tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post3736237911091451908..comments2024-01-28T03:35:51.182-05:00Comments on Reassigned Time: Sex and the ClassroomDr. Crazyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-37104268443385669712008-06-04T09:45:00.000-04:002008-06-04T09:45:00.000-04:00Out of curiosity, what was the novel you discussed...Out of curiosity, what was the novel you discussed in your blog entry? The novel with the graphic sex scene, and urination. I am truly curious who wrote that book, and how that scene relates to the subject matter of the novel. <BR/><BR/>If you would like, you can email me the answer and DaVinciJoel@yahoo.comJoelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11598886883624610499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-51340842845733222822008-05-14T09:40:00.000-04:002008-05-14T09:40:00.000-04:00Great post--I've passed it along to a friend who's...Great post--I've passed it along to a friend who's been struggling with these issues. Your judgment and generosity is really wonderful, here, Dr. C.<BR/><BR/>Btw, what's the urine-fucking novel, anyway? Will you share?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03281027116636227323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-36893622027090321542008-05-12T18:49:00.000-04:002008-05-12T18:49:00.000-04:00I rarely have this problem--one of the advantages ...I rarely have this problem--one of the advantages of being a Victorianist, I guess :)--but this semester, I was teaching a couple of films that featured some moderately graphic scary stuff. After going back & forth for a bit, I decided that it was better to spoil things a bit than to risk seriously upsetting any squeamish students. I wound up giving them some "at point X, you may want to look down at your desk, because icky thing Y will occur" warnings, and this seemed to work. I also told them that I can't watch full-blown horror films myself, so anything I showed in class was something <I>I</I> was capable of watching without trauma! This amused them, but I think it also made it clear that I wasn't going to think anyone's concerns were silly.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912822372289365516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-28351174698349540842008-05-12T11:18:00.000-04:002008-05-12T11:18:00.000-04:00I suspect that addressing these issues is easier w...I suspect that addressing these issues is easier when graphic material is an integral part of what one teaches. In my case, it pops up more sporadically, and is rarely at the center of what I'm trying to discuss. This year I am teaching sections of course that I had taken a break from for two years, and am reinventing it as I go along. For one section, I found myself introducing reproductions of paintings and photos featuring full or almost full frontal male and female nudity. It made sense within the context of the class, but for both the general and specific reasons noted above, I hadn't given myself a chance to set this up for students. In the end I decided to simply rely on your fifth point in the original post:<BR/><BR/>"I also think it's important that I ultimately and fundamentally believe that my students can handle things that challenge them."<BR/><BR/>And they were fine. However, this is a small honors section of a course that would otherwise be 35-50. I've had one really bad experience in one of my film courses and a highly immature clique of students who got very excited about sex and violence, even of a relatively brief and mild nature. It simply did not occur to me that I would need to take extra steps, like your contract, to pre-empt problems with these issues. Which, I guess, goes back to the experience thing.Shaun Hustonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05374693213232236154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-77389021038035609522008-05-12T10:00:00.000-04:002008-05-12T10:00:00.000-04:00SL:I do the contract thing just because it adds a ...SL:<BR/>I do the contract thing just because it adds a level of accountability and seriousness, and it ensures that they read the syllabus. I should also note that I encourage students who have questions before signing the contract to ask those questions - either in class or privately. What's funny is that the only questions I've gotten so far are not about the material (again, I give a pretty full explanation) but rather about being concerned that they don't know enough not to offend somebody. So typically with the contract I spend a lot of time talking about respect and how I expect that to work in a class when people come in with varying levels of comfort/knowledge about the topic. <BR/><BR/>Another bonus of the contract is that if a student later decides that he/she was duped in some way, I've got something that proves they weren't. It's more legalistic than I'd like, but I was very apprehensive when I developed this course and so went with the idea. (By the way, I got the idea from a prof. for whom I'd TA'd as a grad student, who used a similar contract in his course.) The contract itself is fairly meaningless, but again, it sets a tone, and it opens up a dialog that I find the just handing out a syllabus doesn't.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-81636018912399966492008-05-12T09:53:00.000-04:002008-05-12T09:53:00.000-04:00Zach,Just to be clear, I actually have a lot of sy...Zach,<BR/>Just to be clear, I actually have a lot of sympathy for students who will potentially feel uncomfortable, which is one of the reasons why I'm so vigilant about being very transparent about the material and the point of it in advance of them looking at it. I should note that the course with the most consistently racy content is an upper-level course, I do a flyer that clearly indicates what they can expect even before they enroll (and the course title is much clearer in everyday language than "Queer Kids" in terms of telling them what to expect), and students have a lot of choice in terms of paper topics, etc. In other words, it's entirely possible for students to do only a minimal amount of graded work on texts that they find most troubling, which I think is important. I suppose the point is that I really believe it's important to be exposed to stuff that challenges us, but I don't think that it's fair to expect that one will get over one's long-held feelings about certain kinds of identities/acts/texts in one semester.<BR/><BR/>Another issue that this brings to mind is the issue that you enrolled in the course you describe as a freshman. I only teach one course open to freshmen that includes racy material (and it's usually populated by freshmen through seniors), and in contrast to the upper level course, I ease them into the racy stuff by starting with highly canonical texts/poetry. By the time we get to the more challenging material, they've got a vocabulary for thinking and talking about literature and representation, so there's much less discomfort than if I launched right into the most provocative stuff on the syllabus.<BR/><BR/>I suppose my point is that it's possible to be sympathetic to student concerns while at the same time not shying away from potentially provocative content or interpretations, even with a very conservative student body. The point is about giving them a safe space to explore the discomfort, not to ignore the discomfort or to eliminate it. <BR/><BR/>I'd also argue that one of my points is to show them that even the most "traditional" texts can make us very uncomfortable, and that's one of the things that artistic texts (novels, film, paintings, whatever) do at a very basic level. They challenge us and make us see the world in a way that is outside of our comfortable, everyday experience.Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-16133966098721684852008-05-12T09:32:00.000-04:002008-05-12T09:32:00.000-04:00As a frosh in college I took a class entitled "Que...As a frosh in college I took a class entitled "Queer Kids." It turned out to be the same course the professor has taught at a previous college, then titled "Kids who Kill." Had I signed up for "Kids who Kill," perhaps I would have been more prepared for the film selections. After the first required movie screening, "Heavenly Creatures," with no warning of the violence we were about to watch...I dropped the class.<BR/>Maybe it could have been a good class, I don't know. I do know that my experience of that class has made me much more sympathetic to students who tell me they are aving a hard time with the content of any class, even if I fiercely believe in the material's importance.Zachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13220327678875066480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-63076890632085908372008-05-12T09:04:00.000-04:002008-05-12T09:04:00.000-04:00I do something close to what you do Dr. C. I incl...I do something close to what you do Dr. C. I include a long disclaimer in the syllabus, which explains that the course will include any number of controversial subjects, including sexuality. But I've never asked them to sign anything. That's a new rub.<BR/><BR/>So for an ironic anecdote. There's a novel I routinely teach that includes a very graphic anal sex scene. I've never had anyone complain or even express discomfort -- and that includes the time I forgot to warn them that a "disturbing scene is coming up." Nope, the one that students have expressed some complaint over is August Wilson and his repeated use of the "N" word in his plays. <BR/><BR/>Go figure.Second Linehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11027186818733260061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-32951423086241279162008-05-11T20:04:00.000-04:002008-05-11T20:04:00.000-04:00This sounds like a great way to handle things.I've...This sounds like a great way to handle things.<BR/><BR/>I've only ever had a problem once; a student didn't want to read/talk about *Edward II* because it represents male-male desire. But she had no problem with *Titus* with its rapes, mutilations, murders, and cannibalism.<BR/><BR/>Most of my students really do a good job thinking about the texts they find difficult. And the ones that don't haven't done the reading, probably. :(Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-21781350889605545072008-05-11T11:11:00.000-04:002008-05-11T11:11:00.000-04:00This is really great. A colleague and I have been ...This is really great. A colleague and I have been talking about another of our colleagues--a self-proclaimed radical--who continually asserts that our students "can't handle" the kind of stuff he wants to teach. My friend and I are baffled by that, because we (who admittedly don't teach relentlessly controversial stuff, but certainly deal frankly with sex and sexuality and violence in certain texts) have *never* felt that our students are particularly conservative or easily shocked.<BR/><BR/>We've gradually come to the conclusion that you have, here: that our mutual colleague just *assumes* our students can't handle it, and so doesn't teach gender/sexuality unless it's in a warm, fuzzy, let's-talk-about-our-feelings way in a class that he's hand-picked.<BR/><BR/>I'm absolutely going to use some of your ideas in the future!Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-90141890171559497362008-05-11T09:57:00.000-04:002008-05-11T09:57:00.000-04:00This is great! Thank you for posting it. I recentl...This is great! Thank you for posting it. I recently had a bit of a problem along these lines in a class and I've had one or two comments in past years. Something formal like the contract that you mention is an excellent way of both warning the students and of moving them toward an attitude that education is not about adding information to what they already know and beleive, but challenging what they already know and beleive.Clio Bluestockinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14285486658334618048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20099192.post-15136272446243332202008-05-11T09:10:00.000-04:002008-05-11T09:10:00.000-04:00WOW. That's incredible. It sounds like a wonderful...WOW. That's incredible. It sounds like a wonderful way to get them to open up and to respond to provocative texts. I wanna take that class! :)Nopehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03830669309065736579noreply@blogger.com