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."

Saturday 8 May 2010

LA Indy media outreach

i am so happy that LACC students read LA indy media!!!!

it is/was listed as a terrorist group by the FBI.
as the internet is so scary to authority . . . well . . . things are changing really fast.

i can't wait to personally write my fellow student thanks! for his comment re: my indymedia post.
it reads:
another perspective
by Pat Perez Saturday, May. 01, 2010 at 1:39 PM
pwee44@gmail.com


I have had a number of classes with you, the author of this opinion, and, have had a number of the professors that you make referance to as I am in the paralegal program at LACC. Mary, I respect your passion, dedication and commitment to justice but this article not only crosses the line it pretty much goes so far past the line that it comes full cirlce again. I believe that in your quest to see justice done the mere utterance of certain words inflame your self-rightous indignation. I mean, really? Under "Vargas" you put that he " brings in film with every other word whore or the n-word. not kidding". I have had three semesters with Vargas and never once have we seen a movie in any of his classes, let alone a movie such as you describe. While i believe the club he moderates may have had a movie screening or two, this is a far cry from the picture that you paint. And even if you were alluding to these film screenings, are you condeming him for allowing a movie to be viewed with these terms in them and making assesments on his personal views and character? I think you'd be hard pressed to find any movie now-a-days without something of this nature in them. Does that make it right? No, it does not. But it also does not give you license to make wild, out of context and just plain wrong assesments about a professor or their personal views (by the way, I very highly doubt that Prof. Vargas, or any of the other professors from the Law department that you have mentioned, acts or carrys themselves anywhere close to the totally off base pictures you paint).
As for Lanzer, Duffy and Lewis, do i deny that these quotes you have put up here have been uttered by them? I can't, for the simple reason that I was not there when any of these alleged statements were made. it could very well be that some of these things were said but as i asked previously, does that mean that these statements are reflection of these individual's views? Perhaps these phrases were said in the context of a story, giving an example, like the Duffy's example you give, "speaks of women as "cheesecake" and of wives who gain 100 lbs. eating bon-bons while trying to take advantage of men financially" These two i have heard in Duffy's classes but you know what? They were in the context of giving examples of legal principals where he was elaborating some of the details of the stories. So in your view, the mere utterance of these phrases makes them, sexist, racist, insensitive and
"hell-bent on being offensive as often as possible"? Sorry, Mary you are wrong, way wrong.
Do I think LACC is perfect? No, of course improvements could be made. However, the direction that you are casting your flashlight on is way off base, inaccurate and boarding on libel. You can help by being part of a workable solution to real problems at LACC. Don't highlight personal issues or problems that really are not there and really help no one.


hear is my response as of today!

the future
by mary eng Saturday, May. 08, 2010 at 2:55 PM
maryeng1@yahoo.com

oh i really appreciate the dialogue.
thanks for dedicating so much time to your very kind response.

i really sit on both sides of the debate.
i really like the idea of free speech, but don't understand why it becomes an excuse for sexism.

if you get a chance, check out the latest banality at LACC regarding the defamation campaign against sheila dharod for exposing the student government's drinking with an underage minor on teh school trip.
she has been verbally castigated and humiliated by a a very cruel student government.

thanks so much for sticking up for your school.
i really like vargas too.
when he brought in the film i wrote him a pretty cogent note.
i don't think he will do that again.
the film was full of lots of racism remarks in a historical context, but i found it very unpleasant.
the rampant sexism was ludicrous as well.
i am sorry for asking for so much respect.
i would also like equal pay for women, and equal representation in government, an end to rape, an end to the marital rape immunity, an end to all domestic violence, honor killings, an end to male-dominated religious structures, and many other wonderful idealistic things pertaining to the environment and human and animal rights.
so feel free to send me ideas about how to get rolling on utopia.

in the meantime, i don't want to be harassed at school.
joseph tolle screamed at me in the courtyard.
this should not be tolerated.

if you are not a victim of the abuse, it is totally easy to minimize the suffering.
it takes a lot of imagination to have compassion.

(more later).
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