Teaching college - level Spanish, and other issues

On Rebecca Schuman

2013-05-21T01:24:00.001-07:00

As one of the lucky ones (recently tenured at a liberal arts institution), I usually stay away from the "Go/ Don't go" debate. I stay away for two reasons. As a foreign student, I was never allowed to work legally outside of campus. I couldn't take out loans either. As a result, I only graduated with only 5,000 I'm credit card debt, my party money as I call it. The second reason was that I knew that in order to stay in this country, I had to get a job to sponsor my visa. Still, I will confess I did not apply to anything with less than 150,000 people. I don't do nature very well. But the possibility of having to move to the middle of nowhere where very present from the beginning. To go bak, I usually don't get involve because I am one of the lucky ones, but also because theae discussions seem to focus on the abysmal possibilities of getting TT jobs at R1. What sometimes seems missing From the disusssions is that very few top programs prepare their students to believe than anyhthing below a research intensive university is equally worthless. And it's not. Myself, I have good friends at higher places (as in tenure professors in UNiversity of California campus) who occasionally insist on why am I in the place I am (midsize, religious liberal arts university, with regional prestige). I am there because I like teaching and workings with undergrads above all. If they don't understand the explanation, I tell them that their good grad students have to come from somewhere, and sometimes it is from somebody like me.

This is a long introduction just to say that I will give my opinion on Rebecca Schuman's essays. My reaction to the Slate article was negative. Not because she wasn't saying many truth. I might lack a sense of humor, but my Jewish family begs to disagree. What bothered me where not so much the satire against French theory, or the ridiculization of professors. Yes, those annoyed me a little because they perpetuate the right wing stereotypes against college professors, and because those stereotypes only come close at elite institutions. There plenty of us at non elite places that work hard everyday to be meaningful to our students, and crack at least a littl the bubble some of them live in. Above all, the dismissal of flyover country was a little too much. I live not too far away from Columbua, Ohio, and I love it here to the surprise of some of my "sophisticated" friends. That piece, thus, seemed to mock elite humanities programs while dismissing or not recognizing that there was a whole other world, places qith little reputation that do wonderful things for their atudent populAtion with the little resources they have.

My opinion, though, changed completely after reading her CHE article and the kerkuffle that ensued. It was not the article per se, but the comments. HER comments. Two examples, both by her:

I notice you don't mention anything about connecting with students--that's always been the most important part to me. I definitely belonged at a SLAC or in a teaching-heavy department, and I know that. But the market is just too bad for most people to have a chance--and I knew that, too

And later she says:

But I was an extraordinary professor. As a researcher I was original and rigorous, but the classroom was my true love. My students threw me a surprise party on my last day at OSU, complete with a cake. A good half of my evaluations this spring said some form of "I can't believe this department is letting Prof. Schuman go." It makes me cry just to type that.

I've been known for being overly empathetic, but I cried when I read that. Because I get it. I always knew I belong I'm the classroom, and was encouraged to develop those skills I'm grad school (we were not a top program, so we knew we would end up in teaching instensive positions). A few years ago, by pure chance, i received in the same Day two acceptances for different articles AND the students' evaluations from the previous semester. WhAt made my week where the near perfect evaluations from my Latin American civ course. Reading Schuman comments hurts, because I understand the pain of not being able to walk into a classroom as a possible job future. Because my classroom is also my true love. I hope Rebecca Schuman heals from this process and quickly finds somewhere else to display her talents and that fulfills her.

And to those of you who disagree with her, be civil. Otherwise you really look like a jerk,

So it begins...

2013-05-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

The summer. For the first time in 5 years, I probably will not go to Argentina. The reason, though, is not that I am too busy. Actually, it's the opposite. This past year has been so hectic, that I just want some "do-nothing" time. To stay in bed all day, doing nothing. I do have plans for the summer: I will probably work on an article, I will take a 6 weeks course my institution offers on how to design an online course. I will also be an AP reader. B. and I will probably look for apartments, in order to move into a bigger one. However, I have no ambitions nor plans: if the article is ready for submission in August, that's great. If not, who cares? I have the Fall semester to work on it. I just feel brain-dead. And that is why I am not going to Argentina: at this point, the idea of the trip just sounds exhausting to me. I don't want to juggle too many things during the summer. At this point, I just don't have the capacity. While my tenure track path was pretty smooth, and there is no horror story to tell, I guess it did took a toll on me. I finished grading last Friday. This past week, I just spent hours in bed reading and surfing the web. I ventured the outside world just to go grocery shopping and to go to a baseball game. B. looked at me today and said: "You look better than you have in months". Which is remarkable, considering I hadn't showered in more than 24 hours when he said it, and I was in my PJs. So there isn't much to tell so far.

While I recover, here is an article from Inside Higher Ed about studying in Argentina. It is not about study abroad programs, but about the increased number of foreign students doing their complete undergraduate education in Argentina. I am not surprised, since I had known about the trend for a while. Public education is free in Argentina, and most of the foreign students come from other Latin American countries like Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. It is a testament that despite all the problems, the quality of education in my home country is still excellent. But what I liked the most about the article was how the writer was somehow puzzled that nobody has raised the issue of actually charging at least something those foreign students:

What is really quite curious is that no one has questioned the issue of free education for undergraduate foreigners who attend public universities. As was mentioned, the non-tuition and fees policy for Argentine undergraduate students can be sustained thanks to the tax system argument, as happens in many European countries. In particular, during the 2000s, Argentina’s tax system became much more progressive than in the past. Net taxable income is taxed at rates ranging from 9 to 35 percent on income earning over 120,000 Argentine pesos. That is, those earning just over US$24,000 annually are taxed 35 percent of their net income. So, it would seem reasonable to expect international students to make some financial contribution to cover their undergraduate studies.

I am not so surprised. During the neoliberal years in the 1990s, the government privatized everything they could with very little resistance (there are reasons for that). The only thing they couldn't privatize was public education. As I told more than once, I got my initiation in political demonstrations in protests against the attempt to start charging tuition at the University of Buenos Aires. And the university remained free. The idea that everybody has the right to have access to quality education is deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric of the country (regardless what else you think about him, you can thank Sarmiento for that). In addition, Argentina has one of the most liberal and generous immigration laws in the world (I wrote about it the past, but I am too lazy to look for the link). So most Argentineans won't blink at the idea of anybody, regardless where they are from, studying in their country for free. In fact, we might even be proud of the idea. As the author concludes:

Indeed, all things considered, it would appear that Argentina is a most generous country.

A generous country indeed. And proudly so.

Nestor Kirchner, la película (the movie)

2013-05-02T10:59:00.001-07:00

A few month ago, a documentary was released in Argentina about Nestor Kirchner. I haven't seen it, and some people that I respect liked it. Everybody agrees, though, that it is more an hagiography than a documentary. Since the beginning the Kirchner family was very involved in it, so that is no surprise. The interesting background about that documentary is that the first director was Adrian Caetano, one of my favorites. An excellent choice, I thought, since he is a good director and sympathetic to the Kirchners. However, he was fired after he finished it. The "official" explanation was "creative differences with the producers", or something similar. In other words, the Kirchner that appeared in the Caetano's cut wasn't perfect. For those of you who speak Spanish, here is a copy of Caetano's version. The quality isn't great, from the little I've have time to see, but I can't wait for next week when I am out of grading jail and will be able to watch the whole documentary.

RBOC - Finals week

2013-04-30T13:29:00.001-07:00

- Dear colleague, I don't mind proctoring two of your finals because you needed to go out of town. Your reason is more than valid. But would it be too much to ask that you actually give me the correct room for each exam? In one case, you missed by a floor. In the second, the classroom was none existent. As a result, I spent ten minutes going up and down in a labyrinthic building trying to find it and getting lost.

- My language classes are probably going to end with higher grades than I suspected until a month and a half ago. Why did they start studying? I have no idea, it's a complete mystery. But so far, they have been doing much better than in the first half of the semester.

- I liked my students in the civilization class. They were smart and, for the most part, engaged with the material. But today, when I started to grade their final paper (worth 20 % of the final grade), I realized a big problem. Three quarters of them are seniors. So they just don't care. And their final papers are, for the most part, infuriating. They are bad not because they didn't get it, but because they didn't try. It is a half-as*** B.S. Like saying they will analyze X in a certain novel, and not even bothering with a direct quote of said novel. Also, many of them just included mostly unrelated class notes into half the paper. Even if I fail (or give Ds) to many of them, they will end up with a C+/B-, and they are obviously fine with it. I know I shouldn't care that much, but I feel that it's a waste of my time and, above all, that I could have read really smart papers if they had bothered to write them. So far, I've given an A to a student who wrote a pretty decent analysis of the hardest novel I suggested; and a B+ to another student that, although quite messy, I can see the effort. The rest are C and down.

- Somehow, I managed to get a heat related headache going from one building to another. Very inconvenient.

- As you can see, I am grumpy.

Student scholarship

2013-04-26T07:09:00.001-07:00

The student I sponsored just won the most prestigious scholarship my institution awards to sophomores or junior students in the humanities. The prize: $10K in tuition remission. I am proud, and I can definitely spot smart kids! It's the first time since I've been here that I decided to do it, because I thought the student had a chance to win. And I was right!

RBOC or, what I've been up to....

2013-04-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

- I've been MIA for different reasons, one of them is that I just spent a week in Spain for a Conference. Obsessive as I am, I couldn't just do a "decent" job on the paper I wanted to present, but it had to be re-written and revised several times.

-As a consequence, I felt behind in my grading just in time for the end of the semester

-I went to Spain for a week. I had a good time, but the conference was second rate. I should have guessed it, but the "prestige" of the university holding it fooled me.

- While I am happy I got to spend a week in Spain, I will never again go to a Conference a week before classes end. This week is hell on earth for me.

-In the meantime, I was elected for very important committee. Out of 12 candidates the faculty at large had to choose two, and I was one of them. I am still not sure whether it was a good idea or not to run. I knew it was going to be a lot of work. What I didn't know was that the Chair of the committee quit in the last meeting. Sounds like trouble.

- I've gone to the dark side. I've signed up for a two month workshop (with a nice stipend) to get the fundamentals of online teaching. And I will probably be teaching a course online, although I still don't know what nor when. I confess that I did it because I wanted to learn the skill. Acquiring skills is something I really like.

- For unbloggable reasons, I love historians. Or at least the history department at my institution. And I hate the philosophers.

- Random comments from my students that have made me laughed, have amused me, or that have horrified me (each one is from a different student):

* A student coming into my office for the first time, and looking around: "Oh wow, are you ADD like me?" I loved it.
* "Were the Nazis neoliberals?"
* "What is the subjunctive exactly?" (after a semester mostly devoted to teaching it)
* "Why do you teach so much history in your Latin American Civilization class? I like when we see videos"
* "Before I started this class, I wanted to get a job with the IMF. Now I want to get the job but to destroy it from the inside. Do you think it's possible?"

And so goes my week. Meetings until 7pm. Yeah...

Online teaching - question to readers

2013-04-12T11:00:00.001-07:00

There is a longer story behind this, but the basic fact is that my Chair wants me to teach an upper-level (either a "content" langugage course or a culture course) online, in Spanish. My university provides extensive training, so my lack of experience wouldn't be an issue. However, I am curious to know if any of my readers has taught an upper division course in Spanish online. If yes, what was the course? How did it go? Positive and negative experiences? Please, share, because I need to make a decision soon.

A metaphor for something? Readers, please contribute.

2013-04-11T08:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I finished teaching, and in the main are of the building I was teaching, I ran into this nice kitty:
(The credit goes to the official university photographer, that I can't name for obvious reasons). It was an unexpected encounter, to say the least. Later, I started thinking it should be a metaphor for something, regarding my university, or the state of higher education, but I couldn't pinpoint what exactly. Readers, do you want to try your imagination and creativity here? It would be much appreciated.

P.S: Yes, it's a real kitty.

Google Books - question to readers

2013-04-10T07:10:00.002-07:00

I have a silly question, but technology is not my thing. I am finishing a paper for a Conference next week, and I realized I needed a book. My library doesn't have it, I don't have time to request it through ILL. Luckily, I only need one chapter of said book and guess what? It is available entirely through Google Books. My question is: do I need to take notes of what's important by hand, just reading it through the computer? Or is there an easier way to either print or annotate that chapter that is available through Google Books?

I might as well be dead...

2013-04-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

...at least for my students.

Episode 1: We were practicing in class the future perfect (the tense you use when you want to say that something will have been done/accomplished by a future deadline). So I gave them different deadlines and they had to create sentences using the future perfect. One of the deadlines was 2030. One of my students sentences: "Para el 2030, mi vida habrá termindado porque habré cumplido 36 años" (By 2030, my life will have ended because I will have turned 36). "Thanks," I replied, "I am 37". She looked at me in horror.

Episode 2: As part of the language course, students have to attend an Hispanic cultural event on campus or taking place in the city. We, the faculty, get to decide what counts as a cultural event or not. There are always plenty of options. So this semester one of the options was the Chilean movie No, which opened last week in my city. It is playing at one of the two art-movie theaters my city has, and I happen to live a block away from it. A student told me she was going during the weekend, so yesterday I asked her what was her opinion of the movie. "I don't know," she said. "Everything was so weird. I mean, there was no people my age at the theater, everybody was so old. It was just odd". I go there pretty often, and it is true that the average moviegoer there is probably around 50 years old. But I would have never considered that "odd". I guess the real cultural experience for the student was introducing her to art-movie theaters, not the movie in itself.

Margaret Thatcher is dead...and I haven't shed a single tear

2013-04-09T01:13:00.001-07:00

Good riddance, is all I have to say. And to be clear, my position has nothing to do with the Falklands War. I'm among a small minority in Argentina who thinks the Islands belong to whoever the islanders want. I believe in their self-determination. No, I say good riddance because of the miners strikes, her union busting policies, and her complete deregulation of the financial markets. Another ancestor to the financial crisis of 2008, almost as guilty as Reagan. So I don't care if she was a strong figure that overcame obstacles, or that she projected decision and strength. That's feminism for dummies, American style. She was a destructive figure, and her gender was not important.

What's wrong with telephones?

2013-04-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Seriously...Why do people not call anymore? I am highly annoyed with myself and with the world. Yesterday, I got a text message from a good friend who works at the Office of Tourism (or something like that) in my city, saying that if I was in a certain location by 2pm, she had extra tickets for me and B. to go to the Opening Day game. Since it was a text message, and my cellphone was in another room, I didn't realize I had gotten a text message. Ergo, I didn't get tickets and I didn't get to go to the Opening Day game. I know it is only a highly symbolic game, but I know hard-core baseball fans that haven't been able to snatch freaking tickets for that particular game in years. And I could have gone without even asking. I am so mad. My friend was really nice offering the tickets to me but...would it have killed her to actually call me? I know, I know, I'm being selfish and entitled. But what can I say? I wanted the bragging rights.

Marketing strategy

2013-03-29T14:39:00.002-07:00

Marketing and PR people never cease to amaze me, specially when they are trying to sell a university. If you are going to use a catchy phrase straight out from a popular 19th century book, it might be a good idea that you actually know where the phrase is coming from. Granted, considering that 95% of my students didn't know who Toni Morrison or Philip Roth were, probably few people will have read or even know such 19th century book. But a few people will, and you are setting yourself up to be ridiculed if you are not aware of it.

Oh crap...

2013-03-23T21:44:00.001-07:00

It finally dawned on me that my new Chair (who became Chair because there was nobody else but who is way above Chair level administrative-wise in my institution) is grooming me to become the new Chair in a couple of years. And whether I am interested or not (and to my surprise, I am ambivalent about it instead of absolutely horrified by the perspective), this means a lot of unexpected BS I will have to put up with from certain people. I had a little taste of that last Friday. Two witnesses to the confrontation came afterwards to say: "What on earth is wrong with Y? And by the way, I admire the way you politely stood up to Y". I am not happy about the whole situation, but at least I realized how strong I can be now that I have tenure (Y is a member of my department). Interesting times ahead...

Dear colleague...

2013-03-21T19:30:00.002-07:00

I understand if your profound humanities education makes you distaste anything beyond deep philosophical books. I emphatize with your dispair about today's materialism. I'm not quite there in the power the federal government has regarding our institution, and how unjust and oppressive it is considering we are private. However, if you want your pet project to have any chance of succeeding, don't look with disdain when I try to explain you the bureaucratic obstacles it will have to face. Do not openly criticize the work I am doing in a certain committee: if I and a bunch of other professors weren't doing it, the administration would, and the outcomes would be worse. Don't frown when I tell you that in the current political circumstances (of our institution), you should at least wait until next Fall. You are exactly the type of professor I dislike: the one who wants to have hir pet project, but doesn't even know through which committee it will go through. The one who despises committee work but then complains. Dude, I have one thing to tell you: get off your platonic cave. We are in the XXIth century, and statements lamenting how "we are enslaved to money" only makes you sound like a pompous ass. Seriously.

Tips to understand Pope Francis

2013-03-17T19:24:00.001-07:00

This poster was all over downtown Buenos Aires. While I don't have time to explain what peronism is (and please, don't guide yourself by the stereotype the musical or whatever the mainstream media says about it), I will say that tip number one to understand the new Pope is to think about whatever he has done in the past as Archbishop of Buenos Aires in political and not theological terms. The second tip is, don't trust any media article that quotes Horacio Verbitsky as the source. This doesn't mean that Pope Francis is a saint nor that he has no connection with the dictatorship. But Horacio Verbitsky did a political hit job on him with his book against him. So look for more nuanced versions about his role in the dictatorship.

Habemus Papam!!!

2013-03-13T13:03:00.001-07:00

...screamed somebody at the student center of my institution. It was incredible to see the reaction. People got together to see who it was, those in front of the TV changed it from ESPN to Fox News. But there still was no announcement of who the next Pope would be. A bunch of students were armchair discussing who their bet was (most were betting on an Italian pope, a few had faith in an American pope, one thought it was going to be an African Pope). On another corner, somebody started to take bets (something that is actually illegal in the US). Anybody who entered the student center was greeted with the news. And finally, the new pope was announced: Jorge Bergoglio. "Who is that one?," asked everybody. I almost fell down the chair. Jorge Bergoglio, an Argentine and a Jesuit was the new Pope. It will take me hours to read my Facebook wall. But they should promote me straight to Full Professor, here, since I am probably the only one who knows something about the guy.

Teaching Roberto Bolaño

2013-03-10T19:53:00.001-07:00

Has any reader ever taught Roberto Bolaño's Los detectives salvajes? Because I am tempted to include it in my upper level lit course next semester, but I don't want to cause myself an unnecessary headache (I know it's not the easiest read, but there is a difference between being successful at engaging the students and frustrating them to the point where it poisons the atmosphere of the course for the rest of the semester). I have been quite successful teaching things like Carlos Gamerro's An Open Secret (in translation, to students with little background on Argentina's history). So I like a good teaching challenge, but I would like to hear other people's experiences.

And for those readers who do not teach in my field but have read the novel, what is your take on it?

Help!!!

2013-03-07T21:14:00.001-08:00

I've officially lost one more student at my Intermediate Spanish class at 8:30 in the morning, bringing the remaining students to a total of ... 3!!! Before anybody gets weird ideas about what goes on in my classes, I started the course with 5 students, and why the administration let it run is the best kept secret in the Vatican. As a result, I don't know what to do. Technology, while available, is unreliable to say the least. One of the students is awake, a second is also awake but painfully shy, and the third has an attitude like he hates the world for being forced to take a class at such ungodly hour (and freshman here have very little control over their schedule). I can't say I blame him, but for all the factors, I just don't know what to do before the class becomes a farce. Any suggestions?

Letter of recommendation for an MBA

2013-03-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

I have a question. A former student has asked me to write a letter of recommendation for hir application to an MBA. I am glad to do it, and it is probably a good idea for hir to do it. However, because of ignorance and a touch of prejudice, I have no idea how to write a letter of recommendation to an MBA. Do any of you have any experience with it? The student was a solid, responsible B student. Not an intellectual powerhouse, but perfectly able to do graduate studies. I don't know what a committee would be looking for in the letter, though. Suggestions?

Tenure means...

2013-03-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

...cancelling your 8:30 class the night before due to the impending snowstorm, even though your institution still hasn't make up its mind regarding the weather phenomenon. I refuse to drive to campus, teach one class, and then drive back in the middle of the storm at 10 am when somebody finally accepts that it is not a good idea to ask people to drive to campus. It has happened to me more than once. Now that I have tenure, I don't care if somebody says something. If they haven't cancelled the classes by 10 am, then the weather is not that bad, and I'll go and teach my 10:30 class.

Hugo Chavez is dead

2013-03-05T14:12:00.001-08:00

Looks like I'll have to change my lesson plans for tomorrow, and convey my dislike for him to my students without falling into the American demonization cliches he was subjected to.

Question to readers about journals that publish creative fiction

2013-03-05T10:28:00.002-08:00

Dear readers:
In a old post about Hispanic Studies journals, a reader just asked if I knew any journal that publishes short plays, tales, etc, in Spanish. It doesn't clarify (to Anonymous, if you are reading this, you might want to comment and specify what you are looking for) if Ze is looking for a peer-reviewed journal, if Ze is looking for a journal that accepts submissions from anybody or only publishes fiction from more "established" writers, etc. Still, if anybody can suggest journals, my blog will have once again help a reader in his/her search. The only one that comes to mind now is Confluencia. Any other ideas?

Tenure splurge

2013-03-04T15:38:00.001-08:00

Reward to myself for getting tenure: I spent an extra $125 in my ticket to Spain, to get a seat in the "Preferred Economy" section in the flight back to the US. Since that won't be covered by my school, I consider it a present to myself.

Announcement to readers

2013-03-04T07:02:00.000-08:00

I didn't die in the bacchanal that was my tenure celebration. After six days in NYC for Spring Break, I am back in the Midwest. I went to teach this morning, and I only had two students. Apparently, some people like to party more than me. Now, I am planning my trip to Spain in late April. Classes? Oh yeah, I have one in half an hour...