About 8 years ago on Hallowe'en, a little 7 year old boy dressed in a pink tutu and tiara and ballet shoes came to my door trick or treating. His father, a big man in a letterman's jacket, and his mother, watched protectively from the sidewalk.This little boy got to wear the costume he wanted, because his parents loved him that much. I told him he looked wonderful and he got this sweet smile, as did his parents. I was so touched and will never forget him or his amazing parents. f

Why Sexual Predators Hurt Us All, and I'm talking "Respectable" men When I was 27 years old and the wife of a seminary student, I rode my bike to and from a job where I counted money for a Christian radio ministry in Pasadena, CA. I worked in a room of 6 women. On my ride home, a guy pulled up next to me in his car and exposed himself and started masturbating. I was shocked, disgusted and pissed. I went home and told my husband, who thought it was hilarious, which pissed me off even more. I went in to work the next day and told my female co-workers what had happened, and 4 of the other women had also had ti happen to them, but didn't say anything. Now I'm really pissed and I called the cops and told them what happened. They visited me at work, showed me a lineup of photos and I picked him out immediately. The 4 other women came out one by one and each picked the same guy as I did and he was arrested later that day. A married guy in his thirties with a wife and little children. Earlier in life I escaped an attempted rape, was unwillingly grabbed and kissed by a coworker, and was married to an emotionally abusive, pornography using, peep show attending husband for 22 years. My "relatively unscathed life" is nothing compared to friends and students who have suffered much worse. This is why this Kavanaugh thing deeply hurts and angers all right thinking people so much.And ultimately, this is about honoring Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Dr. Anita Hill who have stood up for all of us and said, "NO!

I must preface this list, by saying I love my dogs beyond all measure. Darby Crash is the best dog I've ever had. He was named by Jim Keck Howes after a degenerate punk rocker of the 70s. And like that punker, he has a wild side. Here's the list of things Darby has chewed, torn up or otherwise destroyed over the years. A previous dog Charley taught him how and is no longer with us (also a beloved dog): 1, 2 computer cords belonging to a former partner 2. 3 cellphones 3. approximately 38 of Ed Simpson's books 4. 5 or 6 of my boooks 5. 2 library books from Wood County Library 6. the pocket of a brand new Columbia jacket (The same sewer replaced that for me 8. 15-20 ink pens (if he can't find them on the floor, he gets them off the table) 9. a $400 Pendleton Mills blanket given me by a former partner 10. any Guideposts magazines he gets off my nightstand (approximately 15) 11. a guitar case 12. the mattress pad on my bed 13. the sleeve of my Cal State Fullerton sweatshirt 14. several Christmas ornaments 15. two brand new Spitfire skateboard wheels I'm sure I'm forgetting many things. Fortunately he doesn't ingest these things.

20 years ago this week, i escaped a long, scary marriage and ran for my life with my 8 year old son to come to Bowling Green State. It felt like jumping off a cliff, leaving my friends of 16 years, Grand Valley State, where I had taught for 10 years and loved, colleagues, Edward's great Montessori school, his friends, a beautiful Arts and Crafts style house I loved and 38 rose bushes. It was so scary i could barely breathe and my first year in the PhD program, I felt like I was a secret impostor. Ed had the teacher from hell and we had no money. I came out as a lesbian (a good, but scary thing). During those years I went through financial ruin, major depression, 3 major surgeries, a scary divorce, a PhD program, a bunch of side jobs so we could eat, teaching at 2 colleges, living in 1 bedroom apartments for 6 years and sleeping on the couch, buying a house by the skin of my teeth, and searching through couch cushions and coat jackets to pay bills. I don't write this to glorify myself, but to say to any woman out there struggling against mighty odds or dying in a bad marriage, you DO have the strength to get out and start a new life. And I didn't do it alone..I had good therapists, a great sister and her family, met wonderful friends I now couldn't live without, students who have loved and supported me and made me proud, and a younger faculty here who love and respect me. I did a lot of praying. And jumping off that cliff was the best thing I ever did, apart from having my son.

When Ed was about 8, his goldfish George V, died. (Yes, there were 4 earlier and identical ones). He was heartbroken, and came to me saying, "We have to have a funeral for George." I asked what he wanted to do. He wanted a little soft cloth to wrap him in, a little box to put him in and to dig a hole in our garden. I went out to our little patio to dig a hole and he comes out with his trombone. I asked what what we were doing and he said, "Playing taps!" It was all I could do not to laugh, but I didn't because he was serious as a heart attack. So he played taps and we had a ceremony ending with him praying for George to go to heaven.

The teacher sees the students as "other", the students see the teacher as "other." My very first teaching job after I got my secondary teaching credential and Master's in secondary education was 60 miles north of where I lived in Grand Rapids, MI, in a very rural area, in a county that was the poorest in Michigan at the time and had the highest incidence of incest and child abuse. I taught in two different schools, parts of an alternative high school system. The first school was in Sand Lake, MI, for kids, mostly boys, who were kicked out of the regular high school for assaulting teachers and students, spray painting a teacher's car, shooting out the town's street lights, etc. There were a few girls who had gone missing from high school, one for a 100 days in a row, because they were being assaulted by boys at the school or by male stepfathers or boyfriends of their mothers. At night, I taught their mothers who were on welfare in a one stop town down the road called Howard City. In Michigan in the 80's, women who were on welfare were required to get their high school diplomas or GEDs in order to receive their welfare checks. These women struggled even to get there..once they enrolled in school their boyfriends or husbands either refused to bring them or consistently came home late with the car so they couldn't go. Several of us teachers would drive out in the country and get them, along with their 3, or 4 or 5 little children, who sat at the back of our classrooms and played, or caused a ruckus or colored. Many of these women didn't have running water and came dirty to class. These were poor white women, whose mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers had been on welfare. I wasn't shocked, because I spent 3 years living in a barrio in southwestern Colorado, but at the same time, I knew they considered me "other", a woman who wore dress suits and nylons to school. And I would be a liar if i didn't say I saw their lives as "Other". They were trapped in their situations with abusive boyfriends, had often been molested by fathers and uncles growing up, lived in an area where there only jobs in the carrot fields in the fall and Christmas trees in late November. I taught there for three years, and i think about them every day.

"A Change is Gonna Come"

If you can watch this without chills, you are dead

Barbie Fulfills Her Feminist Vision

At the end of a unit on body image, eating disorders, media images of women and Barbie as a cultural icon, my students in Intro to Women Studies at Bowling Green State University bring Barbies and digital cameras and take Barbie out to fulfill a more feminist vision.

My Review of Thin DVD

Originally submitted at HBO

The HBO Documentary film Thin takes us inside the walls of Renfrew Center, a residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders, closely following four young women (ages 15 - 30) who have spent their lives starving themselves, often to the verge of death. The film deftly chronicl...

Thin DVD

Powerful, realistic look

By Dr. M from Bowling Green, OH on 11/9/2011

 

4out of 5

Pros: Eating disorders, Informative, Constructions of beauty, The Beauty Myth, Women's studies

Best Uses: Adult Viewers, Women's studies classes

Describe Yourself: Casual Viewer

I use this with my women's studies classes to break through the silence around eating disorders in college women. This film is shocking, realistic and confrontational and sparks strong discussion.

(legalese)

The hunger for more

Over the last couple years, I am feeling the birth of a desire to more directly help relieve the pain and suffering of those most in need in the world. I have been teaching in college for the past 22 years and lately have experienced more and more students exhibiting a rudeness and discourtesy I would have never dreamed of performing for my own professors, or anyone else, for that matter. Mind you, this isn't a majority of my students...most are wonderful young men and women. But dealing with the obnoxious students is beginning to wear me down and make me feel that I am merely babysitting a bunch of over-entitled, over-privileged, and overgrown kids. I don't like feeling this way...I find it disturbing and disheartening. I feel less and less like what I am doing is worthwhile. I am beginning to think when I retire I will join the Peace Corps or some similar organization and try to take my skills where they will be truly useful.

The white rose..or finding things in your garden you did not expect

I have moved more times than I care to say and made gardens at all of them, including apartments. The items I have consistenly found over the years when I am digging are old marbles. It has come to be a sign of good luck for me to find them and I have a mason jar in my living room filled with them. I have yet to find one at my current home, but keep hoping. But the best treasure I uncovered happened like this:I was living in a 96 year old house in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was pregnant with my only child. There were some neighbor kids who kept cutting across my back yard through a hole in the fence and I located an old "granny gate" behind a neighbor's house, asked permission and dragged it home. I plugged the hole in the fence with it and when summer came, just before my son was born, a beautiful old-fashioned white rose grew up. My life was very difficult at this time, with an abusive husband, and that rose gave me new hope. My beautiful son was born soon after and eventually I was able to leave my husband and start a new life. That rose was such a gift.

"I hate EBSCO"

My student Brian, very frustrated, said this to me yesterday as he was trying to find sources for his research assignment. Brian is angry about a few things right now. He has a crummy math teacher who doesn't teach, an art teacher who doesn't explain anything, and now there's EBSCO, which I think is the safety valve he can release. I know that I could have spent some time with him and suggested key words, but he was so worked up, I switched him over to Google Scholar, and we went through the whole keyword process he would have used in EBSCO and found a goodly number of scholarly articles. I also called up the math dept and set him up with an appointment to discuss his complaint, and he himself made an appointment to talk with the dean of his college, so I feel like he made some progress academically, even if he didn't use EBSCO to get there.a side note: the students, many of them, have taken to calling EBSCO, "ebesco." Very cute, i think. And the same day, many students showed me their EBSCO folders with new articles.

Keep encouraging your students in their new skills

Thanks to this faculty library learning community at BGSU, I have seen tremendous growth in my students' independent use of their EBSCO accounts and folders, and of their ability to find articles. Now they tell me they check there first, before heading out to Yahoo or Google. They are now aware also of Google Scholar, of keyword searches, of checking out books from the library (I have to tell you it does my heart good to see students with library books!), of ordering books through OhioLink, to just name the beginnings. I also see students who give up the fight too easily, who want to "change their topics because they can't find anything."Instead of letting them change their topics, I call them in to work beside me, questioning them about other key ideas, suggesting possible key words, and in this way, they feel I care about their own work, that I am a "literate responder" to their scholarly interests--and they get better at deepening their thinking about their topic and at performing their database searches.These are first-year students in ENG112 at BGSU and it is a real joy to see them progress. The more able ones dive right in and ask very advanced questions, which keep me breathing as a teacher!Namaste

A 21st century guide to teaching freshmen college students to check out books from the library

I realized that my students were so comfy looking up articles in EBSCO from computer labs and their dorm rooms and didn't know how to actually check out books from the library. So I asked them to meet me, class by class at our wonderful college library. They were visibly scared:). I made this handout because I knew they had no idea how to find actual BOOKS in the library. I also have a high capacity for cracking myself up, so that explains some of the handout too. If others can use this, just adapt it to your own school. It worked pretty well with some coaching and encouragement, and some of my students, who are now 7 months into their college education, have just checked out books for the first time!

Dr. Cynthia Mahaffey
Bowling Green State University
ENG112 Actual Library Visit

Finding books on your topic for Multiple Source Essay #2 (Paper #3)

Today, we’re visiting our great library, Jerome Library. Your mission is to find at least two BOOKS on your topic. Use this paper to write down items as you go.

First, think about the social issue you want to tackle for this paper. Remember, the format is just like Multiple Source Essay #1, but you are picking the topic. So let’s start there, with a research question which you will make into an argument thesis:
How does______________affect____________in_______________?
(variable) (variable) (population)

Variables could be issues like: poverty, depression, heterosexuality, schooling, school funding, racial discrimination, profiling, sexual orientation, economic status (i.e. class), age, education, clean water, environmental pollution, foreign plant or animal species invasion, recreational camping, sport fishing, nutrition, prenatal care…. If you have a possibility, ask me.

[You may not choose the following topics as your old professor can’t bear it: abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, legalization of marijuana, God, the paranormal, the drinking age]
Population is the group of people on whom you will be focusing: preschool children, grade school children, high school aged persons, young adults, college students, the elderly, men, women, girls, boys, babies, middle-aged persons (like your professor), African Americans, LGBT persons, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, rural whites….

Once you’ve thought about a preliminary topic (you don’t have to make a final decision today, but I don’t want you to change your topic without checking with me), look for several books on your topic. To do that:

1. Go to www.bgsu.edu, then “libraries.”
2. On left hand side, click on “BGSU Library Catalog”
3. Use your variables (above) to fill in “keywords”. If at first you don’t get any hits, try other synonyms (similar words) and/or ask me. Don’t give up. Be sure to “limit your search” further on down on that form to more recent years, say 1998-2008. A book from 1962 isn’t going to help much.
4. When you find some books, write down their “Call Numbers” and “locations” here:
_____________ ____________ ______________ _________________
Check to see if they are “available”. If they are checked out, you may still be able to get them through OhioLink. If you see a book you really want, let me know and I’ll show you how to do that.
5. Now, the fun part. Go find the book. The circulating books are on the first floor. If you get stuck, look at the end of the bookshelves. There are maps. Or ask a librarian, or me.
6. Take your ID card and go check out the books tonight. Take at least two books to check out. You can keep them for three weeks, which is plenty of time for this paper.
7. You will be required for this paper to use at least one book, in addition to two or three scholarly articles from EBSCO or some other research database.
8. Take the books back before they are due! Never mess with the librarians!

Elders (that means us:), support young people in their endeavors

This is the first day of a new semester for me and year 21 of my teaching career. Our society and its pressures are harder on this generation (born in 1990!) than ever before. Whenever you meet a young person, encourage them with a smile or a comment of support for their role as a college student or in the workforce. 18 year olds get a bad rap. Most of the ones I know work, go to school, have relationships, pay for a car, and in some cases, help support their parents, take care of their elderly grandparents or great-grandparents. If you get to know some young people, sign up on Facebook and send them supportive messages or send care packaes to their dorms. Not everyone has grandparents still living or parents who are supportive.
Blessings all,

Cynthia

ps. Oh, yes, and say a prayer for their teachers.

Queenie and Howard: Our Dogs are Always With Us

A couple days ago I was walking with my handsome young cocker boy Darby in our lovely St. John's Woods. An elderly gentleman met us on the path and immediately cried out, to my dog "Oh, you remind me of my cocker, Queenie, except she was buff." We stopped and talked to Howard and once Darby got over his rescue dog skittishness, he allowed Howard to pet him. Howard told me about his beloved cocker spaniel, Queenie, whom he used to take hunting. Howard claimed she was the best pheasant dog ever and once pointed a small bush where they were hunting. Howard said, ""Queenie,. you must be wrong this time." And then she flushed out a big pheasant from that little bush. She was right." " Howard introduced himself to me and I to Darby and me, said we ere pleased to meet each other and went our way, smiling. Later in the walk, which is big, but circular, we met Howard again. He stopped to pet Darby again and said, "At the end of Queenie's life, I took her hunting with me one last time and she got so tired I carried her. When I saw a pheasant, I put her close to the bush and she let me know the pheasant was there. She was so proud." I wished him well as we walked our ways and thought again, since I had lost an lives even when they're passed on." Howard is a beautiful man, and Queenie was an amazing dog.

Elegy for a student

On Monday I attended the funeral of Keri Shryock, a beautiful, smart, caring young woman who died in a tragic accident. She was a playing a role in a Christmas program at a megachurch in Cincinnati and fell from a cable 25 feet in the air, to her death last week. Keri was my student in her freshman year and because we both were members of the Chapman Community at Kohl Hall, Bowling Green State University, we worked together on projects for the next four years. She founded a coed club gymnastics program and asked me to be the faculty sponsor. She was a smart woman who always had a ready smile, though I know she battled depression. I am heart broken by her death. And I am angry at the church where she died, for putting her in this position, for feeling the need to put on Christmas "shows," as the megachurch preacher kept saying at her funeral. It seems like hubris to me and a great waste of a beautiful life that was just getting started.