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, 19 November 2010

getting the california comunity college district chancellors in the loop


passmacw@lacitycollege.edu; rayrd@lacitycollege.edu; lawrence bradford ; jamillah moore ; LACCD counsel legal; LACC collegian ; LACC collegian arts ; ocr ; eckforwv@lacitycollege.edu; Letia R. Royal burnet; legalaffairs@cccco.edu; fjames@cccco.edu

dear cristy passman ombudsman for discrim/harass at LACC

i spoke with your assistant today about my letters the past few months requesting my graded exam and graded islamophobia project, for which anthropology teacher brian bartelt graded me "C" to punish me for questioning the use in the classroom of the vulgarities "tits and ass" and "asshole" and "bitching"and treating women poorly in the classroom.
he shouted at me "woman" as well as saying "we dont want to wig anyone out" when i critiqued his "transvestites teach real women how to be real women" argument.
he also said he has "no sympathy for anorexia and bulimia."
eckford sociology chair tried to kick me out of anthropology for my stance towards equality, and defended the use of the words, repeated them and other even more vulgar words to my face in my presence which forced me to seek legal counsel, who he then cursed at saying he would "hang up on your dumb ass" and that my attorney could "go jump in a stream," a suicide metaphor i believe.

then i received a "C."

please send the coursework in defense of the "C"

you will recall that i reported numerous other professors used sexual epithets in the classroom, especially in the paralegal department, and that you protected them in those 
instances as well, even though the abuse was so bad it affected women studies, or caused them to drop out of classes and avoid certain professors.


mary eng

23 november update:
correspondence following a collegian interview for a LACC school newspaper on administration-protected verbal abuse and retaliation.  i spoke with layla fernandez, reporter for the collegian this morning tuesday november 2010.  my friend richard ray is a wonderful musician and Dj who is now assisting cristy passman.  i have to admit that the excess of paperwork and processing of all the many instances of sexism and racism on the campus at LACC needs more staff!  so in a way, by directing the attention to the unsatisfactory performance of professors at LACC, and making a complaint with supervisory Dr. Burnett, as well as LACCD, and the state of California, and the federal Office of Civil Rights, it seems things are getting shaken up a bit.  and while i never was paid a penny for my activism, it looks like a friend got a job!  so if that is what it takes, all the internet and youtubes and blogs and emails and phone calls and photocopies at kinkos have done something positive for somebody in particular.
not to mention women.
maybe we will be able to go to school one day and be totally respected, and treated completely equally and fairly, with no sexist banter from the white male voice of authority and privilege and salary and corruption.
TOTAL RESPECT!
now that's optimism!
humanitarianism.

interestingly, a court in Washington state ruled this past week that student teacher consensual adult relationships are verboten.
http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/11/19/student_teacher

now the reason this pertains, is that lanzer repeatedly asked out an adult student, who then dropped out of his class.
and it was widely known that bartelt was dating a very beautiful young student as well.
and at which point the school becomes a place for predation is of concern.  i bet she didn't get a "C" in cultural anthropology, because she didn't mind smoking pot and doing shrooms with burner in the desert.  and i bet she didn't question his misogynistic language either.
submission is attractive to some people.
i bet she wasnt denied the chance to give her final presentation, as was I, in obvious retaliation.
nor was she threatened to be kicked out of anthroplogy by eckford, who cursed repeatedly in my presence and at my lawyer.
i'm guessing, she didn't have to go through any of this.
so, i of all people am pretty liberal, but if someone is being preyed on, and then grades are a part of the equation, and then other students grades are penalized for cultural differences (ie non-misogyny, or non-interest in polyphasic chemical states . . . well . . . maybe one should try match.com and leave the kids alone, and stop cursing at them too . . .)


Re: Anthropology
From:
mary eng 
View Contact
To:"Passman, Cristy W" 

oh thanks!

i am so glad richard ray is working with you these days.
he's a friend of mine, and i am so glad this scandal got him a job!

look out for a new article in the collegian in about a week. who knows how good the writing will be or what level of distortion will show, but in showbiz
no publicity is bad publicity right?

the young writer seemed very concerned about the school protecting verbal abuse of women and grade retaliation when they complain.

i look forward to seeing my course work.
thank you
and thanks for the "C" for cultural anthropology and verbal abuse with bartelt.

mary eng


From: "Passman, Cristy W" <passmacw@lacitycollege.edu>
To: mary eng
Sent: Tue, November 23, 2010 8:33:25 AM
Subject: Anthropology

Dear Ms. Eng,

I have your original Anthropology notebook and exam papers from Dr. Bartelt.  I will have them copied and will return the originals to you as soon as possible.  I will send you a confirmatory email when they are mailed.

     Cristy

Cristy Passman, J.D.
Compliance Officer, Ombudsperson and
     ADA Coordinator
Los Angeles City College, AD 208C
323-953-4000 ext. 2249


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