In article <358DE76C.29AB@nospamnasw.org>,
"Andrew A. Skolnick"
> Judy Stein wrote:
> > Check out his article published in the newsletter of the National
> > Association of Science Writers (available on his Web site)
> > concerning his disastrous experience teaching journalism in
> > Shanghai. TMers' shoes aren't the only ones he can't put himself
> > into.
>
> That's at http://nasw.org/users/ASkolnick/goldfish.htm
>
> So now Judy, liar extraordinare,
As Andrew knows, I *never* lie. He's been trying for years to
come up with or manufacture evidence of deception from me that he
can make stick, and he's failed ignominiously every single time.
> speaks up in defense of students who
> cheat, lie, and plagiarize. Why am I not surprised that Judy's crooked
> feet would find the shoes of cheaters and liars a comfortable fit?
Can anyone find anything in what I said that defends cheating,
lying, and plagiarism?
Nope. Andrew made that up.
I'm not defending the students, I'm criticizing Andrew.
> As for my "disastrous experience teaching journalism in China,"
> one of the approximately 50 students I taught proved himself to
> be courageous, honest, bright, and eager to learn.
Yup, and you made it quite clear to the rest of them that you
considered them to be dishonest, stupid cowards. No wonder they
rebelled.
> "Disastrous experience"? Every teacher I've spoken to says that
> finding just one rare student like Tom to help is what teaching
> is all about.
Right, and if you hadn't alienated the rest of them by behaving
like such an arrogant, self-righteous Ugly American, you might
have found a lot more than one.
What hypocrisy! Read the article, folks, and see whether it is,
as Andrew attempts to suggest here, a story about how gratified
Andrew was to find this one chunk of gold among all the dross.
Tom was exceptional in that he was able to look past your
disdain; he was a bigger person than you. Or perhaps he saw the
advantage to himself of behaving in a way that would please you,
of making himself a contrast to the other students.
Either way, it wasn't to your credit, it was to his. You could
have helped many more of your students if you had the slightest
shred of empathy.
You didn't have to *approve* of the system or compromise your
principles in any way--just realize that you weren't dealing with
a gang of dishonest malingerers but rather with students who were
behaving according to the standards of their own culture. If you
found those standards unacceptable, you should have started where
they were and tried to lift them up, rather than denouncing them
from on high.
What you did was akin to taking in a stray dog that has never
been toilet trained and then beating it for crapping on the
carpet. (And even that analogy is insulting to the Chinese
students, but I'm trying to get something very basic across to
Andrew here.)
If you didn't understand what was going on, you should have asked
for an explanation and advice on how to handle it as soon as you
realized it was going to be a problem, rather than bullheadedly
insisting on doing things your way when you were obviously not
getting through to the students.
(It's rather ironic that I find myself referring to *Andrew's*
principles, as if he held himself to the same standards he
demanded of his students. He may not plagiarize, but he is very
far from a shining example of the Western journalistic integrity
he was holding up to the students as the ideal.)
Original Post
Subject: The divinization of Carl Sagan
Date: 22 Jun 1998
From: jstein@panix.com (Judy Stein)
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.transcendental, sci.skepticMy Reply to Judy's bigotry
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