toosuto | *sigh*

So my intent to teach my students about the following photographers has been quashed in the name of "potential problems for Gonzaga Prep" :

Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston and Annie Liebowitz, some of the most influential photographers out there and I cannot have my students respond critically to their work. The really funny thing is that I would expect a Jesuit institution to produce students that were capable of handling the material. They produced me. I am not sure how much being an educator in this environment actually interests me. The head of the department was very irritated as well since she's taught Weston specifically for years as well as the others as well...

In other news I have squeezed out my latest illustration work, hopefully there won't be too many text edits tomorrow (their deadline was Monday but since I didn't get approved roughs/edits until the end of the day Friday (before I was effectively out of town...)

The birthday weekend was great. We went out for tapas on Friday which was 100% delicious. We were still home with the Monkey™ by 8:30 pm and in bed relatively soon after. Saturday was Aikido all the time and it rocked and the exercise endorphins left me feeling even better than Friday. Sunday was a little bit of a downer as I had to squeeze in all the paper grading and loose preparation for the school week into mid-day but it got better since we had a family dinner for my birthday as well as my da's and aunt's. This week's off to an anxious start but it's nearly half over and all the WORK WORK WORK bits are pretty much done.

Um, so that's the long version of: I'm still here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You should check out some library books on them and keep them in a bag. Read the books on the sly during breaks in class. When somebody asks you what you're reading, say "Oh, it's just about some famous photographers. I'm not gonna teach it because it's really not appropriate for high school students. I don't think you guys would like it, anyway." Don't let them look at the books. Leave the bag next to the desk when you run to the bathroom.

The irony (I am misusing irony here, I should say, "The sad fact is...") is I was working with Sara to borrow the books I needed from her school library because Prep's school library has no photography art books. I may very well do something of the kind, I am very very grumpy about this. I give censorship the fingers!

My high school banned a book from being taught in civil rights class because it talked about teenagers gang raping a girl and committing other crimes (it was a memoir written by a former inmate who turned his life around). 1 parent freaked out, so the teacher had to stop teaching it in the middle of the book. So it instantly became the most popular book in the school. All the kids in the school who weren't in the class borrowed the 30 or so copies from the kids that were, and then suddenly everyone was reading it. And now -- as the teacher pointed out to the administration -- all these kids were reading it without adult supervision.

I am greatly tempted to have assignments to not learn more about photographers on the weeks I would have introduced them...

"This week I do not want a paper on Edward Weston as none of you are mature enough to view his work without proper guidance and supervision."

Sadly, this does not surprise me. Of course, I was asked to confirm a rumor that somebody in Honors was *gasp* practicing Satanism.

Kristan was doing research and had checked out a book on Alasteir Crowley.

I was also asked about the term "couch orgy." (Everybody piled on the couch, usually watching a movie.)

Or do you remember the freaking out about the signage for "A Bright Room Called Day"? The anti-nazis attacking the signs for an anti-nazi play...

I will admit to ignoring a lot of A Bright Room Called Day stuff because I found Vince to be a crazy person. I am still deadly allergic to Godspell. That production was so off that when

secret_hippie saw it at St. George's last week she thought it was a different play...

Had Vince let me re-arrange the music for Godspell like I had offered to do (given that I had performed the play before), it would have been a vastly more coherent play.

I'm not bitter or anything either.

The music was worth remembering at least!

It was. Vince deleted the first 15 pages of the script of "Godspell", and then added his own scenes throughout the play. It was completely against copyright law. He was molding the play to be a dire warning for the rest of us that the end times were coming in 2000.

I'm not kidding. That's why he joined the priesthood. When the world didn't end, he left the priesthood. Which is just as well, since he was sleeping with GU students.

Yeah, I'm still bitter about being in that show, so I'm sharing all the details...

*shudder* I glad I dodged that bullet...

But didn't prep also do some "out there" plays? Like the one with the rape scene!! I remember it! Or have a student smoking on stage. At the time I thought that was pretty radical for any high school. My high school would have never done that kind of work. Am i crazy? Did I remember wrong? Seems weird they would get uptight about art. How sad.

I can't remember the play but yeah, it was the rape of Philomele (or however it's spelled). But no smoking teens, that part is crazy talk...

oh no i remember, the kid was playing a priest and i think it was the opening scene and he was smoking....a cigarette. For reals ya'll.

why so surprised? we've experienced the dumbing down of america non-stop for the last eight years. it's what happens when right wing fanatics get ahold of money and politicians. :0 ooooh noooo.

sigh

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censorship