(no subject)

Class last night was interesting. I have a group of students who aren't by nature chatty, so it took quite some work to make sure they were getting what they needed. They're very good listeners, though, and the class went overtime without even a rustle of paper, so I think we're OK. That's not why the class was interesting, though it may be why we ended going in the direction we did.

We spent quite a bit of time on evidence for women's thoughts and culture. We were specifically talking about silencing and overshadowing and how the cultural paradigms and mood we live with everyday shape the way we interrogate our past. I also talked about interpreting through the veil of other people's thoughts, of how women and Jews and children in the Middle Ages are mostly known through the eyes of Christian men due to the nature of the historical record. I pointed them to a couple of the scholars who are getting past the silences to the lives of women.

We also created quires and talked about the physical characteristics of manuscripts. It wasn't all about the texts, after all - the physical environment of the texts is important. And S gave a very nice presentation about Marie de France, which meant I got to explain how a polyglottal society works and who is empowered by what languages in what circumstances in polyglottal societies.

I didn't mean it to be, but the subtext last night was all about relative status and how we can understand and interpret it. At one stage I was saying, "Walk down the street and notice current behaviours. That will give you a basis for understanding your own cultural baggage and will help you interpret historical cultures."

(no subject)

It must be Wednesday, for I met my Wednesday class. I am so logical!

We worked on building character traits today, which caused much angst among half the class, for I decided to be nice to the other half (the sport-loving half) and we looked at sports as a character trait. One student pointed out that "Collingwood" was a perfectly legitimate thing to write on the census form under 'religion' and that Collingwood supporters were known to see the world in black and white.

Word of the day was 'proposition' and food-discussion-of-the-day was making maple syrup. We wrote more cheering poetry to encourage Spring along, and were somewhat surprised when the two hours was up, almost before it had begun.

(no subject)

I am very full of goulash, stuffed eggs, a cream tart and two different kinds of spiced wine. I would have eaten other things, but they were not at my end of the table, and so my waistline is saved for the moment. Meetings should always include fine alcohol and gourmet food.