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Show OPINIONS Classroom democracy doesn't work By JOHN-ROSS BOYCE Opinion's Editor As a child, I was a fussy eater. I don't mean that I stubbornly refused the spoon or the fork at first but eventually could be coaxed into eating. I mean that from age two to three, I ate only fried rice from the Chinese place across from my parent's apartment. I mean that my folks actually worried that my willful malnutrition would attract the attention of Child Protective Services. Whatever they served me, I wanted the opposite. My father would sit across from me at the breakfast table, nervously watching as I completely ignored the food in front of me. "If you don't eat your Lucky Charms, a policeman is going to come and take us to jail," he'd tell me. "You ever see a man get shived in the eye? It's gonna be your fault, boy." Finally, my mother gave up. "Alright, buster," she said, "you wanna live off ham-friend rice and gummi worms? Be my guest." She put three Chinese take-out boxes and a five-pound bag of rainbow-colored invertebrates on the table. She slammed the fridge door shut. Maybe it W. I Aimee- Avitti DADA, -K Jori61 —T1 COW14'414c#Itais ( 4, i CUtPitteil ► fltic was a hare-brained last-ditch effort in reverse psychology. Maybe she just stopped caring. She left me to it. "Bon appetit," she said over her shoulder. I finished most of the fried rice and got about a third of the way deep into the bag of gummi worms before I threw up. The puke was brightly colored. The whole scene was like if Linda Blair from "The Exorcist" were hosting an electric van full of hippies in her stomach. Today, I am anything but a fussy eater. In fact, the range of my palate is so varied that I have a hard time maintaining Prot. ! PAttA41,\ k9JOHN•ROSS BOYCE/UVU REVIEW Is it better to be feared or loved? A: Who cares? Teach me algebra, man. my girlish figure. room absolutely can work — Looking back, I think I was on a senior level or in graduon a hunger strike and I didn't ate school. In many of those know it. I was keeping my situations, professors aren't mouth shut in protest until my so much instructing a student totalitarian mother and father on the basics of a subject, but ceded the lion's share of the guiding them through their mealtime decision-making own work. Overseeing, if you power. I wanted an equal say will. By that point, a student in the process of selecting our has proved that he or she has family grub. I wanted democ- what it takes to dictate the racy. course of their remaining eduBut it turns out I wasn't cation. ready for a democracy. I But democracy cannot didn't have the experience. I thrive in a freshman-level didn't have even the most ba- course. This is primarily due sic expertise. I certainly didn't to the fact that someone in have the maturity requisite an entry-level course, for the to foresee very predictable most part, is not going to posoutcomes, to connect actions sess the basis of knowledge with consequences. that's requisite in any subject I wanted democracy. What I before you go learning all wilgot was a bad case of nausea ly-nilly on your own. and a brownish vomit stain Put it this way: I'm in a on my Winnie The Pooh pa- woodworking course right jamas. now. It's my first time ever Recently, I sat in on a fresh- being in a shop. Before I man level course. The profes- just start attempting to build sor spoke passionately for de- a bookshelf, I need to know mocracy in the classroom and the introductory principles of against the traditional method working with wood. I need to of disseminating information, know how to work the various from a teacher's mouth to a table saws. I need to know the student's ears. The professor standard safety precautions. wanted to give us the power. Once I know those, I can work Whatever we wanted to learn, on my own projects at my we'd tell him. Whatever we own pace. But not before. Do felt would be the best form of you wanna know what would exam, that's how we'd be ex- happen if a woodworking proamined. fessor gave his students free So we spent ten minutes at reign from the outset? He'd the end of class debating what have a pile of severed fingers kind of homework we would at his feet and a bunch of furdo. I actually heard people say niture that falls apart at the things like "I'm not so big into slightest touch. having quizzes on the reading, Not every class is held in a so can we not do those?" wood shop. Not knowing the I was very tempted to raise elementary tenants of Marxist my hand and make an obser- theory before you start applyvation about insane people ing it to a text in a literature running asylums. And how we class doesn't imply the same shouldn't let that happen. level of physical danger. But Democracy in the class- you're still in danger of pro- ceeding ignorantly through the rest of your courses. And not every student is disciplined enough to contribute to their own syllabus. Human nature dictates that most people will do the least amount of work possible in order to obtain their degree. That's part of why we pay professors — experts in their field — to teach us what they know. If a university were to function as a laissez faire, come-and-go-as-you-please free for all, people wouldn't pay tuition and come to school. They'd educate themselves at the public library and just submit a reading list instead of a diploma to a prospective employer. Classroom democracy can work — when the students have proved they are mature enough to handle it. If a teacher is being legitimately difficult in an unnecessary way, or if the material proves so complex that even the brightest of students is having a hard time, that is the time to speak out and more actively directing the course. When the students have proved that they know the preliminary material and have proved that they can work on their own, then it is time to be egalitarian, rather than authoritative. But until that time, I need a totalitarian dictator teaching me algebra equations and outlining theories for me. For now, I need a Kim Jong-I1 of quizzes, a Hitler of homework. I need an Idi Amin Dada of daily readings. Otherwise, we don't get democracy. We get the worst kind of illinformed anarchy. So, professors — tell me something I don't know. I am not just my va Ina U We should be past the point when this is taboo By FELICIA JOY Opinion's Writer "The Vagina Monologues" is a play written by Eve Ensler in the 1990's. This play has been translated into 48 languages and been performed in over 140 countries. And everyone should see it, at least one time. It's a series of monologues performed by women talking about, well, vaginas. The play discusses the power dynamics between men and women and the unfortunate circumstance of women being abused. It addresses issues of rape and domestic violence as well as sexual insecurities and the impossible expectations that are set for women generally. It has been considered a forum for women to come together and be empowered by telling and hearing these stories. It's also an opportunity for men to think about things they usually don't have to think about. Hopefully, the play motivates men to support the cause of eradicating violence and abuse against women. All the monologues are pretty juicy and detailed. Some college campuses ban the play for precisely that reason. But that should make it more of an incentive to see it. If anyone is sitting in the audience when it debuts on our campus and feels very uncomfortable while they're watching it, that's fantastic. It's part of the point, really — the stories shared in "The Vagina Monologues" are not part of what polite society has deemed "comfortable subject matter." Ensler's script covers topics that are disquieting to say the least — but they are based on situations that are real and occur regularly, on situations that must be addressed. However, the show is not above critique. There are some things that bother me about "The Vagina Monologues." However, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from seeing the play. I merely wish to start a preemptive dialogue with you. I want you to talk to your roommates and your classmates and speak up on all of your interweb forums. I want you to go and see the show. I want you to tell me that I'm completely wrong, or entirely correct, or that you've come to a completely different conclusion. For thousands of years, vaginas have been fairly divisive things to think about. That will probably al- ways be the case. My first problem with the play when I saw it the first time was the perpetuation of stereotypes about women in minority groups. In the script, certain monologues have stars next to them. These are the monologues that Ensler instructs need to be performed by women of color. These monologues are some of the more graphic stories about rape and abuse. This could communicate to especially white audiences that the paler your skin, the more likely you are to have bad and intrusive experiences when it comes to sexuality. This is problematic if the script's instructions are heeded when the play is performed. It's counterproductive for Ensler to perpetuate racial stereotypes while trying to address and diminish violence towards women. The two problems are connected in ways that the show addresses poorly. Problem number two is not the discussion of vaginas but the association with the personality of a woman with her genitalia. There is one monologue that states, "I am my vagina, my vagina is me." Learning to love every part of one's body is important. But I would be unwilling to declare that I am my vagina anymore than I am my big toe or my brown eyes. The reduction of women and their souls and personalities to their genitalia would work if women didn't also have brains, which they do. I also feel like this leaves out some women who consider themselves transgender. This community is far too often overlooked, especially on this campus. But my main critique of "The Vagina Monologues" has little to do with the play itself. It's the fact that we still have a need to perform it. In so many ways, the show is outdated. There should have been something written at some point up to now that is better, more inclusive, more interesting. There must have been something written that is committed to the same cause and has the same kind of following. A friend of mine was putting up a flyer for the tryouts on campus. Someone came up to her and said, "Does that really say vagina? That's so offensive, why would you ever put up a sign like that?" I've read about the college girls who participate in the performances of the play on their various campuses nationwide. They talk so much about how saying the word, "vagina" in public in front of hundreds of people is em- powering. I thought that was silly until I began to hear the reaction of the community to the play that happened on our campus. Apparently, people still think it's taboo. The issues the show addresses are applicable in every way PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA "The Vagina Monologues" is not above critique. However, everyone should see it at least once. OPINIONS EDITOR ASST. OPINIONS EDITOR OPINIONS DESIGNER jrboyce@gmail.com felicialartey@gmail.com tjmendenhall@q.com JOHN-ROSS BOYCE FELICIA JOY to our community — a community where one in three women are raped every year. Things change all of the time, but it's hard to argue they get that much better. For this reason, of course, "the show must go on." TARALYN MENDENHALL |