Peda-googe

First off, I didn't invent the term. Erik did. At least, I think it was Erik.
Second off, I don't have a great deal of time to write as I will soon be leaving for Amherst to have my first beer with my fellow grad students. I'm sure I'll write more about this subject tomorrow.
Regardless, it's Thursday and I have recently finished the four day long seminar in how to teach Freshman Composition, which means that I have recently had my first brush with the composition department, and let me just say....it really wasn't that painful. It didn't have that air of people who really wanted to be Kindergarten teachers being forced to teach composition the way that Chico did. No, these seemed to be normal people. They were focused. Most of their suggestions were based off teaching writing--rather than hurting feelings, and I never had the sense that I was being converted. All in all, not too bad.
I have enough information to fill three blogs, but not the time. So, I'll just say this interesting fact. Nobody is from California, but strangely, nobody is from Massachusetts either--which is strangely comforting.
Why? Well, I guess I really sort of feel out of place for one reason or another, and it's good that everyone else feels out of place too. There aren't any clicks. There really isn't a cultural "norm." If you try and lump the people together you end up failing miserably, because how do you lump a group of four people together and give a regional feel to my experience when one person is from New York city, one person is from Tallahassee, one is from Lufkin, Texas, and another is from Pettsamaquo, Pennsylvania. Anyways, I'm going to ABC (Amherst Brewing Company) so I'll catch everyone else up tomorrow.