Tag: writing
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FORGETTING IT’S A MAN’S WORLD
Sometimes, I forget what a f*&ked up, paranoid, white, straight man’s world my husband deals with most days, mostly because I am way too busy dealing with the f*@ked up world most women have to deal with. My husband’s a teacher and a lifelong public servant, so his time is spent writing lectures, grading papers,…
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MANIPULATION
When I teach composition at the college level, I tell my students on the first day: “If you have failed this course once, stay after class so you can make an appointment with me.” I hold office hours every day after all my classes for all my students. I give all my students 20 minutes…
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FAKE FAMILY PHOTOS
On the first day of class, I give my students the same direction: “This is the hand signal. [I show them a hand signal] When you see it, quietly gather your belongings and leave the room.” One time, when I saw a student having emotional problems, I used it. After the other students left the…
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Getting Back at People or Solving a Problem to Make the World a Better Place: Empathy
My husband and I have a problem where we live: our accents. We can’t hide the fact that we are from the North. We have another problem: unlike most of the other residents in North Carolina, we are bleeding-heart liberal Democrats. In a town as small as ours, as soon as Trump was re-elected, we…
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POOP MACHINES
This morning, my beloved husband passed his gastroenterology procedure with flying colors. He is good for another ten years, in theory. We live in a small community, and it took all of fourteen minutes to drive from our home and walk through the lobby doors of our hospital this morning. Our hospital is a modern…
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Poetry, Eve as Hero
One semester I taught a course on poetry. Each day I handed out copies of the poems we would discuss the next class, and I encouraged my students to mark them up and when we had the discussion the next class day to keep taking notes. There is an Adam and Eve Poem tradition in…
Mary Louise Penaz 