Page 25<\/p>\n
As educators, we take academic discourse for granted.\u00a0 We expect students to care about the issues we bring up even though they are presented in an academic vacuum (for instance, Graff\u2019s example of the views of love in the 15th<\/sup> century).\u00a0 These ideas must be given context; students need to know why they should care.\u00a0 A working knowledge of courtly love is integral to studying the Divine Comedy, but that explanation isn\u2019t enough for the average 16 to 22 year old.\u00a0 The trick is, this information must not only relate to their own lives but to the society in which they live.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Page 39<\/p>\n I find troubling Graff\u2019s implication that academia must sell itself.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t this essentially debase the quality of higher education?\u00a0 College isn\u2019t a television show or music video, though some of the pop culture courses showing up on university campuses might lead one to believe that is the case.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Student life offices and academic departments operate on two totally different wavelengths as it is \u2013 I will never forget the day that Mason\u2019s \u201cTake Back the Night\u201d observance began right in the middle of my Literary Scholarship meeting with a local band playing outside our classroom.\u00a0 Professor Owens was livid that the band\u2019s amplifier created an impromptu (and unwanted) soundtrack for his lecture.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Page 45<\/p>\n Academic problems are not seen as problems \u2013 there is a \u201cwho cares\u201d mentality of \u201cwhen will I ever need to use this?\u201d\u00a0 Honestly, I\u2019m not sure if the counter argument of \u201cIt will help you become a better thinker\/express yourself better\u201d is a useful one to high school (and some college) students.\u00a0 The current education system has become a series of hoops to jump through because courses are compartmentalized and irrelevant to one another.<\/p>\n Page 47<\/p>\n Crandus\u2019 students see textual explication as pointless \u2013 of course they will, unless it is placed within a relevant context.\u00a0 Students have to see themselves as part of the world and the texts they study as relevant to that world, not just some confusing garble of words written by dead white men.<\/p>\n Students compartmentalize their education and we help them.\u00a0 Subjects are separated, so school is separated from life.\u00a0 It has no bearing other than the expectations of their parents and the ubiquitous college degree.\u00a0 Many adults still feel this way, especially when it comes to literature.\u00a0 We\u2019ve talked before about how many of us have been asked absurd questions like, \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of English class?\u201d or \u201cWhy don\u2019t you study something useful?\u201d from our own peers in the real world.<\/p>\n Page 49<\/p>\n The compartmentalization of schooling leaks over into categorizing life.\u00a0 The response \u201cHow would I know what the author would think?\u00a0 We\u2019re not close friends\u201d is an example of such grouping.\u00a0 Students feel so strongly about individualism that they have denied the universal experience of humanity.\u00a0 We are a culture of egos \u2013 it is almost impossible to identify or even empathize with others because individuality is king.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Page 56<\/p>\n Individualism has damaged students\u2019 perception of why persuasion has value.\u00a0 Relativism states that everyone is entitled to his own opinion or set of moral standards, so what is true for \u201cme\u201d may not necessarily be true for \u201cyou.\u201d Therefore, it\u2019s not acceptable (or PC) to try and persuade someone of your opinion (much less present it on the chance you might offend someone).\u00a0 <\/p>\n Graff says this lack of interest in persuasion is a symptom not of relativism but of the collegiate generation\u2019s lack of faith that their opinions matter in the democratic scheme of things.\u00a0 He misses the point \u2013 in a relativistic society, no one\u2019s opinions matter because they are all the same.\u00a0 Without a standard against which to judge what is true and what is false, everything is true.\u00a0 Thus, opinions (and votes) are meaningless.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Page 68<\/p>\n Ignoring contradictions in text is another sign of relativism\u2019s impact.\u00a0 Why discuss differing opinions (or even notice them) if everyone has them and they are (again) all the same where truth is concerned?<\/p>\n Page 85<\/p>\n Civilized debate requires that those who debate respect one another.\u00a0 Today\u2019s culture dictates that anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot, and that only true intellectuals take or hold your position.\u00a0 Look at politics \u2013 liberals think conservatives are close-minded bigots; republicans think democrats are bleeding-heart socialists.\u00a0 Even members of the same political party slip into this (take Obama and Hilary, for example, who seem to revel in personal attacks rather than debating the issues of their campaigns).\u00a0 <\/p>\n Page 88<\/p>\n Tannen\u2019s discussion of \u201cdebate\/discussion\u201d clearly illustrates the semantics\/political correctness game.\u00a0 One is supposedly preferable to the other, because in a discussion you are somehow less likely to be violently affronted.\u00a0 I find this ridiculous \u2013 I have been violently affronted in many \u201cdiscussions.\u201d\u00a0 What it boils down to is an issue of respect for the person whom you are debating and the understanding that it is okay to present one\u2019s own opinion even if it might be counter to someone else\u2019s.\u00a0 Disagreeing with someone doesn\u2019t make you ignorant.<\/p>\n Pages 122-123<\/p>\n Graff\u2019s discussion of tone brings up the sense of superiority redolent in academia.\u00a0 Why must academic writing and discussion be so esoteric, so inaccessible?\u00a0 To me it almost feels as though this is a way of keeping the Ivory Tower ivory, despite all of its talk about diversity.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Page 126<\/p>\n Students are forced into split identities not only in courses and professorial expectations but in their writing as well.\u00a0 They are expected to walk a fine line between accessible and academic, leading a great number of novice students to slip into \u201cI don\u2019t care\u201d mode \u2013 the same as that caused by the isolated academic problem.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Final thoughts:<\/p>\n Graff implies that closing the curriculum gap takes understanding on the part of the teachers and academic policy makers (70).\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 They (we, really) are products of the same system and compartmentalize just as much as the students do, perpetuating the problem out of habit and comfort.\u00a0 Everybody talks about cross-curriculum mapping, but how many of us really want to do it?\u00a0 While we admit that good teaching is all about sharing and \u201cstealing\u201d ideas from other educators, we happily ensconce ourselves in our classrooms and go about our business, quite pleased to avoid outside interference in the realm in which we excel.\u00a0 In addition, we reinforce the relativist ideology by exhibiting the very same behaviors we eschew in our students.\u00a0 Like Graff points out, we don\u2019t like to publicly disagree \u2013 we muzzle ourselves so no one individual gets their own way.\u00a0 God forbid we offend somebody, because what is right for me may not be right for somebody else.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Our attitudes are the reason why good English students don\u2019t see that the skills learned in a Literature or Comp course carry over into writing clear lab reports or research papers for other disciplines.\u00a0 We are as much a part of the problem as the solution.\u00a0 <\/p>\n -Ginny<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Page 25 As educators, we take academic discourse for granted.\u00a0 We expect students to care about the issues we bring up even though they are presented in an academic vacuum (for instance, Graff\u2019s example of the views of love in the 15th century).\u00a0 These ideas must be given context; students need to know why they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[94,95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}