Comments on: Too Old to Teach Us Feminism?

By: ScottM

ScottM — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:18:05 +0000

(I followed a link from Feministe)

Nancy’s comment about professors doing their time teaching, between getting back to more rewarding conversation with their peers rings true. In engineering many of the professors didn’t even bother to pretend like we were anything but a distraction from their research…

Ageism is tough. Both sides feel they are unique cases– largely because society treats them as special cases. The norm is the grind between 22 and 50, our solid productivity years.

Have you figured out how to discuss this? I suspect that briefly mentioning it during office hours might get her to lead the topic during class hours.

Good luck.

By: Margherite

Margherite — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:37:44 +0000

Well, it’s all us old ladies’ fault, anyway. At age 63 I’ve been in the techie industries for more than 40 years now, mentoring younger women all through their classroom days and early careers. We played the innovator and leader and explorer and discoverer roles successfully, and now there are thousands of young women taking for granted what we had to struggle for, a place for themselves in the universities and corporations. So we succeeded, and now it’s time for a new paradigm. Only problem is all the techie jobs are going to passive little boys in India and China, and what self-respecting woman in her 20′s wants to compete with that? You should be asking your feminist professors how to create a new paradigm, not how you should relate to hers.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 21:02:21 +0000

Interesting how quickly this discussion moved away from age. Seems to me people can’t relate so the topic shifts to what they can relate to. And 33 isn’t old.

You don’t get the experience of being old until your body starts to fail and you confront your own mortality, your memory and quick wits aren’t there and must be replaced by wisdom or you have nothing to say, and you start emphasizing relationships and family because the other priorities of the world stop making sense and something must take their place. I find the impatience of youth one of the most annoying things about being older (57).

I suspect that your 73 yo professor could make her knowledge more relevant in the classroom but is perhaps uninterested in catering to students who ought to be taking her contribution seriously. Many of us who are academics talk to communities of academic peers and don’t care whether the students are interested in lectures or not, as long as they do the work. I’ve seen the same reactions you describe to eminent researchers who are tops in their field, largely because the undergrads are too ignorant to know they are being taught by top scholars. Pearls before swine.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:06:08 +0000

I hear those arguments, too, and I get so flustered and mad because I can’t believe people think like that. I have to remember that sometimes it is hard to step outside of the box you’re in (and I’m certainly not exempt!).

By: Nio

Nio — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 22:50:25 +0000

I would imagine that a snapshot of one of my classes would look much the same as yours.

The thing about poverty is there’s always someone poorer than you. If you haven’t read Without a Net by Michelle Tea, please go do so right now (that’s where I got the phrase at the begining of this paragraph).

Whenever I bring up class my fellow student replies with “their lazy, they deserve it…”

Like yourself, I’m from, and still am, working class.

By: Anne

Anne — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 00:14:26 +0000

I hear you on the class issue. Being a soc major, I at least get to discuss it when we talk about inequalities in society or social ills in general. However, the focus of my profs is decidedly middle class, as that makes up the largest group of the student body.

Here is a sample from my (“Big Ten”) university:

For my statistics class this semester the instructor had us all fill out a survey on the first day (politics, opinions, “Who is your daddy, and what does he do?” sort of stuff) and one question asked:

“Do you consider your family’s socio-economic background to be:
1) lower class
2) working class
3) middle class
4) upper middle class
5) upper class”

From two classes with a total of 61 students:

0 lower class (I would think there would be at least one or two, but who wants to admit it?)
5 working class (myself)
29 middle class
24 upper middle class
3 upper class

Give or take (we’re talking statistics here), I would say this is an accurate distribution of my campus.

I would love to get my hands on the distribution of the entire student body.

By: Nio

Nio — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:43:41 +0000

I am often the oldest student in a class and it’s obvious that my experiences don’t mean shit to the youngins in classes. And I’m 33. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to be 73.

She should be commended for not disappearing into oblivious. Bring up this issue, fill the pregnant pauses with your voice.

On a side note, at my school we never ever ever talk about (economic) class. I bring it up constantly and even my professors blow it off making small statements about the poor but always steering the converstaion back to the middle class because that’s what their students will be.