Plan for the day is mostly academic — I’m grading papers for the next few hours, teaching a few Zoom classes, and then probably grading papers some more, as I promised to get them back by midnight tonight. I basically HAVE to make such promises to my students, because if I don’t, I will procrastinate grading forever, and that’s not fair to them.
I don’t mind reading the papers, I don’t mind talking to the students about their papers — I actually LIKE that, even if it’s effort. But somehow writing comments (in a way that makes clear the justification for a grade) and giving a grade — bah. I could be done with that forever anytime now. I have less and less faith in grading as a system, the longer I spend as a teacher.
Also working on the final edits to the Russ essay today — the editor had two questions, and I wrote back these long things in response, which I thought might interest some of you. Taken entirely out of context. 🙂
*****
I think what I was aiming here for was sort of a road-not-taken. I didn’t want to set up a scenario where the life I live now (Mary Anne) is clearly superior to the never-left-Sri Lanka (Amirthi) and immigrant-trying-to-behave-appropriately (Mary). When I think about those women’s lives, the main thing I do envy them is the children; my grandmother had nine children, which on the one hand must have been an incredible amount of labor, and on the other hand, is such wealth.
Parenting has been one of the great joys of my life. And I think the choice is real — if you choose a high-effort career, it’s going to likely impact how many children you have time to raise, unless you can somehow outsource the raising to a partner or paid help (and if you do, you miss out on some of the best parts).
It’s not really something Russ digs into, or at least not that I remember, and at the time she was writing, it was before the cultural interrogations into whether women really can ‘have it all.’ Now, if we implement basic income, universal healthcare, and free education, including college and preschool, that might change the equation significantly enough that we can get closer to that option.
Anyway, it’s a regret in my own life, maybe the only real regret I have, so I thought it should go in for balance. (I’m hoping I can convince Kevin to join in on hosting foreign exchange students when our kids move out, or maybe even do some fostering.)
Does that make sense? Does it need further explication / clarification in the text? For example, I could add something about how my students are my children, which is true in some sense, but it’s very far from the same. They come, they go. Hopefully picking up something helpful from their time with me.
*****
MaryJo in option two; I don’t see her as ineffective, necessarily, but in the first version, she’s tempering / managing her radicalism, harnessing it towards her ends without compromising her positions, and in the second, she’s given up on working within the system entirely, and choosing the path of violent revolution (as Marx expected, as Franz Fanon called for in _Wretched of the Earth_).
I suppose it’s what worries me most about proponents of radical politics; the potential death toll, whether it’s through immediate violence, or the casualties of violent revolution.
The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka had such idealistic goals in the beginning (like the Black Panthers with their Free Breakfast for Children program) — they argued politically for a separate nation due to anti-Tamil political practices, they built schools, they fed people, they installed solar power, and they worked towards building a legitimate government.
But thirty years later, their resources severely depleted, they were using child soldiers, suicide bombers, and thousands of civilians as human shields in the final conflict.
Fanon thought violence was necessary to achieve justice, that the cost of waiting was higher, in the long run. He might be right, but it’s hard for me to look someone in the eye and tell them they or their children are necessary casualties for a brighter future.
Does that make sense? Does it need further explication / clarification in the text?
*****
This is the kids’ spring break; my department’s current policy allows us to do a few classes remotely each semester, which seems like a very humane and sensibly flex way of handling things. Usually I’d use that for conference travel (and I did use one for ICFA), but the kids really needed this, and I’m grateful to be able to give it to them. Wish our spring breaks synced up!
(I don’t like synced, by the way. I think it should be sync’d, but the internet disagrees with me. When I am queen of the world…)
Poor Kevin had too many work meetings to be able to come with us, alas. Perils of administration; he’s an assistant chair or some such right now for the math department. But he’s not really a beach person, and he hates the rigors of travel, so it’s not quite as terrible as it sounds.
It’s very windy today, but the morning drizzle has given way to intermittent sunshine. When I get through half my papers, I plan to reward myself with a walk on the beach.