the real lacc: 27/06/2010

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."

Tuesday 29 June 2010

retaliation and slurring and silencing/punishing the victim/witness in social sciences

maybe he is out of town for the summer.

someone on ratemyprofessors bragged about failing the midterm yet getting a "B" for doing well on the presentation.

i got an 86, which is what i got on my biological anthro midterm.  but in bio anthro he graded me "A" for participation etc.

i wanted to give the presentation which was going to be on islam and women and islamic jurisprudence and cultural geographic variation in dress and religious political structures.  i interviewed over 20 people for this project and wrote a 100 page blogged notebook which i printed out per bartelt's request.

i dont think anyone spent as much time as i did.

i volunteered to present on thursday.

then to help the schedule i volunteered to go on tuesday.

both days he sidelined me.

tuesday was the day eckford may 25th threatened to suspend me from anthropology for writing letters about a slur-free and epithet-free classroom.  i then got a lawyer a UCLA prof of free speech and harassment to call eckford and explain the 1st ammendment.  they were very inappropriate with me talking about "vagina" and tits and all the other words they think are okay.  and yet they wanted to censor myblog and letters.

eckford began to berate me after asking to tape it.  then asked to tape it on my laptop.  so i have a record.

my lawyer said i should not have been coerced into a meeting as "mandatory" with short notice and that he would have been there to help represent me.

also to be considered into the equation is the personal trauma i felt at hearing these words and then having bartelt send me an email about the word tit and teat which was a big mistake.

he said shitty bitching asshole tits show your tits and tits and ass get laid all of which detract from serious students attempts to learn.

maybe you can explain to him the premise of whistleblower protection, as neither he nor eckford have much knowledge of the law, and can't distinguish quid pro quo from hostile atmosphere theory.

also eckford told my lawyer keith fink to "go jump in a stream" and "you can't scare me" "tough guy" and "i'm going to hang up on your dumb ass" all of which seemed vastly inappropriate.

i don't even think bartelt would speak so disrespectful to a an older male lawyer calling for a professional matter.

the final exam essay on globalization was very well written and there is no way i could get a "C."

the fact that i was denied the extra credit of giving my presentation seemed very targeted and deliberate and motivated from anger.

thank you for seriously investigated my retaliation grievance and correcting the unfair personal grade which seemed a pathetic last stab at hurting me, when all my concerns were in good faith and in the spirit of amicable academic discourse.

respectfully,

mary eng

in response to:

Greetings, Mary,

I am still trying to reach Dr. Bartelt regarding your grade in his class.  I haven’t forgotten, but I don’t have an answer from him yet. 

     Cristy

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