Gangs of roving cyclists descended upon the Loop.
It was the annual Labor Day U-City bicycle race that goes right down our street. So I had a picnic and graded papers while watching the races.
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Lately I also went to a lecture given by Alison Jagger on the "Feminization of Global Poverty." Her premise was that global economies depend on cheap labor by women and perpetuate a structure that only further disadvantages women. Her point was that the problem is systematic, predictable, and alterable. In addition, she discussed how biological difference and local politics cannot explain it. She had a statistic from a UN study in the 1980s:
Women are half the world's population.
Women do two-thirds of the world's work.
Women earn 10% of the world's income.
She didn't really address the dated nature of her statistics, other than saying that the issue has been largely ignored and data isn't really available.
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Now for something completely different ... and hilarious. Today my students turned in their research paper proposals. Some want to write about fine art or literature. Some want to write about pop culture, race, or social issues.
One wants to write about "Pirates vs. Ninjas."
I'm not kidding. Important questions to ask include "who would win in a fight." (And believe me there's no sense of irony or social commentary).
I've been laughing all day.
Welcome to college! Pirates vs. Ninjas.
4 comments:
You got to say, though, that a paper on Pirates and Ninjas would beat the pants off of ANY kind of art or literary paper. It's nice that there are creative silly people in the world, in college, who are having fun with life, not taking it all so seriously. I'd say, if your big long boring English paper proposal makes me laugh, you get an A. or at least a nice B. Regardless.
Well, it's not a creative writing class. It is supposed to be a researched college level assignment, not an art or literary paper. I guess it's more creative than the usual: stem cell research abortion, the death penalty, drugs, animal rights, etc.
There's always Godzilla versus Rodan or Superman versus Batman, or maybe even Tom versus Jerry. One could write on the 'culture of violence' in film and TV (ha!)
Well, myself I am partial to those literary papers, since that's what I've decided to dedicate my life to studying and producing. I hope I also have a fairly healthy love of the absurd, but I wouldn't be doing him any real favors by accepting that topic. I agree creativity is great, but it needs to be channeled, especially for freshmen.
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