Q: Was it wrong to reply to this question: "How do you recognize and celebrate cultural, socio-economic, and gender differences in your classroom?" by saying, "I don't. They're all students. I teach the material necessary for success in the class as any evolved 21st century human being might?"
"[an] evolved 21st century human being" says exactly what it should. It says you're aware and you're sensitive, and that's all that's needed.
ReplyDeleteI like your answer Larry. Being female, a minority, and at one time flat broke, I like it.
I wish I could say that on job applications, but I am afraid I would not be saying what they want to hear.
ReplyDeleteA brilliant response to a really bizarre question.
ReplyDeleteOh, Larry.
ReplyDeleteWhat would happen is that after you left the room we'd all look at each other and say, "What an asshole."
True story.
Celebrating gender differences in the classroom:
ReplyDeleteYou're transgendered, huh? Well, let's discuss the profound effect that has on the quadratic equation. Divide yourself up into groups. We're going to get warm and fuzzy and do post-modern analyses of transgendered algebra. There will be a quiz on this at the end of class....
I don't understand the NEED to celebrate. I get the recognition part. But celebrating???
ReplyDeleteI think Ram is right, though I'm very sympathetic. Honestly, I think this question is probably ~20% about seeing what your attitudes toward diversity (etc.) are, and ~80% about seeing how diplomatically you handle and/or deflect meaningless PC bureaucratese.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm not sure how I would have answered it. . . probably something about teaching a diverse canon and doing my best to teach to students' individual strengths and experiences blah-de-blah-de-blah (I'm boring myself).
If you didn't vomit at the use of the word "celebrate", I think you should pat yourself on the back.
ReplyDeleteYes. Fuzzy-liberal claptrap aside, you insulted your interviewers by implying that you are more evolved than they are. It's more evolved not to point out that one is more evolved than others, regardless of what one thinks of their politics. Interviewers for the win.
ReplyDeleteDoes my explanation that cows mounting one another during estrus are exhibiting normal behavior cover it?
ReplyDeleteDepends how you define "wrong".
ReplyDeleteWrong answer if you wanted the job, although perhaps they'll find it humorous.
Otherwise, just fine.
Oh my god, are you all completely checked out? How can you not see how someone who was raised in poverty might see the industrial revolution differently than someone who took yachting in the 8th grade? How the daughter of an African immigrant might view the Civil Rights differently from a descendant of slaves?
ReplyDeleteThat is not to say that you sit there and interrogate everyone who is different from you. It means you actively consider how your own viewpoint might be skewed, or how the textbook writes from a specific angle, and you fill in the blanks by adding content that might reach out to that particular crowd.
http://microaggressions.com/
It's amazing to me that many regular contributors to this site understand very well that the playing field isn't level when it comes to, say, issues of tenured vs. adjunct workloads and pay scales...but this understanding breaks the fuck down when it comes to issues of race, gender, and sexuality.
ReplyDelete@Monkey: I think people are having a problem with "celebrate," not "recognize," which is, indeed, entirely legitimate and often necessary (though perhaps not, as Bubba suggests, when teaching pure mathematics). "Celebrate" is trickier, both because it smacks of the self-esteem-before-all approach, and because it's damn difficult to celebrate the effects of discrimination on the basis of any of the factors above (and simply celebrating how people survived and/or overcame the effects of such discrimination, without taking a long, hard look at those who perpetuated it, leaves out a crucial part of the story).
ReplyDeleteTo "celebrate" difference is to position it as both valid and valued.
ReplyDeleteMerely "acknowledging" difference does not disrupt the hegemony of the (often unspoken) "norm".
drunk in a midnight choir, I can speak as someone who thinks "celebrate" is fuzzy-minded liberal claptrap AND who thinks Larry's answer was douchey and arrogant.
ReplyDeleteNeither celebrating nor recognizing difference does a damned thing to change the structures of power. Nor does the feel-good concept of culture. How about a question like "What do you do to mitigate against the way your students walk into your classroom differently enfranchised due to gender, race, sexuality, class, and other sociopolitical factors?"
Then you couldn't answer "nothing, they're all students," without looking like a total idiot. Or without revealing that you don't give a damn.
What I'm saying, drunk, is don't mistake us for people who don't know or don't give a damn.
PS: I feel like Anastasia could ask the question just right.
Bring cookies to class?
ReplyDeleteI say nothing....I flash my old KGB ID, take out a packet of Belomors, pull one, light it with a wood match, then begin the counter interrogation.
ReplyDeleteFroad's way of phrasing this question is clear and to the point. You'd know what they were looking for, and you could think about how you do that. I bet most of us do it all the time, especially (maybe?) those of us at Community Colleges....but then, I have not been outside of the community college classroom for a long time, so what do I know? But Larry, as someone coming off a long interview season over three separate searches, I have to tell ya, you insulted your search committee and did not teach them anything about their question either. So it was a lose/lose. Froad's (aw hell, I still think of her as Marcia Marcia Marcia) question could be worked into an answer that goes something like this: When I face a classroom filled with students who have been differently enfranchised due to gender, race, sexuality, class, and other sociopolitical factors, I ______________" Search committees want you to turn that frown upside down for them. Often they are asking questions that have been formulated by one committee and approved by another and are only trying to make it through the day, just like you. One thing I loved about serving on all those search committees was the way the candidates made me rethink my own approach in the classroom. Your answer would not have made me do that. Fair or not, I believe I would have been happy to see the back of your head as you left after answers like this one.
ReplyDeleteI love Froad's way of phrasing it. "Celebrate" makes it sounds like we're supposed to further disenfranchise and minimalize "the other" by playing essentialist music, eating ethnic food, and dancing in class while constructing thesis statements. It also implies that without celebration taking place, one's self esteem will not be fully acknowledged, and therefore, one will be further disadvantaged. Not true.
ReplyDelete