Different Strokes For Different Folks
Today in my Best Man Ever class, we compared the Best Man's cleansing of The House with accounts from Ancient Historian about two other ancient men who cleansed The House and considered the political overtones of House cleansing.
Student A has decided that I'm not a Sheep (based on hir own understanding of what it means to be a Sheep) and has consistently been insisting that critical ways of reading the Good Book or thinking about the Best Man Ever are worthless. During today's class, s/he declared that s/he disliked Ancient Historian's writings. When I insisted that it is important that we compare the Good Book's account of the cleansing of The House with Ancient Historian's accounts, s/he very maturely responded by pouting for the rest of class and doodling in hir notebook (yes, I can see that from where I'm standing at the blackboard).
I understand that it's painful to realize that the Best Man Ever was not unique in every. single. way. Really, I do understand that pain. But I must still require that my students at least consider the Best Man in his historical context. I wouldn't be doing my job otherwise.
Needless to say, I've been quite upset by Student A all afternoon and evening.
Student B, who only infrequently speaks up in class but is clearly wide awake, emailed me this evening. Could s/he please write hir final paper about the political overtones of House cleansing because s/he found today's class so! interesting!
How can the exact same class from the exact same prof elicit such starkly different responses?
Well, it's nice to know that I reached at least one student today.
3 comments:
Dear SW,
Let us not forget that most of these Type A's come from contexts where the defense of Best Man arises out of a fear-based need to keep intact simplified, modern, logico-deductive presuppositions. The path of Trust that relies less on argumentation and more on the Ultimate (the Person, not just the Concept) is a lot less tenable so many centuries past Best Man, and thus, unsettling for these Type A's.
Perhaps it might be helpful to them to hear the likes of us utter these words (if we can do so with integrity): "I am open to critically examining everything because I believe that the Ultimate has called me to do so, and because I trust that the Ultimate will prove to be greater than the greatest question that I can ever pose."
Belief is a lot more than intellectual. And most of us have been duped into believing that that's not okay.
Thunder Bird, I find your evaluation of the situation quite astute.
The issue is that I don't say to my students, "I believe..." because that wouldn't help my students who don't come from believing backgrounds (see most recent post).
Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
"Oy vey!" *smacks forehead*
(and why does my graphic look so big on the main page?)
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