Today was my kick-in-the-chest first day of school at UT, sort of.
I sat through the supposed-to-be three hour class related to human inquiry (turned into less than two so we could get to the bookstore to buy a necessary book before it closed at 6). And felt shocked. The professor laughed her way through how hard she is, how she has the power in the classroom. And then had us write individual definitions to words like, “reality, knowledge, theory, science, objectivity,” had us sit in groups to come to consensus on a working definition, and then went around the room for each group definition. To tell us how wrong we all were at each turn (making sometimes admissions when someone was a little bit right). Then she gave us the “right” definition and has us take notes.
I looked around the room and saw the women’s and men’s faces fall. Some looked down. Some twitched. I thought about the educational research that shows when emotions are running too high, the student can’t learn very well. I wondered if I was there emotionally, feeling beaten down and like I knew very little. We discovered that one paradigm of thinkers, the social constructivists, had been misusing the term for reality and confusing it with knowledge. Reality is, after all, what exists. Independent of everything else. According to her.
This was my sort-of first day because it’s the class my advisor said I should take if I can’t get into the others I want (I’ll find out after sitting through a class in about one and half hours if I get in).
To the professor’s credit, a graduate student here I admire who works with her as her advisor, says that the above professor is one of the best and perhaps most honest here. ”Education is violent,” the student says the professor has told her–and she agrees with that sentiment. Maybe she’s right–maybe education uproots that which is false within us. Maybe multicultural education is too soft, a repackaging and normalizing of things that already don’t work? That doesn’t sit well in my gut, but I’m here to learn–and judging from that professor’s syllabus and student testimony, I could, despite my feelings, learn a lot.
More on the meeting I had about meeting with parents at the middle school about advisory–a meeting in which I learned a lot–in a subsequent post.
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August 28th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……………………..
I am cringing at what you wrote.
“Ha ha, let me give you the RIGHT answer– and explain that reality is what people with power SAY it is. And I have power, so ha ha!”
???
This sounds like the epitome of un-cool.
What if you raised your hand and interjected what you’re actually thinking? That perhaps, just maybe, multiple realities can co-exist?
I’m hoping this professor was having an off-night, and this was just an atypical example of her typically thoughtful and reflective practice. We all have off-kilter days where stupid or unintentionally hurtful things flow from our mouths… I’m really hoping this educator can show a better side. Or maybe this is an example of how “education is violent.” What does that mean, really…? Who is the target of the violence and who holds the power?
Wow… what an introduction to this new phase of your graduate education. I’m hoping it continues to provoke such intense thoughts and questions in you…
August 28th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Thanks for the empathy. Frankly I’m still shaken by it. I shared the story with another graduate student here who had taken her class and found my characterization wholly uncharacteristic–so maybe the off night.