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Kids thinking they know it all is normal. Today, however, if you disagree some of them think you should be fired, and at the Times the adults agree. This is why I worry. I get good teacher evals—I'm better with kids than that reporter—but am I one misstep from cancelation? 1/9
I honestly don't know if that's a reasonable fear. Am I being melodramatic? (Probably.) Has the pandemic driven me a bit crazy? (Well, duh, of course, it has, me and others, but *how* crazy, that's the question!) Am I overreacting? How would I know? 2/9
I read academic horror stories, but maybe I'm like the nervous people watching Fox News crime reports and thinking the murder rate is much higher than it is. I see a shift in some of my students, a smug self-righteousness that is in tune with the times, should it worry me? 3/9
Would a clash in class lead to my firing? I can't suss out the odds. Part of the problem is, I don't have tenure. I wouldn't get fired. I just wouldn't have my contract renewed. I'd be un-hired. That's always been the case, but it never worried me until recently. 4/9
The culture wars are unyielding. Knowing racism is stupid and evil is obvious to decent folk, but now you have to be anti-racist in exactly the right way. Don McNeill got in trouble partly because he scoffed at "cultural appropriation." This is a crime in some folks' eyes. 5/9
In passing, when I read people say "cancel culture" is just "consequences" it pisses me off. Right, my getting fired would just be the consequences of me doing something like reading MLK using the n-word out loud in class—which I won't do anymore because it feels too risky. 6/9
Or those who attack the Harper's Letter who sneer at "people with permanent platforms complaining about being de-platformed." The Harper's Letter wasn't for JK Rowling or Salman Rushdie, they just signed it, it was for poor academic slobs like me (among others). 7/9
And despite all this, I remind myself that I still like teaching. The positive feedback I get from my students is wonderful. They're nice kids (even the smug ones). I'm going to keep my head down and go on teaching, hoping to pass through this unscathed. 8/9
Odds are I will be fine, probably. And here's a decent overview of the whole mess (if you haven't already read it all). Always funky when the Times covers the Times. 9/9 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/business/media/new-york-times-donald-mcneil.html
