Some advice concerning children

Xanga still hasn’t expelled me. Come on, Xanga! I’m weary of the suspense.

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Some good news: the English Department at IU South Bend is hiring me to teach first-year composition. Unexpectedly, I’m even being offered two class sections. So after a year outside of the classroom I’ll be teaching more students than ever, and in a new discipline.

This job should make me a lot better at teaching writing. At Cornell I taught writing-intensive philosophy courses, but this course at IU is pretty much only about writing.

I’m excited.

Credit goes to my buddy Andrew for encouraging me to apply and for agreeing to be my faculty mentor.

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One more thing: it’s been fourteen days since I was last in the church nursery, watching the little kids during their mothers’ weekly prayer meeting. I miss those kids. It took about a month for them to decide that they could have fun with me, but as soon as they did, it was a hoot. The breakthrough came when I pretended to throw up. Everybody, if you want children to like you, just pretend to throw up.

I expect to use this tactic in my courses at IU.