Bekymringer

I overdid it. Over the course of three days I knit a cute little pair of ribbed DK-weight long johns for E, and now my hands are really aching. I didn't knit at all yesterday, though I did spend a little time working on frogging the thrifted cotton sweater. Add to that the fact that I think I'm coming down with a cold, and the fact that I'm in freak-out mode about the fact that teaching starts next week, and the fact that I have my period. Needless to say, I'm fretting.

On the teaching thing: I agreed right before Christmas to lead a breakout group for our big introductory course, NOR1300, which is a survey of Norwegian literature from 1800-2000. Since then I have received no information whatsoever. I don't even know where the class will meet or how often! I contacted the main instructor for the course and she never responded to my email, despite the fact that her office is right across the hall from mine. At our winter party last week I talked to another instructor for the course about it and we corralled her. She agreed to call a meeting, which will be taking place today. It turns out there isn't even agreement among the people who have taught this before over what the purpose of the breakout group actually is. D'oh. I'll be very curious the see what comes out of this meeting.

On contemporary literature: Last night we watched an interview with Karl Ove Knausgård, who has written a multivolume work of fiction about the intimate details of his life, entitled Min kamp. I wish I hadn't been in such bad shape (I could barely stay awake), as we had the beginnings of a really interesting discussion going. KE responded really positively to Knausgård's project, and felt that it touched on a lot of what he is interested in doing in his art. I on the other hand was very put off. I'm so sick of the narrowly focused narcissism of Norwegian literature of the past 20 years. Not having read the books yet, I can't help but think that Min kamp (volumes 1-6) is just taking the trend to its utmost extreme. I'm thinking I want to start (re)reading authors like Karen Blixen, Italo Calvino, and Jorge Luis Borges. If I were to start writing fiction, I think I would like to work in response to them, rather than to what's going on right now. I like their firm grasp on the artificiality of both fiction and reality, their use of the fantastical, and the parable-like qualities of some of their work. They are on the one hand technical masters of narrative, but on the other hand supremely clear and even simple in their story telling.

On E's school plans: We received notification that E was scheduled to start public school this coming August. We don't think he's ready, so we applied to delay a year. Intellectually and language-wise I'm sure he's ready, but not socially, and certainly not in terms of independence and the ability to do things on his own. It's really a bummer, as he's in a great preschool group of the oldest kids, and all the other kids in his group will be starting school. Unfortunately, they'll all be going to a different school than the one that E is slated to go to, because of where they live. So even though we have been planning to send him to the same preschool next year, none of his friends from this year would be there. Plus they are relocating and the group will be much bigger.

Yesterday when we had E's neighbor friend over for a visit it dawned on me that the solution really might just be to try to get him into the local Steiner school, where this boy goes. We really like his parents and spent quite a bit of time talking to them about the pros and cons. For one thing, the people we've met since moving back whom we like are all connected to the Steiner school. The school is in walking distance along a really nice, quiet (and relatively flat) road. The public school is right at the center of the most congested area on Nesodden, and there's massive construction going on. Even though the distance is about the same, it would be a much more chaotic experience. We really like the fact that the Steiner school demands more parental involvement. Since we're so anti-social, we really need that kind of structure. We also really like the focus on creativity and independent thinking. We don't like the "woo" aspect, but according to our friends it doesn't have to play a really big role in the child's experience. C went to Steiner school himself, and seems to have more or less just ignored the woo.

We've been thinking about this off and on for the past year, but yesterday I feel like we really settled on our answer. We're definitely going to apply. We realized that no matter what (A. continue at the current preschool, B. start public school, C. switch to the Steiner preschool) E is going to have to go through yet another transition in August. With the Steiner preschool, he would be with the same kids he would start grade school with, which is a definite plus. Staying where he is, but with a whole new set of kids who he ultimately wouldn't be going to grade school seems like a much worse option, and just throwing him into the chaos of the big public grade school when he's anywhere from 6 months to a year younger than all the other kids seems like a terrible choice.