I'm not sure if teacher's college counts as 'academia' per se. It is a mix of theory and practical ideas, with some pyschology throw in.

i wake at 6. i have a one hour commute there, and a two hour commute home. class is, for the most part, very interesting though. the way they teach today is so incredibly different from when i was in the system. the idea of engaging people with ideas in order to learn is incredibly exciting.

my classmates are, unfortunately, not very cerebral, but that is to be expected. Most of them are here because they did not get into law/medicine/other post graduate studies. they all seem very nice though, and they also seem very judgy.

there seems to be a moral air about much of what they suggest, ie, when being told that some students may be pregnant at 12 years old, they let out loud guffaws and condemn the student and parent that would 'let that happen'. or when told that students today have tattooes, my classmates become indignant, questioning the parents' choices. i want to say something, but i believe it might go over their heads. some would agree, i'm sure, but the intelligent are generally quiet in situations such as these because the group think mentality on the other side is so deafeningly loud and morally righteous that to open one's mouth is paramount to social suicide! case in point! as demonstrated by your truly.

we did an exercise in 'appreciating others values', and were asked to pick on a scale between 1 and 5, with one being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree: Teacher's should instill in students a strong sense of patriotism and nationalism.

I strongly disagree. Of course, do what you want as a person and parent and friend, but as a teacher i don't think it's my job to instill ethnocentricity and divisiveness at such a young age. parents can do that. molson and tim horton's can do that. i don't care to do it.

when the teacher asked who picked "strongly disagree", i was the only one. (the majority, of course, picked strongly agree) i then had to espouse my views. "a country is an idea. i believe in the idea of what canada is, but i do not believe that teaching others should be a part of my job". i went on to discuss the notion that canada, as a distinct and unique idea, doesn't exist outside of the major metropolitan areas. the rest of canada is not: multicultural, or firmly ensuring the charter of rights and freedoms is applied to all of its citizens (it's not even doing it in cities). Of course, this was taken to mean i didn't like canada... i don't even know how to respond to this type of reductive logic. i felt absolutely misunderstood and villified. it was a terrible day two of school. learning to deal with those who cannot think will be a part of my adjustment, my training.

i feel that many people would rather discuss ways to be tyrannical to students to ensure they listen then how to get students excited about learning. on this point, however, i am afraid my libertarian views are going to be given a very harsh illumination during my first teaching gig! students probably WON'T care for these views, my liberal attitude, my belief in equality, etc. they are probably their own little anarchistic tyrants! wake up call, meet F's quaint, esoteric views.

we shall see.

for now, i have 9 courses per term, all of which are loading us up with homework and i must go to get to it.