Category Archives: Anthropology

I spent nearly all day yesterday working on an especially extensive job application.  I’m not exactly sure what the job would be, but the position would be in my brother’s school district.  He works for IDEA schools in the Rio Grande Valley, a group of charter schools providing schooling to kids in the area from lower socio-economic backgrounds.  They’re undergoing rapid expansion in the district, and are always looking for young talent.

So, I was asked to turn in an application.  I’m not sure why I decided to give it a shot.  I don’t like that area of the world, to the extent that I would be near miserable living down there.  It simply doesn’t mesh with my lifestyle.

I ripped through the entire application, composing thoughtful answers and crafting a package that really represented me and my way of thinking.  Then I got to the last box, right below where I uploaded my resume, asking me to upload a “philosophy of education” statement.  I thought “that’s new…  lets google it.”  A philosophy of education is basically a concise summary regarding your opinion of how students learn best, the role of the teacher in the learning process, how classrooms should be run/organized, and/or what you hope to achieve as a teacher.  Some can get incredibly cliche/Miss America-esque.  “I believe that every child is unique and deserves an equal chance…blah blah blah.”  But some are also quite direct, challenging and confronting traditional ideas of westernised schooling and proposing fairly radical approaches in their place.

While I’m definitely a newcomer on the side of first-hand experience, I’m not quite a stranger when it comes to educational philosophy.  Most of my influences come from slightly alternative ways of thinking – Paulo Freire, Marshall Rosenberg, Bell Hooks – people who challenge the traditional student/teacher dichotomy, and domination/submission roles displayed in schools.  I believe in a slightly more organic approach to finding and developing knowledge, one that harnesses the power of community and collective thinking.  I see teachers more as a guide to finding knowledge, rather than the source of knowledge.

I studied rhetoric for too long to begin writing this statement without first getting an impression of what my audience is like, so I paged through the school’s website to get a better idea.  I’m still not sure I liked what was presented.  It’s a school where “student achievement is the bottom line”, and appears to focus primarily on the product over the process.  The parent testimonies talk of their children worrying about their grades.  Students wear uniforms and are expected to follow a fairly strict set of rules governing appearance and behavior.  It’s placing kids into a mold of American society I’m not quite sure I agree with.

That’s just not me.  That’s not how I think kids learn best, or become the building blocks to shape a healthy and functional world.  I might still submit an application, but I think the best move would be to talk to someone or drop by the school to get a better idea.  I’m a bit too careful with my future to haphazardly jump into something…  At least the whole process got me thinking again.  I revisited a few authors on my bookshelf, and really pondered over things quite deeply.  We’ll see what it leads to.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a free evening after a workday.  Work has been busy – the last few days we’ve almost quadrupled our typical weekday sales numbers.  It keeps me on my toes a little, but I really do have a low key and low stress job.  I wish I could say the same for how my co-workers respond to pressure though; some of them really start to freak out and get sloppy when things get moving.  I probably spent the first hour this morning just cleaning up after yesterday’s mess.  Oh well.  Things will be changing soon.

Changing because, after the holidays, we are going to be dead.  The retail industry just won’t be able to reasonably survive in our knee-deep-in-shit economy.  And, changing because I’ve put myself back on the employment market.  I was checking up on the Wright House Wellness Center website a few days ago.  The Wright House is an Austin non-profit working against HIV/AIDS in the east-Austin community; I was introduced to their work when exploring the issue in a Medical Anthropology class my senior year.  Anyway, they have an outreach position open, and I jumped on the opportunity.  It’d give me a chance to apply my degree, which was primarily focused at the intersection between social inequality and public health, and really be a positive force in my east-Austin community.  I hope it goes somewhere.

This next bit of information will get it’s own post, so the google search bots hit on it easier, but think an OnGuard Doberman Combo lock and a hammer.  What a disappointing product.

I rode to work this morning; it was a little warmer than usual, hovering around 40 degrees.  I was comfortably warm, and still like my pricey clothing.  I did do laundry this afternoon though, which I don’t like, but had been putting off for quite a while.  I usually wait until my garments get a marginally poor score on the tried-and-tested sniff test until retiring them to the wash-me pile; I’m pretty sure each piece saw at least three days of use.  Now, before your forehead wrinkles in disgust, let me say: 1) stains and/or food products are an instant F; 2) smoky bar smell gets a F; 3) I wear a lot of naturally oder resistant fabrics, and my non-natural resist oder too; 4) I take showers.  No need for alarm.

I go back to work tomorrow afternoon until late in the evening, so my moments in this particular situation of leisure with dark windows is limited.  It’s nice to reflect on my day, listening to some chill music and covertly watching people around me.  Life is good.  I think I’ll turn away from the computer now, and hit my new book…

It bums me out to see so many single occupancy vehicles on our city streets.  Large cars, mid-sized cars, small cars – they’re all designed to carry four or more people at one time, yet all we ever see is a lone driver toiling towards their destination.  I just don’t get it.

Of course there’s the environmental side of this problem; there’s also the negative repercussions on city planning and wasted spaces.  What disturbs me most is the terrible inefficiency of it all, and the ever growing list of unnecessary complications such a ridiculous transportation choice adds to life.  Cars take money to use and maintain – obviously – which equates to more time in the cubicle or away from the people and places that ignite happiness.  If you’re driving because you live too far from the places you need to be, why are you living there in the first place?  If you’re driving to the grocery store because you believe it’s not possible to carry the food you need on a bicycle or bus, try reconsidering what you buy at the grocery store.  Shy away from bulky processed foods in boxes – fresh foods are denser, pack down smaller, and are better for you anyways.  Or make more frequent and smaller trips; find a new recipe to cook every other evening, and ride your bike to the store to get the ingredients.

One of my favorite professors at UT would sometimes talk about “the iPod culture”.  He was referring to how, in our modern state, individuals are becoming more and more isolated.  We prefer to shove little speakers into our ears, shutting out the outside world, instead of embracing our social nature and communicating with our neighbor.  I see this happening with our single occupancy vehicle craze too; people shutting themselves out from the outside world.  I think that social inequality makes people uncomfortable, and while many would never admit it, maintaining that social distance between rich and poor is why public transit is slow to catch on.  Perhaps if more people took the bus, sitting in their tailored suits next to a homeless man wearing a tattered t-shirt, experiencing reality first hand, more people would be inspired to change it.

I think companies can and should do more to alleviate this problem as well.  At REI, we get some cool incentives each day we eliminate a single occupancy vehicle from the road, adding up to [more] in-store discounts and such.  We have an employee shower.  We have a tailored space indoors for bike parking.  Lots of little things that add up – and work.  I’ve seen the conversions first hand.  But few companies care about the welfare of their employees, and social and environmental responsibility is a joke.

I wish there was some magical catalyst for change, but it’s difficult to be optimistic.  Our society’s social and environmental problems are so deeply rooted – seeing the single occupancy vehicle is just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

There may be thirty people sitting in this class this morning – about half of the total number of students registered; the professor doesn’t take attendance, and I’m assuming that only half of those who bother to show up are actually interested.  I look around this classroom, especially at the ones who are asleep or not focused on the lecture, and wonder why – of all the places in the world to be – they are here.  Most probably just want the degree at the end of their term.  In fact, it seems like fewer and fewer students are coming to the university for the pleasure of learning, instead just treating it as stepping stone to middle class happiness.  It’s disappointing.

I’m always interested by the actions of people in this university environment; in particular, those who adhere to the implied formalities of this place, and those who seem to ignore this cultural foundation altogether.  My favorite to watch – least favorite to be in proximity to – is the chronic classroom diner.  S/he finds it imperative to bring a greasy paper bag of fast food to class each day, reeking that fatty fried food smell into the entire room.  Everything this student touches turns into an oil spill, which is especially disgusting in computer equipped classrooms.  And day after day, the fast food comes in and is consumed noisily and hastily, with seemingly no regard to what exactly s/he is putting into his/her body.  Absolutely disgusting.  Other variants of this individual include the “Starbucks Super-sized Orange Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino with Extra Whipped Cream and Chocolate Sauce” girl, who, after sucking down 1200 calories in a cup each morning, wonders why her gym regimen doesn’t seem to be working.

And, is the university considered a workplace anymore?  A long time ago, students used to wear suits to class, and the classroom was considered a very prestigious and professional environment.  Now, it looks like half of these kids woke up ten minutes before class, threw on whatever pair of jeans and dirty t-shirt they could find on the floor, and stumbled hung-over down the road to class.  The girls especially seem to have taken a huge hit from this trend, with the extreme over use of short track shorts, flip-flops, and the assorted t-shirt.  Have some pride in your appearance!  Students seem to be migrating to this common middle ground of mediocrity – looking like trash, turning in trashy work, trashing their money at a place they clearly don’t want to be, and then accepting a lifestyle that’s been dictated to them by the outside world.

I’ve always liked the big backpack people too, who somehow feel it necessary to bring every book for every class to campus each day, along with their 10 pound laptop, change of clothes, large water bottle, umbrella, rain jacket, three course meal in individual Tupperware containers, one notebook for each class, day planner, two pens, and two pencils.  This person awkwardly waddles into class, legs trembling under the tremendous load, out of breath with sweat glistening off the forehead.  They disturb six people around them as they try to get the mammoth from the shoulder to the floor, knocking off the Starbucks girl’s $12 Frappuccino in the process.

Yes, that is the university classroom in a nutshell.  I’m glad I won’t be back for a while…