Ah, I like that Peanuts comic! Note that it's date is September 6 (9-6), which means that the new American school year is about to start for the kids. Charlie Brown's little sister Sally HATES school and panics every time a new year begins, but in this rare occasion, she has found a belief to keep her calm. . . Poor girl!
Anyway. I just finished my first week of the new school semester (in Japan the new year begins in April, but we have had a little summer vacation, so it's a little like how American kids feel after their LONG summer vacations). It was a difficult week of classes (really only three days, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday), because my wife and I had just returned from a ten-day trip to Croatia and Vienna (I'm working on choosing some photos to put in the "About Me" page of this website), and because in addition to jet lag, I was suffering from a pretty bad cold I caught on the return flight to Japan. Wednesday I had only one class (Freshman English for economics majors, basically an Eikaiwa or English Conversation class), but I also had two meetings and had to get ready for the next days' classes too. Thursday I had a first period Eikaiwa class for second-year English majors (poor kids hate getting up so early...), a third period graduate school class with my super PhD student Sheryl (we talked about gothic, American gothic, and some books that she'd read over vacation), and then a fourth period mostly third-year English major American culture class (Kakuron) in which I told them about various American September seasons beginning or going strong in September: school, football, TV, and Halloween. And about the 9/11 memorial practices. . . When I told the culture class about my graduate school days friend Peter, who lost his wife on 9/11 on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, and about how he was one of the few Americans not eager for a war of justice against Afghanistan (let alone Iraq), I got choked, which, coupled with my cold, had my nose running pretty seriously. It was near the end of class, luckily. And after class, one of the funny energetic boys who sits in the back, Hiroki, gave me his small packet of tissue papers, which was a really sweet gesture--until back in my office I used it and found that all the papers smelled strongly of cigarettes! He must be a smoker... Friday I had the first period Introduction to American Culture and Literature class for first-year students (though there are also 23 older students who've failed the class in the past on the class list...), and I told them about the ex-police officer Stockley's acquittal for killing Anthony Lamar Smith and the ensuing demonstrations in St. Louis. I did this in the context of beginning our first unit this semester, on African American history, culture, and literature (all in three weeks!). Sadly, last year I could begin the class with the same kind of thing at this time of year, but for Ferguson etc... in that frame of mind, I've begun reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' letter-book to his son, Between the World and Me (2016) and am finding it powerful, accurate, clear, calm, sad, hopeful, and committed. Right: so another semester is under way! See you next weekend-- JP
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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