first day of school

"And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;"

Job 19:25-26

I've sung the song based on these verses a hundred times, and I don't think I ever knew they were from Job. It gives it a richer meaning I think.

Today was my first day at my new job, the one teaching psychology to 12th graders. So far so good - the class was very participatory (maybe a little too much!) and everything I prepared was just about right in terms of timing. And since I have three sections of this I don't need new material until I teach this section again on Thursday! I like that my classes don't start before 10am and are over by 3pm. I think this part-time job is going to work out really well. I'm putting a lot of time in on the front end, but it should get better.

One thing that makes me happpy is that I negotiated my salary. I've never done that. Thinking about what I was going to say was more nerve-wracking than thinking about teaching my demo class, which was daunting as well (in front of the head of the high school, the chair of the science department, and the school psychologist). Research on why women on average make less than men even in equivalent positions shows that one of the reasons is because women are less likely to negotiate their salary when offered a job and less likely to ask for a raise letter. The school has a fixed calendar based on years of experience, but they were able to bump me up a few grades with the caveat that if I end up one day working full-time I would go back down to my "appropriate" level.

This week we heard Jim Wallis talk at Barnes & Noble. He's the founder of Sojourner magazine, a Christian magazine concerned with social justice. He's also the author of several books, his latest having just come out in paperback, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. There was a Q&A time at the end and both E and I asked questions. He asked what the Right and Left got wrong when it came to the issue of HIV (answer: they make the issue revolve around a pro or con gay lifestyle). Earlier Wallis had said there needs to be room for religious language in the political arena. I asked what what kind of religious language was appropriate to come out of a politician's mouth (answer: can be their motivation, but still need to make compelling universal moral arguments).

Day of prayer, family dinner, and preparing for my psych class took up the entire weekend. Last weekend I recruited for the annual Guess Who's Coming to Dinner event I coordinate for church, took a nice walk along the Hudson, watched a good movie called Half Nelson, and went to the Save Darfur rally in Central Park.

Recruiting:


From my river walk:




Central Park:


Half Nelson, starring a native of London, Ontario: