The next paper for English is supposed to be 'Persuasive Writing'. An 'intensive' research paper, according to the syllabus. I only started thinking about it because I told Joe, the English professor, that my biggest hurdle to getting a paper done was coming up with a topic focused enough for a paper. Or something to that effect anyway. He suggested, in light of that comment, that I start thinking now about the next paper, which is how I started this post. Right away I came up with something I'd been thinking about just the day before. Female Muslim dress. Not sure if it's something I could do a paper on though. I was sitting in the library with the other chemistry students in the group I meet with to study chemistry, and this Muslim woman walks by. I noticed her because at first, being a man first and foremost, all I could focus on was the large breasts jiggling beneath a paper thin white shirt, encased in a very low cut bra that did nothing to contain the massive appendages. Are breasts considered appendages? Not sure, maybe I should ask my Physiology professor. Somehow I don't think he would be amused. Anyway, obviously she wasn't wearing the traditional garb. Well, you could tell she was Muslim because she was wearing the head scarf. She did have a sweater on, but it was button front, open to expose the jello-like udders. (Love those metaphors, even though they probably wouldn't be appropriate nowhere else outside this private musing)

This got me thinking about the purpose of this woman's dress. The 'traditional' garb for them is to cover up, and she has the head scarf, but chooses to display her chest in a fashion that is obviously contrary to the spirit of the traditional way of dressing. THAT got me thinking about the traditional dress, and the fundamental reasons for it, and the group and I discussed it on the way to class. Why the dress code in the first place? I assume it's so that they don't present themselves in a tempting way to men. Does that mean that women are the root of sexual evil? Why is it the woman's responsibility to ease the 'tensions' in this respect? It's ok to require women to cover themselves, but not ok to ask men to control themselves. I was thinking if I could use this line of thought in a research paper, among other things.

While pondering the next assignment, I started an email to my English professor. This is the email I probably will never send, mainly because I don't want to waste his time. Just started thinking about shit and got carried away. Haven't updated this thing in a while, so I decided it should just go here along with the shit above.....

Hello Joe, This is why it seems the schoolwork never gets done like it should. I got to thinking about the subject for the next paper, my wife said she did a paper on chocolate, and we got to talking about research in general, how it's so much easier when you can 'google' so much. It got me thinking about how my kids can't get away from the expectation to be spoon fed information, and I remarked that the information is there, and they have no desire for it... but take it away, and all of a sudden it's like the candy in the window they can't have. I decided to read the syllabus, and it talks about subjects out of the book to 'make it easier' on us. So I found the book, cracked it, and after looking at the Michael Moore excerpt I never finished, the next caught my eye. Gatto talks about the stuff he teaches kids in reality, outside of the content. Under Intellectual Dependency he says "Good students wait for a teacher to tell them what to do." (Geez, that looks too much like it belongs in a paper!!) It's so true, I remember some of the astonished and dismayed looks when you answered the question of how long the first paper needs to be with, "As long as it needs to be." I saw my kids sitting there, thinking the same things. They want everything spoon fed. Dr Pollard, the Chemistry professor, uses the term all the time. He requires everyone to think in his class, and scoffs at those that want him to just stand in front of the class and do problems. I've considered going to class with a spoon around my neck, or asking the students in my study group to march past him holding spoons at present arms, but he always seems a little shocked and dismayed at my attempts at humor. It's not that he expects blind reverence because he's a 'doctor', at least I don't think that's the case, but more I think because he just expects a normal student's interaction.