Residency

LIS 550. At times I can be so negative, and when I'm so positive I surprise myself. I started the class immediately adoring our instructor. I hope that opinion holds! She had us each mention an ethical concern as we introduced ourselves, which made for a really interesting start to class. It was a very lengthy set of introductions. I brought up my concern of choosing age-appropriate materials for kids vs censoring children's reading, and also my worries about the difference between selecting materials and censoring materials. As one can never select everything, the very act of selecting is going to entail some censorship.

The method of choosing a group was entirely insanse. We had to get a partner and spend 2 minutes staring at them and writing our impressions, and another 2 minutes writing what they must think of us. Catherine and I were pretty tepid in our writing about each other. It was way outta comfort zone for me. After that, we had to sort ourselves into coloured hats. I sorted myself into white hat, which meant I dig figures and facts. Then we had to assign our partners to the hat we thought they belonged in. She sorted me into green, which meant creative. Hey, I'd been knitting (and wearing) green socks. I sorted her right back into red, which meant emotional. Then we had to find a group of three of all different colours. I wound up with Catherine and Lesla. Having not worked with them before, it's cool to have a chance to work with them. Group work can be such a challenge if no one gets bossy. It's rarely me that gets bossy!

The afternoon was content-rich. She lectured on ethical streams. Then we had cases to discuss, and to justify according to various streams.

At one point, as an example of an something that is legal but not ethical, I brought up the nuclear bomb tests in Nevada. Legal, I assume, but with all the downwinders wasting away from terrible diseases, hardly could be considered ethical. She said that she personally agreed (which I thought was a triumph! She said she'd never give her own opinion!) but then tried to give the other side. She spoke of national security and the safety of the masses, and how these downwinders were a long way from New York, and it would be easy at that distance to put national security ahead of those few people. I wonder if it's easy, in New York City, to dismiss the downwinders as just a few people. Two students from Utah, one former and one present, were both nodding, and I spoke with them afterwards about cultural differences. The downwinders issue is very pertinent to Utah but just not relevant to people in Washington. Well, quite possibly relevant, but not immediate. It's good for me to be reminded that what is immediate in Salt Lake City is not immediate everywhere.