Editor's Note

Editor's Note, November 2005

Elizabeth Haller
PhD Student and Instructor, Kent State University
E-mail: editoraee@hotmail.com

Well, the chill is in the air here. My favorite season is fully upon us: Autumn. As the leaves have changed colors and eventually fallen to the ground, I am reminded that the end of the semester is fast approaching. Though midterms have only just passed, the rest of the semester seems to fly by in a giant haze of lectures, discussions, papers, and grading--endless amounts of grading. I vow not to feel overwhelmed and instead snuggle up with a nice warm vanilla cappuccino, a comfy homemade quilt, and a gigantic stack of papers. The seasonal parallels abound as I grade each one and watch as they gently fall to the floor before me like the swift and quiet fall of the leaves. Except this is a mound I shall not look upon with dread as I do the leaves waiting to be bagged outside, rather I look on them with a sense of accomplishment that I have now cleared my schedule for a free weekend--ironically, to bag the leaves outside.

Ah, the joy of the first official lengthy holiday of the semester. What are your plans this Thanksgiving holiday--or fall break, as it is now often referred? I shall not cook but rather enjoy the time off with my family and attend festivities where someone else has done the cooking for me; namely the chef at a nice restaurant with a scenic view. At any rate, and whatever your plans, enjoy your holiday!

We invite your continued perusal and encourage you to submit articles, poetry, and fiction for consideration in future issues of AEE. Please review our Call for Papers on this site for more details on submission requirements. If you are unsure whether your contribution would be suitable under the terms of our Call for Papers, please send along an inquiry, and I will be happy to respond forthwith. As always, do not forget to check out Grist for the Mill for possible submission ideas.

Columnist Lynne Fukuda returns with "A Hawaiian Education and the Fight for Cultural Identity: What it Means to Native Hawaiians." Of her current column Fukuda states:

August 6, 2005 was indeed a historic day for all of us in Hawaii when Native Hawaiians united and marched in protest. From being an invisible people, whose culture was nearly erased due to prohibitions on speaking their language and practicing their culture, the native Hawaiians have come back proud and strong. The attitude of the crowd that marched from the State Capitol Building in downtown Honolulu to the Royal Masoleum in Nuuanu was not of anger or hatred, but pride. For non-Hawaiians, it was a chance for us to step back and cheer them on. It is not money, issues, or even education that drove them, but the wish to be recognized as a people. With obstacles of poverty, crime, a lack of education, and many others, it has been a truly painful journey for the Hawaiians. We are a little Kingdom in the middle of the United States; flying two flags and loyal to two places. And yet we are all Americans and Hawaiians. This loyalty, not to one but to two lands, does not make us disloyal. Hawaii has sent off their proud warriors, the koa, to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. They are honored and proud to be asked to serve for the United States. We in Hawaii love America not less but just as much as we love Hawaii. America's diverse people all believe in and are united in the same cause of freedom. The struggle of the native Hawaiians in the 21^st century is the same struggle that many of our early settlers in America faced. They desire the freedom to express their culture, their beliefs, their values, and to be prosperous and proud. When all of our people are able to realize their dreams, that is when America will cease their internal struggles and become one of the most formidable and admired countries in the world. I have faith that it is only here, in America, and in Hawaii, that such an incredible dream can be realized. We do indeed live in a great country.

Our first featured article of the issue is the finale of a series written by Donovan Landers(see March through October 2005 issues). In this installment:

One week has passed since The Barn burned down. Don and Geronimo tour a once-upon-a-time-warehouse classroom, Don's "new" classroom, waiting to meet the youth care worker hired to help Don help his students. Don and Geronimo discover the youth care worker doesn't like people knowing his #%&6@!!! business. Then, ten years have passed since the fire. Did Jacobina complete her social work degree? What are Darlene, Karen, Clarsisa, and Machteld doing? How does Machteld feel about her name? What happened to Beatarillino? Does Don ever "reach" First Nations students? Has he continued his writing career? What happened to Tom, his wife Sylwia, and Arlene the speech therapist? And Jim Heaton, the Jehovah's Witness--is he still a part of this story? Find out the answers in this final installment Take the time to read the back-story behind the events listed above by looking over those installments you may have had the misfortune to miss.

Dan Lukiv returns with his third and final installment of "Lived School Experiences That Encouraged One Person to Become a Creative Writer: Study III of VI." In this final of three parts (see September and October 2005 issues of AEE for the first two installments and the March 2004 issue of AEE for Study II of this series), Lukiv explores his plan to "conduct eight studies. Six methodologically identical studies will research the phenomenon of what lived experiences in school encouraged six individuals to become creative writers. A seventh study will use the essence (in thematic form) of that phenomenon to create theory that will have practical value for teachers. An eighth study, as a qualitative and/or quantitative survey, will evaluate the extrapolating potential of that theory and may suggest ways to modify or extend it."

Our second featured article of this issue is "Teaching Dante Soul to Soul." Author Alice Mills states that this article is based on her "experiences teaching Dante's Inferno in an undergraduate unit. The unit proved very challenging to teach, partly because of three students' response to Dante's work. One was hostile to Dante's Catholicism, one demanded an historical rather than psychological or spiritual approach, and one wanted to engage me only in theological debate. My article tracks the ways in which my three students came to terms with studying Dante soul to soul, one of them on his deathbed."

Our final feature of this issue is Anthony Ezeife's "The Impact of a Culture-sensitive Curriculum on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in an Aboriginal Classroom." Ezeife states that his article "looks at math teaching and learning, but with a particular focus on indigenous/aboriginal populations." Ezeife's article "Effects of Strengthening the Mathematics Content Base of Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers" appeared in the October 2003 issue.

Diane Wood's story, "The Edge of the Grass," is our final feature of this issue. According to Wood, it is a "fictional short story about a young college student, Carrie Ogden, who, through an unexpected encounter with a stranger, comes to grips with her own mortality and begins to understand and appreciate the frailty of life. By way of this chance encounter, Carrie is forced to grow up and climb out of her established shell of protected innocence to see how she is, in fact, not separate from others but is very much swimming against the same undertow as the rest of humanity."

Bonnie Robinson returns to Poet's Corner with this issue's "Extreme Backyard Wrestling." Robinson states that her poem "uses wrestling terminology to present the negotiations women, in particular, practice to succeed at work and in marriage. A friend of mine's husband showed me an airplane he is building in his large backyard tool shed. The image of my friend working her way up (and down) the career ladder against her husband's building an airplane for vacation 'escapes' was the inspiration for this piece."

Alan Clinton provides the second contribution to Poet's Corner with his poem titled, "Farewell to the University." According to Clinton, this poem "addresses the current militarization of everyday life and its effects, both real and virtual, on the university and its citizens. While ostensibly a narrative poem with a single speaker, dreamlike imagery, allusion, and 'jump-cutting' unfold the poem into a history of the militarized university and the fragmenting, schizoid effects it can have on the university's administrators, a category that I would assert already includes its students, professors, and the culture at large. The poem's final line is an allusion to Jacques Derrida's essay 'The future of the profession or the university without condition (thanks to the 'Humanities,' what could take place tommorrow).'"

As always, ENJOY!

Academic Exchange Extra invites reader response to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.

Academic Exchange - EXTRA / Top

------------------------------ Page Citation Reference:
Haller, Elizabeth. (2005). AE-Extra. November. Available Online.
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Created: 28 October 2005. Updated: --. Accessed: ]