Forgive me, but I got worked up by what the language insinuated. I work in a special needs environment and my girlfriend works at an all girls school, and I'm sensitive to how language can be used in an exclusive way. Naming two well known male historical figures and following them with "even Marie Curie" made me wonder how I would react if a teacher used that phrasing in the environment I'm used to, and it would make me do a double take. I will take you up on commenting on the post. I only hesitated because weeks earlier there was a similar pattern to the language (use of male pronouns when non universal pronouns would have worked fine) and somebody commented about it, but nothing had been done. I assumed that since it would've been an easy fix, the author doesn't pay too much attention to the comment section. I thought this would be a better way to engage with the community.
RE: This Week's Homework: Sticking it to the Man
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This Week's Homework: Sticking it to the Man
I thought that word "even" was the issue. I actually wrote a much longer response specifically addressing that but deleted it as I wanted to make sure I wasn't jumping to conclusions.
I too happen to teach students with special needs. I am also a very strong advocate of being inclusive. In fact, I think I am overly sensitive when it comes to the issue.
The author of the post included a man, a person with special needs, and a women. She was clearly being inclusive.
Sometimes I need to remind myself to look past a word or two and to make sure I am not dismissing the over all message. For example, in my experience this phrasing, "special needs environment" can be seen as offensive. Most people prefer the "person first" model of writing about people with special needs. However, I don't think you were being disrespectful at all. You clearly care. You clearly value and respect people with special needs regardless of the words used to convey that respect.
If this did happen in the environment you are used to, what would you have done? Would you have walked away and immediately go tell everyone"that person is such a sexist" or would you have asked the person directly, "Did you intend to be sexist?"
I would hope it is the latter and the speaker would have had the opportunity to clarify.
Please keep in mind that the woman who wrote the post has been here for over a year working extremely hard to help teachers and students of all genders, religions, nationalities, races, economic backgrounds, sexual orientation, and areas of special needs. If I missed any group I apologize because I assure you she supports them as well.
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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.
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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!
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Sorry I wrote my reply before I saw this comment.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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