bloodyrosemccoy | The Old College Try (Reply)

Orthodox Palm Sunday
Passover / Pesach
Pink Moon
Taurus Begins

Nothing like writing a paper for a teacher you know will grade you down and/or argue with you if you present any opinion contrary to hers. Sure, the content of this medical anthropology class is fascinating, but there’s got to be a better pedagogical format than posing a rhetorical question, waiting for someone to answer with the expected narrowminded viewpoint, and then expansively informing that person that they’re wrong. Especially if a student answers with an open viewpoint and she waves them aside. If you’re going to convey the message “Hang on, I want somebody to be wrong on this before we move on,” then you’re probably not going to get a lot of responses to your questions. And those long pauses while people fail to volunteer to offer themselves up for the slaughter? We call those “wastes of time.” The other possible ways we could be using that time? We call those “useful ways.”

Of course, this is the class that started out with a dreaded Group Project. Not a good way to set the tone with me.

Anyway, this long ranty gripe is just my way of telling you that the tale of How I, Along With One Other Quick Thinker, Casually Saved Almost All Of My Friends From A Burning Building By Stopping The Building From Being A Burning One* will be slightly delayed while I write an essay on How Taking Into Account What People Think About Their Own Illness Is Sort Of Important, Even If You Know The Scientific Cause Of The Illness Already.** Rest assured, we will get to it.

It’s days like these I remember why I’m graduating the hell out of here.

ETA: The best part is that while this teacher is going to spend ten weeks trying vainly to convince me that You Scientists With Your Modern Medicine Ain't So Great, in another class a guest lecturer waltzed right in and totally sold me on the validity of midwifery and the problems of childbirth attitudes in the US. Dude, it's all about the attitude; I am a fickle, spiteful thing.

*Accounts of this may vary, but I can assure you that no alcohol was involved. Or, at least, not in the way you expect. I’m not sure if this defends or damns us.

**For example, I can cite this very paper as a cause of the headache I am currently suffering.