**For my Immigration and Citizenship class we were asked to attend several open-to-the-public events in a neighboring city. The events included; school functions, sporting events, religious gatherings, library functions, and City Hall meetings. Our assignment was to infiltrate these gatherings and immediately begin feverishly note-taking--begetting an endless stream of social commentary on everything and everyone we observed.
The first event I attended was a PTO meeting at the local elementary school. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this acronym, it means Parent Teacher Organization. Awful, I know. After sitting in the corner of the meeting for over two miserable hours, I was more sure than ever that I would never be 'that mom.'
It was all I could do to stop myself from burning the notes in a makeshift-sacrificial-bonfire in the elementary school parking-lot.
The second part of our assignment consisted of a formal write-up of the event. Below is the assignment as it was given to us:
Write-up
You should complete jotted notes during the event, and then spend time immediately afterwards writing additional comments, in a different color ink. These “field notes” will be scanned and then shared through Google docs. They should be uploaded within 24 hours. Within 48 hours of your event, you should write responses to the following three questions, at a length of no less than 600 words.
- What surprised you most about the event, and why?
- What did you not understand about the event? How could you go about understanding it better?
- Would it be possible to survey people who attend this event? Comment on the practical concerns you can imagine, regarding the timing and approach of a survey. What would you want to ask them?
Following directions has never been my strong suit:
Caleigh Kimberley
School Board Meeting
Write-up
November 7, 201
On November 7th 2011 my peer, Laurel, and I attended a School Board Meeting at the Faribault Public Office. Dissimilarly to the PTO meeting I had attended in October, the school board meeting’s level of formality was the cause for surprise. The Superintendent and official board members sat around a large rectangle of stern, dark wood tables, at the center of the room. This room had relatively nice furnishings, tall ceilings and dark walls, far removed from the small grey teachers lounge that had served as the PTO meeting quarters. Furthermore, the general dress of those in attendance was more expert. Several of the board members, including the Superintendent wore dark suits, while ladies wore skirts, dresses or dress-pants. Perhaps one of the more noteworthy features of this room was the presence of a viewing section--5 neat rows of seats, tucked away in the corner. Here, we, along with the rest of the ‘crowd’ sat and watched the proceedings of the board meeting. While I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the topics of discussion were far more interesting than those introduced at the PTO meeting, I was somewhat less pleased to find that the presence of a less-than-ideal-personality is pretty much consistent cross-conference. There was one member of the board, who unlike the others was wearing faded blue jeans, a belt complete with gun holster, and a thin grey t-shirt stretched, too far, over his enormous belly. He seemed to love to hear himself talk, for he carried on for far too long every time he piped up to propose a new grand idea. His great mustache twitched slightly whenever he drove a point home and I observed that despite the fact that the Superintendent was seated adjacent to him, and had tried, several times unsuccessfully to steer the conversation back on topic, he and his bushy, ‘crumb-catcher’ seemed perfectly content to carry on and on. In the absence of any perceived diversity at the Board meeting, I focused my attention instead on the dichotomy between the board members, seated at the table, and the people who like us, were observing the discussion from seats. There came a time when a member of the Board posed a question that puzzled even the office-chatterbox, and from the silence, a man raised his hand slowly in his seat. The superintendent asked him to stand up and share what he had to say with the room. He laughed nervously and mumbled something about not knowing whether the members of the ‘peanut gallery’ could contribute. It wasn’t until he said this that I realized just how much disunion there was between those sitting and observing and those seated at the dark mahogany tables. For example, I noticed that the board members were eating what appeared to be a meal prepared exclusively for them; the conversation and debate went mostly unshared, and when a person was called from the gallery to make a statement it was formal and, in my mind, reminiscent of giving a school report--standing nervously in front of your peers and teacher. Perhaps it was my own childhood memories superimposed onto this middle aged woman who stood up to present an expense report and budget, but then, she did seem to be rather fidgety and nervous and I couldn’t help but wish she would find herself, instead, sitting in an unceremonious PTO circle discussing the success of last weeks' bake sale.
If I could ask the members of the board one question, I would ask them this:
Have you tried the chairs in the “peanut gallery?”
Song of the Day: It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World by the soulful James Brown
