orichalcum

When I have the same endorphin-rush reaction to teaching a class as to sex or really good chocolate, I know I'm in the right line of work. This was my first attempt to ever teach a 3-hour class, much less to a bunch of students who I have much less in common with than normally. (City College students vs. Columbia ones). Furthermore, I was teaching Genesis and the Pandora myth, since the class is on Women in Antiquity.

Despite my fears, we had a great class, starting off with a 1.5 hour discussion about the Garden of Eden. I think I really managed to open up their minds. They had a lot of really interesting commentary about certain aspects of the text. For example, the literal Hebrew translation of the word normally rendered as "helpmeet" in "And God made a woman to be his helpmeet" is "an equal companion similar to the person who will provide assistance."

Of course, there were some less than good aspects as well. About a third of my class is seriously homophobic, and it's not like it's a topic that doesn't come up in a class on gender in antiquity. Quote from this week: "If David was gay, God would have just struck him down and we wouldn't have any stories about him." I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this, and I'm worried that any gay students in my class may feel uncomfortable with the clear majority prejudice. OTOH, it's not quite my place to say "You're bigoted and wrong." So my hope is to gradually at least cause them to think more about the issues in question and introduce lots of positive gay figures like Sappho and Plato. I did mention the sweet gay daddy penguins at the Central Park Zoo, but got mixed reactions. Suggestions for how to cope are appreciated - I don't know where the line is in terms of imposing my personal moral sensibilities.

Next week, we discuss Sappho's poetry. I'm a little nervous, but mostly, I'm really thrilled to be teaching a class with students this talkative and interested in really learning. I've rarely had 3 hours go by that quickly. This is definitely what I'm supposed to be doing. Now to work on my dissertation so I can actually get paid a decent amount of money to do it. But first, more Quest writing. We have Saints to name, and props to list.