It was an interesting read-- On one hand, yet another Big City liberal heads into the wilds of Appalachia to study the restless natives.... The author still seemed smug in his liberal academic viewpoints, in spite of his experiences. On the other hand, it was good to see a classroom where people of diverse views could meet and discuss them...but why didn't he do that up in his neck of the woods, where progressive monoculture smothers any disagreement?
I did like how he freely brought up how conservative students do not feel like they can openly express their views in the campus setting. And although I agree with Pseudotsuga that the author was admittedly a liberal, I disagree and feel he was not smug. To the contrary he seemed to learn almost as much as his students by taking this teaching assignment out of his comfort zone.
I would have taken him up on the first-day-of-class dilemma and designated the person next to me to get the F. With an A assured, I'd ask what the ethics are for a teacher to give someone an F based on a stupid-a## proposal on the first day of class without ever seeing any of their work and based on someone else simply pointing at them. In short, I would have called his bluff.
3 comments:
It was an interesting read--
On one hand, yet another Big City liberal heads into the wilds of Appalachia to study the restless natives....
The author still seemed smug in his liberal academic viewpoints, in spite of his experiences.
On the other hand, it was good to see a classroom where people of diverse views could meet and discuss them...but why didn't he do that up in his neck of the woods, where progressive monoculture smothers any disagreement?
I did like how he freely brought up how conservative students do not feel like they can openly express their views in the campus setting. And although I agree with Pseudotsuga that the author was admittedly a liberal, I disagree and feel he was not smug. To the contrary he seemed to learn almost as much as his students by taking this teaching assignment out of his comfort zone.
More people should do that.
I would have taken him up on the first-day-of-class dilemma and designated the person next to me to get the F. With an A assured, I'd ask what the ethics are for a teacher to give someone an F based on a stupid-a## proposal on the first day of class without ever seeing any of their work and based on someone else simply pointing at them. In short, I would have called his bluff.
I'm a bad, bad girl ;)
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