Depressing....
Sometimes I wonder how the HELL I have survived this long on this campus. I'm waiting here, patiently fielding incoming e-mails from my students who have an exam tomorrow. So, I started reading the campus paper (I just gave an hour and forty-five minute case history in a class and I'm burnt...) and I feel like crying.
Last week, there was an article about a student's facebook posting being taken down by the administration. Normally, I'm really opposed to censorship...but GOD...this student had written that homosexuals are subhuman. He had started a group to oppose the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus.
I'll backtrack...last year, a gay student sent a letter to the campus newspaper indicating that he is leaving the university due to the intense homophobia. He had attempted to form a GSA and was told that it would not be "in line with the university's mission statement." When he pushed it, he was told the the university does not have homosexual students. Since then, the faculty's social justice committee circulated a petition demanding a GSA. Due to all the pressure, the administration has created a committee (largely comprised of priests) to evaluate whether or not a GSA would violate the university's mission.
In the campus paper today, there is a letter that expresses horror that a student was disciplined for "expressing his faith." What the hell?!? Since when is calling groups of people "subhuman" a Catholic position? Sure, the Catholic church and I have long since parted ways, but I was raised in the church! I don't even have the energy to go into the whole letter right now.
My students are damn lucky they have an exam tomorrow....I love teaching them and I love them, I do...but they piss me off!!! After teaching a particularly abusive section of a diversity class, one of my favorite faculty members said that he just couldn't teach it anymore. Sometimes it's just exhausting. And I get angry. I want to give up on them, I want to stop giving a shit. It's painful and it hurts to see students be hurt by comments made in my classroom. I want to protect them from all the crap, but I know that they're dealing with it all the time...I don't know...it's exhausting.
They think feminism is either castrating men or pole dancing.
A lot has happened recently, but most of it is either too personal for me to share in this journal (particularly due to a recent reminder that Blogs Get Found) or is related to my clinical work and is thus off limits...
So, now, I will go home and do some lovely peer-editing, crash, then be back here by 7:30 tomorrow morning...sigh...
Last week, there was an article about a student's facebook posting being taken down by the administration. Normally, I'm really opposed to censorship...but GOD...this student had written that homosexuals are subhuman. He had started a group to oppose the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus.
I'll backtrack...last year, a gay student sent a letter to the campus newspaper indicating that he is leaving the university due to the intense homophobia. He had attempted to form a GSA and was told that it would not be "in line with the university's mission statement." When he pushed it, he was told the the university does not have homosexual students. Since then, the faculty's social justice committee circulated a petition demanding a GSA. Due to all the pressure, the administration has created a committee (largely comprised of priests) to evaluate whether or not a GSA would violate the university's mission.
In the campus paper today, there is a letter that expresses horror that a student was disciplined for "expressing his faith." What the hell?!? Since when is calling groups of people "subhuman" a Catholic position? Sure, the Catholic church and I have long since parted ways, but I was raised in the church! I don't even have the energy to go into the whole letter right now.
My students are damn lucky they have an exam tomorrow....I love teaching them and I love them, I do...but they piss me off!!! After teaching a particularly abusive section of a diversity class, one of my favorite faculty members said that he just couldn't teach it anymore. Sometimes it's just exhausting. And I get angry. I want to give up on them, I want to stop giving a shit. It's painful and it hurts to see students be hurt by comments made in my classroom. I want to protect them from all the crap, but I know that they're dealing with it all the time...I don't know...it's exhausting.
They think feminism is either castrating men or pole dancing.
A lot has happened recently, but most of it is either too personal for me to share in this journal (particularly due to a recent reminder that Blogs Get Found) or is related to my clinical work and is thus off limits...
So, now, I will go home and do some lovely peer-editing, crash, then be back here by 7:30 tomorrow morning...sigh...
posted by Wild West Intern @ 6:43 PM
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