Is it Winter already?

This conversation took place in a history class a couple of days ago:


Professor was introducing himself and discussing the contents of the course.  "Any questions?" he asked innocently.

A hand rose from somewhere.

"Yes," he smiled.

"I want to know, since you are a white male, and that you seem to be quite patriotic (this is a Canadian History class), whether this will distort what we are learning," a voice proclaimed.

The prof paused a moment.  Was he expecting this?  I wasn't sure.  He replied, "Well, I try not to let my own personal feelings..."

He didn't get to finish.  The voice said, "What I mean is, you seem pretty imperialistic, and obviously privileged.  So this might give a biased view of history."

I observed this with great amusement and not a little resignation.  What would I say if I were the prof?  Of course the white part wouldn't stick.  But I can see how someone could have asked me in, say, a marketing class, "You are an older Asian guy, fat and ugly, full of himself, and hate advertising.  And you worked in oil and banking.  Won't your views be biased by who you are and so distort what we learn?"

Seriously, what would I say?  For those who had me in class, what do you think I would have said?  How would I have responded?

We all inform and are informed by our life experiences.  As Popeye said, "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam."

The girl's question is inane.  Everything is subjective.  Everyone is biased by who and what she or he is.  DUH!  Even a Martian would be biased by its view of the universe.  By raising the question, she herself was biased by her snow-flakiness.

Education is a burdensome undertaking.  It is not about taking whatever you hear or read and memorizing it by rote.  Education is very personal.  The teacher facilitates.  Ultimately the learning is our own.  Not only in a possessive way, but also in what it is to the learner.  It's called HIGHER EDUCATION for a reason.  It's fine to be critical.  But there's also something called reality.  Touch down and feel the earth.  It's really there.

So yeah, I could look at this incident with a certain degree of amusement.  A few months ago I would not have been as amused.

Did I say snowflake?  Yeah well, I don't mind offending offensive people.