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 6 May 2010

ethics and imagination: equality in the future

cristy passman was very reluctant to give me a discrim form for the graffiti.
when i returned for two more forms, one for the tolle screaming, and one for the ASO harassment of sheila dharod, she almost tried to talk me out of it, but then realized i wasn't so easily deterred.

a more mild mannered student could totally get walked on here.
i will lodge a complaint about her trying to suppress my reports.
that will make the fourth report this week.

i may scan them and put them on my scribd.com acct for a how-to demo for the equality coalition.

about the porn graffiti, she told me she has contacted facilities and that i could do so online.
i asked where online?

she then said dismissively, "generally people take this in stride."
i don't know if she means giant bathroom porn, epithets, or also being screamed at by a student officer under the election tent.

i think she could see i was not in the mood for chitchat and platitudes and wanted to quickly put me in place as i was walking out the door.
as i returned  to the holmes hall bathroom to photograph the evidence, i wondered about taking things in stride.

i think it pertains to the "you are out of line" metaphor bartelt used in his email to me.
does he mean out of line with the avant guarde, or the normal people?  with america, or with the future?
i think they are out of line with the future of equality.

they should come along for the ride, a beautiful future with no harassment, and justice for the purpetrators and protectors.
phyllis tried to tell me to let the perpetrators off the hook.
i think she is focused on the future.
she speaks about the armenian genocide on my youtube channel, reading her comment as was published in the collegian.

and also a source told me the LACC holmes hall women's room was in last week's collegian!
way to go collegian.
did they show a picture of this?

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