actual learning

I love it when material in one class overlaps with that of another. Partly because it makes understanding easier for at least one of the subjects, but mainly because I feel like I'm actually learning something for a change.

Today, the overlap was between lessons in my sociology and blogging classes. A concept found in my soc reading, Frederick W. Taylor's "scientific management," was referenced in our blogging reading and discussion. Taylor, an engineer, applied scientific management to factory jobs, equating time with production and money. With that connection, Taylor found that time can be more easily measured and charted to be saved.

In sociology class, The Family, we apply this scientific management to how parents divvy up their time spent doing paid work and housework or child care. In Blogging in Theory and Practice, we apply scientific management to a discussion of blogs as grids and networks. In my stream of consciousness, I apply it to the separation of my homes.

You see, my relationship with where I grew up has changed since I was a freshman in college, and I think that change has caused some unrest in my relationships with family members. But I think a variation of the sociological scientific management can be used explain it.

When I was a freshman I didn't consider Mizzou "home." My college life served a merely functional purpose. I didn't have close friendships here, nor did I have any sentimental feelings toward Columbia itself. Mizzou is where I did work, and that was it. So it made sense that I still placed the city I grew up in on a pedestal. Going back there was vacation: it was where my true friends were, it was the only place I felt I could truly relax.

However, somewhere along the line of growing up and old, the place I considered home flipped. I seem to have more close friendships in at Mizzou than I do in Wisconsin, and I've grown to honestly love the city of Columbia. I've learned that you can do well in school and still have fun. I've learned to relax and love life here.

It's not that I consider going back to Wisconsin stressful or painful. I still love my hometown and it's still up on a pedestal. But, to be fair, since distance prevents me from often traveling back, the home where I grew up kind of has become a place where I know I have to get work done. There's doctors' appointments to catch up on, and I always want to get my hair cut at my favorite salon. And when I go out, I feel like I have to make a point of looking good and/or putting on a good face in case I run into someone unexpectedly.

This flip of homes is similar to the one described in Ariel Russell Hochschild's book, The Time Bind. To describe why some parents want to stay at work longer, Hochschild employed the theory of scientific management:

"Home has become the place where people carry out necessary tasks efficiently in the limited amount of time allotted" (49)

Again, I want to stress that I love my hometown. My family is there, and even though I feel I have a stable "family-of-choice" in Columbia, I will always love my parents, sister, grandparents more than anything else.

The point here is that I've changed. And until now, when scientific management came up in two classes, I didn't really understand it. I hope my family, friends and you all understand it, too.