I have been working on this Master's degree since my oldest child started his senior year in high school, and he will graduate college next year! I'm not complaining, just stating the facts. This summer, I am taking two intensives, which means 10 days with (2) four hour classes. Again, not complaining.
What I have to complain about is a bit deeper than that. The 20 something year gap between college and grad school left me, well, a lot less enlightened then I thought I would have become. While life experiences are supposed to make us wordly, I think mine made me more (what's the opposite of wordly? living-roomly?)
This semester, my classes are in Learner Diversity and Technology in the classroom. The technology class has been amazing. From analyzing websites to creating movies and web pages, there was so much to learn. I finished my final project, but probably won't learn how to post it up here until next week!
The diversity class brought to my attention how incredibly unaware I was of people who weren't European Americans (aka White). I've been reminded that my depth of knowledge of religions other than Judaism is very limited. How blind I had been to environmental issues, like the plight of people who can't afford to leave their city that has been overrun by a toxic dump. Or how ignorant I was thinking that the people in New Orleans who didn't leave before Katrina hit were just nuts.
The one area I did understand, however, was that people who talk funny, (like New Yorkers!), aren't inherently stupid. (Being a Georgia girl, that was a given!) It's sad to say, but I don't remember cultivating conversations on topics like these since, well, 1985. I was so busy cooking dinner and being a mom to talk about anything other than homework!
We did an exercise that could be useful in a classroom of young children. We tried to determine the best name for the color of our skin. "White" is the color of this background. Is that really the color of your arm? We mixed different skin toned paints together. I sooo wanted to be gingerbread. I grabbed that bottle and put a few drops on my arm. What a great color. But just too dark for this chick. (Maybe that's why I lay out in the sun during the summer.) What I ended up with was a combination. Almond with a touch of toast. That's what I am. Nutty with just a little bread... hee hee. :)
