Watching our Words

Dear Colleagues,

Language commonly associated with
assessing student learning -- "accounting,
testing, evaluation, measurement, bench
marking, and so forth" -- hasn't helped,
...how quickly assessment  can come to
be seen as part of  'the management culture'
rather than as a process at the heart of
faculty's work and interactions with students."
 (from Doug Lederman Faculty Role in Assessment)
                  
    “And the Violent Bear IT Away”
          (Turn it Up; Put it in Play)
 
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. 
(Zen Koan) 
 
He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment,
 and buy one.  (Luke)
 
Thy goodness must have some edge to it,
 else it is none. The doctrine of  hate must be
 preached as counter to the doctrine of love
when that pules  and whines.  (Emerson)
 
Psychological notions.
Not physical  or political.
Waging the war within,
domestic violence where
charity  is said to begin
as emergent phenomenon. 
 
Language confuses the issues between
internal & external affairs. In one realm
it’s good to hate. Admirable to kill  a
Buddha.  Smart to keep the sword  at
hand,. but I  wouldn’t wage a political
campaign talking that  way —give a
graduation speech
 
A starlet was criticized last night for abusing the
 word “rape” to describe what the paparazzi
do to her. “Well,  I’d say  that’s over the top!
She needs  to apologize!”. “Yeah, but she’s
young: cut her some slack.”  Etc.
 
Political Correctness on the one hand..   .  
 
I’ve had classes where students said their mother
wouldn’t allow the word  “hate” in the house.
 
“If you stand right fronting and face to face
to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both
its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel
its sweet edge dividing you through the heart
& marrow, and so you will happily conclude
your mortal career.” (Thoreau)
 
I’ve had classes where students wince at the word
“hierarchy” and relish the word “hegemony” which
they say explains how the dominant paradigm dominates.
 
We could put in-play the central metaphors of  our
disciplines, ways we talk,  analogies across the curriculum,
environmental & sustain ability issues (both physical and
psychological, external and internal), assessment & evaluation
concerns, varieties of rubric experience, how to achieve
Talk In Class & Learn to Love the Exam,  transformational
strategies, and the ongoing rivalry between the 2 economies
(Process and Product): which is ordinate, which subordinate,
and who says, and when, and why.  
 
Talk. Talk. Talk. Watching our language. It's possible.
 
Something there is that loves a wall, however,  and
maintains the  separation of state and state. Homeland
security concerns: same constraints that keep  students
safely silent  having groan up in a schoolery environment:
  
Think before you speak and  If you haven’t got anything
really GOOD  to say, don’t say anything at all.
 
Appropriate advice for the Assessment-Sensitive when
 rigorous “finished product”  is what’s being evaluated.
 
Not so good for  Process  Assessment,  measuring  our
Innovation Modes to cultivate local food for thought
without our tuxedos on..  
 
2 Pedagogies:  Raptor & Rapture & violence
bears them one way or the other over the
top. . 

xxxooo, Sam