Class Time

They say you’re not truly a New Yorker until you’ve seen a dead guy on the subway. As of this writing, I’m happy to say, I’m definitely still not a New Yorker. Actually, it was Lynda, my advisor at Brooklyn College, who told me that. She was born and raised in Brooklyn and has surely seen her share of subway remains. It was with her total helpfulness that I was able to make it through my first week of grad school. My first class was Monday night, and all that day I felt a little apprehensive and seriously unprepared. I knew things would probably go well, but I really had no idea what to expect. After leaving work, I was going to meet with Lynda to discuss substitute teaching. My plans of getting to campus quickly were undone first when I was kept at work later than usual, and second because of some problem at one of the stations along my route. Sitting motionless on a subway car with a tight schedule to keep can be maddening. Also, my friend Kathryn from Austin was with me, and I wanted to have time to show her around a little before class. I finally made it to Brooklyn College, spoke with Lynda, and had just enough time to run home and get my things before heading back to class.

By the time I got back to campus I was frustrated and anxious to see what school was going to be like. Once class started, however, my frustrations and anxieties left my mind as I eased back slowly into the student life. The class is Contemporary American Poetry, and the professor is fantastic. We’ll be studying mostly experimental poetry from the 60’s on, and Dr. Viscusi seems to have seen and experienced a lot of important developments from the period. It sounds like he knew or at least met a lot of the big names; for example, he taught with Allen Ginsberg, who I was stoked to find out was actually a professor at Brooklyn College until he passed away in 1997. Maybe I can become a beatnik as well as an English teacher. Dr. Viscusi spent about an hour introducing the class, and I was pretty much riveted the entire time. I’m definitely going to love that class. Tuesday nights I have my education class. It’s more practical, and I’ll be developing lesson plans and doing 20 hours of actual class observations. I can’t say I’m going to love this one, but it’s taught by a high school principal, so he’ll have a lot of informed and helpful advice. Wednesday night’s English class wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, and I’m hoping to switch it with something different. What I needed was a class on literary criticism, but this one seems to be more about writing short reviews like you might read in a newspaper. I’m hoping to get into a Postcolonial Literature and Theory class. I’ll keep you posted.

It feels so great to be on a college campus again, going to class and working toward something worthwhile. I already love Brooklyn College. It fits me very well. With almost 16,000 students it definitely dwarfs LCU, but my professors seem very accessible and helpful.

Everything else is going well. Apparently there is a huge Labor Day parade going down this Monday a few blocks from our apartment, so I’m sure I’ll have some blogworthy experiences come next week. Adios.