powerpoint is not a necessity in 90% of its uses

“College leaders usually brag about their tech-filled “smart” classrooms, but a dean at Southern Methodist University is proudly removing computers from lecture halls. José A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, has challenged his colleagues to “teach naked” — by which he means, sans machines.”
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i42/42a00103.htm

boring presentations

i think student presentation days are painful for all involved. There are always the stars (often times just one) and then the ones who are boring (but usually know their stuff) and then there are the crazies who are always all over the place. then there’s always the apologizer who keeps sayig sorry for being unprepared or technical difficulties or a million other things. i know that i’ve fallen into all of these categories at least once or twice in my life, and i have to hope that more often than not the class isn’t glazed over and actually cares what i have to say

Where is the Pacific Islander in “Asian Pacific Islander American” Part II

So I showed a new professor-acquaintance of mine my blog on the lack of representation of Pacific Islanders in Asian American Studies, and she told me how she has been an opponent of including Pacific Islanders in Asian American Studies for many years.  She has “long advocated that Asian American Studies refrain from including Pacific Islanders
as a subject of study unless its on a comparative basis (like comparative work on Asian Americans
and Latinos, or Asian Americans and African Americans), especially since there is a nascent
field of Pacific Islander Studies developing in the United States” (Kauanui).  Her article on the topic, as well as another important topic, entitled “Where are Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders in Higher Education” is very interesting and much more researched than my own.  This topic has become very interesting and I plan on doing more research… There is a book I have on order regarding more on this topic that I will post my thoughts on once they come, but for now, I have decided that I need to think outside the box a little more and instead of trying to fit things that don’t belong into pre-existing molds, create new ones that satisfy changing ideas.

The Ignorance of Youth

Note: Originally Written September 10, 2008

so my husband is an adjunct english 100 professor at a local state college and the first reading he gave them was by a native hawaiian scholar, Haunani Kay Trask, on the Hawaiian soveriegnty movement. Naturally, I was excited that:
1. the textbook included this excerpt from her fantastic collection of essays, “From a Native Daughter” and
2. that my husband was helping me with my mission of exposing Native Hawaiian issues to mainstream, mainland society. (of course he would help me – thats why i married him!)

well, i must say that i am dissapointed in mainstream, mainland society. colonialism, manifest destiny, and ethnocentrism are still alive and strong. these kids said the most unbelieveable things. i thought i had heard it all in my basic english classes and research courses when i would discuss my research and interests with students, but at least they were a little more tactful than these students.

these students basically said that hawaiians should not be complaining about having their land illegaly annexed because western culture has done nothing but give them good things. by good things i wonder if they mean an 80% decrease in the population in just three decades. or perhaps they mean the near extinction of the culture. or perhaps the commidification of whats left of the culture. or the common belief that Native Hawaiians do not have any rights to the ‘aina because they migrated from a “mythical” place called Hawaiki – around 100 a.d. and that a Native Hawaiian is someone born in the (always overemphasized to me) AMERICAN STATE OF HAWAII. definitely not HAWAI’I. massacurring the language just like all others.

the students also said a long line of other typical western comments, all focusing on how hawaiians should be grateful and they are not a real people. one student even went so far as to change Native Hawaiian to Native of Hawaii within the context of a Native being any person born in the islands, regardless of lineage. When I try to explain Native Hawaiians to people, I always compare them to Native Americans and Inuit. They were here before the white man, then the white man came, missionized them, took all their land, and left most of them for dead, all with a clear conscience. Clinton’s apology bill meant nothing. Textbooks villanize Queen Liliuokalani and treat any soveriengty movement as unbelieveable because American has done nothing but help America.

Maybe thats why 12% of Hawaiians graduate from college, most are impoverished, and most have severe health problems.

sounds like the land of freedom and equality to me.

Summer Re-Cap

Note: Originally Written August 26, 2008

first, ALA Annual Conference @ Anaheim Convention Center
I had a blast. I only went Saturday and Sunday, but felt it was at least worth the super early bird registration price and cost of gas and parking. The panels were okay. I walked out of quite a few and realized just how frightened I am of meeting new people, networking, and discussing ideas in groups. Any session that I went to which seemed to have some sort of group work component, I left before it even started. The only thing I stayed for that involved real social interaction was the APALA awards breakfast which was quite lovely. I might enjoy being on the committee for selecting the literary awards someday – maybe when I feel like I have more time.

My favorite session was actually the first one i went to which discussed trends in YA Literature and the relationship to the Graphic Novel. There were only 3 panelists because 2 of them got sick and couldn’t make it. One was a graphic novelist (Kazu Kibuishi who wrote/illustrated Amulet) and two were YA novelists who wove graphic novels into their work (Barry Lyga and Holly Black). They discussed that although YA is very pop culture centered, its what the kids want and at least they’re reading. They discussed how mixed media books are the future and how nerdy they were (as was the crowd. There were more DND references that I wish I had been able to comprehend). I don’t feel like anything they said was astonishing or ground breaking, but I do feel that they were honest and had fun with their panel.

Most of the other sessions I attended were mediocre and nothing else was notably stand-out. All of the non-youth sessions I tried to attend failed my miserably, especially the discussion about diversity in librarianship. I left after 15 minutes or so because I felt like if I wanted to hear everyone else’s opinions about diversity, I could go back and reply the ethics and diversity class i just took. I also tried a disney bashing one, about the social stereotypes, gender roles and whatnot disney puts in their movies, but when i got there, the guy speaking hadn’t seen a disney movie or television show since Jungle Book came out. As a Disney aficifinado, I had hoped that they could at least do the company some justice and find someone who actually studies this kind of stuff and writes books or papers or at least journal articles about it on their blog.

the best part was the diversity fair. i met some great hawaiian librarians who instilled a lot of inspiration and excitement in me and made me not want to give up. They reminded me of why i was doing what i was doing and what it would mean for the hawaiian community. They gave me a lot of information and some great resources, and I’m glad to have met them.

also exciting was the exhibit hall. although half of it didn’t really apply to me – as i am not a librarian, am not remodeling a library, and have no purchasing power whatsoever, it was still pretty cool to see the latest interior designs and programs. The publishing houses were great. I was a bit upset at the Hawai’i Publishers Association use of stereotype and lack of books to sell me, but what can u do – if i wanted to mail order a full price book from their catalog, wouldn’t I have done it already? I guess I’ll just have to wait til I go back again, but who knows when that’ll be. I got a lot of stuff that i’ll never read and don’t even know where it is now, but it was fun while I was there. the best thing I got was my twilight bag which I used as my purse for a month straight – through the release of breaking dawn, of course. for those who don’t know what i’m talking about, check out the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

second, The preservation and dissemination of cultural information by Native Hawaiians in Torrance, Gardena, and Carson.
so that is basically what my new thesis topic is about. i am following a frame set by Clara Chu which compares different areas and how the group in question deals with them and how the broader community deals with them. This includes areas such as language (classes teaching hawaiian), media (tv, radio, magazines, portraying hawaiians), and education (textbooks, curriculum, library resources).

i feel that this approach to my thesis will allow me to conduct a preliminary research project into what i want to do in the future on a much larger scale. Also, it gives me an already established framework to use so I don’t have to invent my own, which I think will help me enormously considering I feel that I have no idea what i’m doing writing a 75 page paper but for some reason am absolutely determined to do it anyways.

this topic is a little more academic than i’m used to, but i think its solid and manageable and still exposes native hawaiians to the library world, which really was my ultimate goal.

third, FILL Internship at Monrovia Public Library
this was quite possibly the most amazing experience i have had in my tenure of library school. The people I worked with were amazing. They were helpful and friendly and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of teachers. My internship supervisor was so personable it was disgusting. We immediately got along and in the process, i like to think, developed a friendship. We attended a session together at ALA and he provided me with the ins and outs of librarianship. I got to learn storytime from the most amazingly organized and creative storytime librarian i’ve ever met and I got to meet my twin, except she is my husband’s age instead of mine. the similarities between us were uncanny – and this ranged from physical appearance to personality. we were a bit surprised at how different our spouses were considering how similar many of the other choices we had made in life were.

they treated me like a knowledgable librarian and trusted me to do the right thing with the public. i am so appreciative of my time at the monrovia library, i wish there was some way i could repay them. they even showed me thats its possible to make children’s librarianship a career, rather than a stepping stone and provided me with the tools to do so. No topic was restricted amongst them and I learned about the politics in their individual library as well as the field of librarianship as a whole, and we joked about diversity issues and life in general.

best internship ever.

fourth, summer vacation
although i’ve only been on summer vacation for ten days, its been the most amazing (and weird) ten days of the last year. i won’t get into the weird situations, but i’ll breeze over the fun stuff. For our one year anniversary, my husband and I spent two nights at the Belamar in Manhattan Beach and I got to go to a california beach and swim in the water for the first time in probably at least 4 years. it was my first time in a swim suit on a california beach in possibly 3 years and my first time on a beach at all in one year. it was so fun though and the hotel was so nice and comfortable. it spoiled me so now i can only stay at cute boutique hotels and other four star arrangements. we also got to eat at many of my favorite restaurants which just don’t exist in Long Beach and feel too far to drive just for one meal. thank you to uncle bill’s pancake house and the kettle especially! since then i’ve been kind of lazing about and got to go to the beach AGAIN just two days ago. i haven’t had a tan like this in years. i forgot how healthy it makes me look! i’ve also been able to exercise and just be a generally happy person again. oh, how i missed that.

and, last but not least, i officially made Halau which has been my personal goal for the last five months or so…

Research Institution or Professional School?

Note: Originally Written May 27, 2008

As an MLIS student at one of the top research universities in (dare I say it?) the world, I feel that my program is lacking an essential component that the university promotes – research. I understand that for most, the MLIS is the end of the road. There will be no PhD and there will be no further course of education (which is an entirely different blog on librarianship and “professionalism” entirely), but for some of us, there will be many more years of academia down the road. My feelings from the department regarding my research interests – with the exception of a few key faculty members who I love dearly and think I may quit the program without – have been more or less oppositional. And I speak not just for myself, but others in the program who have serious research interests and desires to write theses as well. The general sentiment is “why would you want to waste your time on a 100 page paper that no one will ever read?”. And this sentiment is held not only by much of the faculty, but the student population as well.

Now, to be a professor at an academic institution such as the one I attend, the professor needs to be constantly pursuing groundbreaking research and publishing in peer-reviewed journals if not publishing books. So I don’ t understand why there is not more support for people who share this passion for research. An excuse was given to me today that although the university as a whole is a research institution, the Information Studies program itself is a professional program and does not, in fact, support research interests. I wonder then, if we are this non-research program within a research entity, why are we bothering with things such as theory and history and why aren’t we dealing purely with job skills and policy learning? I seem to be receiving a mixed message here – we are a professional school but we are not learning how to do our jobs, we are learning the theory behind doing our jobs.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that theory is an important foundation to any career, but i also think it is especially important in a career in which you are protecting people’s right to privacy and freedom of information every day. However, if we are simply a professional school, then why are we bothering? it doesn’t matter if we’re not being groomed to be leaders and policy makers in our field. We don’t need to understand the history of the profession and where its going and why we believe the things we do and value the ideals we do. We just need to learn how to do reference and how to refer angry patrons to the people who are the leaders and who are the policy makers so that they can explain why they can’t see the books their child has checked out and why an eight year old has a right to privacy. But oh, that’s right, the focus of our program is shifting to instill in us that we ARE leaders and that we WILL be the policy makers. Who is making this stuff up? Because I’m pretty sure not all the faculty are on board – particularly when they tell us not to worry about grades because this is the end of the road educationally and no one will care if we barely stay off of academic probation.

I came to this school because of my love for research and my desire to make a difference in the field of library service to youth. And luckily, I have found the right people who support me in that endeavor. Really, all I wanted to get off my chest earlier today was that I just wish I didn’t meet so much opposition to fulfilling my program’s own mission statement and goals.

Where is the Pacific Islander in Asian Pacific Islander American?

Note: Originally Written May 21, 2008

Currently, I am pursuing a graduate concentration in Asian American Studies, which is supposed to encompass the geographic locations of East Asia, South East Asia, and the Pacific Islands. What I find problematic in many of the issues and cases we are learning about is that the Pacific Islands are no where to be found in Asian American Studies. Pacific Islanders are lumped into this huge, encompassing category and are never mentioned except in the ever-evolving term Asian American, which some people currently refer to as “Asian Pacific Islander American” or APIA. When I refer to Pacific Islanders, I am referring to the people who live in Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. These include the islands (but are not limited to) Hawai’i, Samoa, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Tonga, Fiji, the Soloman Islands, Guam, and French Polynesia. Additionally, historically, Filipinos have referred to themselves as Pacific Islander and helped to create the term. However, many Filipinos actually regard themselves as Asian, and the distinction between the use of Asian or Pacific Islander when referring to Filipinos would be an interesting topic to pursue.

My main issue with grouping Pacific Islanders under the category of Asian Americans is not only that they are not represented in the literature, but that they are not represented because their commonalities are so different, particularly in terms of education and socioeconmic status. Stereotypes of Asian Americans involve the model minority student with Confucian values of education and success. Typically in schools, Asian Americans are expected to test well and receive good grades and maintain close ties to their families. The national average of Asian Americans receiving post-secondary education is over 40% of the population. The national average of Pacific Islanders receiving post-secondary education is somewhere around 12% and is cut in half when you go beyond attainment of a bachelor’s degree. Now, this is not to say that within the grouping of Asian American itself there are not wide extremes, which can be found in the Hmong population, for example, who’s statistics are even less than Pacific Islanders (somewhere around 9%). As far as the census and government goes at this point, I am satisfied with their labeling and creation of a seperate category for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (although I feel bad for those labeled as “other Pacific Islanders”). As far as the Asian American Studies departments are concerned though, I wonder where is the fair representation?

The UCLA faculty has one Pacific Islander specialist on their staff who teaches all of the courses regarding Pacific Islanders, which over the 2007-2008 school year came out to about one per quarter. Currently, I am taking Asian American education and schooling, with the assumption (or hope rather) that the many issues with Pacific Islander education would be addressed, such as why their education levels are so low, or why their poverty statistics are so high. Instead, they have virtually been ignored, except for a sentence here and there, such as a sentence regarding their perception of time. When I asked where the complete representation was, and if Filipinos were supposed to be representational of Pacific Islanders in the course, the instructor informed me that there wasn’t any research that she could find regarding Pacific Islander education, and therefore she could not include it in the syllabus. Additionally, she said that Pacific Islanders measure success differently and although they have low levels of education and high levels of poverty, when she goes to Hawai’i, they all appear happy, so they must be successful in their eyes.

First of all, I have conducted research on Native Hawaiian education and have a working bibliography regarding many of the same principles we are studying for the other groups under Asian American, so I don’t know where she is looking, but they are available. Second, lack of publication should be no excuse to ignore an entire population. It’s not only Pacific Islanders who are being ignored in this case, it is also populations like the Hmong who are ignored when professors take this attitude of ignorance since there is supposedly “no research conducted”. I can understand her view that maybe islanders are successful and happy by their own measure if she is looking purely at their traditional cultural values. for example, in the Hawaiian community, aloha ‘aina, ‘ohana, lau lima, and a whole list of verbs such as responsibility, respect, etc. are listed, but education and western success are not. But are education and western success listed as Confucian values? I’m pretty sure they’re not. To compete in the society in which Pacific Islanders live in today, they need to achieve higher levels of education in order to be full members of society. By writing them off as happily living in poverty is ignorant. I can almost guarantee that no one wants to live wondering where their next meal is coming from.

Most of the Pacific Islands were forced into western civilization but were not given the tools to succeed and have not been able to catch up. Captain Cook arrived in Hawai’i in 1778 and within 100 years, the population had decreased by 80%. Measures were taken to ban language and the fight is still occuring for use of Hawaiian language in public school settings. And what about the Samoans and Tongans and Marshellese, what efforts are being made to help them? A lack of research on these populations should not indicate a need to continue ignoring them. A lack of research on these populations should indicate a need to DO RESEARCH or at least ask a reference librarian for help searching databases before you tell a student no research exists on a topic close to her heart.

comment from a reader:

Greetings! There’s so much I’d like to comment on that I’m not sure where to start.

I guess I should start with the Asian and Pacific Islander distinction. Personally, I think it’s arbitrary and I’m sure you do too, to an extent. Naming a region based on its geographical location and expecting all inhabitants in that area to be similar is ridiculous. Westerners. It works on some level, I suppose, but it’s not all-encompassing. I know there are so many factors to consider when determining who can fall under what label, but I think language is a pretty good way to classify people.. and by language I’m not referring to a language imposed upon a person by their country or some other force, but the native tongue of a particular area. People who share 1) a common language or 2) languages that are related to each other have a higher chance of carrying similarities culturally.

I think the Filipinos who identify as “Pacific Islander” don’t feel they can identify as “Asian” and so choose the former. It’s like, “Well, I don’t think I’m really Asian, and if I’m not Asian then I must be Pacific Islander.” I think when they think of Asians, they immediately think of what I like to call the Big Three: China, Korea and Japan. These countries’ identities and relationships with each other are so clear and well-known that it’s easy to see why certain Filipinos wouldn’t/couldn’t identify with them. Plus, there’s just the term “Pacific Islander” alone that seems straight forward but is actually misleading. I mean the Philippines is a bunch of islands in the Pacific, so why not? And so is Japan, so.. why not? (This is not what I actually believe, this is just how I feel people might break down the label. “Pacific Islander” no longer means what it was set out to mean, at least intuitively, much like the labels of “Democrat” and “Republican.” “Pacific Islander” might as well be “Ethnicity x”, and “Democrats” and “Republicans” “Party A” and “Party B”, respectively. Sorry, off topic.)

In the group of Asian Pacific Islander American, nobody wins. Nobody, especially the people you mentioned. (but yeah, even those in the Big Three lose out.) The U.S. is too lazy and ignorant to separate us all into our own groups, though to do so would be quite a feat. I think that even though we are all different ethnicities combined into this SuperEthnicity, we should support each other in recognizing these differences, instead of singling ourselves out. If the U.S. won’t listen to 1/10000 of this SuperEthnicity, maybe they’ll listen to the whole SuperEthnicity. (This newly coined word is getting out of hand.)

“lack of publication should be no excuse to ignore an entire population.“

I completely agree. However, looking for something that already exists or waiting for someone to publish something about a population is not ideal. We have to take matters into our own hands, and publish something worthy of representing a population we empathize or identify with. (..which is something I’m working on.)

“But are education and western success listed as Confucian values? I’m pretty sure they’re not.“

Actually, I’m pretty sure they are. They don’t belong solely to Confucianism, but they are Confucian values. Take Korea for example. Confucian values are BUILT into their language, let alone culture. BUILT INTO THEIR LANGUAGE. Korea is also one of the oldest and most homogenous (read: pure) people. Education and (Western) success are definitely things Koreans have stressed to their children since the dawn of time, and it’s because these things are Confucian values.

I apologize for my really long comment. I didn’t get to say all I wanted to say, though I’d love to chat with you about all this one day because it’s fascinating and it’s certainly something worth researching/studying.

my response to the comment:

i too agree that the distinction of Asian Pacific Islander is no way to classify such different people, but, unfortunantly, we live in a society that uses such classifications most often and we are forced to work within these classifications until that work slowly makes whoever makes up these retarded labels adjust to fit the changing society. Thankfully, its on its way, with the separation of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander on the last census. I too completely understand why Filipinos could classify themselves as Asian or Pacific Islander. I mean, Filipinos are actually the ones who coined the phrase Pacific Islander, so why not include them. I think that language would be an excellent way to classify people, especially emphasizing the native tongue aspect and not the imposed language, but i think thats too many categories for those damn westerners. you know how they get. and in asian american courses, pretty much all they teach are those “big 3″ and they even call them the big 3 in those courses. and the other billions of people not in the big 3 lose out on learning about the rest of the asian american world who don’t fall into the stereotypes, or those that do.

and i agree that its not acceptable to sit around and wait for others to do the research… hence all the research i’ve already done on Native Hawaiians, especially my thesis which actually has a chance of publication, unlike all the major research papers i’ve written over the years.

and as far as the confucian values, that was an error of my language. what i meant to infer was not that education and success are not inherent, because if asian american studies has taught me anything, they are. what i meant was the western, capitalist notions of success are not built into confucian values, such as commodifying everything around you to make a buck and to focus everything on money. From my understanding of confucion values, the goal is to make a well-rounded, successful person who respects not only himself but his fellow man, things which i, personally, don’t think that capitalism necessarily supports. such as the confucian concept of the gentleman, which was inherently tied to elitism, but at the same time, the individual was supposed to stand for all things moral, show loyalty, and help humanity. and i know that that is a pathetic summarization of confucian values, but i think that values and such have changed a lot over time to accomodate current social positions and goals. and not just for confucian values, but everyone’s values.