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, 18 June 2010

dear Office of Civil Rights . . .


What if the harasser threatens to retaliate against the victim if he or she reports the incident?
Title IX also protects students from retaliation. The school must take steps to prevent the alleged harasser or anybody else at the school from retaliating against the victim. Such steps include informing students that Title IX protects them from retaliation, making sure that victims know how to report any future problems, and making follow-up inquiries to see if there have been any new incidents. It also may be appropriate to counsel the harasser to ensure that he or she understands that retaliation is prohibited. If retaliation occurs, the school should take strong responsive actions. 

6-18-10

Dear office of civil rights,

Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles protects sexist language in the classroom.  because i made an official report, i was retaliated against.

#1 i received a crude and hostile letter from the teacher about the word "tit"

#2 i was threatened with being kicked out of anthropology.

#3 i was forced into a coercive and verbally abusive meeting which they recorded

#4 i had to get an attorney on my behalf to call the chair of social sciences to address why wendell eckford thought he could kick me out of a class. on may 25 1010.

#5 i was denied the right to present my final presentation on May 25, for which i spent hours of preparation and wrote almost 100 pages of notes.

#6 i was graded a "C" despite receiving an "A" in biological anthropology and getting a high score on my first test, working very hard on my project which was denied presentation, and doing well on my final, despite having to get an attorney to defend my right to take the final.  the final grades came out in june.  i checked them june 16 2010.

it is my belief that my teacher brian bartelt of anthropology unfairly graded me down in retaliation  for complaining about his use of the words "tits" and "tits and ass" "shitty" "bitching" "asshole" and saying  "margaret thatcher is a man" and that "transvestities teach real women how to be real women" and that he has "absolutely no sympathy for anorexia or bulimia."  He graded me down to punish me for asking for a respectful epithet-free atmosphere. he also addressed me as "woman!" in a loud and rude voice, and shouted (tits and ass) at me when i asked for more respect.  he also said to me "we don't want to wig anyone out" to discredit me when i spoke about women's rights internationally.  this slang is the equivalent of telling someone:"you are on drugs."

i persisted in the class despite threat of expulsion after making complaint of the sexist language.

the teacher also wrote me an email about the word "tit."

this all made me very uncomfortable and i wrote to him that his sexism in the classroom was igniting my post traumatic stress syndrom after a sexual assault and that slurs and epithets were against the CA and federal education code.

the chair of the department wendell eckford who threatened me with expulsion from anthropology (two class days before the final exam) told my lawyer, keith fink, to "jump in a stream" and that he would "hang up on your dumb ass."

my lawyer wrote a letter in my defense, alluding to the coercive nature of the two on one "mandatory" meeting in which i was berated and threatened with suspension from the class.

in evidence i have emails, an audio recording of wendell eckford using and defending the words "bitch" and "tits" and "ass" and "vagina" and "asshole" and "shitty" and "bitching"in the private meeting with me.

i do not have a recording of him saying he would "hang up on your dumb ass" to keith fink, my lawyer.

i would like to have my grade restored to at least a "B" and to find out what other remedies are available to me for retaliation and the denial of equality in the classroom, the right to give my presentation, and learn in an atmosphere free of epithet and slur.


this behavior while egregiously offensive fits into a larger pattern of abuse i experienced and heard other students discuss.  other tachers habitually use words like "slut" and "hooker" and other sexist epithets unrelated to course material and harass students.

please let me know what you can do to investigate this situation and ensure that other young women do not have to listen to verbal abuse or be retaliated against for asking for a more respectful learning atmosphere.

sincerely, 

(you know who.)
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