That time has arrived in the semester when Rebel Girl commences to meditate upon the most canonical texts in her pedagogical repertory – Dr. Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson, Malcolm X and Virginia Woolf. She loves this quartet and has a giggle imagining them applying to teach at the little college in the orange groves. Students, for the most part, recognize all these figures, though in a kind of cartoony way: Martin "I Have a Dream" King; Thomas "All Men are Created Equal" Jefferson; Malcolm "By Any Means Necessary" X and lately, Virginia "That Crazy Woman Played by Nicole Kidman" Woolf.
As these students work through the texts, Rebel Girl is consistently stunned at their optimism. So much has changed, the students assure her. It's all better now. King's dream has been realized. We are all equal. Malcolm was a movie and a hip-hop message. The angel in the house which so haunted Virginia Woolf has been defeated.
Rebel Girl is not so sure.
She hears things. Voices. Those stories which come to her. Like Woolf, the birds outside Reb's office window chirp in Greek. Reb studied Greek for one summer but found the Aegean and romance more attractive. Still, she can pick out some phrases here and there. The little college birds are urgent. When they speak, she listens, pulls out her dictionary and begins to translate.What she has learned from her feathered friends prompts her to pose some questions:
Should membership in organizations disqualify one from employment as an instructor in public institutions of higher education?
Should one list those memberships on one's resume when applying for employment as an instructor?
Should the administrators who interview applicants for such a position ask after such affiliations and allow such affiliations to be part of their judgment?
Say, for example, if Virginia Woolf applied for a such a position and listed among her professional affiliations the Women's Service League or, say, the National Organization for Women, should that be reason for the administrators who sit in judgment upon her to disqualify her?
Little birds and students. The ghosts of writers who most likely would never, ever be hired as teachers at the community college in the orange groves.
Imagine the political affiliations of say, a Dr. King or a Thomas Jefferson or a Malcolm X. Those fellas belonged to some pretty radical organizations.
And Virginia Woolf? Well. Wasn't she married to a Jew who helped found the League of Nations? And she herself, a feminist? Can't have one of those. No. Not here.
"Even when the path is nominally open—when there is nothing to prevent a woman from being a doctor, a lawyer, a civil servant—there are many phantoms and obstacles, as I believe, looming in her way," declared Virginia Woolf in 1931 to the members of The Women's Service League.
She was right.
23 comments:
What gives, Rebel Girl?
I love it when the birds chirp in Greek. It's my favorite time of year.
Is that ridiculous communist party disavowment requirement still in place for public school teachers?
I was momentarily worried that this was about you - that you were thinking of applications, of applying to teach elsewhere. I haven't gotten to take your course yet, but plan to this fall. Please don't go anywhere! I knew I had to take writing from you and no one else after reading a post you made a while back. It was about students of yours being counseled to go to Saddleback because the courses were easier. Do you remember?
ES
Uhoh. But then again, Woolf would be proud. F those bochinchera birds!
So, a little bird told Rebel Girl something - but what?
(This isn't about HER - she's been tenured and teaching now for about 10 years.)
People!
Read a bit closer.
Clearly someone was deemed unift to teach at IVC because she was affiliated with the National Organization for Women.
Ahem.
Yes, of course. Did you see the "MOMENTARILY" at the beginning of that post?
that's messed up.
Can they do that?
Membership in NOW?
How did the rest of us get hired?
You probably got hired 'cause it didn't occur to you to put NOW on your c.v.'s or mention it in an interview!
If this indeed happened, I hope that someone can and will pursue legal remedies. (I know that can be fruitless when the proof is not on paper, though.) Totally intolerable.
ohhh, a little bit of the old "are you now or have you ever been" treatment. Great.
Legal remedies - yeah right. hard enough to defend a job you have let along one that you didn't get.
no - the system works to protect those in power - they get to chock it all up to their professional judment.
"She just wasn't right for us - you know?" wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
hwo they live with themselves, I don't know but the big paychecks must help.
So people really think that membership in women's group makes someone a bad teacher?
I don't hate these people but my god - someone does everything right and then the provincial minds who run the place look at her resume and see NOW - and so they blackball her, feeling justified all the way - at least that's what it sounds like. Doesn't surprise me - appalls me.
now you've and ruined Glenn's weekend Reb...
Don't werry - Glenn can't speak Greek.
I missed this!
Yes, many of us were hired in a window of opportunity when the people doing the hiring and running the college actually looked at our teaching credentials and not our politics.
Imgine men being scared by NOW - actully mekes me want to join up again.
Boo!
Any specifics about this alleged incident?
Why even put the NOW affiliation on a resume or application. Why even mention it in an interview? I think the candidate could have used better judgment. The game is all about presenting yourself in the most positive light without leaving the panel with anything that could jeopardize your chances. This candidate should learn from this experience.
You may be correct, 8:16, but it's a pretty crappy philosophy to adhere to. Of more importance is the reason why a connection with an organization would purportedly affect the ability to teach.
It's possible, too, 8:16, that such a candidate may have been as savvy and careful as anyone--but did not want to end up at an institution at which NOW membership would be perceived as a negative thing.
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