Confessions of a male feminist

While my feelings are not necessarily new, over the last year I have begun to accept the possibility of self-identifying as a feminist. This has come from a lot of reading of academic feminist thought as performed in the human geography studies. And I have come to realize: once your eyes have been opened to the patriarchy, it cannot be unseen.

The reason I am writing this is related to the recent excommunication of Kate Kelly, the whole Ordain Women movement and the discussion that has been raging in the Mormon bloggosphere for the past 6 months, yesterday's SCOTUS ruling on the hobby lobby v Sebelius case, and finally having reached a tipping point in my personal experiences with a 'conversation' I had today with a worker doing a job at my house. Let me start with that.

The man is the owner of a paving company, has a family, and at least an undergrad college education. He asked what I was studying, I responded, and his next comment was "How 'bout that pussy'?" When I didn't immediately give a manly grunt and chest bump him, he clarified his meaning that I can summarize as 'the best part of IU campus is all the hook-up opportunities, amirite'. I still didn't really respond, not because I was 'uncomfortable', but because there was just no reconciling his world-view and mine. I said I was married, which luckily changed the subject, but came across as some sort of excuse. Like if I wasn't, I would be out there 'hittin' that!' So why didn't I just shut him down, and tell him how disgusting that kind of comment and mindset are? 'It was neither the time nor place', but really, its just not in my nature to stir up conflict. So here's the question - what's a guy to do? Breaking the patriarchy is also about men standing up to other men when they degrade women, but what's the playbook for doing it in everyday, casual conversation with people with whom you hold no rapport? My confession: I feel ashamed for not doing more. I feel more ashamed for not knowing what to do to do more.

Interlude rant: carl's jr./hardee's: I know that 'sex sells', but you do not have to be a 'man' to eat a burger, dripping barbecue sauce on women in bikinis in a 'cat fight' is... I can't even..., and when you imply that a chicken breast sandwich 'brings all the roosters to the yard', you sound like a middle schooler saying 'bewbs, heh heh heh, boobies, heh heh heh'. And PS (not food related) shampoo is not orgasmic!

I see a lot of my conservative friends/family celebrating (on social media) the hobby lobby decision. I believe, or at least what I'd like to believe, is that in the rush to vilify obamacare and to celebrate any political defeat of the current 'regime' they cheer the ruling. Even if that is true, it's still wrong-headed, but that's a discussion for a different day. It is not a victory for religious freedom. It's not. Under the guise of religion, a certain class of corporation just got the green light to nickle and dime on healthcare costs that would cut into their profits. I immediately thought about B Corporations (http://www.bcorporation.net/) that publicly state, and certify, that their purpose is to benefit society as much as, or more than, making a profit. It's like that, but the opposite. I'm not going to add to the commentary on women's health issues, and the political crusade against providing adequate care. There are already enough voices doing that, and I'm just saying that I agree. If my view is unclear given the context of the post...

On the issue of Kate Kelly's excommunication and the Ordain Women issue. I'm not including any links for background, so educate yourself if you're interested. I first heard about the movement earlier this year before the push for admittance to the priesthood session. A lot of the issues they brought up were valid, and I was totally in agreement. Why can't Sunday school presidencies have women? Why should welfare focused bishopric meetings exclude the Relief Society president? Why don't young women have opening exercises with the RS and serve as companions to adult visiting teachers? I even incorporated a lot of the ideas into discussions I was leading in elders' quorum trying to encourage a more open dialogue and welcoming atmosphere for people that think differently than the Mormon norm. I''ve started emphasizing that church policy/procedure ≠ church doctrine in all cases, and that Mormon cultural practice is another thing entirely. So there is plenty that the church can do to change culture and policy that would be more equitable toward women without any questions of doctrine. I do think that the way OW has gone about some things, including the appearance at the priesthood session of conference, have not been the right way to do it. I also think that Elder Oaks' talk in conference made long strides to answering some of the essential questions posed by OW, but left others utterly unaddressed.

As for excommunication, I will not say whether I agree or disagree with the decision, but that from what I have read, I do believe the local leaders went about the whole thing inappropriately. But in moving on, I hope we have learned that there absolutely has to be room to ask questions, and that simply 'closing ranks' will not bridge the divide.

Good stuff

There's this website I was introduced to a couple years ago, and was reintroduced to a couple other times before I became a real fan. Good.is is good. And it's kind of me, too. They do infographics! They are global and local! They do education! They do social activism! They do design! They do geeky tech stuff! They do progressive politics! They do green! They do food without being too 'foodie'! They do 're-purposed' crafts!

It's a sweet spot for my demographic: young-ish, socially conscious, educated, progressive but not extreme, practical AND playful. They have a DIY lab for a thing they call a no-chart. Try it!

Podcasting power

I watch a lot of TED talks. I'll have to post on that another time. I also started listening to economics podcast so that I would get ideas for teaching my econ class. I shared one with my class once. And they really liked it, so, I'm like "Self, great day!" (to quote my favorite economics professor). But it's in a format that is hard to do in a classroom, so I wanted to make it work somehow. So, I thought about TED. TED is video, and has subtitles (the kids have a hard time with British accents), so I've shared a couple videos and had some success. But I still wanted to work in some of the audio podcasts, especially since the kids wanted me to. So again, I turned to TED. There was a talk on Changing Education Paradigms, and the cool thing was that instead of a fancy powerpoint, there was live illustration visualizing the things he talked about. It was a living storyboard for his talk. That gave me an idea.

I have a SmartBoard. So, I thought that I would live-illustrate a podcast. I proposed this to the kids, and asked if they thought it was a good idea. It was the last week of school for my seniors, so they didn't care. They thought anything was a great idea. So I did it. A little ways into it stopped and asked if it was working, and they said it was. I also admitted to them that this was WAY beyond being out of my comfort zone, but that I was doing it for them. I mean, it was NOT anything spectacular, but it wasn't distracting. So they either just listened, or they listened and watched.

So, here are the screen shots of my live-illustrated podcast, which you can listen to here.

My duplicate

I was reading an article. You can read it, if you want to, but it's not important. The article had a picture, which you see, of my duplicate AKA my doppelgänger. You can see by the scene that you've got a high school teacher. You can see by the prominent placement of flags, the MLK picture, etc. that you're dealing with a high school social studies teacher. He has MC Escher and fractal prints and a calculator poster, so he probably teaches multiple subjects. He's using a projector and smart board, so he's somewhat tech-savvy. He also has longer, shaggy hair, glasses, and a beard kept short. He's wearing khakis and a blue button-down shirt, which I also was wearing when I saw the picture.


Creepy. But, Kamila says I'm better looking.

Amazing

PhotoRec - CGSecurity

OMG this totally just saved me! and it wasn't that hard to use! but a shout-out to my dad and brother who helped verse me in the ways of computing.

Vexillology

Cool title, right? It is the scholarly study of flags. Just thought I'd share that.

Living in Albuquerque is cool. We are experiencing the city newly every day, since we're still in our first year. There are four seasons here: luminarias, wind, monsoon, and balloons. Many people know about the Balloon Fiesta and that Albuquerque is the hot air balloon capital of the world, in fact, I mentioned it here before. Apparently there is some kind of rare atmospheric condition referred to as the Albuquerque Box which creates a circular pattern of air currents that is ideal for ballooning. But it's not just once a year that you see balloons. We have seen balloons in every month but December and January. It is a simple joy, but it starts your day off right to see them flying along nearly every morning.

Not all is blissful, but sometimes the city is a little bizarre. This is the notorious pre-tax day weekend and I'm sure that you will see the people dancing on the corners in their statue of liberty costumes. In the brief time we were out and about on Saturday we saw a guy with gauges big enough to fit your hand through, a guy who looked like Jerry Garcia, and another guy who kept whacking a little inflatable person with his arrow sign. All dressed up like Lady Liberty. I'm glad I do my taxes at home!

If you are not new to my blog, then you will see a new addition. There is an "I'm a mormon" button. I have a confession: I am a mormon. I mentioned before how I had started a personal profile on mormon.org. I didn't actually finish doing that, but previous to this month's General Conference I was seriously considering it. What finally inspired me to finish was seeing a friend's blog. I followed the link from his mormon button to his personal profile, and remembered some really good times from BYU and sharing faith among almost everyone who surrounded me. Eventually the button will lead to my profile, but each of them has to be approved (thank goodness!). They probably are backed up from in increased traffic after Conference.

I was able to share my faith today also. I was subbing in the Gospel Doctrine class again, and the lesson was "Who is my Neighbour?". I started the class with having everyone stand and greet one another like in Catholic Mass and the exchanging of the kiss of peace. During my preparations I came across Mark 9:83-41 and thought that it would be appropriate to share. A big part of being a neighbor is reaching out to others of the Christian faith. We all believe in Christ, and though I made sure to emphasize my testimony of the Church and the Restoration, I think we need to take a step toward opening our minds and our hearts to those that share in a majority of what we believe. I almost didn't mention the scripture in the lesson since it didn't exactly fit, and we were short on time. But I did, and little did I know there was a Methodist man visiting with a friend sitting in the front row, and he mentioned to me afterward how welcoming it was to feel that. I really love being able to teach, and all the little old ladies make sure to grab me and thank me for the lesson. They also ask me if I'm Canadian, since I spelled neighbor with a '-our' on the board, and to mention that I remind them of the tailor from Fiddler on the Roof.

Pay Teachers More - NYTimes.com

Pay Teachers More - NYTimes.com

I feel smart-ish

I follow a blog that features infographics, and a recent entry made me investigate a little more. They pooled some different lists of books that they suggest everyone read, and put together the books occurring most often. Of the 117 titles they used in their visual I've read 24, and have another 18 already on my to-read list. Now, as I actually did the numbers I realized that this is nothing to brag about. I mean, if I say, 1 in 5, it sounds better, but it's still not that much. So, I was forced to change my title. But to justify my first thoughts, the list did include Twilight and a number of other books I didn't know, so there might have been some other pop rubbish mixed in with the classics. But, of the top 20, I had read more than half. So, I guess I'm justified. Ish.

Yes, they went there

At the young folks' home

I have had an affinity for all things folk for as long as I can remember. I remember having a Cumberland Gap Christmas cassette that I would always put in the car around holiday time to my family's chagrin. I've never endorsed country music, but folk was different. Mostly due to listening to NPR, I later found artists like Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked, Nickel Creek, Ben Taylor, etc. I think I was also influenced by an early appreciation of traditional Celtic music, appearances by James Taylor on Sesame Street, and other Muppet related experiences. After watching the Muppet Movie at a fairly young age, my dream was to learn to play the banjo, and I was devastated to find that they were not accessible to a boy with a pre-teen budget.

After performing for years in the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble I became semi-obsessed with finding non-American folk music. I mean, who actually listens to Klezmer music? willingly? That's me. In a workshop I went to recently we took a Multiple Intelligences test. My strongest, hands down? Music smart. Even though it has little to do with what I do or how I do it, music is still a huge part of how I live my life. So when Kamila's aunt took us to a concert, I was a bit affected.

Last night we got to go see Po' Girl. They're a Canadian folk band. The two lead girls had such soulful voices that were almost shocking when they started to sing. The deep passion was just elemental in the room. And they had a slide guitar. And a clarinet. And a washtub bass. (WOW! I got to see one in real-live action. Ask my wife how excited I was.) Folk music just seems so authentic. Just the other night we were talking about how all of a certain band's songs sound exactly the same as everything else they've ever done. The music is personal, real. They played a fantastic song in French, which is totally appropriate since they're Canadian! They played a few songs based on styles of her Portuguese ancestry, and a couple more just in memory of their grandmothers. When I listen to folk music I start to feel a connection inside of me. A connection so deep in my gut that there is a physical reaction when I start to feel it, which happens rarely. The feeling is light and dark, it is sweat, tears, and joy. It is my ancestors. It is my being stripped bare. When I listen to folk music I feel that we are all family, and I cannot help but stomp my foot on the wood of an old church concert hall.

3 things

First item up for discussion: social media and the gospel.

A few years back Elder Ballard invited us to use social media sources to share our testimonies. I thought, cool! The church has since started a YouTube channel, updated its site again with new directory profiles, created facebook pages, etc. And I was ok with it since I have often carried on gospel related chats with some friends who aren't members. But I felt pretty off when people started facebook fan pages of Christ. It's not that I'm not a fan, but it just seemed that "out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being" we should "avoid the too frequent use of his name". I am also a staunch supporter of only supporting official sources. As a missionary I campaigned against the use of the official church logo on t-shirts, and avoided commercial sources for materials such as Deseret Book. I am not a huge fan of facebook either, and I choose not to display a lot of personal information on there anyway. Broadcasting myself is not what I do, especially when it concerns something so sacred. I have, though, always been a supporter of mormon.org and the Church's banner ads that I've seen pop up on the web.

This led me to avoid things like the Mormon Channel or 'liking' many religiously themed messages of any of my friends online. But the week before Conference in Priesthood meeting we watched a couple of the Mormon Messages put out by the Church. I really, really liked them. They were not trite tidbits of Utah-Mormon culture, but genuine, Spirit-filled media spots. That prepared me to be receptive of the message given by Elder Nelson at the General Priesthood Meeting. So, I went on the web and started following the LDS Newsroom, and I am in the process of creating a public profile on mormon.org. When in discussions with students of an evangelical tradition from BIOLA a couple years ago, I admired how they talked so easily of their faith. I do have a testimony, and I don't want to over-bushel my light.

Second item: school

I started my first real teaching job in August. Last year I worked as an intern. I cannot say enough how much that has helped me. If I had only done regular student teaching I would have tanked. I'm not sure I would still be alive right now.

My school, La Academia de Esperanza is a charter school focused on helping students that have moderate to severe social and learning disabilities as well as serving a population that cannot successfully function in regular schools. Many of my students have parents who are or have been in jail, have been in jail themselves, have absentee parents, have a number of substance abuse issues, etc. I have a few students who were very concerned about being convicted of crimes as juveniles. I have another who has been pulled out from class a couple times to meet with her parole officer. I have a kid who wears a hoodie in class and hardly speaks. He's smart, but supremely unmotivated and uncooperative. I think I have about 5 kids who AREN"T pierced, most in some bizarre manner.

When leaving Orem JH, I told the principal that the most important thing I learned was that I could do it. I could teach. I could wrangle teenagers into some half-hazard submission. I could deal with self-centered coworkers that didn't support me. And it turns out that's mostly all I could have learned that would have served me here. I teach US and World History and Government and Economics. That's only two different classes. Apparently our goal is to graduate as many students as possible, which means that they need to fulfill credits. There is no end-of-course exam for social studies like there is for math, science, or reading. So they lump the students into US/World and US/NM history classes. I had a student that transferred from a US to a World history class, but she stayed in the same period. It's only dependent on what credit she needs to graduate. When I tried to wrap my head around it, I couldn't. What do I teach? There's no way I can teach the state core for both classes. I can't teach one half of the class one thing, and the other something else. It would be pure chaos. My Government/Economics class has 15 taking government and 3 taking econ. So, I just teach them history and civics. And as one of the other teachers told me, if they get repeated information, so be it. They need to know it. If they miss something, they won't know and it will be filed along with all the things that they forget even day to day, regardless of long-term retention.

I have issues with this. I know that colleges are have more and more trouble with incoming freshman that have to spend time remediating because they didn't learn it in high school. Getting an A with me is far easier than an A at a regular institution because I'm shooting at the median. How do I maintain higher standards? How do I maintain regular standards? I have some brilliant students, and some who are very motivated to learn. But so many of them have been gone more in the last month than I was through all of high school. And because the situations that have led them to be at our school are still affecting them, we must support them. Because that's what we do. We have to be the ones that care.

Third: Albuquerque

We live by the zoo. Like, not close enough that we can smell it, but at night you can hear the seals barking and the exotic birds having a go at each other. Every day we cross the Rio Grande. During the day the water looks like mud, and it's mostly all that's there. But in the mornings, the light hits the water so that it shimmers white. Kamila's grandma told me in a moment of clarity that her favorite part of Albuquerque was the river. I can see why.

I like the cold more than the heat. I was surprised when I lived in Arizona during a summer that the feat was even possible. But I love fall the most. All during the summer i could not get over the weirdness of the sun. It cannot possibly be 9:30, the sun is still up! And the winter is just as bad. It just doesn't seem natural for it to be so dark so much. But the fall just grooves with you. It's cool at night! The day ends when your activities are ending. As a teacher its when you've got things in order and the kids are finally used to being in school again. I love the fall.

This weekend we went to see the morning Balloon Launch at the International Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. It was one of the most spectacular sights ever. I don't think I enjoyed the experience of it as much as I could have since I was madly taking pictures, but I enjoyed it tremendously! If anyone visits Albuquerque only once it should be during the Balloon Fiesta. Every morning this last week there were balloons in the air. There's just a special wimzy in the air.

what's up in the world

let me share what's been on my mind lately: the world.

i've always been a geek for world news, other cultures, and anything of an international flavour. i'm a self declared xenophile. now i teach world civilizations and geography, so i take it as part of my job to be up on current world events, history in the making, anniversaries, etc. (eg: i started my unit on the civil war on the 149th anniversary of its beginning.)

as a result of content and curriculum searches i've been exposed to a lot of online stuff like blogs that i've started following. here are a few i thought i'd share:

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
This guy either grew up in Utah or went to school here. He now teaches in Texas. He's a great resource for social studies, specifically history. he also provides some interesting insight into some current social situations, specifically the texas board of ed.

John Sherffius: Cartoonist
Some of his editorial cartoons are a little cheesy, but for the most part he's right on and very clever.

Information is Beautiful
Visual artist that makes data representations for the Guardian of the UK.

i saw a guy walking along university parkway in orem with a sign saying 'the end is near'. i thought it was hilarious, but he also has a point. with the volcano in iceland, earthquakes in utah, china this week, mexico, chile, etc. i'm sure we'll keep seeing things happen.

lately i've also been frustrated with government. i've been leaning more 'liberal' in the past couple years. but denise said something to me the last time i saw her that has had me thinking: protect your rights even if you don't use them. like protecting the right to bear arms even though i will probably never own a gun or use one. but i really don't like the 'police state' that is rising. am i leaning libertarian? eh, i don't think so. but more than i ever thought i would.