I've been feeling a little lethargic the past few months.
While people have come to visit (Hi, Mom! Hi, Erin!), and I've been able to do a lot of things (read: see and discuss lots of Broadway shows), the lack of classes in my life made my life seem humdrum. The academic grounding that I had in Minneapolis with the the semesters of classes that I took while working at the University helped to fight off the stifling effects of exhaustion from a day-to-day work-life, the off-stage diva-like drama of doing shows, the boredom of merely getting by in life, and the solipsism of individual reading and monologuing that comes from trying to study alone without other co-learners for dialogue.
But yesterday, I started classes, again.
Officially, the first day of classes was Monday, but I am not counting that day. That day was disappointing and made me dread what was to come. We were stuck in a classroom where the chairs were bolted to the floor in rows. We had no common text from which to work. We didn't know each other. It was basically everything that this class is about resisting in the educational system.
However, after yesterday's class, I was so energized that I couldn't focus on the reading for today. My mind kept returning to the class we just "finished": ways of exploring the themes further, exercises that could expand the theories, delving deeper into the dramatic elements to learn more from our co-students. I had to stop reading and put it off until this morning. I am looking forward to waking up early (hours before I have to be at work) in order to read before the workday starts.
I won't be able to do justice in recreating the environment of a physicalized and experiential class, but I will try to give glimpses of the work that most inspires me.
Posted by silsby at June 28, 2006 10:05 AM