Babe, You Sound Like a Baby!!

Women with baby voices:
Today I heard an interview with a senior partner in a law firm, but before the interviewer identified her, I thought he was talking to a 5 year old girl. Not what she was saying, but her baby-like voice.
Am I the only one concerned about American women increasingly sounding like babies when they talk? You know what I mean: high in the throat, quick and annoying sounding. Just like a little girl. Why do they (you) talk like that? Europeans don’t. Asians don’t. Africans don’t. But American women from these groups do. Conclusion: This is a cultural phenomenon. A LEARNED habit
Think. A woman is interviewing for a job and sounds like a baby. Strike one before she says anything. She sounds whiney and tentative. Strike two.
The normal human voice is produced in the larynx, low in the throat. Anyone can make their voice sound like a little girl by moving the sound up into the back of the throat. But why the hell do that? American women need a good dose of speech therapy to get back to a melliferous sound. A purring murmur. Sexy or direct, anything but babyish. Come on women. Listen.
Read the LA Times article cited below for a more complete discussion. See? I’m not the only one the notices these things, and, gets concerned.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum7jul07,0,7903770.column
Image: www.babytalk.co.za/babyTalkLogo.jpg

Doctrine of Unintended Consequences

I sit here this afternoon, humbled and teary (Oh Search, not again!). The little essay on ratemyprofessor was, as many of my musings, a way for me to work through something. It helped, and publishing seems to be part of the help, at least for me. After I posted, I thought “Well, there was some whining Woody. (Searchie-pie to one of you)” But I don’t take down things I post, so there it sat. The responses were humbling. And yes, very pleasing too.
As I move away from the center of my career to the fringes, I can’t help wonder sometimes what good has come of it? I have been known to be a bit pessimistic about some things from time to time, and recently more than earlier. But not here. Not with My TU Students. I know to the marrow how hard you worked, in fact how hard I worked most of you. I know you left my domain knowing a lot of content and for many knowing how to think analytically. Still, as most teachers know, you let them go with a hope and prayer and mostly never hear how they did.
I did not write the essay to winkle kind thoughts or praise or anything really. I wrote to clarify in my own mind the seeming decline of Me. And I think I got it: different venue, different perception. Many of my Students will remember me talking about the “Doctrine of Unintended Consequences”. This is a perfect example.
Thank you for the unintended consequence. And the blub.
Image: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=254327

RateMyProfessor: Oops, Is That ME?

The last time I looked at my TU ratings I scored 4.7 out of 5. Not too shabby. The comments were positive with words like “Awesome” “Great” and other superlatives. Great for the ego.
So today I looked at my TCC ratings from 3 students based on my classes from the spring of 2010. I scored 3.4 out of 5 with comments like “He doesn’t teach much, but gives bonus points.” What the HELL? Is this the same professor? Then it hit me. Yes, it is the same professor, but TCC is all labs with no real chance to teach content. All show and tell. All models. And, my classes were way above the average in both grades and retention. Disconnect? I think so. My lab teaching technique, developed over decades of teaching (too many decades maybe?) is to NOT give people the answers to questions like “Is this the right or left clavicle?” My answer: “I don’t know. Let’s try to figure it out.” Then I show them how to figure it out, without ever telling them the answer. Works like a charm and before long they burrow into material on their own. And they don’t realize they have learned to learn. Probably the most important thing anyone can learn.
So I feel bad about the ratings and comments, but understand that learning to learn is not as apparent as memorizing a list of bones. I can’t wait to see the ratings from this term. Maybe I will soar up to 3.5.
Image: www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3157622170/

Thanks.

Thanksgiving. I have been thinking about thanksgiving and all the church signs I see around with some variant of "Thank God" for something. That got me in a really negative mode because there is no doubt that if you thank some being for the good things then you must hold that same being responsible for the bad things. At least as I see it. Then I read a blog (1) posted by one of my favorite authors, a woman suffering and possibly dying from MS. She shamed me with her long list of “thanks” without once thanking any kind of god. I went back over my own thoughts and did after all find lots of things to be thankful for. Thank you to Sally for all the years you have put up with and loved me. Grateful for being alive and relative healthy, not rich, but not poor either, good friends, and the list got longer and longer.
With deities off the table, anyone can be grateful for anything. Or appreciative even. Like a beautiful sunrise or powerful storm. A poem or novel or play or symphony. Anything. Negative just slips away.
So I think my point is this: If you feel the need to thank some god for everything good that ever happens, then you should hold some god responsible for the times when things go wrong. “Thank you God for the food on our table, but where are you when people are starving in the Sudan?” And “Thank you God for protecting my child while she was deployed in Afghanistan, but where were you when other children were shredded by IEDs? And by the way, why are we at war anyway? If you are so powerful and loving, surely you could solve that little problem without butchering thousands of innocent people?”
Get the point? No praise without responsibility.

1. “A Writers Thanksgiving” : http://asknicola.blogspot.com/2010/11/writers-thanksgiving.html
Image: iskcon.net.au