There is a fine line between what is right in a classroom and what is just absolutely not. What surprises and baffles me beyond my wildest dreams is when it is not 'teachers/professors in training' that make mistakes. But professors in a college classroom. Last time I checked the point was to allow for a stronger education and critical thinking in real life situations. The only way that can be done is by allowing students to actually speak even if you don't agree with what your students say. Not only is this very rarely the case with the classes I am in, but often the professors will actually attack the very being of students and refuse to let them defend anything.
This gets frustrating when we are required to read things for class and have positive attitudes about it. Plus the not being allowed to express how wrong it is and how we feel attacked. Or maybe, just maybe, when our readings are taught wrong. I can't be sure. I'm not the writer of the specific poem in mind. "Dear John Wayne" is what we had to read in class - which is fine. I've read a number of things in my education that I have not loved, but typically I can learn what is expected of me still. Let it be noted I don't hate John Wayne and for that I am a despicable person.
Why? Because that is what my class tells me I am. The only thing he was guilty of was being an American icon for years - for starring in Westerns. For being a boss. For standing up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves, and last I checked he didn't condone murdering Native peoples. But most notably he is not a real person. Marion Mitchell Morrison is though. And he actually died of cancer - so good for you. You made fun of a real man, who never hurt you, that died suffering of cancer. Do you feel good about yourself now? Did you finally set your skewed view of history right? The class even went so far as to say that he deserved to die that way for what he did to the Native Americans. He, personally, did not do a damn thing to them or anyone else. That's like saying James Bond is a terrible person just because he's a double agent, but not just james bond - Sean Connery. See? That logic is more than a little flawed.
I think too many can't remove the stereotype of the cowboy from that of John Wayne - and certainly not Marion Mitchell Morrison from the persona of John Wayne. Ignorant people chalk it all up to one and the same. Who care about the difference? Who cares about the truth? After all, it just takes so much effort.
Continue to brainwash college students that cowboys and hunting are evil. And that all those who hunt, fish, or are remotely cowboy-esque should have cancer. Thank you for that. Thank you for making my own blood boil with rage. Thank you for helping me to realize you are the ignorant one. Thank you for giving me a reason to close my ears to the poison you spout and claim as the one truth. Thank you for making me realize just how little your opinion will ever mean to the world. And continue to push people away and you will make a real generation of hate. Fresh with new wounds.
And try to tell me again that the people I love deserved to have cancer. Only then will you find out how hard it is to really shut your students up.
No comments:
Post a Comment