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Generalist — one who has an interest in, knowledge of many areas.

I tend to think of myself as a generalist in my specialization.  I read books, many books, but by virtue of teaching literature and having more than one prep, and belonging to book clubs, and friends who read . . . I generalize.

Renaissance men (and women) have always amazed me.  Leonardo da Vinci drawing, inventing, jumping; Ben Franklin with his moral code, making deals with France, and examining electricity; Bruce Wayne developing a bat cave, dating, saving the world.

Though I admire the individuals who can do all, I am definitely not a renaissance individual, except with books.  Its a secret pride for which I will go to non-library hell at some point, but almost always when a student chooses a book, I have read it whether Ender’s Game or Freakonomics.

But I want to specialize too.  What deeper knowledge is to be had if I finish Moby Dick, in fact reread Billy Budd, read all of Hawthorne with his connections of hidden sin, cross the ocean to Dumas?  Of course, there are classes in this, but the realizations seem to be mine.

However, due to work, I also read the 75 essays turned in this week, examine student blogs, finished Tom Perotta’s new novel, reread Othello, watch Zefferilli’s opera, and consider wish for the time to specialize.

This flitting from topic to topic is what we bemoan we do to our students, yet so rarely does this seem to be solved.

I asked my students to (just for a week) specialize on a topic, whatever that might be.  Ack!! What’s the specialization?

   A BBC report caught my eye last week.  Apparently, some Greenpeace activists claim they were roughed up by Japanese whalers.  The Japanese whalers say they held the two men in the hold until the officials could claim the “terrorists.”  The two men say the whalers not only detained them illegally, but tied them to a radar mast “with a plastic cord” according to an article in The Guardian by Justin McCurry.  

  Tensions are high.  Australia and Japan are having conflicts over Japan whaling in what Australia claims is its territorial waters.  Japan states differently.  The U.S. and others state that Japan’s whaling for “scientific” purposes is patently a cover for commercial gain, and therefore, should be halted. Notice how the quotation marks around “scientific” call Japan’s motives into question.

 

I remember at some young age in some crowded place a T-shirt that said “Save the Whales.”  Who hasn’t seen or heard this logo in the States?  So ubiquitous is the statement that it becomes a satiric characterization for comedy.  I didn’t know the meaning.  I didn’t know what a whale was (being from a landlocked state), and I didn’t know why I should care once it was explained. 

Now years later I still wonder the answers to these questions.  What is the meaning of “Saving the Whales”? Why has this become such a call for environmentalists.  As of 1997 (slightly old data, I know) there were 790,000 minke whales recorded in the ocean.  Yes, is this less than the past?  Duh.  How many buffalo roam the plains compared to the past?  How many elk and antelope, yet these still are killed for meat and other by products.  So why are the whales a rallying cry? 
 

What is a whale?  Some claim its intelligence above other animals.  Maybe. I am definitely not an expert, but I also claim the intelligence of a woman in Somalia and they are still hunted for their “meat.” 

If I am told again and again that whales need saving, I can’t help but look to the opposite argument.  I have an acquaintance that stopped speaking to me last year as I argued for the value of Crichton’s book that states that much of the global warming debate is just fear mongering.  He said that the idea that such an uneducated individual teaching the young minds of today makes him shiver.  Sorry, I’m built this way, and I can’t help but look to the “other” side.

So I read an essay written by Kaori Nakai for her Anthropology class in 1997 which comes semi-close to being unbiased in the writing.  I do learn quite a bit about Japanese justifications.  I am now convinced that “Save the Whales” is a political issue (and yes, environmental) that has much more to do with culture and unvoiced assumptions than what most of the participants’ acknowledge. 

 

I wonder what Ishmael would say?

 

 

My fingers freeze over the keyboard. I place my hands in my lap. I remember grading that needs done, an e-mail that needs answered, that I want to play the piano proficiently in another five years.

I’m supposed to be starting my blog as that is what I will be demanding of the students. I definitely have writing terror considering a blog. The sad thing is that I would love to have my own blog, but as a wise co-worker said, I need to be modeling for students, future employers could google me and read the blog and Sally from Wallyhoo, Idaho could become a new blog buddy. This blog then becomes my public face. With that thought, it freaks me out to know the semi-importance of the voice and the musings.

Of course, I so casually ask my students to do the same task. Are they experiencing the same frozen sensation? Are they iced with a desire for the perfect communication? Or are they done, already, with the first post, waiting to post their cluster maps? Do they (and I) already have something posted that could haunt us for the next ten years.

Which leads me to ask the question about time. Should there be a moratorium on the length of blame? If Sally Idaho puts a nude picture on the net when she is 20, but now wants to run for county prosecutor, should she still be held accountable? So what if someone inhaled in youth? So what if someone has changed their position from 10 years ago to now? When does forgiveness happen? Or maybe I should just ask for my own forgiveness in two months when I have discovered what the blogging is about.

If I’m so “scared,” what is the point? I want to be a part of this new world. USA Today reports that 13% of the U.S. reports blogging and reading blogs regularly. Only 60% in the States report even reading a book, so that 13% becomes that much more significant. It’s a world I need to join.

I hope I achieve perfection and ask for forgiveness, and give you my first post.

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