Absenteeism was up for my 2 classes on Monday. Some research shows this may be caused by the Superbowl. See a scholarly journal here, or see a more news magazine article here. It could also have been the weather.
Maybe people stayed home because they don’t have a draft of the Students Right to Their Own Language paper.
I’ve had some ideas lately. Given arguments expressed in class and in videos on the wiki that fashion is a form of expression and analogous to style or “voice” in writing, could we treat body art as communication, and a type of language, and thereby bring discussion of tattoos, piercings and other body modifications into our discussion of students’ rights to their own language? The chart at the bottom of the recent post on diversity notes generational changes in attitudes toward body art.
If students have a right to expression through body art, where does that leave us on transgendered issues? By the way JCCC has invited Donna Ross in GEB 233 at 2pm on Thursday. She’s undergone the transition and will be answering questions.
Am I still on topic in asking, if students have a right to their own language, how do I as an instructor respond to the comment in a student paper, “I know it’s gay, but my girlfriend gave me the Twilight books, and I read them.”
I know the “it’s so gay” comment is inappropriate – but as my guest speaker Miguel pointed out last semester – in certain situations and in certain audiences gay people use it. Is it exclusively the purview of homosexual groups, or are there times and places where anyone can use it, or is it a word any young person should be allowed to use because it means something different today than it did in the old days?
BTW: the Queer & Allies group meets Wednesday at 2 pm in CC 212. Maybe someone could take these questions to them.
