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February 27, 2007
chasing hilary
I must admit that when I re-entered teaching, I entertained hopes of recapturing the social part of grad school. Back then I had my pick of bright, well-read, creative friends. True, all that remains nowadays is the dubious Mariko, but back then my life was swarming with the intelligence and energy of my fellow grad students. People even Joe Biden would doubtless deem clean and articulate.
In this second go-round, not so much. My fellow teachers are deathly dull, pretentious, embittered. Thanks, but I can get that at Microsoft, and it pays a lot better. They flood my Inbox with silliness, usually some attempt to create an "adjunct-faculty only" lounge or otherwise mitigate a station they perceive as too lowly.
Yesterday's unending thread was typical. It started with a flourish, with their calling an "emergency meeting of the Latino/a search advisory board," because people of a certain ethnicity keep rejecting their overtures. Smart Latino/as. I wish I'd had their foresight. The thread then degenerated into talk of drinking after work, which piqued my interest until this exchange:
"Is the bar kid-friendly? I'll have my five year old."Scintillating. Hold. Me. Back."If you bring your five-year old, I'll bring my six year-old."
"I'll bring my 8 and 10 year olds."
posted by john at 8:24 AM • permalink