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."

Sunday, 6 June 2010

the future of equality in the face of a hostile atmosphere

last test today.  very grateful to los angeles city college for everything.  i hope the following content can be interpreted in the light of love for the future, love for all who are dispossessed, downtrodden, for all who struggle to get an education, or to have a meaningful intellectual human interaction in los angeles.
especially for those who feel intimidated by the mountains of student debt the un-rich must take to attend school.  for they who find a way.

and for my teachers, who attended school in ages before instant communications ubiquity, in respect of their patient application to their studies.
that the internet might free us from our programming and mental slavery.  and that we as the communicating peers might find a way to find what is best in old systems and fuse them with a vision for the new futures we can create.

in respect of any and all students who have or will take classes at los angeles city college.
value the opportunity, but do not fly blindly.  be aware.  listen.  engage.  interact.  question.

why does it have to be this way?
why can't it be better?

and in most sincere apology to any who feel threatened by the internet, information will set us free, and flow like a river into oblivion.  remember what is important is the momentary interaction between human beings.  and if cruelty, or hostile words infect the "academic" atmosphere, the spiritual effects are boundless.  by disengaging and disaffiliating with abusive retrogressive racisms, sexisms, and other banal supremacies, we might make a way for human liberation, and earth liberation.
this is especially with in mind my friends who operate with blindness or dyslexia, that progressive educators will make a way for them to participate fully in the learning process.  and as the california budget crisis has wreaked havoc, might we look at our larger pursuit of education as a civic right.
as women face underpay, domestic violence, marital rape immunity, sexual harassment in many spheres---might we make a way for a more enlightened way of speaking to one another.
so that the formerly all-male historical LACC campus will disavow the ghettoization of the feminine within a wall of epithets reifying an unequal status quo.
and to those with a sensitive stomach, in this blog i make reference to many ugly words which i heard in my four semesters at LACC.  i do not like repeating them in print or in person, but find it necessary to uncover the insidious infiltration occurring as retrogressive abusive language is unfairly inflicted on women, creating a hostile atmosphere for all students.  at times the banal language was non-gender specific, and in that case i feel that overall the insult to our intelligence was a grievous assault on our intellect and dignity.
nevertheless, i learned a lot here.
that it be coated with the tarnish of epithets and slurs and perceptible hostility diminished the quality of my experience.
i hope this document might inspire anyone anywhere to critique and self-critique.  and that students might find power in alternative ways.
i hope in the future of legal theory the subtleties of sexual harassment in the workplace or at school might become more obvious to the oblivious.
a hostile atmosphere impairs the learning environs.  abuse or epithet need not be directed at the person making the report.  the very content has an atmospheric impact which is demeaning to all persons.   this is true of any methodology of linguistic degradation, as it is employed towards racist or other ends.
my most sincere apologies to the professors who feel embarrassed by their words as i here report them.
hopefully in the future you will conduct your classes with a high degree of honor and respect.
and despite everything, i have loved some of my classes.
it is because they are such amazing teachers that i offer these suggestions, that they may put down their pride and listen to a spiritual order which does not seek to devalue or hurt anyone or participate in institutionalized stratifications of power with verbal denigration.
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