trial by fire

[Deirdre Sholto-Douglas]

In bionet.women-in-bio morphis at niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:

: How shall I say this?  
: Fuck off and die.
: Yup, that works.

Nope, it doesn't.  Such a statement, visceral though it may be,
is unprofessional and immature.

: Maybe, just maybe, if you explicitly tell your mentoree that you want to 
: role play a harsh Q and A session, including a safeword then that might be 
: reasonable.  And if that is what you had in mind I apologize for my 
: harshness above.  

<boggle> A safeword?!  God ghod, you don't have a very high opinion
of students, do you?  And people wonder why instructors become 
disillusioned...it's suggestions like this, with all the spoon-fed,
pre-digested pap inherent therein, which make me want to weep for
where the educational system is heading.  

: And I hate it, I think people who tear into others are the scum of the
: earth.  And teachers who use it with good intentions in any but the most 
: carefully controlled situations are beyond my comprehension.

I get the distinct impression from what you've written that your
experience, to date, is limited.  

: Yes, this is a hot button issue with me.

Obviously, and if someone had taken the time to let you practice
in dealing with it, you wouldn't be relegated to using phrases like
'fuck off and die'.  What next?  "My dad can beat up yours"?  This
sort of gutter vocabulary has no place in a civilised/professional
discussion and I find that I resent its intrusion and implications
considerably.


Deirdre



-- 
| Deirdre Sholto-Douglas      | e-mail:  finch at mcs.com               |
|                             |                                      |
  *******  The only acceptable substitute for intelligence  *******
                            is silence.