Men Explain Things to Teachers
Just finished Rebecca Solnit's excellent collection of essays, which begins with the title piece, Men Explain Things to Me, her well-known article on being patronized by men who don't have a clue that they consistently underestimate female accomplishments and intelligence.
I hear ya, Rebecca. And I have my own "men explain things to me" stories. Here's one:
I am the (freebie) afternoon keynote at a gathering of exemplary teachers in a Midwestern state. I have some things in common with the audience, all of whom have won awards for outstanding teaching, and about 90% of whom are women. The (expensive) morning keynoter is a well-known national figure and author, speaking on his new (best-selling) book.
The first thing that bothers me is that he hasn't bothered to customize his slide deck. Clearly, he last did this presentation in Arizona, because all the slides refer to the AIMS testing. He doesn't notice this, at first. When someone asks "What does AIMS mean?" he tells them to substitute the acronym for their statewide assessments--which he doesn't know, offhand.
There are some viable ideas in his presentation--about professional learning groups and small, reachable goals. But then he puts up a slide asserting that students who aren't reading at grade level should be pulled from art, music, physical education and recess for remedial work--not just for a day or two, but until they reach grade level. I look around the room--a few teachers look as if they might find this idea debatable, but most of them have their eyes down. It's just another conference, just another expert telling them how to teach the children they know well, how to pump up those scores.
I am not, technically, part of this audience--I am an observer, there to do a separate presentation in the afternoon. But I can't believe nobody's questioning what seems like a problematic strategy. The Men Explain Things to Teachers - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: