Small Town Wren

It’s a little old, but very relevant to my life at the moment. Seeing as my recent reading selection has had a lot to do on the subject and I’ve been dealing with this stuff in my personal life, it feels appropriate to link it. A diary entry over at Daily Kos discusses Rape Culture. Here are some pretty disturbing statistics:

According to the findings, around 25% of people believe that women who have been raped are at least partly to blame because of how they dressed, how much they drank or how many sexual partners they have had.

The survey revealed that:
-38% believe that a woman is partly to blame for rape if she walks through a deserted area.
-37% think a woman is partly to blame if she flirts extensively.
-30% think a woman is partly to blame if she flirts with a man at all or fails to say no clearly.

It also found that 10% of people feel that a woman is completely to blame for rape if she has had a number of sexual partners.

Read the rest of it here.

I finally got that bugger H1N1 vaccine today. Du Page County has been using the appointment system that Kane County finally moved to after the major disaster I previously encountered. I live in Batavia, which straddles the county line, so I figured out I could actually get a Du Page appointment.  It took about 20 minutes from arrival to departure. I laugh at the long lines others braved only to be turned away.

I did the flu mist. My mother wanted me to get the injection under some fantasy that they’re safer, but that’s pretty damn unethical. Not everyone can use the mist, so to take an injection I don’t need takes it away from someone else. Oh morals. Why does it seem like I’m the only one who has any anymore?

From: Wren Roberts
To: Dr. Jackson
Date: December 3, 2009; 1:01am
Subject: Learning Proposal Question

Hi Dr. Jackson!

Do our narrative defense and philosophy portion have to be two distinct sections? I can’t imagine defending my lesson plans without talking about my personal philosophy. This may be because I view lesson plans as a road map, not necessarily a rigid step-by-step manual to by followed to the T (and I think the way I wrote them reflects that). I loathe everything that scripted instruction stands for and the way I see my lesson plans actually happening in my theoretical classroom is directly influenced by research, my philosophy, and the way I see my class-at-large working beyond the lesson plans. I have so many things that are operating (in my head at this point, at least) that don’t belong in my lesson plans. I have thoughts about year-long portfolios for various things, I have reading passports that exist beyond the curriculum but involve the curriculum, etc.  The way I would implement the lesson plan instruction of “Have students draw what they see.” goes so far beyond just drawing and involves many opportunities for expression.

I don’t think I can separate a research-based defense from a philosophical approach because, to me, they are so interrelated. You can’t have one without the other. I, personally, think a lot of the problems we see in education today are caused by trying to isolate research from philosophy and attempting to only take one or the other into account. I think that’s fundamentally flawed and in some cases may actually be dangerous.

I mean, could I make them be two distinct sections? If I absolutely had to. But trying to force it into that structure feels entirely unnatural to me and might do a disservice to to my actual plan.

Please let me know.

Thanks!
Wren

Sad but true. Postings might be a bit spotty for the next week or two as I try very hard to not kill myself due to all the work I have to get done.