On Thu, 17 Aug 2000, mfrank wrote: > specifically: what do we do about issues such > as evolution with students whose religious beliefs > make such issues offensive? . . . similarly, may we > talk about freud to students whose lives include > a serious investment in the notion of soul? . . . and > how about teaching gay lit or film to those who > find the very idea an abomination? . . . I should HOPE that we could teach these things? We are invested, after all, in the liberal arts? In expanding awareness? I wonder if this was quite the problem in the seventies? I was attending Berkeley and taking classes where we read and watched fairly explicit things, and to even suggest that the teacher was wrong to show these branded you as utterly uncool. I wonder if the concerns being expressed here are not a result of the new sensitivity to the violent content that has become so much an issue in Hollywood film these days, especially following Columbine. We may be on the opening arc of a pendulum swing towards conservative and moralistic reaction to these issues. I occasionally teach a course called "Classical and Scriptural Backgrounds." I expect my religious students to be grown up enough to accept the fact that I'm treating these texts literarily. I expect my atheists to be polite to the religious students. If a student objects to Blade Runner in my "Alien Sex" course next semester, my gut reaction is to suggest that he or she take something else. I know that seems dismissive, but that's my gut reaction. The course is entitled "Alien Sex," after the well-known fiction anthology by Ellen Datlow. I think I may have to post ratings. > so what do we do? . . . this is a much more complex > problem than ed's apparently innocent question seems > to suggest I agree. Times are a-changing. It's a new jungle out there. Sarah ********************************************************************* Sarah L. Higley [log in to unmask] Associate Professor of English office: (716) 275-9261 The University of Rochester fax: (716) 442-5769 Rochester NY, 14627 ********************************************************************* Py dydwc glein / O erddygnawt vein? "What brings a gem from a hard stone?" Book of Taliesin ********************************************************************* ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]