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What happens when I identify with one student so strongly that I can't hear what someone else is saying??

 

 

 

My own voice

One of the things that was clear to me from the beginning of this particular exchange on the bulletin board, is that I found myself agreeing with, worrying on behalf of, and even to some extent identifying with, Debra. My dissertation director is someone who has worked very closely with Jewish-Catholic dialogues, and along the way in my studies with her I spent a lot of time listening to students talk about how painful their experiences had been in classes where faculty did not step in and intervene in difficult conversations.

I want to be someone who does not create oppressive pain for my students! It's one thing to allow pain to emerge in the context of teaching and learning, but quite another to be the cause of it because you, as a teacher, did not appropriately intervene. But in responding so strongly to one student, was I in danger of not hearing the others particularly well? That's one reason why I didn't respond right away on the discussion. I thought it might be better to step back and let the conversation unfold for a while. But was that cowardice on my part?

 

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