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@IsasV In other words, it had exactly the effect on faculty that Shepard had almost certainly hoped for, but also the opposite? That's harder to navigate, though one would think the university's Code of Conduct would be helpful in doing so: "Our university's Code of Conduct says..."Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +2 🙂
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@IsasV In my classrooms (here in Korea) there's a growing backlash against everything progressive from a loud, aggressive minority. I've had to basically put certain topics off-limits. But the reactionary minority often does its best find loopholes or workarounds.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV I've had to start each semester saying, "The basic rules for MY class are that we respect the fundamental humanity of all people, including people who make us uncomfortable or people we don't understand: different races, sexualities, political values, religious beliefs..."On twitter.com
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@IsasV "In this classroom, insulting or dehumanizing people will not be tolerated. If you want to use your English class to do this, please drop my class and go find another class with different standards. In this class, if you behave this way, I reserve the right to ask you to leave."Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV (Ask meaning *tell*.) Like, it's essentially in the behavioral contract for the class. I mean, I've just had so many raging bigots spout so much raging bigotry that I finally had to draw the line. The straw that broke the camel's back was a few semesters ago...Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV ... when suddenly a significant minority of young men all read the same website that declared "feminism = Nazism!" and started spouting it in my class. Though also, the obsessive-compulsive rage-fest against Yemeni refugees in country a few years ago contributed to it.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV (tl;dr: Some Yemeni refugees found a visa-regulations loophole that let them fly to a tourist island in Korea; half the country flew into a panic that they were here to maraud and despoil. To the point where when the refugees were assaulted by locals, it was spun as the opposite.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV And since bigoted garbage was totally fine in the internet bubbles they hung out in, some students thought spouting baseless fantasies and panic and nonsense was fine everywhere. I remember trying to use it to teach them to check sources for info, but it was hopeless.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV So I just draw a line now, and say, "We do not discuss these things." It's too bad, but, well, I teach TEFL and while I think letting students talk about what they want to discuss is helpful for language acquisition, I have my limits.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV Actually, the straw that broke the camel's back was the time a student handed in a practice exam covered in stuff like, "feminism = Nazism" & "you old man feminists are ruining everything," & "This country is becoming hell because the people who should die aren't." Which, er.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV Since that a student was hostile and clearly not well, and someone had bombed a prof's office over a bad grade a semester or two earlier in another city, I interpreted it as a possible (veiled) death threat, and reported it as such. I was ignored (of course).Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV After that, I just decided to put down very clear, hard boundaries. I'd been trying to engage students and also to impart some understanding the cultural-linguistic dimension of all this, but... no support in the face of that? No response at all? Eh, it's not worth the risk.Permalink On twitter.com
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@IsasV (It's difficult because my brightest students often said, "You're the first prof who pushed us to think and defend opinions, to consider the logic of our arguments. I learned a lot!" But... for every one of those, there's one or two who have the opposite reaction.)Permalink On twitter.com