Stanford Prof: Saying Your Homework is Easy Could be a Microaggression
“students live in “a world of unevenly distributed knowledge”
As I’ve said before, it would be easier if someone on the left would just tell the rest of us what isn’t a microaggression.
The Daily Caller reported:
Stanford Prof: Calling Homework Easy Is A ‘Microaggression’
Talking about how easy your homework assignment is could be a microaggression, according to Ruth Starkman, a professor at Stanford University.
Writing for the Huffington Post, Starkman argued that referring to your homework as “easy” could hurt other students’ feelings, since not all students may have found the assignment easy to complete.
“Had you been listening, you might have heard others describe your comment as a ‘microaggression,’ a term coined in 1970 by Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Chester M. Pierce,” Starkman wrote.
Explaining why you found the homework easy could be a microaggression too, because “even if it’s not a lie,” it could also be “a form of bragging.”
“Not everyone went to your high school, had your fortunate circumstances, or such a dazzling delivery room arrival, and even if they did, they might still be suffering because of the genuine challenges of the assignments,” Starkman wrote.
Starkman wrote that because students live in “a world of unevenly distributed knowledge,” they must be careful not to speak carelessly around other students, especially students who are from minority backgrounds.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The next logical step is to erase any mention of the school’s name from official paperwork. Diplomas will no longer say The Stanford University anywhere, but will instead just say Four-Year Degree-Granting Institution, so that graduates of Roosterpoot Aggie won’t feel “aggressed” by those who attended fancier schools.
And after that, school rings. And those decals everybody puts in their car’s rear windows.
When microaggression is involved, if someone isn’t offended, that just means you’re not looking hard enough.
@Tom Swift
As a proud graduate of Roosterpoot Aggie I find your post offensive. I’d appreciate it of you’d refrains from such microaggressions.
That should have been “refrain”, not “refrains.”
Hopefully, my old English professor at Roosterpoot Aggie won’t see my comment.
‘ students live in “a world of unevenly distributed knowledge,” ‘
Because, it’s still possible to assert that some students might know more than others (although it may no longer be possible for faculty to assert that they know more in their areas of expertise than students).
BUT never, ever, suggest that some students are more talented than others, or just generally smarter and more clever…
“THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”
— “Harry Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut