#1: Tuesday, January 15, 2008: HOW THIS BLOG BEGAN

I am an academic who in the late '70's and '80's taught adult courses for Community Services at Ventura and Oxnard Colleges, as well as for Ojai's World University -- all in Southern California. The courses I taught were in creative writing, dream interpretation for writers and other artists, and past life explorations (via guided imagery/active imagination).

In 1992 I earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. My areas of expertise are world religions, aesthetics, and cross-cultural mythology (ancient India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, medieval Europe, and Native American).

Between 1994 and 2003, I taught in a small graduate institute near Santa Barbara, California. During that time, I guided dozens of mythology and clinical psychology students through their own doctoral work. The average age of my students during those years was 47.

Today, semi-retired in my home state of Michigan, a state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, I have turned to substitute teaching ("subbing") in order to make ends meet. Here, I encounter students the age of the children and grandchildren of the adults I once taught. As a single woman who never had children, it has been a sobering experience.

Out of my deep concern for current educational issues in middle and high schools, I have decided to create this blog for others who, as substitute teachers, have a front row seat when it comes to what is happening in this country's so-called "education." Hopefully, this will also prove insightful to parents and, perhaps, to the few students who might stumble across it.

The "subbing" portion of my "Subbing/Grubbing" blog is clear. "Grubbing" is probably less clear. On a superficial level, it has to do with an often "grubby," untidy, dirty, messy situation in today's schools. But for subs, working in a precarious economy, it also implies obtaining a much-needed "grubstake" -- i.e., the money paid to "prospectors" for their work in this educational enterprise. Like everyone else, we have bills to pay.

It isn't just about paying bills, of course. "Grub" also means food, which suggests that subs, if given a chance, could provide rich nourishment to the students we encounter. Unfortunately, we are rarely given that chance -- students see us as targets. They play us, con us, insult us, and force us to be "noise Nazis." At the end of a long day, we may often feel like broken, shattered toys. This is when another meaning of "grub" comes into play -- as Websters defines it: "to work hard, especially at something menial or tedious; drudge." Subs work very hard and too often are treated as worthless drudges. This is difficult to accept, especially when we care so much.

Finally, however, there is yet another relevant meaning of "grubbing," which has to do with extracting precious ore. Among the reasons I have created this blog is to reveal that intractable yet wonderful "ore" in the minds of our students.

P.S. -- I'm new to blogs and have no idea if this version will get posted or not. :-( Nor do I know if the previous unfinished 1/14/08 draft will be deleted and replaced with this correct version. Google's blog service doesn't seem very user friendly. This may be my first and last entry since I can't figure out how to keep adding to this blog.

23 January 2008 update: I have solved some of the technical issues and will keep making entries, time-permitting. Please be patient. :-)