You have arrived

We have a new GPS system for the car. We had one last year, but it was stolen this summer. So, now instead of Jill from Garmin we have "Ferdinanne" Magellan. She is quite good company and so far has not led us astray. (well, if we don't count the little detour to Arthur Treacher's, which really wasn't her fault at all.) One of her most endearing features is the pronouncement, as you draw near your destination that "You have arrived."

What a comforting thought, to have arrived. Arrived at your destination or your destiny. There are many things in life that proclaim "you have arrived." A new luxury car, a new designer home, a new office at work. Throughout life we arrive, arrive at new destinations and new positions, new places of understanding and new places of geography. We are urged to think of the journey, not the destination. I understand the appeal of that, the enjoyment of the process. But I think we can also take some pride in our arrivals, the completions of our journeys. To have arrived, even if temporarily, even if only at a stopping point along the route, is something in which we can take some delight.

End of the Semester

Classes are over and the papers are coming in. It is always a somewhat bittersweet time. I'm happy to have a break from the weekly lecture preparation. I'm not so happy to have a stack of 90 papers in my office that need to be read. What I really miss, however, are the students. I like most of my students. I enjoy seeing them, watching their expressions, listening to their thoughts. It is hard for me to remember those seats, that view. The classroom looks very different from the front. Instead of the backs of heads, I see faces. I see those who are sleeping, daydreaming, texting, doing crossword puzzles...oh, and I see the few that are listening. I don't blame them. I was the same in college (well, except for the texting part).

But I do miss hearing about what happens to them in the next semester or year or after graduation. I get sort of attached to them, even if we only see each other a few hours a week and have little conversation. I still know who is getting good grades and who is not, who is late every week and who sits in the corner. I see the changing hair and clothing styles. I've always had a dream of having a couple meet in one of my classes, but as far as I know that has never happened!

So, to my 90 students this semester, Fall 09, I wish you the best. I hope some of you will keep in touch.

Disability--social versus medical

I attended a small conference today that was designed to increase discussions that could help bridge the humanities and science. The focus of the discussion was on "disability" and was primarily attended by physicians and faculty who teach the humanities in medical schools. So, for the sociology students who stumble onto this site, you should be familiar with the idea of social construction; that society defines social groups and roles--gender, race, disability--according to a set of shifting criteria. We all participate in reinforcing these categorizations by using them in our own lives, teaching them to our children or students, and, often, through formal (legal) definitions. Disability, it seems, has been largely co-opted by a medical model, or set of criteria. People who deviate (another good sociological term) from the "norm" are disabled. The disability could be mental or physical. The medical model looks at disability as a problem, one that can be fixed (sometimes) or managed. The medical model emphasizes cure, defined as removing the problem. In contrast, sociology views disability as a failure of the environment to adapt to the different needs of those with differences

One of the goals of the discussion is to make physicians more empathetic, to have them look at patients not as disabled, but as people first. However, as one discussant pointed out, we still live in a policy world dominated by the medical model. Insurance, social benefits, and all kinds of things are dependent on one being labeled as disabled by a physician. What good does it do to sensitize physicians if we then ask them to turn around and complete the bureaucratic documentation. Are both parties complicit in the perpetuation of the label?