I feel as though I've dug myself a gigantic hole here. Your colleague is lucky to have as dedicated an advocate as yourself, and you care about her and the platform you've created. I'm finding this really entertaining now because we're both inclusion oriented and we're still a bit away from seeing eye to eye. I just wanted to bring attention to my reaction to the post's syntax, and I think I've done that now. I definitely could have done it a little more tactfully and I apologize for stepping on anybody's toes. You guys do an awesome job at fostering the community, and I hope to contribute to it more, though I think I might've marred my name a bit by digging this hole. I'm going to edit my post in the hopes that the author of Steemit education just tried... a teensey bit harder at questioning the meaning behind her own use of language.
RE: This Week's Homework: Sticking it to the Man
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
This Week's Homework: Sticking it to the Man
This may be a little bit my fault. I was pretty taken aback by the use of "his" rather than their or his/her in the prompt "Often in schools we see that students are capable of so much more. How do you motivate a child to reach his full potential?" and I did comment on the post and didn't receive any reply. It wasn't that I assumed sexism, it was that I didn't appreciate the gender specific language. When I commented I figured someone would reply, but nobody did. I've been hyper aware of the wording of every post since then. Christopher was just braver than I was to speak up.
I do think that we would all benefit from getting to know the people that run the steemiteducation posts a little better. In a platform where sometimes the people who have been here the longest have the most power, I think it would be good to see the qualifications the people behind these large promotional accounts have. It's not that I don't believe they have the qualifications or that they support the community in any way they can, it's that I don't know them. I'm new to the community and just trying to figure everything out.
I do understand that sometimes people use him or his in a universal way, but that still isn't something I'm particularly fond of. If Canada can change it's national anthem to "in all of our command" instead of "in all our son's command", we can use their instead of his.
Funny how I'm nervous to even say that because I'm afraid that my opinion is going to be made to seem irrational. It was my reaction to the post, and to be honest I was surprised when I read that it was written by a woman. I guess what I'm asking, and what Christopher is asking, is that we are recognized for our reactions, despite how far they were away from the intention of the author.
Thanks!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Sorry I wrote my reply before I saw this comment.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
No need to apologize. I understand your point. Sadly, in the English language there is not an accepted solution just yet. I have always learned that "their" or "they" should only be used as a plural pronoun. I would never turn in a paper to a college professor using "their" instead of "his" (although I use it quite often on here specifically for the reason you state).
But that is my preference. I choose to go against the rules of formal writing. That does not mean others have to.
"His/her" or "her/his" has become acceptable but it can be "clunky" stylistically. Personally I prefer to handle the problem by using "his" and "her" interchangeably. I try to mix it up through a long piece of writing as much as I can.
But again, to each her own.
But the fact is, that in English writing and speaking, masculine pronouns are commonly understood to be universal. This does put a burden on the reader to gauge by context if a piece is sexist or not. Hopefully it is easy to see from the context of hundreds of posts that this particular author is not sexist.
I think this might be a case where you are missing the forest through the trees.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Like I said, I didn't assume the author was sexist, just didn't appreciate the language being masculine.
You saying "forest through the trees" is exactly the kind of negating comment I was talking about when I said I was fearful I would be made to seem irrational. To be fair, I spoke to many of my colleagues and they felt that the language was inappropriate as well.
I have a lot of respect for what you do and how you've advocated for your colleague, but I'm feeling a bit like no matter what I say I'm in the wrong here.
I think it's time for Ol' Kim to take a break.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
You spoke to many colleagues about a post encouraging people to
"Write an article about a very important historical person who influenced our world with their research or invention."
and determined the language was "inappropriate" because it included the word "even" following that very clearly gender neutral introduction?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
No, sorry if I wasn't clear--I asked my colleagues if I was reading too much in to "Often in schools we see that students are capable of so much more. How do you motivate a child to reach his full potential?"
This was before the post you're talking about.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Please know I am writing this with a smile.
This has gone way too far. We all care tremendously about education and ALL students. We are arguing about whether or not "his" should be seen as gender specific or universal. That is not my call.
I have no idea who to lobby in order to make "they" and "their" officially recognized as grammatically correct but if you find out and are able to argue our case to them, I will back you up 100%. For now, let's not get hung up on one of the many very weird things about the English language.
After we win the "their/they/them" battle, I would love to find out how the heck the "L" in "colonel" can make an "r" sound.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Oh and about the qualifications.
I will tell you right now, I have none.
I am just a high school teacher of students with special needs who looked around the platform and saw no one was doing anything to try and promote education and learning on the site.
So I decided to do something about it.
I found some others who valued education as well.
We put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to build the educational community from nothing. At first we used nothing but our own voting power to try and encourage teachers and students. Then I rented some voting power using my own money. I then searched for other votes to help support the teachers and students who were posting. Then I lobbied to be included as a Cuire supported community.
In short, @steemiteducation are just regular people who think education is important and are willing to sacrifice time, money, energy and sleep in order to build an educational community here.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I think all of those things qualify you, and the others involved. I just didn't know any of that, or any of the names of the people who are involved with steemiteducation other than you. I just wanted to know a little bit more about the people behind everything, and the beginnings of the account, because I feel like the personal connections are important.
Thanks!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
LOL. No hole here man. I think this is just a result of the limitation of communicating via written comments. I bet if we were face to face, we would have hashed this out in 30 seconds, got on the same page and would have moved on to joking about each other's screen names.
You haven't marred your name. You are a strong advocate for respect and inclusion. If you see something that isn't right, you should absolutely say something. I am just a strong proponent of communicating directly with the person first. With the written word, it is so easy to misunderstand someone's true intention. I think so much drama on this platform could be avoided by conversations like the one you and I are having. We started far apart and took the time to communicate directly with each other. Poof! No drama.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit