the good, the bad, the ugly
First, the good: I finally got in a formal Navajo class. I'm super excited. It's 2 evenings a week, 1.5 hours a class.
The bad: I'm thinking very hard about bailing on Flagstaff and going back East until I start Grad School next fall. There are a whole bunch of reasons mixed together like a really emo smoothie. Call or email me--I'll tell you all about it.
Now the ugly: one of my students friends was shot and killed by police officers this weekend. Flagstaff has a "gang problem," see, which is really no much more so than any little city, but made more vicious and apparent by the fact that the gangs are all Native and the cops are all white. Anyway, dude broke down crying in my office yesterday. He's only 16. In situations like this, I have no idea what to do or say. I know how to teach anything you put in front of me. I'm learning how to motivate my students and I'm even putting the finishing touches on the anti-dominant culture rant that I inflict on my classes from time to time. But this--I feel so fucking out of my element here.
www.azdailysun.com/articles/2006/08/22/news/20060822_news_23.txt
The bad: I'm thinking very hard about bailing on Flagstaff and going back East until I start Grad School next fall. There are a whole bunch of reasons mixed together like a really emo smoothie. Call or email me--I'll tell you all about it.
Now the ugly: one of my students friends was shot and killed by police officers this weekend. Flagstaff has a "gang problem," see, which is really no much more so than any little city, but made more vicious and apparent by the fact that the gangs are all Native and the cops are all white. Anyway, dude broke down crying in my office yesterday. He's only 16. In situations like this, I have no idea what to do or say. I know how to teach anything you put in front of me. I'm learning how to motivate my students and I'm even putting the finishing touches on the anti-dominant culture rant that I inflict on my classes from time to time. But this--I feel so fucking out of my element here.
www.azdailysun.com/articles/2006/08/22/news/20060822_news_23.txt