In article <6oiepf$4eo$1 at Jupiter.Mcs.Net>,
Deirdre Sholto-Douglas <finch at MCS.COM> wrote in response to:
>In bionet.women-in-bio morphis at niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:
>: 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
><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.
Deirdre, when I read the comment about "safe words" I grinned -- I took
it as a reference to the use of a word by partners who are into B&D or
S&M - a word which means "I really do mean stop this". And the parallels
with play-acting an inappropriately aggressive interaction with a
scientific heckler didn't seem out of line, even funny.
Your reply, though, I think just contributes to more animousity. It's
pretty hard to come back to comments like "spoon-fed, pre-digested pap"
with any sense that the person you are talking to respects you much.
It may not be a four-letter word, but the ad hominem (ad domina?)
attacks in other parts of your posting ("you clearly don't have much
experience", etc) also lower the tone of what can be a serious
debate about whether it is necessary to toughen up your students
directly to prepare them for the real world, and, if so, how to
best do it.
Chris.
Chris.
