Until a year and a half ago (or so) I wrote a series of Saturday diaries that stole the title of “Teachers’ Lounge” from a previous series by rserven that went way back to DKos 2 or so. I stopped while I went through a series of health issues, some of which are still in place, but I have missed writing this and the conversations that arise, so I am going to try to come back to this writing, and I will try to make it weekly. I am a college professor, teaching undergraduate Art History, but I am an archaeologist, so I have a strong social science background and I teach several interdisciplinary courses as well as ones in my own department.
For the first time in several years (I mean, the first time in 20 years, perhaps), I asked to teach a freshman class. We have pretty well done away with the academic content of the Freshman Week courses, and in fact we have pretty well done away with Freshman Week itself. I don’t know how I feel about getting rid of it. Part of the rationale is that there are so many mandatory aspects (introducing students to the way they should handle sexual assault, for example, from NOT DOING IT, to what office and officer you should report to if something happens), including library tours and where other offices are as well as where their classrooms will be, how to fill out paperwork, etc.. There will also be residence hall identity-building competitions and get-to-know-yous.
The freshman sessions I am doing for the orientation period are take-offs from the common reading, about Harry Truman’s post-retirement road trip to the east coast and back (after he decided not to run for office again) . It is about America in the 1950s. I am riffing on that theme, by discussing what “all American food” he and Bess ate in diners, etc., as they drove across the country (fruit and cottage cheese, baked chicken, roast beef and potatoes, and ice tea).
My one hour course-lets are about what is non-all American food. I will have 25 people each session, and I want them to think creatively and adventurously about food. So in the breakfast (8:30 am) session I will have them talk about weird breakfasts, what the oddest thing they have ever eaten in the morning, and I will have them write about it — I am thinking of having them write out recipe cards for the weirdest thing they have eaten, for example. Then they will have a chance to talk about what foods other cultures have in the mornings. I have bought two tins of kippered herring (sadly I didn’t have the chance to buy true kippers that are frozen, rather than in tins), feta and really strong olives, and vegemite that they will spread on toast squares, for breakfasts in the UK, Greece, and Australia. For the midday and mid-afternoon sessions I have veggie stuffed grape leaves, lokum (Turkish delight), Cambozola (a very creamy blue cheese), cocoa halva, and labna with zataar.
I may cook something for one or the other group, and I have other things I might bring in (a jar of salmon roe, fuul beans which I could make into the ubiquitous Egyptian peasant dish, halloumi cheese, a jar of Patak’s lime pickle. I thought about making a meat pie (yes I have been watching The Great British Baking Show (aka the Great British Bake Off), does it show?), or a fruit cake of some sort. It depends on how much time I have and how much ambition I have.
These foods are all ones I have tried and eaten both in the US and abroad. But they are not necessarily ones I like (although I absolutely adore kippers for breakfast never ever give me vegemite). But I think it is important for anyone to have an opportunity to try something new, and not be afraid of doing it. And as first year students they will have the chance to step outside of their comfort zone. I want them to do that, to be nervous but to do it anyway. I am hoping that food will be a proxy for more adventurous experiences, and I can encourage them to be brave in their approach to things.
Will this work? Who knows? But it should be fun for the students and for me. And if they continue to try new things, maybe they will let me know. There is always an ulterior motive for doing these things — I want students to take my classes, including the Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies class (the introduction to the design-your-own-major program) that I am teaching this fall.
That interdisciplinary class is the one that I thought might be attractive to freshmen. It is a chance for them to figure out what they really want to do here (whether it is completing a major that already exists, or develop one of their own). They will look at both the major itself but also see how our core curriculum requirements can support their interests and figure out how to make study abroad and internships fit n as well. A lot of students in the major have developed programs in environmental studies and other “change the world” sorts of fields. I know at least a couple of grads who are on Daily Kos. But while there are several freshmen who have an interest in the major, I have only one freshman signed up in the class, and several returning students enrolled. I will enjoy working with them, and I am looking forward to the class, but I was hoping to get freshmen at the very beginning of their experience here.
I hope my “try the world” (officially titled “Good Food/Good Times” but what I think of as “Weird Food”) hour sessions will give them incentive to sign up for my more serious academic classes. I have my fingers crossed.
Next week I expect I will be deep in the official framework for the semester that are otherwise known as “syllabi.” There are lots of legal statements that have increased my syllabus’ length by about three or four pages, along with the increase caused by things I have learned are important and want to have included in the syllabi that they will have to refer to. I don’t need to include much of this material, but I want them to read and internalize what I do write down in this context. I know my syllabi tend to be rather long and I know they don’t read what I write. The longer a syllabus is, the less anyone will completely read the text. So I will have to re-examine what I have there. I could publish more of the material on the online course page. I don’t know — do you think students will read it there?
I am nervous about the beginning of the fall semester but I always feel that way. How is your end of the summer going?