in our school parades). Some years there was a party with snacks and Hi-C and they'd play music like the Monster Mash. And it was fun because it was different from what we did every day. Sure, maybe we didn't learn as much that day, but I think that's a lesson of a different sort - that sometimes, it's good to have fun, if for no other reason than that it's fun.

(I remember one year in junior high they did class costumes, rather than letting people choose what to do. That kind of annoyed me. My class voted to be "Vikings" - the school mascot, and I suppose in some areas that would be seen as unacceptable today, Vikings having been the sort to not exactly be friendly towards their neighbors and all. My mom made me a silver lame helmet (my mom had mad skills when it came to costume creation) with long yellow yarn "hair" sewn to it. (The helmet had wings, rather than horns on it, because I thought the wings were better). I think I wore like a burlap tunic with it? I don't remember.)

I'm guessing the class costumes were an attempt to cut off any risk of "insulting" costumes. I don't know where you draw the line on those; perhaps I have a thicker skin than some (maybe, actually, that's not such a bad legacy of being teased and borderline-bullied.). I remember in high school one year a bunch of the guys dressed as the girl's field hockey team. (I can't remember if some of them even shaved their legs for it. I think not). And there were always the guys who dressed as "women" with the balloons down the front of their shirt and the put-on mincing walk (most women don't actually walk like that, but whatever). I don't know. I just saw it as kind of goofy and silly rather than insulting.I do get that there are probably some costumes a person would not do (blackface, for example) because they cross a line....but I think maybe a little common sense helps here. (but common sense is sadly uncommon).

I don't know. On the one hand, I get the need to not insult or needlessly exclude those who are different. But on the other hand....when that gets to the point where everyone has a gray sameness and people are afraid to have fun that's just no good either. I don't know. Sometimes I think we had more of a happy medium when I was a kid in the 1970s than we do now.  

(And don't even get me started on the stuff they're saying about candy again this year.)

* I don't think I'm going to do anything this year, other than handing out candy. I just teach one class and it's the day we have a fairly important meeting with administrators coming and such and I admit I fear looking unprofessional or childish in front of the administrators.

Though if I were dressing up? I'd seriously consider going as Grumpy Cat: get a headband with cat ears, get some dark eye shadow to put around my eyes, get a little cat nose and whiskers, wear brown clothes, and hang a sign that said "NO" on it around my neck. 

(If I wanted to go all-out MLP fandom - I'd get a long pink wig, make a pair of yellow wings out of felt (and ears to put in the wig), wear my yellow sprigged dress and carry around a huge white stuffed bunny I have. But I'm not sure where I'd find a long pink wig.....and anyway, as I said, I'm not dressing up this year) 

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