This week got away from me, thanks to a variety of campus issues that just kept popping up.  I finally surrendered to the computer gods who rule elearn and admitted they've won.  I told them I was taking my portfolio class to email where things seem to break with much less frequency.  Lots of hours lost on that one.

Believe it or not, even during a difficult Loras week I always enjoy reading your blogs.  Don't get me wrong--it's not like I rush to the computer Monday morning and fire up the links before the coffee brews. But you all seem comfortable writing in this format, and so I typically get a good mix of objectivity and subjectivity--a look at the world around you and your response to it. What you write is interesting.

This week I was happy to read that those of you who have service sites that hide you away from the world seem to be finding value in what you're doing.  Last year I know Dr. Carroll insisted that all of the service opportunities for the class involve direct and extensive contact with people.  I'd like to hear what some of you think about that requirement; it may well be the best approach.  I will say, however, that there is a kind of service dedicated to the organizational needs of institutions that serve the poor.  The kind of work that Leah and Jill are doing, for example, could lead to some real tangible changes in the way health care gets provided and paid for.  The lack of an Hispanic group or office that can help inform people about health resources at Planned Parenthood means, among other things, that important information may not get into the hands of people who could use it. Ryan's lament that we might not be able to turn society around speaks to the need we have for all sorts of approaches to our problems, including the organizational.

Of course, when I read in blogs like Sara's about how her experience at Prescott has tended to confirm her more personal decision not to teach, or in a post like Katie's, where she wonders if maybe she made the wrong decision about pursuing psych instead of teaching--when I read those comments I'm reminded about how experiences at these service sites can change the ways we see ourselves.  Or the way we see the world, as Brita says when she writes about her fresh look at race in Dubuque or Jill's note that a walk through a more diverse waiting room actually seems normal after you do it enough times.

So thanks for giving these posts time and thought, and do keep it up for a few more weeks.

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On another note: I don't know how all of you felt, but I was disappointed in the way class went on Monday.  I know that we're all wearing down and our attention keeps turning to the assignment that still looms out there: that darn group project.  But I was looking forward to a better discussion of the Nussbaum chapter, which I thought gave us a new way to think about how we do something as basic as read.  I still think that the chapter will be useful to us as we try to explain to people why we are collecting and telling "stories" of Dubuque, the Washington Neighborhood, and Kniest Street.  Maybe we can return to it.

See you all soon.  jw