Something Up With Which I Will Not Put

Writing in 1981, Jane Roland Martin takes R.S. Peters and Paul Hirst to task for perpetuating a male perspective in the philosophy of education. Martin says that feminist scholarship must be integrated into the mainstream if we are to change this perspective to be more inclusive and accurate. Furthermore, Martin argues that beyond the male-dominated content issues, education is guilty of gender bias in terms of what we would now call the exit profile. Martin sees Peters’ “educated person” as not only one who has “grasped the basic structure” (Martin, ‘The Ideal of the Educated Person’, 101) of his respective domain, but also one who is “objective, analytic [and] rational” (102), all traits that Martin identifies as stereotypically male. The complementary stereotype, of course, is the feminine ideal of compassion, intuition and emotion.

In an essay entitled ‘If You Can’t Say Anything Nice, Don’t Say Anything At All,’ author Margaret Atwood discusses many of the concepts raised by Martin, specifically in the context of women writers.

This weekend was one of those that renews my love affair with this city - Montreal is home no matter what the weather, but when the skies are blue and the air is warm, the city sparkles and makes me fall in love all over again.

On Saturday, Colin and I hopped on the Metro and rode all the way to Laval, to check out the three new stations that make the upper island accessible to us downtowners.

We stopped at Atwater on the way home and bought Colin a new spring jacket, and then had to have Dr. T. pick us up, as the Metro system was SNAFU, thanks to a fire at Lionel Groulx*.

We got home in plenty of time to get ready for our first official barbecue of the season, with T&I along for the experience - nothing says "summer" quite like barbecued burgers, skewered veggies, and a cool glass of rose. We're choosing to attribute the fact that we ate inside to our 'new' dining room furniture, and not to the fact that it was still, really, too chilly to eat outside comfortably.

Yesterday was even more summery - Colin and I went for a bike ride, to see if the nearby ice cream stand was open for the season yet (it was), and explore a few trails we missed last year. Then, after lunch, we took both boys downtown for a haircut, then stopped at the sports equipment store and picked me up my first real pair of rollerblades. As soon as we got home, we all strapped on our blades, and sped (kind of) off to the ice cream place, and rewarded ourselves with the first cones of the season.

Yay presqu'summer!

*the Metro SNAFU was not part of the "why I love this city" theme ~ nor is the impending transit strike ~ but I choose to see such events as the bitter counterpoints required to enhance the sweetness of the good things. Yeah, that's it.

Your Birthdate: June 22

You tend to be understated and under appreciated. You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way. People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little. Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

I would challenge some of these claims, but I don't want to come across as picky and rigid ;)

via Dina.

I know, I know. It's been two weeks without anything new here on the old blog. I'm sorry.

I realize this is no excuse, but I've been working. Correcting essays, setting make-up tests, correcting those, reviewing my files to be sure I haven't missed anyone's assignments, preparing book orders for next semester, etc., etc.

Also, I've had more than a few meetings, including a couple for the Valedictorian selection committee, which has been a blast so far, because we get to talk to students who love school and everything about it, and want to shout it from the rooftops (or at least from a podium on a stage).

Oh, and I discovered facebook.

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'll be on campus to collect the last of the stragglers' papers, and then this semester will officially be put to bed. Or put to sleep, whichever metaphor makes more sense, once I've read those last papers.

I still have a few things to wrap up for the philosophy course I am taking this term, and the new one, on 'dynamics and diversity in the college classroom,' starts tomorrow afternoon. In other words, things are slowing down, but they have not come to a halt yet.

We've been having a great time with our weekends, which is part of the delay in getting all the work stuff taken care of ~ last weekend we took the boys to Laronde (in fact, we got a season family pass, so count on a few more visits), and this weekend, while Dr. T. was defending his Montreal Scrabble Tournament championship (unsuccessfully, unfortunately), the boys and I headed off to the family cottage, where we had a great time getting the place ready for the season, along with my parents, my sister and her crew, and my cousin, Brian. We raked, we mowed, we scrubbed, we painted, we weeded, and we drank a lot of good wine and barbecued the biggest chunk of cow I've ever seen (sorry Patra!).

Anyway, I'm not promising daily posts; I did want you to know that I haven't collapsed under the weight of the essays or moved to a remote island without Internet access (as if).

*Trudeau, not Timberlake. Yes, he is my friend. Facebook rocks.

When it comes to hockey, I'm a fair-weather fan; furthermore, since Dr. T is not into blood sports, we tend not to watch. Last night, though, he was away for his usual Wednesday evening of Scrabble, and I was hosting my usual Wednesday card night, the participants in which are true hockey fans. So I tuned in to CBC just in time for the pre-game chatter, and am delighted to present the award for best out-of-context line to the following gem:

He's got really soft hands, a great imagination, and a bit of a mean streak. He's hard to handle.

My kind of guy.

Turns out the commentator was talking about some hockey player, but whatever. Regardless, however tempted I may have been to watch the rest of the series as a result of that line, I have decided I cannot watch the cup go to the Mouseketeers. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that someday soon, nos glorieux will rise again.