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Yeah, I guess they probably do, as they did back in my day. But back then, I think the crazy ones were the exception, so it was easier to weed them out. Obviously, the poor student in the article didn't get the memo.
Actually, requesting gender-neutral terminology, including "humanity," is not unusual. I don't think I would consider it the mark of a crazy instructor. It's too common a practice.
Actually, requesting gender-neutral terminology, including "humanity," is not unusual. I don't think I would consider it the mark of a crazy instructor. It's too common a practice.
That is a different argument, but just because something is common, doesn't mean it's not crazy. There are a lot of things that have become common on college campuses today that I think is crazy.
When I took English courses, my essays were graded on sentence structure, grammar, spelling, etc. The professor did not try to change the language that came from within me in order to make political statements. If anything, it was the opposite. They wanted a student's essay to be unique to that student, not some whitewashed robotic version, similar to everybody elses essay. If Mark Twain were in college today, he would probably turn out to be Samuel Clemens the accountant.
That's what you get with the crazed feminist professors. Got to fall in line with their propaganda or ELSE!!
mankind is gender neutral.
it qualifies man with kindred, which covers all manner of humanity yet to be discovered.
Portals of social justice, formerly called schools, are the big business democrats always ignore when railing against 'big business'.
Imagine paying tuition to be brainwashed!!!
Talk about Mexico paying for the wall, here we have an example of people paying to be cleansed of culture and implanted with an ideology that the world would leave on the shelf if given a choice.
It is long past time to exclude activists of any kind from teaching positions. when activists are all you have, especially in administration, that's a problem. That's suffocating. Salting the campus with an activist or two would be quaint.
That is a different argument, but just because something is common, doesn't mean it's not crazy. There are a lot of things that have become common on college campuses today that I think is crazy.
When I took English courses, my essays were graded on sentence structure, grammar, spelling, etc. The professor did not try to change the language that came from within me in order to make political statements. If anything, it was the opposite. They wanted a student's essay to be unique to that student, not some whitewashed robotic version, similar to everybody elses essay. If Mark Twain were in college today, he would probably turn out to be Samuel Clemens the accountant.
I absolutely see your point. The thing is, the professor referred to the course as "a class about the human condition and the assumptions we make about being ‘human’..." I would love to know what the title of the course was, but if that description is anything like how it is described in the course catalog, it sounds like kind of a tip-off that there might be some serious "PC" standards in play. I tried to find the course title, but no luck so far, and frankly, I don't care enough to spend any more time looking. One thing that I did noticed was that none of these stories have pointed out that if the professor had an agenda, SO DID THE GIRL. She was given a set of guidelines that are, nitpicky or not, are considered fairly standard, and she defied them to make a point, and to test her professor's "seriousness." Frankly, given all the stories now circulating about this incident, I am also beginning to wonder if she knew was a good way to get her 15 minutes of fame.
There should be a campus guidebook to let you know which teachers are bat$h!t crazy and which aren't, so you can choose your classes accordingly. Once you are in the class, it is too late. You can drop it, but then you fall behind in your credits, so you are basically stuck with an insane teacher who only wants you to think the way they do.
Long story short, this student is looking for fame; not only did the assignment make it clear what she was not supposed to do, she certainly knows about the above website which provides a lot of warnings about this exact topic.
it qualifies man with kindred, which covers all manner of humanity yet to be discovered.
Portals of social justice, formerly called schools, are the big business democrats always ignore when railing against 'big business'.
Imagine paying tuition to be brainwashed!!!
Talk about Mexico paying for the wall, here we have an example of people paying to be cleansed of culture and implanted with an ideology that the world would leave on the shelf if given a choice.
It is long past time to exclude activists of any kind from teaching positions. when activists are all you have, especially in administration, that's a problem. That's suffocating. Salting the campus with an activist or two would be quaint.
If you think there is some "right" way of traditionally applying grammar rules, you're sorely mistaken. All of this stuff changes through out the ages.
As for the original question, if the rule was taught, the student should be following it. Using "humanity" for "mankind" is not anything new - - I was an undergraduate from 1989-1993, and that was a rule I was taught, along with using "she" for any theoretical job that could have a male or female performing that job (i.e. a theoretical student would be referred to as "he or she"), and using non-male specific job titles for jobs that could be for either gender ("police officer" for "policeman"; "fire fighter" for "fireman", etc.).
I sure am glad I'm old and not a student or in the workplace. I would have surely killed someone by now.
This goes to something real though: learning to keep in mind & communicate using the language and shibboleths of people in a position of power is an important skill in the workplace. I had similar experiences in college with a couple social science professors docking points for political position or language and was infuriated at the time, but it forced me to learn how to write papers meant not to answer the question as posed but rather to meet the unspoken requirements of the professor to get a good grade. That exercise and experience builds soft skills which will be far more valuable later in life than anything else you or the students who didn't have those issues with the professor learned in the class.
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