Week 9 - Email proposals, Robert Jensen, Opposition

It's the weekend after week 9 and I am still waiting for second or third tries from students struggling with email proposals. Significantly, if not surprisingly, most of these are students who wrote not very good HAs. So that weak framing of problem, failure to offer real analysis, weak research, well you know...so that now because they really don't understand what they argued in HA they are coming up short on Advocacy. Still, a few have struggled and come up with something, mostly from seeing what works for others in their group and, if not completely understanding it, at least finding a proposal. I used the Hitchhiker's Guide in class, reviewed the chart and done plenty of in-class rewriting and discussion. Also, I showed a short clip of Chomsky answering a question about the American political system, very useful for all the right reasons: framing, definition, history, analysis, argument, logic. And, later, played a longer (10-12 minutes) radio interview with Univ of Texas professor of Journalism or Media and activist Robert Jensen. His careful thesis critiquing the candidacies of Obama and Clinton was really instructive (or was it? more on that later) in laying out the terms, outline of an argument, interpretation. I had heard it myself and was intrigued by the line "their candidacies mark the death of the civil rights and feminist movements," his very clear and articulate argument being, obviously, that having individuals running absent a political movement was a defeat and not, as he said many times, "radical enough" and "any kind of structural change." And, helpfully, his scholarly credentials, honesty about his own perspective, references to popular media, academic sources, historical analysis, clarity and elegant exercise of logic and support of his thesis were kind of remarkable. But, to return to above evaluation of this exercise's value to students, I am here to brag that one class was golden, with a student practically leaping into the air with evaluation of thesis in hand, and admit to some struggle with the later class, which, despite my notes on board, failed to engage much. Two problems: although I encourage (!!!) laptops for research ("Let's look it up, quick, go to Wiki!, somebody, anybody!) during this ten minutes I noticed that many students were clearly not listening, or following my notes on whiteboard; instead they were doodling around online. Second, in discussion of thesis, evidence, assumptions and all the rest regarding this wonderful example, case study, real-life analysis, it became clear that these students needed a whole lot more context. At one point, a student (who, granted, doesn't bring books or pencil or paper, much less laptop) opined that the candidacies of a Black man and a woman meant the death of civil rights and feminist movements because, hold on --- here it comes --- the problems of racism and sexism or misogyny no longer existed, implying that those movements were now no longer necessary. Whoa. The rest of the class failed to challenge this one, laugh at it, react at all. A teaching moment to remember.