Professor Marlen Harrison
English Lit. 121-003 – Final Reflective Letter
7 December 2009
Dear Marlen,
I am nearing the middle of my sophomore year in college; therefore, I can tell you I am now completing my third semester of classes here at IUP. I am business marketing major in Eberly. English does pertain to my major but only to a degree. Your class really doesn’t pertain to my major whatsoever, yet, somehow your class has pulled me in more than any other class I’ve taken here at IUP including the ones pertained to my major.
To be quite honest, one of my biggest pet peeves is redundancy. With that being said understand that I could just sit her and basically retype my whole midterm reflective letter, and I would just be rewording things I already said. I’m not going to do that. Instead I’m going to tell you overall the three main reasons that your class has pulled me in so much. And talk briefly about Middlesex and the controversy that rose due to your absences.
Firstly, I come to your class, sit and listen to discussion, reflect myself to what we talked about, and then leave 50 minutes later. Other classes I go in, do bullshit work for over an hour, not really paying attention for more than 10 minutes at a time, and these are classes like college calc, accounting 2, etc… When I leave your class 50 minutes later I come out feeling I’ve accomplished so much more than leaving any other class. Our in class discussions are so opened minded and free that you cannot help but to be moved. I sit through every discussion (having only missed one class due to illness or I would have never missed it) and just let my thoughts flow. I’ve actually had many profound ideas and self discoveries about myself, my family, my religious beliefs, my friends, and just myself in general. This is my first reason for being so intrigued by your class.
Second, your use of WordPress.com was awesome. Despite the large workload your class does come with, WordPress seems to make it not so bad. Your class became a daily part of my life this semester, partly because of WordPress. Whenever I would get online to check e-mails, facebook, or whatever, I found myself checking WordPress and not even thinking about it. I would recommend the use of WordPress to any professor in the future. Honestly, I can see myself using WordPress in the future also. I’ve been on Facebook, and checked out twitter, but those things aren’t for me. There’s too much bullshit with that stuff. I admit to having a Facebook account but it’s currently deactivated. I really only activate it if I’m trying to find one of my friends scattered in the world. Back to WordPress (which I’m going to refer to as WP to make this letter easier to write), WP seems to be a way of documenting your thoughts and ideas in a more respectful manner. WP almost seems to have a formal tone when I’m using it. I do a lot of traveling and I may use WP in the future for keeping my locations up-to-date.
My third reason was your approach to sexuality in the class. This was a place no teacher of mine before you had gone. You posed many controversial questions about being homosexual, and many of the questions you posed you also answered in your class. I am a guy who seeks pleasure from a girl. Before your class the thought of being homosexual or bisexual confused me. I had several gay friends who despite being close to, I always felt like I just didn’t understand them. Well I think I can make a better idea of it now after your class. It’s not about anything other than pleasure. If you’re a man who seeks a man then so be it. If you’re a woman who seeks a woman so be it. If you’re a person who isn’t sexually interested at all so be it. It’s all human nature. When the world finally sees the fact that it all comes down to the seeking of pleasure people will begin to understand the homosexual culture a lot more. Before taking this class I had heard what you were about and what you stood for from previous students of yours. And to be honest it scared me a little. But I now feel so much more intelligent and opened minded. I really would like to personally thank you for doing that to me.
While on that topic let me move into Middlesex. My first complaint is 600 pages at the end of the semester? Really? I know it’s a good novel, but that’s just brutal due to all the other stress from other classes and final exams lurking around the corner. I understand this novel is perfect to end this course with, but it’s just too much at the end of the semester. For me personally, I have to read heavily plotted books very slowly and possibly over and over again to get through the whole thing. Honestly if I do finish Middlesex by the end of this week I really won’t know anything about it due to rushing through it and feeling pressured. No one likes to be pressured into reading and it directly reflects what you take out of the novel. I’m not suggesting you remove this book from your syllabus but move its place in the semester. Just too much at the end.
The final thing I would like to briefly discuss was your absentee situation that you discussed with us. No one can help family emergencies. Shit happens. It’s that simple. As for the conference in Mexico, you had a film worked in that week months in advance, and the fact that no other professors responded to your e-mail is pretty bitchy on their part. I’m going to try and relate that situation to a sports team. If one of your fellow players has something happen and can’t play in the game, you should be willing to step in no matter what. That is part of being a team, a department, or whatever. After hearing that and the fact that your boss was completely oblivious to you and your methods really makes me lose some respect for your department. You, Marlen, are a better teacher than 99% of the teachers I’ve had in my life and feel that you could be at any major university. Knowing you are moving on from IUP, I would like to simply say good luck in the future. IUP was one journey in your life. When you step out of this journey and into your next one, I wish you the best. It’s all one big loop.
Your friend,
Anthony R. Prailey
