Thread: *le sigh*

Ok, I'm not disparaging religion or other's beliefs here, I just want to post my observations. My English Comp professor is Jewish, and he's a great guy, very smart, great critiques and showed us a video of him skydiving when he turned 60, which was pretty darn cool.

Something I find interesting is that he puts Judaism or Islam into his lesson plan. Every handout we get, 90% of the writing assignments relate heavily to Judaism or intolerance. Now, I find that there are some interesting points in the handouts, but I find his bias somewhat out of place in the classroom. For example, we have to study the holocaust.

Now, in an Ethics class, I'd be perfectly fine with this, but English Composition? I get that he is trying to teach us to be tolerant of other religions, he's taught and cared about Muslim students, etc. He just seems to be too strong about it.

Anyway, that's just something I wanted to get out there.

He may be coming on too strong with his personal beliefs, but consider this. Subject matter aside, are you learning more about how to use English?

Originally Posted by garza

He may be coming on too strong with his personal beliefs, but consider this. Subject matter aside, are you learning more about how to use English?

He's caught one comma splice in four assignments I've handed in, so I guess?

Does that mean you only had the one error, a rather common one at that, in the four assignments? Or does it mean he fails to catch errors? If what you say means you turned in four all-but-perfect assignments, I'd say you are doing well and that he is a good teacher.

Originally Posted by garza

Does that mean you only had the one error, a rather common one at that, in the four assignments? Or does it mean he fails to catch errors? If what you say means you turned in four all-but-perfect assignments, I'd say you are doing well and that he is a good teacher.

Most of the stuff he corrects me on is formatting. He's an exceptional teacher, and said he likes my work. Others have said he critiqued the hell out of their papers. To be honest, I find the prompts challenging, mainly because it's cut and paste "the subject material is Islamaphobia, intolerance or racism" and find a unique way to present it and have a unique writing prompt on the same subject.

Most of the people I know who are in college complain about biased professors. I don't know if you will ever be able to change the guy or block out the parts of his teaching you don't like; I suppose it really boils down to priorities: How badly do you need to pass this class, are you learning anything from it (regardless of teacher's bias), and if things get too obnoxious, can you get out of it without it being a detriment to your grades?

If it gets bad enough that you want to try to change classes, ask around before making such a drastic move. The other professors (if any) who teach equivalent courses might be just as bad or worse.

Good luck!

At least he sounds better than that journalism teacher(?) you had in high school.

It's coincidental that I had a conversation with my English professor today about something similar. He insists that certain writers from bygone eras had hidden messages in their work. The likes of Joyce, Yeats, et al. I made an argument which said they didn't; at least not to the extent which some literary critiquers believe they did. So he proceeded to basically try to make me out to be stupid in front of the class by asking me what qualifications I had to make such an assertion.

To which I stood up and said: Fifteen years of writing, a dozen novels penned, and maybe 2,000 books read. I told him, unequivocally, that there is neither hide nor hair of a message in any novel I've ever written -- nay, in anything I've ever written. I told him that I don't write to convey a message. I write to entertain. But he insisted that writers of the time were not like contemporary novelists. He would not be undone.

Stubbornness must persist in professors. After all, they had to study for years to reach that stage. We mere mortals can't possibly know what they know.

Originally Posted by Sam W

It's coincidental that I had a conversation with my English professor today about something similar. He insists that certain writers from bygone eras had hidden messages in their work. The likes of Joyce, Yeats, et al. I made an argument which said they didn't; at least not to the extent which some literary critiquers believe they did. So he proceeded to basically try to make me out to be stupid in front of the class by asking me what qualifications I had to make such an assertion.

To which I stood up and said: Fifteen years of writing, a dozen novels penned, and maybe 20,000 books read. I told him, unequivocally, that there is neither hide nor hair of a message in any novel I've ever written -- nay, in anything I've ever written. I told him that I don't write to convey a message. I write to entertain. But he insisted that writers of the time were not like contemporary novelists. He would not be undone.

Stubborn must persist in professors. After all, they had to study for years to reach that stage. We mere mortals can't possibly know what they know.

Somehow I agree with your point, if an author says "The curtains were blue.", a teacher would interpret it as "the curtains were blue to represent John Smith's depression after his wife died ten years ago."

I think the author meant "The curtains were blue."

I'd say it's just one of those things you're just gonna have to deal with if you want to take that class. For example, when I was in college, I took French. We had writing assignments for that class, obviously. But instead of "pick your own prompt, just write the crap in French" or French history or French literature or poetry or architecture or...anything else, the prompt for every French essay I wrote for that particular professor was about skin-color. They call it diversity, but it was about skin color. Oh, and that professor was black. 'Nuff said.

I've always loved it when my English professor was into arguable issues, like racism, current events, etc. It gives me a drive to write an essay. True, I've gotten more than a few eyebrow-raises with this interest of mine, but I find writing to be easier when opinions run high in that regard.

Originally Posted by KangTheMad

Somehow I agree with your point, if an author says "The curtains were blue.", a teacher would interpret it as "the curtains were blue to represent John Smith's depression after his wife died ten years ago."

I think the author meant "The curtains were blue."

My point exactly. They over-analyse way too much. Sometimes, as you said, the author just meant the curtains were freaking blue.

Maybe find a some other non-religious compositional pieces that you think the rest of your class would also enjoy and give them to him, but make sure they are in line with what you are learning. It'll be a subtle way of suggesting a change in subject and he might really appreciate you researching the new material.

Originally Posted by BabaYaga

Maybe find a some other non-religious compositional pieces that you think the rest of your class would also enjoy and give them to him, but make sure they are in line with what you are learning. It'll be a subtle way of suggesting a change in subject and he might really appreciate you researching the new material.

I think he'd try to relate it to the things he's said so far.

We have watched in class on youtube

Ellie Wiesel speaking two times (hard to hear him, he's so quiet!)
Three arguments on Islamaphobia
The debate about the giant Islam Center they wanted to build in the US that the owner had known ties to Al-Qaeda
A speech on segregation between Jews and Muslims.


It gets boring after the third one.