I feel such sorrow for the young student who was shouted down. All she wanted to do was to put across what appeared to be a very valid point. To reduce her to tears for this, is to my mind unforgivable. And then to prevent her apologising -unnecessarily in my view- furthers her upset.
The lecturer should really give some thought as to whether she is in the right job and consider her position. To treat anyone, let alone a young girl in this way is completely wrong. I can only hope that the young student is strong enough to rise above this, and not be too harmed.
Rather than helping the fight against racism, I fear this lecturer does more harm than good. In fact I think it is so patronising towards black people.
http://www.upworthy.com/i-never-thought-id-want-to-high-five-a-teacher-for-yelling-at-a-student-but-i-was-wrong?
Not too sure if this link will work. If it doesn't you can maybe find it at upworthy.com. I think it's a site that is supposed to make you feel better about things. Not this time for me though.
I am not alone in my anger. If you watch the video, please also read some of the comments made afterwards.
Oh well I have had my say. I am angry. I am upset. Maybe I am wrong. But it is not wrong of me to express an opinion. Not that this lecturer would agree.
Please pardon me. WHAT A BITCH! I have no problem with the brown eye/ blue eye exercise if each person involved experiences both sides of the argument. However I cannot condone bullying in any way, shape, or form. That woman is a bully who is trying to force a lesson rather than to let it be learned. I did not stay long enough to read comments. The whole thing made me angry.
ReplyDeleteSorry Emma. I shall try and write something happier in my next post. I am pleased you agree with my assessment of the lecturer.
ReplyDeletePlease. There is no need to apologize. I always over-react when children are being hurt. There is a way to make a point without making a child cry. It is just as good to bring this wrong forward as the wrongs of anyone being treated as less of a human being for any reason. Hurting someone is never right.
DeleteMean lady. Made a girl cry. That does NOTHING to advance acceptance, abolish stereotypes or promote tolerance. She's not unifying people but alienating them by some new guidelines.
ReplyDeleteIf you have seen the entire program not just this small snippet you will see that its all a social experiment and she was treating the girl who cried with the contempt and hatred that blacks suffered back in the 60s. It is a very strong teaching tool to immerse the students in a real situation where there can see by their treatment for being coloured (in this case it was the colour of their eyes). I am a teacher myself and was shown this video decades ago during my training as an example of by using authentic learning experiences students get what they are being taught. The entire program went for over 1 1/2 hours and the students had pre-briefing and de-briefing before and after the session. I would be appalled to think that students were treated like this, but folks it wasn't for real, it was an experiment and a teaching tool.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this.
DeleteUniversity professors use all manner of teaching aids to get the lesson across.
ReplyDeleteThis was a strong dose of realism, and I'm sure it got the point across, although in quite a harsh way.
The stories I could tell...my psychology classes were the best examples.
Some teaching tool.....it tells me a lot about modern teaching methods that any professional can validate this.
ReplyDeleteI think I won't watch. I don't like putting others down personally even if I don't agree with them.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I did not watch the video based on reading your comments, which I DO agree with completely. I also read the comment that the complete video was a training exercise and still it NOT entice me to watch it. There is no reason to demean anyone, especially children. but then children do such things to each other and it is called bullying...and of course adults do it as well.
ReplyDeleteThe woman is a bully. She thinks she is right, fine. But I suppose she is teaching students from personal experience that it can be hard to stand up against bigotry and unpleasantness. I can only say that if I'd been that student, I would have hated her forever and her views, whatever the heck they were. I remember once a group of teachers hammering at me in this way till I cried, and I've despised them ever since. They were lousy teachers because they weren't teaching anything, they were just inflicting their views. It also taught me not to cry when bullied, because bullies are always crap. .
ReplyDeleteI have also read Deb's comment and appreciate that this was only a fraction of the program, but that makes no difference to me. It just stinks. By the way I have been reading your book on Kindle and I think it is great.
ReplyDeleteMy view entirely Jenny. Even if it was an experiment it cannot be right to abuse a young person in this way.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased you like my book.