Mark
since you visited I sorted out a certain confusion: the places named in
Leicester are all after Simon (IV) de Montfort not Simon (III) de Montfort
who were father and son and successively Earls of Leicester. Simon (III) led
the campaign against the Cathars while Simon (IV) (d 1265 at the Battle of
Evesham) is credited as a kind of founder of parliamentary representative
democracy.
Which is not to say that Simon (IV) was not a ruthless soldier (and too he
accompanied his father on the Cathar exterminations)
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 5:08 PM
Subject: Truly an aside to an aside Re: Feminism: an aside
> When Dave B. took me around Leicester, we passed Simon de Montfort. I
> was astonished to see a university named after him: like having a
> Hitler U. Even by medieval standards he was pretty awful. Got me
> thinking of all the Jackson Colleges in the US--whatever his virtues,
> Jackson was a genocidal bastard, and, like all but two of his
> presidential forebears, a slaveowner.
>
> OK, back to the topic.
>
> Mark
>
> At 10:58 AM 3/31/2006, you wrote:
> >De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. So fairly urban, but not
metropolitan.
> >
> >Some of the asian female students were strongly active - very focussed
> >on getting good grades, often asking whether something would be in the
> >exam or should be mentioned in their essay. I'm really remembering one
> >or two people here, who probably stick out in my mind because they
> >conformed so surprisingly to a stereotype.
> >
> >The rest of the more active students were generally either a) mature,
> >b) misfit autodidacts or c) both of the above. But possibly I'm
> >over-remembering the ones I liked best. There were others who
> >participated who were just normal, well-rounded late-teenagers. But
> >you know how rare those are.
> >
> >Some seminars were more lively than others; those dealing with
> >Victorian fiction were better than those dealing with Poetry, for
> >example. Almost all of my students hated studying poetry.
> >
> >Class - it's hard to tell. DMU's 18-21yr-old intake always seemed
> >fairly uniformly lower middle-class to me, with the odd slightly more
> >affluent person who'd stuffed up their A-levels and come in through
> >"clearing". The mature students were much more diverse in terms of
> >background.
> >
> >Dominic
> >
> >On 3/31/06, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > Dominic: It would help to know where this was (at least what part of
> > > the country, urban, suburban, rural) and what the demographics were,
> > > as best you can tell. Did the more active students in any way differ
> > > in background, age, ethnicity, from their more passive classmates?
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > At 10:24 AM 3/31/2006, you wrote:
> > > >Most of the undergrads I taught English to were female. Some of the
> > > >groups were pretty passive and quiet. Anybody with something to say
> > > >could dominate the conversation pretty much by default. Occasionally
> > > >someone did; it was a blessed relief, since then at least there was
> > > >some conversation.
> > > >
> > > >It's possible that I was just a lousy teacher; I certainly found it
> > > >difficult to care about the ones who weren't alert and engaged,
> > > >although occasionally one of them would turn in an absolutely
> > > >first-rate essay (some people prefer to sit quietly, listen and
> > > >think...)
> > > >
> > > >Dominic
> > >
> >
> >
> >--
> >Shall we be pure or impure? Today
> >we shall be very pure. It must always
> >be possible to contain
> >impurities in a pure way.
> >--Tarmo Uustalu and Varmo Vene
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