All aboard the disclaimer train
As usual, I'm at least a few steps behind the blogging sistern. Here, brought to my attention by the estimable Bitch, PhD, is my reinterpretation of the trenchant and witty disclaimer first posted by Lauren of Feministe.Both of them are using these disclaimers in particularly blogocentric ways, as befits their vast readership and lively comment sections. I can't claim such an active, if occasionally hostile readership.
But since I am a) now officially Spring Breaking; and thus b) blissfully free from my students for 10 days; and therefore c) eager to vent the frustrations that have built up over the first half of the semester before the headlong race to the bitter end (I love my job, I love my job--really, I do), I want to fantasize about the kind of disclaimer I could give my students on the first day of a class. I would ask them to read it carefully, then quiz them on the material on day two. Those who choose to stay in class must earn a B or better on the quiz and sign a waiver indicating that they are now fully aware participants in MY pedagogical universe (which I would, of course, call "Our" pedagogical universe).
1.) I have been teaching college courses independently for (gasp) almost ten years. Over this time, I have had my teaching skills challenged, berated, chided, and belittled by far more sophisticated and articulate students than you. I have been accused of playing favorites, and of hating all my students. I have been informed, each time completely inaccurately, that I do not like a particular student merely because of the student's age, sex, hair color, town of origin, computer font, politics, food preferences, diagnosed disability, or choice of eau de parfum. (I have also been told that a student disliked me for each of the above reasons). In neither case was it true. If I don't like you, it's probably because you are a) dumb, b) belligerent, c) rude, d) unkind, or e) arrogant. If you are certain none of these applies, then I guarantee that the reason is a).
Chances are, if you have something nasty to say about me, my politics, or my pedagogy, I have not only heard it before, but have heard it several times. Thus, if you intend to hurt my feelings, please be creative and grammatically correct. Compliments are always welcome, but they should be substantive and relevant to my pedagogy, not my fashion choices. You are not my target fashion audience, and I don't care if you like my shoes or not.
Here is A Glossary to Words and Phrases That are Inaccurate, Overused, and Thus Meaningless: feminazi, socialist, Marxist, intellectual, liberal, leftist, man-hater, frigid, bitch. And I know perfectly well that I don't want you to write only what I already think, I want you to write what you think--and if you don't think at all, then this will be painful for you, I know. But don't bother telling me what you think I "really want to hear." It ain't so.
2.) This course is not an opportunity for indoctrination by either of us. I am not, by my choice of material, necessarily advancing its agenda. Nor am I interested in your refusal to read things that do not conform to the childhood beliefs you carted with you to college, along with your boombox and your fantasies about fraternity life or finally losing your virginity. I am paid to have a broader range of knowledge than you do, and to use it in order to help you develop a critical mind intelligent enough to argue in an intelligent manner without resorting to sarcasm or the above-mentioned insults. If you disagree with materials, comments from me, or comments from your peers, please state so, but only if you are interested in a civil debate.
2a.) I am not interested in conforming to your media-fueled fears that the university is being "taken over" by elitist leftists. If I fail to conform to your negative expectations of my role in your indoctrination and brainwashing, I heartily apologize, but do remember that I and my colleagues are complex individuals in a complex world. I am genuinely committed to my beliefs, but recognize that there are contradictions among them. My philosophy is not composed of a bullet-point list of talking points and behaviors--especially not a list composed by those seeking to discredit me and what I represent. If you don’t understand that, chances are you are not yet ready to benefit from higher education.
3.) If you have a sincere question, frame it respectfully. Show me the courtesy that I show you. One cannot expect a thoughtful and intelligent answer to an unthoughtful comment. One of the things I am helping you learn is how to disagree and debate from a position of nuance and respect.
4.) If you send me an email, be savvy enough to do at least a perfunctory proofread. And here's an insider tip: get my name and title correct--especially if you are requesting a favor (extended due date, extra meeting, late admission code).
5.) Do not assume that you know everything there is to know about me simply because you attend a particular course on a regular basis, or because you have particular associations with what you are asked to read. Any judgments you make will be based on the information I have provided about myself, which is probably vague, incomplete or embellished. What you hear from me may include any combination of the following: hyperbole, sarcasm, humor, "devil's advocate" points of view, summaries of other people's ideas, personal philosophy. You will probably get very little of the latter. In every course I teach, I choose works from a political, social, and cultural spectrum. I do this on purpose. That purpose is called "learning."
6.) My sincere commitment to you, to your ideas, and to your education does not allow you to impede my ability to express myself. The classroom is our shared space, in which we have different but complementary roles toward each other and the material. My relationships with colleagues, my private life, and my publications constitute my rhetorical space and I have put hard work into establishing an identity and a certain level of credibility. If I did not personally provide you with information about my life outside of the classroom, it is probably because I may not want you to read certain things I might write about you or others.
Once you enter the academic community, as a student or a professor, you are no longer able to make decisions about your beliefs and opinions merely by reverting to how you feel about them. If we make our opinions public, we will be held accountable for them. We have to own our words, be willing to take responsibility for what we have said, admit flaws and quibbles in our rhetoric. We have to pay attention to the particulars of language, how punctuation and word choice can shift an entire argument. We have to be our own and each other's editor, personally and publicly.
posted by Unknown @ 10:29 AM
22 Comments:
Oh god, I love it. Can I put this on my office door?
God. This is the first post i read from your blog and it feels like 10 doors shutting on my face and 10 walls everywhere i look.
So many barriers and protection. So much defensive.
Is it cramped in there?
Hear, hear. Even I, lowly TA, feel ya.
Beautiful, beautiful. Every undergrad should have to read this!
This is great! (and the quiz and signature are so important)
I taught for about 10 years in the adjunct capacity and had been through the ringer in so many ways. I resorted to a similar (but not nearly as well developed) approach, which I incorporated into my syllabus. On the second day of class, two students came in and stared at me with terrified faces. I asked, and they said "we read your syllabus." Of course, they weren't the ones who I needed to read it. The ones who do never are, which is why I like the quiz/waiver part of your fantasy.
Found you through feministe; looking forward to rooting through the rest of your blog.
well, anon, if you ever bother to return, i hope you'll also see some of the incredible determination, energy, and--yes--love I put forward toward my teaching. In fact, that's why I posted this as an anonymous manifesto--to defuse and vent the tension so that I can continue to be open to my students in person.
But then, if you consider one post--framed, I might add, in terms of a semi-snarky and hyperbolic response to my exhaustion at this particular time of the term--as the definitive statement of my identity as a blogger OR a teacher, then you probably wouldn't like my class, either.
Is the air thin up on your pedestal?
to those of you who understand the impulse (professor b, mateo, acidflask, etc.)--ain't it the sad truth that the ones who might benefit from this scenario are the very ones who think it'd never apply to Them? Every time I assume the hard-ass role, I realize I'm only scaring the wrong students--the ones for whom such a disclaimer is so unnecessary. And, thank god, there are so many MORE of them.
I LOVE IT!
And you're right--it's always the wrong students who are scared away. The ones who would benefit from an, ahem, stern talking-to would never, ever, think it's them.
You've read my mind. I do try to get some of this across to my students (in a much more subdued manner) but, alas, they don't listen, don't care, or don't get it.
Reading this has perked me up just in time for break (and an intense round of grading).
Oh, and regarding the person who thinks you are being too defensive...(1) your points were obviously missed and (2) I'd bet this is someone who does not teach.
I came here through feministe as well. Sure, I'm only in my second semester teaching, and that College Algebra, and that a predetermined syllabus from which there is very little wiggle room (this semester I've taken to giving them way-too-hard extra credit assignments that forces them to think like mathematicians), but I can so relate to this. You should have seen the hate e-mail I got at the end of last semester. My ire was tempered by the student's unintentional hilarity. (saying "ur the worst teacher i ever had" wow, I've been flamed by a student)
Anyway, what I'm saying is, great post. I may have to print it up.
hello, it's me, anonymous!
No, i didn't mean to judge you on that one post. Sorry if I did or it seems like I did. I meant to share how the academic disclaimer made me feel.
And as you probably would agree with, what I feel is caused 90% by me and 10% by the stimuli itself, I'd say.
I definitely don't see myself on a pedestal either. In which museum?
And you're right, i don't teach and have only been a student. Actually i have "taught" language classes but not in an academic setting. I have considered academia and i might not be well suited for it. probably.
I just browsed by and read your post and the disclaimer. Call me sensitive, but I truly felt a really defensive/ agressive vibe coming from it, even though i am not a student, and i am not even involved at all. So, i feel for those who might be: the students and you.
I do feel that if i was a student of yours and read this syllabus disclaimer, I would be terrified of you and feel completely trapped, because it seems that whatever i'd say, feel, think, disagree with, or thought I understood, I would just be dismissed by you and you would have already thought about it all or judged it all.
I'd feel completely "cornered" in my thinking. Like a true discourse is not possible, because you have decided in advance that you know/ understand/ judge everything that could come from me.
Like there is really little space for me to move in. Like I am in this maze and you say "don't go there", "don't go here" "go faster" "no, go slower."
Obviously i empathized with your students after reading the disclaimer, not with you. I am not sure why. I always liked my professors actually.
The part that ticked me a bit was this one: "I am paid to have a broader range of knowledge than you do." That might be true, but that is in one area only. And knowledge is not equivalent to perspective, insight or experience nor breadth/creativity of thought. I felt a lot of contempt in the disclaimer, a lack of respect for what another might bring to the table.
I guess I was just surprised by my own reaction to this. It made me feel shut down, made mute. Like nothing I could ever say or think would matter to you or could make *you* change and evolve in this set-up. No exchange there. A one way conduit.
I realize the intrinsic problem of leaving a comment on someone's blog that you are visiting for the first time. But i had a strong feeling that i just wanted to share. I don't know you, so i am reacting from a surface feeling obviously.
I can see from the others' comments and your response that I reacted to your post with an utter lack of humor or light-heartedness and I am sorry for that. I understand this was meant as a funny rant and I guess i missed it. It felt too contemptuous to make me relax and laugh. I think you have to be one of the professors that identify in order to laugh.
mmmmm....I wonder what my response is bringing you. I hope not just grief/ annoyance/ contempt.
If I could do it over, I would take away my last sentence "Is it cramped in there?" I went into the attack mode too. Sorry about that.
Please don't belittle my grammar or spelling or expression, English is not my first language.
Ok, I'll stop taking space in your comments now...
Have a good day,
T
Thanks, T, for the thoughtful follow-up. I can see exactly what you mean about how it would make you feel shut down--in some ways, that's the intent of this mock-manifesto (emphasis on the mock).
It's absolutely not the way I run my classes or my real-life encounters, in which I absolutely agree with you that my academic areas of expertise are not the equivalent, much less the superior, of my students' personal experience. In my real life, I am constantly honored, humbled, and awed by my students--they overcome difficulties I could never have envisioned, with a grace I'm not sure I could match even at my advanced age.
And I think the subtext of the post, and the commenters who agreed with some element of its frustration and, yes, hostility, was that those of us who take our teaching so very seriously, and who work so hard to respect our students' beliefs and values, honestly resent the FEW who treat us so contemptuously.
There's a lot that's not said in this rant. And yes, it was meant as a humorous post among a community of (from much of my reading lately) similarly frustrated and dedicated faculty--of all ranks. This is precisely why I would never actually reproduce it for students--as several of us have noted, the few hostile students we want to stop short with a post like this won't get it, while someone who, like you, genuinely welcomes dialogue and has something to teach _us_ feels (understandably) shut down.
Thanks for reminding me that my anonymity does not absolve me of my desire to or need to blog in a way that is reasonably consistent with my larger pedagogy and philosophy.
I just linked to "Pedablogue"--whose author points us to one of his students' responses to academic blogs...a lot like yours. It's a much more complete discussion of the issue, one that I wager to guess all the pedagogues I hear from spend hours obsessing over.
I'm still going to use this space to rant from my side of the desk on occasion, but I do appreciate the reminder that a teacher is, oddly enough, never off duty.
(And it really makes me feel bad that you would expect to be belittled for grammar, etc.--although, in this sphere, I can see why you might...)
well, anon, since you already said you won't be back, there's not much hope for further communication. and you clearly didn't read the exchange i had with T--originally anonymous and put off, as you were--but who had the grace to return to read my response. you also clearly didn't read anything else i posted to frame this particular manifesto, including my note as to its hyperbolic nature. with any luck i *am* in your department, and you know the me who spends hours and hours and hours with her students, helping them wade through the "morass of negativity ... and consumerism" and master--and criticize!--academia. i suspect your self-righteous pollyanna-ishness on students' behalf is far more offputting to your colleagues and your students than a bit of bracing sarcasm would be.
nowhere do i suggest my students are idiots. self-absorbed, coddled, even a bit lazy, perhaps. duped by society, yes. if they were simply idiots, i wouldn't care when they failed to rise to my positive expectations, now would i?
actually, i suspect you were in my graduate program. if not, your "don't be negative" kindred were there in suffocating numbers, stifling any kind of genuine, albeit sharp-edged, discussion.
I don't doubt your dedication nor your hard work on behalf of your students, but I find that both in your responses to your two detractors, above, and in the original post there is a disquieting undercurrent of superiority and something that isn't quite but borders on being contempt. As a former high school teacher, I found that students react obnoxiously to being condescended and to the feeling of being under someone's thumb. Perhaps treating them with the truer sense of egalitarianism and respect that you also talk about would yield fewer frustrations.
As you said, your disclaimer is rather a snarky one. I would not choose this tone for my sociology or anthropology students. But I appreciate the need to scream, when one's environment is about speaking softly.
They will make remarks about one's shoes, although why escapes me. Is it that they would like to say something nice but are afraid it will be misinterpreted?
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