I used all my blogpost-writing energy responding to a student and justifying why we’re examining a text she finds objectionable. I probably should submit the response for publication.
A-ny-way, since that exercise zapped all my energy and I need a feel-good moment, I’m sharing “5 Simple Things to Remember” from a Blue Mountain Arts magnet card that is posted on my file cabinet.
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- Love is why we are here.
- The most important day is today.
- If you always do your best, you will not have regrets.
- Sometimes a wrong turn will bring you to exactly the right place.
- For all your accomplishments, nothing will bring you more happiness than the love you find.
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Trite, but true.
The cute postcard above was made by my Love Notes 32 partner, Stephanie T. She added another “simple thing to remember” on the back of the card:
Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted. –Christine Caine
I hope you took good notes! Happy Week!
Pics and Posts 
“justifying why we’re examining a text she finds objectionable.”
ok,
inquiring minds want to know…
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Me too….what does this poor opinionated student not want to read??
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Beloved, Toni Morrison.
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I want to read it!
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You must!
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Haha! The text is Toni Morrison’s _Beloved_. As a Christian, she felt she shouldn’t read a book that according to her google “research” (I’m assuming) was about the “haunting of a family.” I explained literal versus figurative readings of a text, the critical questions Morrison’s text raise, the need for Christians (too) to enter the conversations about trauma, personhood, love, the atrocities of slavery in America, and so on…
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During my (extremely) brief college teaching career, I had one student who didn’t want to read a story for religious reasons. The title made it look like it would be about sex, and it was but it didn’t go anywhere she expected it to. Because I didn’t share her religion (and because this was the first time this had happened to me, and because I wasn’t very good at that particular kind of teaching), I didn’t challenge her the way I think I should’ve. I respect you for having done so.
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A student responded similarly to content of one of my classes last year, but I’d begun the class session letting them know the kinds of things we would read/view in preparation for class discussions and that if anything made them uncomfortable, they should take another professor. One student withdrew.
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Thank you!
Well done keeping your cool in order to give that explanation. I’m still working on learning that!
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Those kinds of things don’t really bother me, but responding did zap the little energy I had left.
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You’re better than me because I would have just told her to actually read the book and participate in class discussions before coming to a decision about what she thinks it’s about. I’m tired.
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I try to be open-minded and hear them. I come from the Paulo Freire “school of thought.” Students are active participants in teaching and learning.
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That’s fair. Also, I may be just done because it’s the end of the semester.
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I hear you.
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I wish I could’ve eavesdropped on that conversation. Seriously–I do.
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It was a longer email than I wanted to write, but I had to explain soooooo much. Snippet below in response to ShiraDest. 🙂
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Simplicity at it’s finest.
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Planted. Love that 🙂
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🙂
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I LOVE those five simple rules. They are EVERYTHING! Those will now be copied and posted in a prominent place up here in my “writing warren.” They need to be mulled every day… especially #1. Thank you for that gift!
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Yes–especially #1!
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