Taking a Feminary View

The OED word-a-day email for today is feminary, adj.

Etymology:  < classical Latin fēmina woman (see female n.) + -ary suffix1.
derogatory. Obs.


  Feminine, womanly.

1630   S. Lennard tr. P. Charron Of Wisdome (new ed.) ii. iii. 277   A feminarie, sottish calmenesse and vitious facilitie [Fr. une feminine, sotte, bonasse & vitieuse facilité].

A wonderful word. Makes me realize there's always been something a bit off for me about the feeling of the word feminist. I use it regularly to describe myself and many struggles I've been in, but there's a harsh sibilance to "-ist" which has always felt combative in a way I don't really feel about these issues. Now feminary, that's a word that just lolls along, not in any hurry, ready to open her heart that's been hinted at with the smile of the femme at the opening, not cut off like the definitiveness of an -ist, that t that slams shut in defiance. I'd much rather roll along with the long drawn out song of shifting identities which a feminary can slide into, dragging out the eeeey into a proper fairy verse.

This is another entry in the category "men who wear scarves and cry in public."

Spontaneous Free

Listening to a podcast from Your Call, interview with Nina Simon, Executive Director at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History: she describes their policy of "spontaneous free" -- If someone is looking around, hesitating, not reaching for their wallet, we'll go up to them and invent a reason to invite them in--"Oh, it's your first time here? It's free for you. You're an artist? It's free for you today." Makes me think of the Diggers' 1% Free..

What exhilarates you most about Connected Learning?

From a free write at the Connected Learning dinner meeting at the Annual Meeting this year: The potential to return real learning to ordinary public schools is exhilarating. The possibility that this movement we’re part of could actually accomplish the goal we’ve all dreamed of is spine-tingling. Things have felt so depressing, overwhelming, in the face of the testing and control regimes of the NCLB era. It does appear that a small window is opening. If we can make the light that shines in clear enough, it will have the power to spread in its rhizomatic fashion.