It's even worse than it seems, because I didn't see how truly bad Gibran was until a teacher, who I thought of as a sentimentalist and sap, said, "Really??" Then I went back and realized, "oh."
My otherwise quite tasteful, urbane and intelligent 12th grade English teacher kept recommending that we read Khalil Gibran. Even worse, she kept pronouncing his first name as "Cay-hill".
Now I realize that she was trying to fool those posers among us who might actually like Gibran into looking like fools when we refer to our love for him. Thank you Mrs. Hopkins!
Ick. That guy seems to be quite pleased with and interested in himself.
I do find it hard to listen. I got where I am by being intellectually snotty, by striving to overcome all opposing argument, by being a better thinker than others. Still, I actually am a careful and perceptive thinker; my self-confidence has some basis in reality.
Don't kids get a free pass on gooey sentiment? (Although I actually don't know how bad Gibran is. I know him only as "that poet who inexplicably shows up in wedding programs.") But you don't want kids developing a hard, cynical edge too young -- they aren't good at it yet.
(I suppose this belongs in the other thread, but I overidentified with Dorothy Parker for a while. At some point in high school I figured out that while I still thought highly of her short stories and book reviews, and her poems were still entertainingly silly, modeling myself on an ineffectively suicidal alcoholic probably wasn't all that clever an idea.)
The world needs both gooey teenage sentimentalists and martyred teenage existentialists. And when they grow up they all need to realize that they were silly.
Grades are stupid and oppressive, since they are used as judgments of your value as a person, not of a guide to a larger intellectual exchange with the professor.
Sounds like my sociology professor this year. Except it didn't really work out the way he wanted; we spent most of an entire class listening to him defend his plan to assign us grades, but not tell us what they were. People were mighty pissed.
This is the same professor who encouraged us to accept that acupuncture actually does heal some sort of "life force", in a discussion of Marx's Dialectical Materialism. A little too new-agey for my taste.
I'm currently embarrassed to say that my response to the linked page is to sincerely object to his statement that grades "measure your worth as a person" rather than the quality of a student's work, because I spend so much time trying to disabuse my students of this idiotic adolescent notion. I know I should simply mock him, but I want to argue with him instead.
Yeah, really. With my pen of mighty justice I weighed your heart on the scales of Edumacation and found you lacking, so I made a note of it in the margins.
Actually, I think that Minnesotans like Keillor LESS, in part because he's sort of a jerk at times personally. And also because: "What's the big deal? I don't see what's funny about that."
I know that this is true of "Fargo" -- the greatest movie of all time.
I did spend 40 years of my life in Portland, Oregon, a city which resembles New York City shrunk to 1/20 of its normal size. So I have my little 5% of urban sophistication.
What I'm having trouble understanding is why there's a naked pregnant woman on his philosophy of teaching. Does it tie into the incredibly long text that I've admittedly only skimmed?
And if his teaching philosophy has a naked pregnant woman, why doesn't his grading philosophy have... well... I'm not sure what the analagous thing is.
Work safe warning please?
Posted by SP | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:37 AM
It's even worse than it seems, because I didn't see how truly bad Gibran was until a teacher, who I thought of as a sentimentalist and sap, said, "Really??" Then I went back and realized, "oh."
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:39 AM
My otherwise quite tasteful, urbane and intelligent 12th grade English teacher kept recommending that we read Khalil Gibran. Even worse, she kept pronouncing his first name as "Cay-hill".
Now I realize that she was trying to fool those posers among us who might actually like Gibran into looking like fools when we refer to our love for him. Thank you Mrs. Hopkins!
Posted by Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:42 AM
That linked full disclosure is truly truly unfortunate.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:45 AM
More data points for Ben's PhD, though.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:51 AM
Ick. That guy seems to be quite pleased with and interested in himself.
I do find it hard to listen. I got where I am by being intellectually snotty, by striving to overcome all opposing argument, by being a better thinker than others. Still, I actually am a careful and perceptive thinker; my self-confidence has some basis in reality.
Posted by annie | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:51 AM
Don't kids get a free pass on gooey sentiment? (Although I actually don't know how bad Gibran is. I know him only as "that poet who inexplicably shows up in wedding programs.") But you don't want kids developing a hard, cynical edge too young -- they aren't good at it yet.
(I suppose this belongs in the other thread, but I overidentified with Dorothy Parker for a while. At some point in high school I figured out that while I still thought highly of her short stories and book reviews, and her poems were still entertainingly silly, modeling myself on an ineffectively suicidal alcoholic probably wasn't all that clever an idea.)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:52 AM
The world needs both gooey teenage sentimentalists and martyred teenage existentialists. And when they grow up they all need to realize that they were silly.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 8:59 AM
Me, for instance, when I was in high school I thought Endgame was better than Waiting for Godot. How could I have been so blind????!!!!!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:02 AM
OK, y'all have been so open, so I'll confess everything. I still like Dave Barry and, to a very small degree, Garrison Keillor.
Also, I read the Nancy Drew books, but that's not embarassing, since it made me a feminist before my time.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:04 AM
It is now time to mock Emerson without mercy.
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:10 AM
Grades are stupid and oppressive, since they are used as judgments of your value as a person, not of a guide to a larger intellectual exchange with the professor.
Sounds like my sociology professor this year. Except it didn't really work out the way he wanted; we spent most of an entire class listening to him defend his plan to assign us grades, but not tell us what they were. People were mighty pissed.
This is the same professor who encouraged us to accept that acupuncture actually does heal some sort of "life force", in a discussion of Marx's Dialectical Materialism. A little too new-agey for my taste.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:10 AM
11 -- I think Minnesotans and Wisconsonians get a pass on liking Garrison Keillor. Dave Barry, not so sure.
Posted by Jeremy Osner | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:14 AM
I'm currently embarrassed to say that my response to the linked page is to sincerely object to his statement that grades "measure your worth as a person" rather than the quality of a student's work, because I spend so much time trying to disabuse my students of this idiotic adolescent notion. I know I should simply mock him, but I want to argue with him instead.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:14 AM
Yeah, really. With my pen of mighty justice I weighed your heart on the scales of Edumacation and found you lacking, so I made a note of it in the margins.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:31 AM
Dave Barry used to be funny. And, by a bizarre coincidence, now he's just shrill.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:33 AM
13: Not for the content, but for trusting us. Just because we are mock-worthy, should he be spared?
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:36 AM
to assign us grades, but not tell us what they were
Did he mention Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:38 AM
Actually, I think that Minnesotans like Keillor LESS, in part because he's sort of a jerk at times personally. And also because: "What's the big deal? I don't see what's funny about that."
I know that this is true of "Fargo" -- the greatest movie of all time.
I did spend 40 years of my life in Portland, Oregon, a city which resembles New York City shrunk to 1/20 of its normal size. So I have my little 5% of urban sophistication.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:43 AM
What? Grades don't measure your worth as a person? My priorities have been all wrong.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 9:55 AM
What I'm having trouble understanding is why there's a naked pregnant woman on his philosophy of teaching. Does it tie into the incredibly long text that I've admittedly only skimmed?
Posted by Matt #3 | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:28 AM
Doesn't everyone put a picture of a naked pregnant woman on their teaching philosophy?
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:31 AM
The guy has a pregnant fetish. Big deal.
God, these Puritans at Unfogged.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:32 AM
Pregnant is the new Barely Legal.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:33 AM
I thought not legal was the new barely legal.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:37 AM
That was last month's new barely legal. But, you know, it's Christmas, so break out the hott manger preggos.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:42 AM
Pregnant fetishes are neither here nor there, but I'm not sure one should share one's fetishes with one's students.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:43 AM
Speaking of it's Christmas...
And if his teaching philosophy has a naked pregnant woman, why doesn't his grading philosophy have... well... I'm not sure what the analagous thing is.
Teaching Philosophy : Naked pregnant woman :: Grading Philosophy : ???
Posted by Matt #3 | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:47 AM
this idiotic adolescent notion.
That's worse than idiotic, it's pernicious.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:49 AM
A picture of a newborn being disciplined.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:49 AM
Ben, I tip my cap to you.
Posted by Matt #3 | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 10:51 AM
>The Duluth News Tribune embeds the Sunday comics in advertisements so firmly that you quite literally have to tear off the ads to read the comics.
Posted by Joe O | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 1:47 PM
I'm not sure one should share one's fetishes with one's students.
You're such a stick-in-the-mud, B.
Posted by Frederick | Link to this comment | 12-19-05 2:54 PM