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[maureen_w]

Professor Sprague,

I reget that time constraints didn’t allow for the face-to-face dialogue you suggested.  I
teach discussion sections Tuesday mornings and have my own classes in the afternoon.

Thank you for taking the time to give me your perspective of the discussion.  I understand that you
are making thoughtful choices both in the choice of

Comments

[franshals]

Hey Maureen, I've been sort of a weird combination of busy and lazy lately, so I just caught up on your class stuff. First of all, I think that your letter was very eloquent and brought up really important points, and I can totally understand why you wrote. What a valid point, and I think it's sort of lame that the professor's only response was sort of the "well, unfortunately, some readings have to be cut..." it seemed like she was sort of avoiding real issues. Also, I don't believe that she just has a "different perspective" of what happened in class, and what's all that bs about "we have different stakes in the matter" ? That seemed LAME to me. She sort of just stated that queer theory isn't relevent to the course, and if that's the case, then I guess it's better that you just went ahead and said it's better to agree to disagree... One day in the very near future you are going to be a fantastic art historian and professor, and you're getting off to a really good start. I'm glad that you stood up to this professor... She probably (

[maureen_w]

Thanks Anne. Yesterday I was moping around the house - all depressed. I thought to myself, if the freaking feminist theory teacher isn't willing to consider these issues and Tera Lee can win a huge teaching award and suffer no ill effects of being a homophobic bigot, why do I keep expecting better. I was getting all angry about how straight people who I love and respect eventually let me down because they don't care about LGBT stuff.

HOWEVER! I know that you and may other of my friends are not like that. It makes me feel better. It just doesn't stop me from wishing that that teacher and TL would change or that there would be someone other than me complaining to them.

[anonymous]

Kathy,

This reply really made my day. Last night I had a long conversation with Allison (my partner) about the possibility that she might consider this when assigning my grade. I finally decided that it is worth the risk. Even if she thinks I'm totally overreacting, I can't believe that she doesn't apologize for causing me such discomfort. If one of my students was hurt or offended by something I said in the classroom, I'd apologize.

Anyway. Thanks so very much for your message. It really helps.

Maureen