Hugo said something that I think is just awesome.
Most folks are familiar with the oft-repeated notion that school at any level is not the 'real world.' For years, I've held the opposite to be true. Indeed, I find the community college in particular to be a lot more 'real' an environment in which to teach and learn than most places. Where else will you regularly encounter such an extraordinary cross section of American society? A high-rise corporate office, filled with the well-groomed and the comfortable, is surely far less 'real' than a classroom filled with recent immigrants, recovering alcoholics looking for a thirty-ninth chance, ambitious high schoolers anxious to get ahead, and more than a dozen different native languages! If what we mean by the 'real world' is a place where one encounters an authentic representation of who populates this country, I'm not clear that many places are more 'real' than an urban community college!
Absolutely brilliant. The single biggest cultural difference between UIC and Notre Dame has been the overwhelming whiteness of the latter. The one night I week I drive down to the community college to teach my math class is like a breath of fresh air -- yes, there is actual diversity in northeast Indiana!
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Absolutely brilliant. The single biggest cultural difference between UIC and Notre Dame has been the overwhelming whiteness of the latter. The one night I week I drive down to the community college to teach my math class is like a breath of fresh air -- yes, there is actual diversity in northeast Indiana!
And this is wonderful because??? What property of blackness or yellowness or redness provides that fresh air? I would have supposed that intellectual diversity would be refreshing, but no, you express contempt at your colleagues at your Catholic U, so that is of no value. How about cultural diversity? What does that class you teach provide you in the way of cultural diversity? Hard to say. All you refer to is skin color.
Despite different religious backgrounds, almost all of us at Notre Dame come from the same ethnic and socio-political backgrounds -- white, middle class to upper middle class, and highly educated. By contrast, the students at the CC are very heterogeneous, with a wide range of skin tones (among many other factors!) that lead to many different perspectives on life.
Without my time teaching at the CC, the contrast with UIC would already make me feel like Indiana really was the stereotypical endless sea of corn and white people.
I'm really not sure why you think I don't respect my colleagues just because they're religious. If that was the case, this wouldn't have been my first choice in graduate schools! There have been some awkward moments, sure, but I'm an atheist in a predominantly religious community; that doesn't reflect on anyone's opinion on anyone else.
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