It's ok; I'm used to it. I am/was? an academic, an English major no less -- I didn't want to join my uncle's law firm nor work for an alphabet, so I went into teaching (and it gave me access and opportunity to keep studying during my lunch hours, which was an excellent recompense personally if not financially). But by today's standards I'm supposed to be like Professor Numbnuts here; I just refused to read the memo.
Heh, and stating that the "studies" were wrecking the English department was my "strike 3" professionally -- it ruffled some feathers, to put it lightly. So here I am, and here we all are...with English departments that no longer teach English...fml.
Pretty much; dead white women too: Jane Austen is no longer taught (a shame, she was a very talented writer). Heck, Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Naylor, and Zora Neal Hurston aren't really taught anymore either; Langston Hughes has been limited to maybe one poem; Derek Walcott? Who's that? Then again, a lot of the students can't read at that level anymore, so there's that.
Now, there are ways around a lot of it....I got away with saying "Maya Angelou sucks and I refuse to teach her crap" for about 10 years, but I made sure to fill my diversity quotient, so nobody could touch me (which was a joke: teach black writers during February; and teach Angelou -- how the fuck is that not kinda racist?). Now? Not as easy -- some departments give you a reading list to choose from and a syllabi blueprint you have to follow, especially for 100-200 level (where most adjuncts are at)...fml.
Oh great. A nation where nobody ever heard of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens or Edgar Allen Poe - because "systemic WAAAAACISM".
I shit on the educational establishment. BTW, I actually taught math in a ghetto high school school for a year - I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. (:)
In some places, but in others the kids are learning. The public schools around here keep going much as they always did; it's the colleges that are becoming weird (and are losing the local population's enrollment...and they just can't understand why??? well...).
We have a relative who worked in Nashville's ghetto schools, same experience. And that's who is coming to the local colleges...to the detriment of everybody. The standards are so low now, anybody can get in, and do! The instructors and profs are scared of their students, imagine.
Prior to this, the local colleges got a decent number of Chicago/St. Louis kids, but they were legit scholarship recipients and son of a gun, they fit right in! It didn't matter what color or creed they were, something about wanting to go to school seemed to make them a good fit! There weren't too many issues and the college enrollment was high. Locals for the most part liked the college kids. Then about 12 years ago the state started these college recruitment/scholarship drives for the "underserved"....and now it takes a 1.5 GPA (out of 4) to stay in a class, they don't hang out with anyone but themselves, and the area crime rate has got up considerably. Fortunately, they take their paid out money and don't stay, but for the year they are here. The locals hate the college; the college now brands the locals "racists".
It's ok; I'm used to it. I am/was? an academic, an English major no less -- I didn't want to join my uncle's law firm nor work for an alphabet, so I went into teaching (and it gave me access and opportunity to keep studying during my lunch hours, which was an excellent recompense personally if not financially). But by today's standards I'm supposed to be like Professor Numbnuts here; I just refused to read the memo.
Heh, and stating that the "studies" were wrecking the English department was my "strike 3" professionally -- it ruffled some feathers, to put it lightly. So here I am, and here we all are...with English departments that no longer teach English...fml.
So are you forbidden to teach about "dead white men" ? Or obligated to teach Ta Nehisi Coates ? (:-)
Pretty much; dead white women too: Jane Austen is no longer taught (a shame, she was a very talented writer). Heck, Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Naylor, and Zora Neal Hurston aren't really taught anymore either; Langston Hughes has been limited to maybe one poem; Derek Walcott? Who's that? Then again, a lot of the students can't read at that level anymore, so there's that.
Now, there are ways around a lot of it....I got away with saying "Maya Angelou sucks and I refuse to teach her crap" for about 10 years, but I made sure to fill my diversity quotient, so nobody could touch me (which was a joke: teach black writers during February; and teach Angelou -- how the fuck is that not kinda racist?). Now? Not as easy -- some departments give you a reading list to choose from and a syllabi blueprint you have to follow, especially for 100-200 level (where most adjuncts are at)...fml.
Oh great. A nation where nobody ever heard of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens or Edgar Allen Poe - because "systemic WAAAAACISM".
I shit on the educational establishment. BTW, I actually taught math in a ghetto high school school for a year - I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. (:)
In some places, but in others the kids are learning. The public schools around here keep going much as they always did; it's the colleges that are becoming weird (and are losing the local population's enrollment...and they just can't understand why??? well...).
We have a relative who worked in Nashville's ghetto schools, same experience. And that's who is coming to the local colleges...to the detriment of everybody. The standards are so low now, anybody can get in, and do! The instructors and profs are scared of their students, imagine.
Prior to this, the local colleges got a decent number of Chicago/St. Louis kids, but they were legit scholarship recipients and son of a gun, they fit right in! It didn't matter what color or creed they were, something about wanting to go to school seemed to make them a good fit! There weren't too many issues and the college enrollment was high. Locals for the most part liked the college kids. Then about 12 years ago the state started these college recruitment/scholarship drives for the "underserved"....and now it takes a 1.5 GPA (out of 4) to stay in a class, they don't hang out with anyone but themselves, and the area crime rate has got up considerably. Fortunately, they take their paid out money and don't stay, but for the year they are here. The locals hate the college; the college now brands the locals "racists".