While It's Fresh In My Mind

It's a very busy day in library land. As I type this, it's not quite 11:00, and we've had five classes in, two still here right now. All but the first class of the day required instruction. And four more are coming in the afternoon.

I've worked with three classes so far, all of them seniors with a final research project to do. Let me say that they are not happy about this. These may be college-bound seniors, but they are not academic, for the most part, and would be happy to find something on Wikipedia and copy and paste and hand it in. They were incredulous when I told them that if Wikipedia is listed as one of their sources they will get a zero for the paper. I have no idea if their teacher will follow through on that, but that's what I told them.

Their topics are "anything they want," which is not a good assignment, but it's the one I have to work with. The first class was rowdy, the second class got down to work, and the third class ... I just don't know.

I asked the class if someone would tell me his or her topic, so I had something to use as an example. One girl popped her hand up and said "Gypsies." I thought, hmm, odd. After a pause, I said "Okay, the term 'Gypsies' isn't really used much anymore. Does anyone know another word that means 'Gypsies?' And the same girl raises her hand again and says "Prostitutes?"

The class was amused; I was appalled. It took me a minute to recover, but first I actually said "What did you say?" And she repeated it, knowing that she had said something stupid to get attention. I said "Gypsies are an ethnic group of people, and 'gypsy" is no longer considered a polite word. The correct word is 'Romany.'" And she was like, oh, whatever, and I went on.

Afterwards, I found her "working" at a computer and I went to explain what she had said, because she Did.Not.Get.It. First, I asked her if she knew what a prostitute was, and she did. I asked her to imagine that she was Irish, for example, and that I asked the class for another word that means Irish and someone said "thieves," how would she feel? So she apologized, but I think not sincerely at all, and was still pretty pleased with herself for getting to be the center of attention.

The guy who installs the phone outlets was just here and says that moving my phone outlet from its current location to a location about 15 feet away will require routing the wiring through several classrooms, and so it will be done during Winter Break next week.




Uh ... several classrooms, Gracie? There are no classrooms below the library, only storage rooms, and no classrooms above us, only the roof and the sky. What classrooms, the ones down the hall from us?

There is a faculty meeting after school and I have to go to it, which may be the first one for me this year. Hip hip blech. At least I get to leave early to go get my eyes poked at.



HISTORY CHANNEL :: ENTRY #1983
READING: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston