Jethro is an adult student (my age) who I've taught two semesters in a row (two different courses). He works hard, and takes responsibility for his work and his grades. He often talks with me after class, and even stops by office hours (sometimes just to chat, and other times to ask questions about classwork).He can be a little odd sometimes in ways that I attribute partially to plain awkwardness, and partially to PTSD (he's also a veteran), but I genuinely like him. In fact, he's the kind of person I can imagine my spouse and I having a few drinks with. However, I respect the boundaries of the student-professor relationship, and keep our interactions professional. When Jethro steps outside those boundaries, I gently direct him back to the acceptable dynamic.
This evening, I was reading Jethro's latest short written assignment. It is a very basic assignment wherein students are given room for creativity. The assignment is designed for them to practice fundamental writing skills, so content is not as important here as correctness. Jethro wrote about his ideal day. Apparently, his ideal day involved a lot of sex with his wife, and a lot of nude women on beaches. While I'm glad that Jethro is happy with his wife, it's not something I'm comfortable reading about. In fact, after the second sexual escapade, I stopped reading.
Am I being a prude, or should I tell Jethro that this isn't really appropriate for this type of class (it is not a creative writing course)? If so, how do I do so in a firm, yet gentle, manner?
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Hi MM! This actually happened to me! What I did was hand the essay back and use it as a teaching moment, carefully explaining about audience. Such things are not acceptable in an academic environment and for this particular audience (here I said "your professor" -- making it clear that this would apply to any professor, and was not personal.) I played it off like it was a mistake that could happen to anyone.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, this was how I handled it, and the student never came back to class after that. Still, I thought it needed to be said. And in my case, the whole thing might have been a bit of a come on (I think) as one of the 'characters' closely resembled myself, and one of them closely resembled this student. But I did not react at all to that part of it.
"The assignment is designed for them to practice fundamental writing skills, so content is not as important here as correctness."
ReplyDeleteThis would be my excuse to say nothing as long as the writing skills were fine. Admittedly, I am an avoider on a lot of things when possible. I hate confrontation, the possibility of hurting feelings, and the idea of discussing their sex life with a student.
I would let it go *this time* and try to scrub all inappropriate images from my brain. If it happens again, though, I would have to address it in some fashion. And by some fashion I mean comments on the paper rather than in person. The distance would give Jethro the ability to save face and have time to think before reacting. Again, I recognize that I like to avoid conflict. . . .
This is very difficult to assess, could you post the essay. And any pictures too....
ReplyDeleteHere's the problem, Prissy Prof: if this student isn't told that this material is inappropriate, he'll return to it in a future assignment, either in this class or in another class, perhaps in writing for a professor who will not be so gentle and understanding. This student needs for you to identify the boundaries for him. Whether you grade the paper or hand it back ungraded, you have to tell this student that writing about his sex life and/or sexual fantasy life is not appropriate in 99.9% of the courses offered at the university. Sometimes those awkward conversations are not about protecting us from reading material that makes us uncomfortable but about making our students more aware of themselves and of the rules of various rhetorical situations. It's not about hurting his feelings but about teaching him a lesson that he unfortunately hasn't yet learned.
ReplyDeleteSmack him down. Put him in his place. Remind him that you are the authority. Humiliate him in front of the entire class. Tell him that sex is bad and that he should be ashamed for even thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you said you gave the students room for creativity, but now you want to put limits on the creativity? Just hold your nose, judge his fundamental writing skills, and move on.
Next semester, remember to specify that students may not write about sex, Mormons, football, abortion, gay rights, veganism, Catholic priests, jelly doughnuts, and whatever else you don't want to read about. But don't change this semester's assignment after students have completed it.
@Lex: I see eye-to-eye with you. But neither of us knows the culture at Mestopholita's school. Is she at Bob Jones University, a community college, Harvard, or some nutty new-age school in Colorado where everybody goes to class naked? We don't have enough background info.
ReplyDeleteI would grade it based on what you said you'd do, but I'd also make a note of appropriateness and audience so that it turns into a teaching moment rather than a put down (then again, students view any comments from us as put-downs).
ReplyDeleteIf this were a female student, would you have been equally disturbed?
Cynic, I'm not sure what you are getting at, since female sexuality is usually considered way more disturbing as male sexuality.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, I would do the scan, not the read, so that I have a sense of content rather than a full blast of the intricate details of his sexual fantasies. Then I would either talk about audience, as was suggested above, OR I would have him write a supplemental analysis of what sexual desire as the vehicle for a perfect day means about his perception of society.
The latter would be more meaningful, but possibly impossible for him to do.
Although I appreciate that such tactics can be used by students to harass professors (especially female ones), I have to agree with Southern Bubba here. You lose no matter what you say on this one, because he'll come back with "you said the content was up to me," or whatever.
ReplyDeleteNot to be crass, but gynecologists eventually learn to look past the sexual aspects of the body parts they examine and focus on locating any medical issues; I think something analogous is called for, here. As long as you are letting the students pick the content, you'll get essays on sex, drugs, petty crime, not so petty crime, coming out, homophobia, conservative religious beliefs that would give Fred Phelps pause, infidelity, etc etc etc. Either give them set topics or learn to look past the content and focus on the technical issues at hand, like you said you would.
"Content is up to you" contains an implicit understanding. Did Mesto really mean "write about anything"? No, and 99% of students got that without having to have it spelled out. Just because this guy DIDN'T get it doesn't mean he's right.
ReplyDeleteA colleague of mine who teaches creative writing just had a student turn in a creative piece on shooting his fellow students and professors. Guess what? That was inappropriate content, and she was obliged to report him.
I think it's worth having the general conversation about appropriateness in class and in class work. You know, how we have to have these conversations because students think it is okay to trim their toenails in class, or not wear underwear under their baggy shorts, or give each other hand jobs in lectures. It doesn't even matter that he's a "mature" student - he did something that was not acceptable, and he needs to be told (politely, but firmly), that you have boundaries.
@WhatLadder -- I was obliged to report that student, too.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, thought, I concur with Wylodmayer: "Either give them set topics or learn to look past the content and focus on the technical issues at hand, like you said you would."
The exception would be if these fantasies included you, which would fall into the category of harassment (even if you are flattered) and therefore be something you needed to deal with directly.
Grade the "fundamental writing skills" the assignment was designed to examine. As for the content: doesn't look there were clear lines drawn. Could be a teachable moment for you (in setting up such lines in the future)...but also for him. If you're comfortable enough to project outside classroom exchanges, it could be worth a separate discussion.
ReplyDeleteAre the facts of "veteran" and "PTSD" self-declared ?
I agree that you should grade the paper on the skills that were meant to be demonstrated. I too though avoid confrontation. If it were me, I'd probably write something like, "Whoa! Too racy for me (and academic papers generally)!", and leave it at that. He'll get the point and you've made light of it while simultaneously pointing it out.
ReplyDeleteI've taught a lot of high school composition, too, and would get this all the time at the high school level. Not just in writing, but in discourse, too. Shooting up the school, beastiality, good ol' fashioned sex, gangsta behavior, anything goes.
ReplyDeleteI blame it on the lack of filter, and no sense of audience or purpose. But it is a teachable moment. I agree with most of the approaches here (Chunky Gorilla, Cynic, et al.). It could be a fun exercise in "NSFW" (Not Safe for Work). Put all sorts of topics in a hat, and then rank them on how risky it is to put that out there in a work/professional/academic context, and discuss what the consequences of this could be.
No need to thwap him in the nuts. Be the teacher here.
@A-Monkey, In my creative writing courses, the topic of sex comes up and is NOT considered inappropriate. Female students write about their first kiss, or their first sexual experience, or sometimes about a traumatic rape, and they do it in a way that often has a lesson or some sort of character growth taking place b/c the females tend to write these for a purpose, other than simple sexual gratification.
ReplyDeleteMale students also write graphically sexual stories, yet they often simply end up being just that--sexually graphic for no reason.
And I've often wondered if I am judging the writing based on the students' gender, rather than the content. If a female wrote a graphically sexual (and gratuitous) piece, would I be as disturbed as I am when males do so?
I'm mainly processing my own biases about male and female REASONS for writing about sex and how audiences perceive pieces written by either males or females.
If you give them an inch, they will take a mile.
ReplyDeleteAll you can do now is edit the assignment's instructions for next time. Insert something like "Responses must be G rated and family friendly. Responses that are not G rated and family friendly will not be read."