cake or death?

[lolaraincoat]

I had intended to do a year-in-review post, plus also complete a lengthy exegesis of Spike Lee's New Orleans documentary When the Levees Broke (to sum up: wow, wow, wow) but instead I am grading. The second-year survey class is making me suicidal again. We've had the by-now traditional references to "slaves who were badly paid" in the midterms and oh so many more facts which are not. Many of their essays have begun with the dread phrase "In today's society" despite my repeated and specific warnings that if they used that phrase they would be cruelly mocked in front of their peers. They all seem to agree that while everyone has a race, only women have gender; in fact, one student made that idea (and I use the word loosely) the basis of his paper's argument. I have to get through seventeen more of these essays before tomorrow morning's class. Or I guess I could just kill myself now. Augh!

Comments

Only women have a gender

[elphaba-of-oz.livejournal.com]

Um, look at this as a teaching opportunity? Think of how you could crack their little, wee brains right open! Come on. It will be fun!

Re: Only women have a gender

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

The problem is that this represents a teaching failure -- mine, that is -- in that they haven't learned it already. That's what makes me want to shoot myself instead of shooting them.

Re: Only women have a gender

[laughingrat.livejournal.com]

It may in part be that they were freaked out and exhausted when they wrote 'em. We all revert to stupid a little under those circumstances. I'm sure you're an excellent teacher and you can hardly be expected to reverse two decades of xenophobia, sexism, and sloppy thinking in one three credit hour class!

No suicide

[elphaba-of-oz.livejournal.com]

Don't be so hard on yourself.

You are fighting two decades of programming. Every influence they have encountered in their itty-bitty lives has taught them that male is normative and female is other. How can one person change that programming in a single semester?

I'm fighting that battle with my husband who thinks the dishes and the laundry are "women's work." I'm not winning, but I don't feel as if it's my failure.

Maybe the kids are just dumb?