For as long as I could remember, the last job I would ever want to take on was to be a teacher–even if the position was for pre-school and I just had to teach children how to color within the lines.
I think it takes a lot of charisma and self-confidence to be a good teacher. Not only are you in charge of a group of adolescents (well, that all depends on what level you teach at, but you get the idea), but you must also put yourself (personal life included) out in the open for a bunch of students to ridicule.
Okay, I’m taking the negative perspective on teaching but I have many fond memories of teasing, interrogating and attempting to fool my teachers. I remember scoffing at their ideas and methods, or just making fun of their daily outfits. Yes, this was in college and yes, I’m lame like that–but who hasn’t? It’s part of the job, right?
Or not?
Former Dartmouth professor Priya Venkatesan has publicly announced her plans to sue her students for “intellectual distress,” which ultimately led her to cancel classes for a week AND switch jobs to Northwestern. Say what?
The agenda of Ms. Venkatesan’s seminar, then, was to “problematize” technology and the life sciences. Students told me that most of the “problems” owed to her impenetrable lectures and various eruptions when students indicated skepticism of literary theory. She counters that such skepticism was “intolerant of ideas” and “questioned my knowledge in very inappropriate ways.”
Alright. It’s been about five years since I wrote a term paper with words like “problematize,” “bifurcated” and (my personal favorite) “diaspora,” so I have no idea what Venkatesan’s course was about…but I can’t be the only one to be shocked that she would take her student’s behavior so personally?
I thought teaching was also a two-way interaction: teachers provide knowledge but also expect the students to give back. Learning is an exchange between two parties, and what better kind of class is there where you don’t just fall asleep to a professor droning on in a lecture, but can openly discuss the topic at hand with the teacher? I don’t get it.
Venkatesan also blames the “hostile environment” to racism against South Asians, which she claims she wouldn’t have faced as a white, male professor. I do agree that discrimination does exist in the academic world–but to blame the students for making you feel uncomfortable? I would think that it was also her responsibility as a professor to take charge of the situation; she IS the teacher, after all. But is a lawsuit necessary to right her hurt feelings?
Oh yeah. Venkatesan also blames one female student (who she plans to name in the lawsuit) for “incessantly disrupt[ing] class with her nose-blowing.”
WOW.
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Efren wrote:
Heh, given my own experience with people who’ve done “science studies” and the like–and with teaching college-age students, I’ve always found it interesting that many people in that field can’t exactly explain what they’re doing on a level that’s comprehensible to other grad students, much less undergraduates or the lay public. For this professor to try to teach those topics at an undergrad level, and or her to seriously think that these people wouldn’t somehow rebel is actually incredibly naive.
It reminds me of my own issue with a woman in my grad program who was the queen of science studies at UCSF, and I dared to challenge a basic tenet of one of her mentor’s theories, namely that this guy’s theories weren’t taking race adequately into account. She accused me of being intellectually juvenile to the other professors, and then when I rewrote the paper, had all the other professors AND her students read it and gave their approval, she then accused me of plagiarism in front of faculty and staff because now the paper was too good for her. Doing this caused me to be a year behind the rest of my cohort.
I filed a complaint with the dean of the grad division and the school a few days later, and demanded that she step down as grad student advisor or I would take the department and college to court for harassment and slander. Knowing that she was outnumbered, this professor was forced to resign that position, but it left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I ended up leaving the program because my heart wasn’t in it at that point.
Posted on 07-May-08 at 10:15 pm | Permalink
Moye wrote:
Ugh, you’re reminding me about one of the most frustrating things about academics. Sometimes the most intellectual people in the planet are the last people who should teach.
And I can’t believe you had to deal with someone like that!
Posted on 08-May-08 at 9:13 am | Permalink
Efren wrote:
Yeah, don’t get me wrong–I really wanted to be a professor, and I love teaching. But given the wages and all that, it’s not worth it.
And did I mention that the science studies people HATED me because I could distill what they’re saying into thoughts that were easily understandable–unlike most people in science studies, I HAVE a degree in the physical sciences, so I can easily cut through the BS and take a 25 page science studies paper and distill it in a paragraph. That was one of the reasons why that woman hated me so much.
Posted on 08-May-08 at 9:41 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Remember this lady?: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] I first wrote about former Dartmouth professor Priya Venkatesan and her plan to sue her students for “intellectual distress” (which is funny, because I [...]
Posted on 19-May-08 at 3:56 pm | Permalink