Friday, June 6, 2008
I Loved the Dorms, Too!
I was startled to read the section about oppression, which could be manifested as tutors asking students if they were having trouble adjusting to the dorms: "If the student is from a large or troubled family, the assumption that dorm living is supposed to be difficult can make a student wonder why it feels so luxurious to share a room with only one person or to feel guilty about falling asleep at night untroubled by ongoing family crises" (105). That was me! As the eldest of ten kids who shared a room with three sisters, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I moved into the dorms. And I felt guilty about not being home to help with the kids; it was the first time in my life I hadn't been responsible for almost constant child-care responsibilities.
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1 comment:
I know your blog isn't about the guilt associated with tutoring or teaching, but that is what it makes me think about.
I have been feeling guilty for being a middle class white woman. I think our guilt at not being something that could help us be better tutors or teachers is irrational. I cannot help where I came from, but I have always been aware of that. My parents work with the money of much richer people than us, so they taught us what class meant and why it mattered in reality.
We need to focus more on how we are alike instead of dealing with how we are not like some ideal.
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