jane addams

sandy has been dying to go to the jane addams hull house museum for quite some time. on her last two visits to chicago, the museum was closed for summer and for renovations. i expected to find another reason for it to be closed this year, but was excited to discover that it was wide open.

maybe the past two years of it being closed increased to our expectations of this museum (you really want what you can't have), but i must say, the museum failed to deliver. it is a fancy house smack dab in the center of the uic campus. and while it had lots of artifacts, it was lacking in substantial information. i walked through the rooms and read the descriptions of each item- searching for clues about jane or hull house, but was met with a lot of unclear information.

it was disappointing, because from what i saw, i think jane might have been pretty amazing. and i also think that hull house had a very kipp (knowledge is power program, the school that i worked for before having e) mentality that i most likely would have connected with. but the museum did very little to connect the dots and create a clear understanding of how hull house operated and the role that jane played in the project.

what was clear though, was that jane's mentality was met with a considerable amount of resistance in her day. she stood up for her beliefs (anti-war, member of the NAACP, member of the ACLU, fought for the women's right to vote in illinois, pro education of minorities, pro equal pay and fair work conditions etc.). these are the things that people initially feared her for and then later recognized as valuable (awarding her a noble peace prize). her spirit inspired my rebellious side- the side of me that gets all stirred up when i think of how poor children are neglected, or how the elderly are medically neglected etc.

i'd like to say that i'm going to get to the bottom of this woman and really read up on who she was. truth be told, i don't have much time for reading these days. the last book i read took me about three months from start to finish, and it wasn't even a challenging read. these days, reading us weekly feels like an accomplishment. if you know anything about jane addams, please share:)

i'd also like to report that we ate lunch in the uic student center. it was an out of body experience. i was surrounded by all these kids chatting about the great party they went to over the weekend or commiserating about a professors upcoming exam etc. i started to get excited- to get that college campus enthusiasm running through my veins... and then i looked around and realized that i was eating lunch with my mom (not cool), was wiping my three year old's nose (gross) and breastfeeding my infant under a blanket (REALLY uncool). the wind flew right out of my sails. to make matters worse, i ran into one of my cool friends on the way out of the building who really is a young hip uic student. ahh... to be cool again!