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The Teaching Front
Sometimes I think that my problem isn’t that the courses I teach are too hard. No, actually sometimes I think they are not hard enough.
Why? Well, I get frequent reports that students seem to struggle at the four year institutions in the region. I compare that to my own experience when I transferred after two years at a local community college. I didn’t struggle so much at Park, at least not academically. Actually, I was fairly well bored to tears academically at Park, at least in the History Department. I was challenged in the English Department and sometimes, as I ruminated on my facebook earlier today, I wonder if I shouldn’t have picked up a BA in English.
Given how many undergrad hours in English I currently have, it would seem to me that I should be able to get a BA in English without too much trouble.
But I digress.
No, I didn’t struggle much until I reached grad school. The struggle in that case was filling in gaps of historical knowledge which were left wide open at Park. For instance, no one ever talked about historiography at Park.
I did alright in grad school, given that I was fighting with a number of medical issues at the time. I did graduate. Perhaps my singular flaw, aside from arguing with my professors about politics, is that I didn’t edit my papers enough.
The problem is this. Just how do I make my class more rigorous than it already is? I already have a pretty heavy attrition rate, forty to fifty percent is not uncommon. In fact, some would say that I am doing my job properly if I have such a high attrition rate.
I require an essay question per exam, which pushes them to a degree, especially if they have not had their English 101 and 102 classes. The thing is that many of them seem to think that regurgitation is what is required in my class, not critical thinking.
An A should be given not only for a correct description of a historical event with all the particulars. An A should be given for students who show that they are thinking about the material. I do not see a great deal of this and it is probably my fault. I’ve not crafted the questions properly for such work.
Yes, I do ask them for opinions from time to time, but the answers I get back then to be the kind that seek to blow smoke up my rear or BS their way out of dealing with the rest of the question.
There is also the question of what, exactly, I should be teaching. The current vogue is social history, something I simply dread dealing with. Yes, I like material culture well enough but I really do not want to spend sixteen weeks, or eight weeks, talking about the lives of brickmakers, fishmongers, burgerflippers and barristas. Social history was pretty much what I was subjected to at Park (which is apparently why we never got around to historiography) and it was doled out in heavy portions in grad school.
I could teach the Marxist school, which is another component of what I received in grad school. There is a lot to admire, the systematic way in which Marxists take everything apart, show you the problem and put it back together again. Thing is, the Marxist scholar always has the same answer, the rich oppressing the poor, getting screwed by THE MAN, etc.
Right now I normally teach a simple narrative history. This is what happened, here is why it happened, here is what motivated those people and here is how they often misunderstood each other. I play Devil’s Advocate, showing why people who are often portrayed as The Bad Guy, might have a legit cause. Thing is, it seems to me that much of this can be thrown onto the textbook. Students could read this on their own, leaving me with time to cover material in depth.
I was talking with a peer about this today and they stated that our students do not know enough of the narrative to understand anything else. Given that many of my students didn’t understand why John Adams was talking about the crossing of the Rubicon today, I could see his point.
Which makes me think that Western Civ classes should be mandatory prior to taking college level American History but that will happen when pigs fly. There is already a movement to replace Western Civ with World History, which is enough to make one wonder. There isn’t enough time to talk about Western Civ alone during the 133 course.
Just what am I supposed to throw out?
I already know what I’ll talk about if that day comes. I’ll focus on Japanese history.
Ah, so it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Today was fairly productive. Trinity and I did the usual Pod maintenance work after breakfast. Then around 1300 I laid into the writing effort.
The Writing Front: Joint Writing Project – 02
Status: Second Draft
Word Count: 4,200
Today was mainly a day of edits on the document, punching in the hand scribbled changes. I did write some new material to cover some gaps, provide some additional descriptive material as well as flesh a few things out. One of the full time peers had seen a previous draft and I followed bits of their advice. I also followed some advice from our senior adjunct even though they have not read the project yet. They will receive a revised, polished version.
The draft has grown by over 1100 words. I suspect that once all the scenes are fleshed out that we will be looking at close to 6000 over all. Some of that may get cut down during the compression and polishing process but overall, I feel pretty good about the project.
Hopefully I’ll finish up with my latest revisions and send it back to Berry for his thoughts.
Other Writing Fronts
Starting Tuesday I will make it a point to take one of the manuscripts to River Market Coffeehouse for some afternoon editing. If I can do this regularly maybe I can finally get some forward motion going again.
And Trinity has been first class at giving me the time and the conditions I need to get some work done. She’s been a real champ.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City,Missouri
We’re in the middle of doing laundry here at the Pod. Trinity has a 100 point book report due this Friday, which she is working on. It is a strange sight, the both of us with our laptops, punching away at the keys.
She says, “We almost look like an urban couple.”
I replied, “Well, for better or worse, we are an urban couple.”
The Writing Front: Joint Writing Project – 02
I’m in the middle of punching in the latest edits. It took me longer to get through the first scene than I thought. Still, I like where this is going. I threw in some more cultural tidbits, we are relying heavily on the actual language of the culture when we can get away with it.
It is early days but it seems to me that the only thing we are missing is the Snap or the Pop that makes a story jump off the page. With a strong story that Snap/Pop usually shows itself before it is all said and done. With other projects, looking for the right Snap can take forever, at least for me.
Then again, maybe it doesn’t need it.
So, back to it.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Sixty years ago this week, the communist forces of North Korea crossed the border into South Korea. Equipped with Soviet T-34 tanks and other modern weapons, the North Korean Army swept their South Korean brothers and their American allies down the Korean Peninsula toward Pusan. If all had gone as planned, the Americans and their South Korean allies would have been swept into the sea and the peninsula reunited under the banner of communism.
As it turns out, then President Harry S. Truman decided that the communists needed to be stopped. He went to the United Nations and requested authorization to send a “police force” to Korea in order to repel the invaders. Since the Soviets had walked out of the Security Council (something they’d never, ever do again) and China was represented by Taiwan, Truman received his authorization and a coalition mostly comprised of US forces arrived to push the North Koreans back.
The war, which never truly ended, consumed three years in terms of fighting, lives, resources and property. It raged up and down the Peninsula much the way locusts would ravage a farmer’s crops. When most of the shooting stopped in 1953, the lines between North and South Korea reestablished themselves status quo antebellum.
The Koreas were divided in an ad hoc administrative arrangement between the Soviets and the Americans at the end of World War II. Previous to that, Korea had been a Japanese colony, cruelly exploited for her resources, her people, and her strategic position in the region. A German military advisor had told the Japanese as early as the late 19th Century that, “Korea lay poised like a dagger at the heart of Japan.” As such, it had to be secured. The Russians wanted it and so did the Chinese.
Most Americans, it probably comes as no surprise, could find it on a map. Most Americans today probably couldn’t find it on a map.
The Korean War would be the first of many so called “limited wars” wherein fears of an escalation towards global nuclear war forced both sides to work to contain the conflict. Before it was done, the war would draw the Communist Chinese into the conflict to buttress their defeated North Korean allies. MacArthur’s presence on the Yalu River was more than enough to upset them. The Chinese intervention would cost MacArthur his job, not due to incompetence but more a result of his inability to keep his opinions about strategy out of the press. Truman would fire him for insubordination before it was all said and done.
I spent eleven months in South Korea during the last year of active duty in the Army. It is much like the deep Ozarks, rocky, mountainous, forested, wet and humid. Monsoons consume most of the summer and snows are frequent during the winters. The temperature extremes are no worse than Missouri.
Something of a backward country due to Japanese colonialism in 1950, South Korea today is a major economic, political and military force in the region. If you look around your home, chances are good that you will find something with a Korean brand name on it, like the Samsung laser printer which is on the printer stand next to me. They have evolved into a urban, cosmopolitan country with a strong representative government after years of military dictatorships.
No one, sixty years ago, could have predicted where South Korea would be today. If you had to look for things to put into the “What the US got right” column, South Korea would have to go onto that list. One need look no further than to the state of North Korea, with famine, a failed planned economy, a failed ideology, threatening her neighbors, to see why the war was worth fighting.
I wonder only one thing.
If the North tried to reignite the war today, would we have the backbone to stand up to them again as we did in 1950?
Somehow, I doubt it.
Something to ponder.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front: Joint Writing Project – 02
I did some old school, scribble all over the manuscript, editing today at the River Market Coffeehouse. Personally I think the story is shaping up to be a pretty good one. I’ll try to punch the latest changes in and send it back to my writing partner, Berry Henderson, hopefully by this Sunday or so.
It felt good to scribble on the page again. Strange to think that years ago I used to complain about this part of the process.
Other Fronts
The Woman I Love and I made our way up to Borders for a bit of the wifi. She just got a new laptop and she is putting Belle (she names things, which is fine with me) through her paces. We had a bit of trouble with Belle and had to return to Best Buy for a checkup. That said, she seems to be working fine now.
Of course the aggravating thing about Borders Free Wifi is that it drops in and out. Truly annoying when you are trying to enjoy a YouTube video.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
I’ve got a copy of Joint Writing Project -02 here and it is long overdue for my attention. I am going to take a pen, the printed file, some tea and go somewhere WITHOUT the laptop so I can get some work done.
So, you internet pigdogs, I fart in your general direction. I don’t wanna talk to you no more, now I’ll go away.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front
Let’s see.
First exams went better than usual, that is a good thing. Students still groused anyway, which is the usual thing.
We’re still slugging our way through the Pre-Revolutionary Era. In fact we’re slowing down enough that I suspect we’ll miss our next projected test day. That will throw the schedule off kilter.
Which means it will be time for a take home essay project to cover the gaps. In fact, the more I think on it, the more I believe I will deploy one.
I am scratching my head in an effort to figure out how to teach this time period better. You can do the nuts and bolts approach, which is what I usually do, going through the events, talking about the characters, the motivations, and such. Or you could do an intellectual history, talking about all the concepts that go into revolutionary thought.
Or you could go the Marxist route, or the social history route.
“And today we shall discuss the lives of people who churn butter for a living . . .”
Gagh, social history. I’d rather floss my brain out with barbed wire than suffer through a social history lecture.
We should arrive at the Revolutionary War by Tuesday. That will give me three days to fight the war, which might just be enough time.
The Writing Front: In the Early Morning Rain
Tomorrow, I promise, I’m going to sit down with this while Trinity is at school. I’m going to edit and scribble all over the manuscript, make some changes and see about another coat of polish.
In the meantime I have been handing this out to peers on campus for commentary. I’ll relate those comments to my writing partner, Berry Henderson, when I send the revisions his way.
As for any other writing, nothing is going on. In fact, I’ve hit something of a malaise with regard to writing science fiction. I keep looking at what gets published, or worse, who gets published, and I wonder what the point is. Most of what gets published does not interest me in the slightest.
In fact, I find it incredibly boring.
I remember when science fiction was exciting, went places, did things, built things, solved problems.
These days science fiction seems like some tired southern minister preaching fire and brimstone to me on a very hot Sunday morning.
Too much preaching. It isn’t for me, that is for certain.
Physical Fitness
I made it to the pool twice this week, once the sunburn healed enough for me to return to PT. Hopefully next week we’ll see four sessions.
Not much else to report.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
General McChrystal was fired for “undermining” civilian control of the military.
Wow. Really?
You know, I’m trying to square this with Truman’s decision to fire MacArthur during the Korean War. For those that do not know, here is the deal. MacArthur and Truman had a basic disagreement about how to deal with the entry of the Chinese into the Korean War. MacArthur wanted more troops, resources and nukes to go into China and clean house. Truman felt like that action would escalate into World War III.
MacArthur disagreed, in public. Disagreeing in public with the policy of the Commander in Chief does meet the threshold for relief from duty. If it says anything, the next guy to get sacked would be the previous commander in Afghanistan prior to McChrystal, by no less than the current President. Keep in mind that this previous commander hadn’t committed any gaffe or misstep, he just wasn’t the guy Obama wanted.
McChyrstal’s behavior and that of his aides is unfortunate but frankly, I do not see where they reach the threshold of undermining civilian authority. They don’t like Joe Biden, that is no secret. I don’t blame them. Joe Biden is a quarterwit at best who loves the taste of shoe leather and doesn’t recognize his own intellectual limitations. Frankly, I think the main reason Biden was selected to be VP is so that Clinton wouldn’t overshadow Obama from that position.
I will make a prediction.
If folks thought Bill Clinton had a bad relationship with the military, they’d better gird their loins because the relationship Obama has with the military is going to slip into serious decline.
Or let’s put it this way. If I were still in uniform, I’d be looking for a way out, if I hadn’t been looking in January 2009.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
I found this at Livejournal.
Have you ever struck someone in a fit of anger or self-defense? If so, did you live to regret it?
Yes, in self defense, on at least forty plus instances over the course of thirty-eight years.
I have also hit people in anger, though perhaps on a handful of instances. I have not used force in reflexive anger since I left the Army. It is simply too costly to do so.
But I reserve the right to self defense by physical force. I also reserve the right to intervene in the defense of others when they are clearly outmatched by their attacker.
As for regrets . . . if I have any regrets at all, it would be with the rare instances where the contest of force did not resolve itself in my favor. For the most part, however, the use of force has almost always provided the result I was looking for, which was the cessation of offensive behavior on the part of the opponent.
I know, not very politically correct of me, is it? That said, I do not buy into the argument that violence solves nothing. Ask the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War about that matter if you like. Or ask the Carthaginians, if you can find any.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, MIssouri
Politics
I guess there is a big ruckus building over a Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal. If you weren’t aware, he is the top commander of coalition efforts in Afghanistan. It should probably be pointed out that he does not appear to have too high an opinion of the current civilian administration.
Now, I have not read the article yet. In fact I have it printed out right here and it is slated for immedate reading during lunch today. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if I agreed with most of what the General and his staff might say about the current civilian administration.
And it won’t matter.
Not one bit.
For better or worse, and probably for better, we have a government predicated on the concept of civilian control over the military. The main reason is to prevent the rise of a tyrant.
Is McChrystal a tyrant in the making? Ah, I doubt that. But there is something more basic, pertaining to military bearing.
You see, it is a bad idea to badmouth the Boss. We all know this but in the military there is a line about “Disrespecting your superiors.” In fact, it is actionable to a certain degree, though my memory is a bit fuzzy on how actionable it is.
There is another line, “Respect the rank, even if you do not respect the person who holds it.”
If you can’t swallow that one then you probably need to hang up the soldier suit. I finally reached a point where I couldn’t swallow it anymore. Getting led into an ambush (training, not actual) by a Sergeant First Class who had been out of uniform for a decade sealed the deal on that score. But I might add that I didn’t have a shred of respect for the President during that time in American History either.
So the General made some candid, probably honest, perhaps even valid remarks. The Sergeant I just mentioned was and I’m sure still is a perfect fucking idiot. I knew he was an idiot the day he showed up to take over the squad I was in. He continued to operate as an idiot up to the very day I left the Army.
And what is worse is that this asshole wasn’t the first. I had to suffer through a very long list of dipshits, dumbasses and quarter-wits while in uniform.
There was the 2LT who tried to fire his weapon with the muzzle cap still in place.
There was the Sergeant during the Gulf War who liked to say, “I can shoot you for disrespecting me in a combat zone. Did you know that?”
There was the Battery Commander who seemed to have an unerring ability to place our camp site in the perfect location for a flood. This same asshole thought it be a bright idea to dig a perimeter trench using e-tool. This same trench, when completed, was buried and replaced by another dug by a backhoe a day later, prompting some discussion as to who to shoot.
The Battery Commander or the backhoe driver.
There were the NCOs that were boinking the enlisted subordinates in my unit during the year in Korea.
There was a Company Commander who tried to throw me out of the Army when I was less than thirty days from getting out on my own power by way of End of Enlistment.
He makes a cameo in one of Birmo’s novels, btw.
A very brief cameo.
None of it matters. You can’t disrespect your superiors when in uniform, especially if they are civilian leaders elected by the populace.
So at the end of the day, I suspect the Good General is going to pay for his remarks. His career is probably over. No promotion to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No cush job advising the current administration in a civilian capacity.
It is too bad, because at the end of the day, I suspect that when I read this article I am going to find that I agree with everything McChrystal said.
Note
I read the article. It is pretty tame if you ask me. If Obama got upset over this then you really have to wonder. I thought Clinton had a petty, pathetic temper.
My opinion of the current President has slid a notch or two I believe.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff