do no harm:


idit dobb-weinstein: "teaching is action and thinking at once. What I try to guard against most when I teach is not speaking as if my answer were conclusive, so as to avoid (to the extent possible) any kind of dogmatic appropriation. It is understandable why students might wish to imitate their teachers, but there are different modes of imitation. I try very hard to avoid the mimetic appropriation that is immediate, passive, and occludes thinking. One other reason is that if I made clear what my views were, and my views appeared as if they were final, it would preclude the possibility of first, students challenging me and second, learning from my students. The relation between the student and teacher is, to me, a dynamic relationship . . . Teaching and learning is a movement that occurs between. In other words, we are at once both agent and patient, both teacher and learner. If we are not very careful, we can do a great deal of harm. And that, too, I have learned from my teachers, Maimonides especially.

I believe my task is to provoke students to think and to engage them in genuine dialogue and questioning. To paraphrase a rabbinic saying, 'I have learned from my teachers, and I have learned from my peers, but I have learned most from my students.' And that is a continuous process of learning."

Thursday 20 May 2010

letter to [1984] eckford about babysitting his department


(censored portions semi-restored)
no pressure, but i hope you agree that "tits and ass" has a specific connotation that can be extremely offensive from many angles.

i wrote bartelt of anthropology a note explaining why it causes me such grief and reignites the rape (and near murder) trauma i fight daily.

he should be more considerate and respectful.

i find this word as offensive as the n-word.
it is the female equivalent.

it hurts so much.

the fact that pop culture LA uses it every other word now in every context is no excuse.

my friend * does not like his close minded style and signed her name to the complaint and has expressed her dissatisfaction.

* thinks he is unfair to her and i wrote him to tell him not to put her down when she talks.

* says his style should be more socratic, and less authoritarian.

* says that he sees the women cast their eyes down, when [1984] says negative things about women.

i am not a christian, but i think he should be careful about slurring against christians as well, as they have some big pockets for lawsuits.

after he was totally rude and unfair to * and had said "*ing" twice at the beginning of class, i could not focus on the review because i felt shaky around this crass hostile atmosphere.

i did not answer any questions.
he prefers to get his answers from men.
* said: "but that's so unfair"

harassment impairs the learning atmosphere.

two women i spoke to after class encouraged me to take back the word bitch, a concept i thought i had transcended years ago.

but since the atmosphere is so retrogressive, i guess we have to work our way up the * ladder.

i want you to know that the only reason i kept this class was so my financial aid was not revoked.

i avoid trash-mouthed people, whether in a bar or any walk of life.

it is against my spirituality to expose myself to violent words and insensitive people.

i filed a complaint with cristy do-nothing passman, as well.

i was so dismayed once again.

i spoke to a counselor in health department. she said that his email to me telling me "you have no case" was unfair.

the cumulative stress of all the horrible teachers at LACC may cause me to drop out completely.

check the collegian for the ASO scandal and the harassment of sheila dharod.
i think another lawsuit is brewing.

you would do well to keep your department on high ground.


i am afraid all the violent speech is rubbing off on me.
when i had the correct answer and my team wouldn't listen, i called it out in the end bc no one knew.
he asked why no one listened.
i rudely or sarcastically said 'the moral of the story is never listen to a woman' i was kind of joking, but in the context of his archaic chauvinism it computes

but after his rude email about "*" telling me i have 

"no case" and 
"am out of line" to question his shouting of the words "* and *"

and skewing the context in which he said "* and *" to be some barnyard utopia in a loud hostile tone when i asked for more respect---

i then really surprised myself by saying
"because i am a *"
which made no sense at all and was so out of character, he looked truly shocked.
i think it shines light on why he has to bully us around.


and if you know me, you will know that i hate this word so much!!!!  it hurts me so much!!!
i was shaking through class.  i have severe trauma.

i have been beaten multiple times and called this very word by the aggressor.

why can't he be sensitive.

what does this mean?




read up on his ratemyprofessors.com

one of them says he treats us like we have learning disabilities. which hopefully he would have compassion for that, you'd think too.

he tells us we don't read, we don't care.  he projects negativity on us, which is hurtful to the learning atmosphere.

he said he has no sympathy for bulimia and anorexia and other diseases of affluence last tuesday.
those were his words.

i have lost my appetite and am dropping weight bc of the cruelty and trauma.
i don't appreciate this.

since my first complaint, i could tell he was trying to pull himself together, but i think he needs to take his anger somewhere else.

therapists are paid well for a reason.
we as students shouldn't have to be abused.
we want to learn.

won't you be glad to be rid of me,
mary eng

do you think he is [1984]ing on the job??? i can't imagine why someone would be so loose-lipped in a professional setting

1 comment:

Nerv666999 said...

You are I think at best misguided and at worse a very damaged person looking for revenge wherever you can find it, and I can only assume so affected by the encounter that you seem to relish spreading around various blog sites that you hardly know the state you are in. It almost makes me wonder if it in fact happened to you as you say and whether or not you have an even more deep seated issue that some therapy and a good Rx regimen might help. Your affectation does serve one positive purpose, it serves to deaden the impact that your libelous speech might otherwise have on the career of one if not the most engaging professor on campus. In fact I am still stunned that a school that has fallen so far as LACC still can keep someone like Dr. Eckford. You want equal treatment? He gives that and more. It just seems that some women are still so expecting of softer treatment that it is a shock to the system when they are treated like everyone else. He's opinionated and in my view sometimes wrong, though he will always give a student an opportunity to state their own positions, but be warned! You better have something worth saying or you won't have a chance. And that goes for the men and the women in his class. No room for powderpuffs or mental midegets need not apply. Google him, look at his background and I dare you to find another professor at LACC who is a PhD and gives as much time to those that are actually at LACC to learn something. The most important lessons many times come from conflict, both resolved and un, so take your lesson, grow from it and move on, or I dare say that at some point holding you accountable for such slander would be warranted. Of course Dr. Eckford would not take this up since he surely knows that to even entertain such discourse in an effort to disprove a negative is nothing more than a march to no where. And dear, as someone who willingly breaks confidences to further her asinine assault on one as accomplished as Prof. Eckford you might do with a little tidying up of your own house first.
And lastly if the things that you have written have truly taken place then I do feel for your plight, but this stops short of feeling sorry for you. To feel sorry for someone is in effect looking down on them and I would rather not do that. Quite the opposite. I would expect that you take that horrific event and use it to some better purpose. At least one that is better than seeing your attacker behind every male visage. Do it now because things like this tend to leave marks that after a time just won't come out