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May 04, 2007
One of the Highest Accolades I Could Receive as a Teacher
I've been grading for much of today. Paper after paper after paper. Most of them are pretty good. Some really need proofing, some have interesting logical leaps that I have to try to explain. But for the most part, they're pretty standard freshman research papers. Then I ran across two papers in a row that said more or less the same thing:
I always thought that there were typical jobs for men and for women. And that that's the way it was. But now, after taking this class, I've started to think, 'Is that what I really think? Or is that just what society has been telling me?'
At least two of my students have started asking the right questions, "What do I really think?" as opposed to just going with the flow. At least two of my students are on the way to figuring out who they really are and what they really want, rather than allowing the rest of the world to tell them those things. At least two of my students have begun to wonder whether the things they're told are right or true and who is really benefitting from the socially prescribed answers.
Once you start asking those questions, you never go back. You can't. It's like stepping through a veil. Sometimes the light hurts your eyes, enough to cause tears even, but everything is so much clearer on the other side. It's too beautiful and too real and too necessary.
They're starting to ask questions. That tells me I've done my job.
Posted by sally at May 4, 2007 08:53 PM
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