It's my understanding now that many people who preach that freedom of speech and expression should be upheld, and those expressions respected, do not uphold this belief for those who speak the norm, the majority, anything moral (I think you all can grasp that), anything Christian, anything mainstream, etc... It seems that they are open-minded so long as the issues spark controversy, but when someone believes something age-old (perhaps that marriage is between one man and one woman), those speeches and expressions are suppressed and/or cut down.
In turn, people who were previously listening to others who were telling them to be "open-minded" abandon this effort in order to protect themselves. Why be open-minded about others' beliefs if they threaten your own?
Seems like a vicious cycle, doesn't it? Apparently this "respect" and "safe atmosphere" only applies to students, not peers. Peers get the crude jokes, jump-down-your-throat tactics, the woe-is-me attitude, instead of the stretch to understand why someone is believes the way he or she does. The attitude I have received from my peers--not just here and now, but long into my past--will not negatively my respect and value in others' opinions and beliefs. I will try my damnedest to keep my mind open, and though I will not push my beliefs on others, make no mistake that I will hold on fiercely to them and vehemently defend them against hostile attack if needed.
Most of my blogs are learning tools, as you know. So taking what I have noticed about peer-to-peer relations, we need to realize that this can go on in our classrooms as well, especially between students who have been in school/class together for quite a while.
So how do we promote respect and understanding between students? This is not the first time that I have reflected on the LARA method or tools for promoting respect in the classrooms. I can see that I will definitely need to devote even more attention to this in the future.
Have a nice break, everyone.
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If I follow you, it sounds like you are raising some questions about whether our efforts to make room for marginalized perspectives have had some unintended consequences. One thing we know about human beings is that we usually don't fit into the intellectual boxes into which we sometimes want to place one another. If you can explore this set of questions in your teaching, Brittany, you can do yourself and your students a lot of good. Just be sure to be as explicit as you can be about your intentions. When you start challenging assumptions, you can arouse delicate sensibilities.
ReplyDeleteHi Crash, you have really interesting and fun to read blogs (and I believe you are a history major), so I was hoping to solicit some advice from you. I came across the sentence below in a book I'm reading and wanted to know if you have any insights?
ReplyDelete[People who really made change & the way they effected change are not recorded in the official cannon of "civil rights history"]. Since I am a math major, not sure what to think of this. Looking for insights. Please feel free to respond via twitter, blog, email or any other technology (Smile!)
Actually, Crash--respectfully, I don't know what "morals" means. I am never sure how my interpretation of "moral" and other people's ideas of "moral" match up till I've had some long talks with them. I find there's a surprising variety about that word out there. For instance, I'm Christian, and yet it doesn't just upset me, it really hurts me when people talk trash against gays, or even just believe they shouldn't be married. I have a lot of gay people in my life, who I love very much, and I want to see the best for them, same as my other loved ones.
ReplyDeleteWe should all be more open and understanding in our cohort. You are right. Lately, I feel as if the stress has made us turn against each other.
I hope I have not offended you in the past. I come from a family where argument is recreation. If it seems as though I am jumping down your throat, it is only because I am expecting you will hit back just as hard. I realize this isn't normal. I will try not to do it, and feel free to call me on it.