You are cordially invited to visit & comment on our (NFM's) new blog thread just for comments. Like the proverbial floating crap game, posts move down as new ones are posted, but I'll try to remember to re-stick the post back to the top of the page every now and again while considering other options. For now though, here it is: just comment under the identity of your choice. Anonymity guaranteed and always an option.
What is it? An experiment, a work in progress, whatever you choose to make of it. Go alone with me here. Humor me. I'm experimenting so want to start out open ended and see where it takes us. Will it be the (hand or other) writing on the wall, another iteration of _____ (fill in the blank with preferred designation) narratives or something else altogether? Call it the whatever thread. Should more specific guidelines become necessary, we can set them together.
Suggestions invited, questions answered, friends and strangers alike welcomed, trolls ejected.
so what is this about? i'm seeing these tell all requests all over lately. how do i pay the damn rent, what do i want to call myself. not homeless, that's what.
ReplyDeleteHi TC ~ I'm not entirely sure myself what this will be about but figured to start loose and see where it goes. The notion of a comments only thread has been rattling around since well before the current rash of confessional and rant comment threads. I would like more comments here (most end up indirectly on Facebook or Twitter), but don't want to duplicates efforts already out there.
ReplyDeleteA number of blogs have a one day a week open thread. Among others, Foodista has "Potluck" on Fridays. Alas a Philosophy Blog's Open Thread and Link Farm, I'll Dig Out Your Eye Edition advises:
"This is an open thread. Post about what you want, when you want, how you want. Self-promote. Be free. Flock like birds, love like penguins, play like threshes. Jump up and down until you get dizzy. But don’t run with scissors. Or lightsabers."
Works for me too. I like Ampersand's idea of combining it with a "link farm" post too.
This might not help: it's not really supposed to. If it doesn't work, I'll change it, do something else. It's up to readers (like you).
PS Have you post comments yet to threads you mention above? What do you think of them?
I think we could use a big dose of 60's sensibilities in colleges and universities today. All of the teachers who inspired me to go into this profession had their "roots", as it were, in the 1960's. What I learned from them in the classroom was invaluable, and a few of them spent many hours mentoring me long after I had finished their classes. I have always done my best to live up to the wisdom that they all demonstrated so well. All of these wonderful people are now either long retired or dead - which has only inspired me further to keep their approach to teaching alive. It was an absolute culture shock for me to discover this new breed of teachers in higher education. Self-interest and profit motive seems the rule of the day. How sad when colleges and universities that once were leading the charge for positive social change are now little more than assembly line counting houses. I do not want to accept this. We should not have to be slaves for profit. I don't identify with Warren Buffett - I identify with Howard Zinn. And it is even more sad that it seems as if all the progress in human and civil rights that was gained through the hard work of the 1960's has been systematically lost. Considering that colleges and universities were frequently the nucleus of genuine positive social change, can the struggles that so many adjuncts are currently experiencing be mere coincidence? It seems highly doubtful to me. Either way, the fight is ours now. For those of us who remember the 60's, let's hope we learned our lessons well. The future just may depend on it. Peace & Solidarity Always!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting (reposting from Fb) Vicenzo. I agree. A whole generation or more will now miss the experience. What remedy? Revisiting lessons and articles from that period might help. Zinn essays, I.F, Stone pieces, write our history, not let it be written for us. A People's History of Higher Education.
Deletei haven't posted to the threads you mention or read more than a few comments - rent is too depressing really - but have an unusual housing situation so will think about it and posting here too.
ReplyDeletei don't care that much about names. whatever most are comfortable with is fine by me except that i prefer not having a special proffie sounding title. that sets me apart from friends working other jobs under same conditions and feels like putting on airs.
i prefer discussing other topics. can we post links here too like on alas?
Let us know when you do ~ post the comment or comment link here too.
DeleteJoe Berry and I both lean to precariat and precarious faculty. Call a spade a spade. That also identifies us with other precarious workers.
And yes, you can post links here: writing something brief about them would be appreciated.
We rave about our professors, we go on about our instructors, but how many really know that we make less than the person standing at the counter at Target? Please make a stink: if we don't stick together, and we don't promote ourselves and our own cause, we won't get anywhere. Don't let this injustice continue! Sign and share this petition with everyone! http://signon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=426534
ReplyDeleteEmbedded as an active link (for anyone too lazy to copy/paste into a new browser window: Ana's Better Pay for Adjuncts petition
DeletePS I'm still planning that post about adjunct petitions and other individual actions and thinking about a mutual petition support campaign as regular feature. An "Activist's Click Corner"?