Date: 03 Feb 96 23:09:08 PST
From: Ryan.Schram-AT-directory.Reed.EDU (Ryan Schram)
Subject: French Feminism: Not for the timid.


Catherine,

I'm just give a few basic facts about the course, hopefully to show you that
teaching french feminism to undergrads isn't all frustration. Then I'm going to
shut up. I have this weird paranoid idea that the professor is or will be soon
reading these messages. Its happened before, French professors ending up
reading my email to Spoon and I'd rather not sound like an idiot when there's a
chance that I end up havign to confront my idiocy IRL (and that hasn't happened
... yet.)

I think I said both the facts that I wanted in the above. Class: French
Undergrad, Me: Student.

Oh and: I think so far the class is going very well. From what little I have
observed, the students are mostly at a point in their studies where, having
read all of the canon in their field, and knowing it well (as is the tradition
here.), are ready to find something that would help politicize their work in
their respective disciplines. There is also an aspect of taking the class
because the writers in the class are already accepted as part of a history of
French thought and literature. So you get both: A "new" and more political
approach for the students and a component of some other timeline of which they
are missing knowledge.  
Perhaps that the students are more eager to see how a french feminist school
"fits" into assorted agendas makes it flow a little smoother. I don't know what
to say about comprehension skills your students/my colleagues do/n't possess
except that I guess it depends more on how the students percieve the context of
their readings. Not to cast any shadow on your explanations of the possible
contexts; maybe your students just had different things they wanted out of the
class and just skimmed. 

A hui hou,
Ryan