Yes. Called my reps to share my thoughts about holding ICE accountable to court orders (they currently flout them) and asking for arrests for anyone who perjured themselves with regard to the Epstein files.
Yes. Noticed that teaching days on my projected Fall schedule looked preternaturally lengthy and would leave me with 12-hour campus days. Spoke to my chair and they're working on modifying it to something more sustainable.
No. At a meeting (where I was the only person of color in the speaker's line of vision), they made a "joke" characterizing me as a "bad teacher." (Thoughts that flashed in my head: I love my students. I've won teaching awards. A student named the teacher character in their video game after me. Nicole gave a teacher my name in her novel. In all of the polycrisis of the last year, teaching is the thing that has sustained me, and the one ball I didn't drop. I try to be a good teacher, I wanted to say... Instead, I chuckled awkwardly.)
Pic: It's so cold, someone put a jersey on the statue of Sparty outside the football stadium.
15 comments:
That sounds like a mean joke. Was it a one-off or something you've experienced at your school before?
What is with the bad teacher joke? That is terrible! Maybe that person is jealous of you? That is just bad!!
What a horrible thing to do to anyone in a meeting or otherwise. That is unconscionable and I'm especially appalled it would happen in a university setting. I would have been inclined to speak up or at least after, reminding that person that jokes at the expense of others are neither funny nor appropriate. But good for you, speaking up on ICE and your schedule. I hope they can get something more amenable -- 12 hour days are rough.
Take care.
Thank you for speaking up regarding ICE and Epstein. Interesting how so often we are more comfortable speaking up for others than we are for ourselves. I hope the joke was meant as the opposite, like, ‘we all know what a terrible cook J is, please give me another helping of that terrible food.’ If so, it fell flat. I would not have liked a joke about my abilities to be made, especially in a meeting of my peers. That’s BS.
Oh, and to argue with the first part of my comment above, you WERE comfortable with speaking up for yourself, regarding your schedule. So YAY you.
WHAT!? I literally said this out loud as I read your post. I don't care about the context; identifying someone as a Bad Teacher in an educational setting is, at the very least, poor taste. I'm sure I'm not alone in finding it outrageous and shockingly rude.
Thank you for your activism. I have called my congressmen and been met with the message that their voice mailboxes are full every time. The Cleveland Plain Dealer even wrote a story about their nonresponsiveness to their constituents.
I was caught off-guard, but I can't recall it happening before.
Thank you, Lisa. (Thanking you because I'd wondered if I was overreacting. And your comment makes me feel like I wasn't.)
I do plan to to let them know I didn't like when it happened so it won't happen again, Jeanie. Thank you.
Thank you
I think that was it, J--I might not have minded the joke so much if it were just the two of us at the table! That's what I'm going to lead with when I talk to them today/tomorrow. (Yes, I'm not a total doormat!)
Thanks for the solidarity, Nance. Our Senator Slotkin has quite responsive assistants, thankfully.
Good for you on the speaking up, and honestly, I understand not saying anything about the stupid joke in the moment - you are obviously a really, really good teacher, and I assume all of your colleagues know that, but that is the kind of outdated thing that used to pass for cleverness and really needs to die a quiet death.
100% agree, Allison. Thank you. I used what J had start a conversation that went well (I think!).
Post a Comment