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."

Friday 7 May 2010

eric kim passes the buck

hey guys.
having a great time studying my constitutional law book about protected speech.
i had an awesome 27 minute conversation with district counsel eric kim today about future litigation he may confront.
he isn't prevention oriented.
it is really up to the student/victim to enforce the educational code against harassment.


i love talking to lawyers. they are so abstract and so money-motivated, so intelligent, and so lazy.
this is why i think i might make a good lawyer.
they usually have no morals either, which as a future lawyer, i don't think is so cruel to say.
they aren't allowed to have morals.
their only responsibility is honoring their client's interest.
in this case, eric kim represents LACC district.

i was trying to get through to him about preventing lawsuits, by ensuring that the professors and students don't harass other students or violate the CA educational code.

its not his job to enforce these laws.
in fact,
NOBODY CARES.
that is the most horrifying thing!

equality exists on paper, in a law, online, but not at LACC.
cristy passman is supposed to care, but doesn't care.
except about doing enough paperwork to keep getting paid.

kim referred me to gene little, head of diversity programs for the district.
when we talked i felt that gene was very dismissive and old school complacent.
he said claims were often fabricated.

i will duplicate my records for the office of civil rights federal division.
but as i recall, they were very dismissive in 2009 when i reported the paralegal department for protecting professor verbal abuse.

i liked how when i told eric kim about the "tits and ass" outburst, he asked well, in what context?

i can't think of a context, either professionally, or even in my leisure time that these words would convey anything intelligent.

eric also made comment of the "contours of academic freedom" which i thought was humorously vague and yet quite obviously pro-harassment . . . and resonated with bartelt's concern in 5-6-10 lecture and 4-17-10 email for his "academic freedom."

if "academic freedom" means freedom to hurl epithets at women . . .
i really feel sorry for people who feel "freedom" to mean freedom to abuse.
well . . .
i need a better world, obviously.
eric kim asked if sheila was pursuing administrative complaints for harassment.
he of course cannot give me counsel.
when scott clapson threatened a cease and desist letter from eric kim and asserted that eric kim knew about the impeachment/harassment campaign against sheila, this was untrue.
eric kim at least pretended to not know about the ASO harassment of sheila dharod in retaliation for her exposing the ASO member who used school money to get a 19 year old student drunk on ASO money and then harass her.
i think sheila is such a tough fighter.
i am so glad that the underage victim is pursuing criminal charges against ASO president james butler-zetino, if indeed he did try to inebriate and harass her.
she stopped going to the ASO after the incident.
that scott clapson admits all of the ASO was drinking at the sacramento conference to me begs the question, why is the ASO buying drinks for ASO student government and funding their little vacation?
why won't they do more for the students?
the letter of bradford, dismissing the case against president james is also telling.
i like it when guys cover up for other guys.
it is so old boys club.
it creeps me out majorly to know that ASO is so corrupt.
they have exceeded my expectations of banality and i wish i never met the harassers or their defenders.
bad vibes.
back to the books.
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