it would appear that my eyebrows are growing toward and into my hairline, so it makes sense that i am increasingly comfortable with being an unlikable bitch of a teacher--which is fine, because i do not equate "likability" with "teaching effectiveness," and i'm relatively confident in my teaching abilities in general anyway. also, i am in my 9th year of teaching, and so therefore have become acutely aware of pattern formations in student behavior and responses.* i can't even imagine how solidified these patterns will seem in, say, my 30th year.
anyway, here's a version of the speech:
you guys seem really great and smart and everything? and no offense? but it's unlikely that a small group of college students in the ROC in 2007 are going to be the ones to finally and once and for all take down Freud--especially a work like Civilization and its Discontents, considered canonical in a few different disciplines (though of course ancient history in psychology, though with several important vestiges), and especially for being "boring" and "repetitive." The thing is, it doesn't matter if you like it or not, just like it doesn't matter if you like molar equations in chemistry class. The other thing is, you don't get to win against a text, especially not by forfeit, which these comments indicate you think you are doing. You can criticize it to your heart's content, but you have to first take it seriously and then criticize it on terms it presents. Calling it "boring" and "repetitive," has the opposite effect I suspect you intend it to have,** which is to say it does not make you seem like a superior critical thinker. But anyway, as with anything else, if you don't care, I don't care; I get paid regardless.
*these patterns are quite differently distributed at a public school versus at a private school--or at least i think that's the significant difference between my grad school alma mater and my current position. i.e., at the private school where i teach now, there is A LOT less disdain, contempt and eye-rolling for schoolwork. in fact, the prevailing attitude is downright enthusiasm for learning. it's pretty awesome. this state of affairs does not detract, however, from the importance of my little speech.
**the best example that i have ever seen of sending a message that has the exact opposite effect it is intended to have was the t-shirt worn by a freshman writing student of mine a few years ago that read, "I Eat Pussy." yes, that's the shirt he chose to wear that day, to a class taught by a woman. and nothing, nothing, NOTHING could have proclaimed him more forcefully to not have ever even seen a pussy, let alone eaten one, than wearing this t-shirt. sadly, at the time it seemed imprudent for me to point this out to him in front of his peers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
That's great. Here's my version:
I don't care what you think. This isn't like the American version of democratic feel-goodery where everybody gets to say what they think, but nobody has to know anything. I know you've been told that if you start a sentence with "It's just my personal opinion, but..." whatever follows is valid. But this is untrue. Usually, what follows is deranged nonsense. In fact, that's what I hear when you start a sentence that way; I hear "Here comes some deranged nonsense." So, in short: I don't care about your personal opinion, just as I assume you don't care about mine.
i'm still laughing about the t-shirt...
I like: "If you're reading Plato and Aristotle and you're thinking 'nothing these guys say applies to my life' - well, 2,500 years of human thought pretty much indicates that that's a problem with you and not with them"
Re Paulo, I'm also a fan of "Just for the record, 'To me' and 'I feel' are emotions not arguments. This is an argument class. If you want to talk about your emotions, there's a poetry class that meets at this same time in the building right over there"
Post a Comment