I would like to share a note a recently received about another listserve. Maybe there is a lesson here that we can all benefit from:
"Frankly, I don't understand why those simplistic rants are on this listserve. If you like them, there is a website devoted to them that can be visited ANYTIME one wants...why post it here too unless no one wants to go to the website? I mean, the phony insight in these posts makes that guy from Florida's posts seem inspired!"
She goes on:
"The thoughts are far from original. The content of the posts are terribly derivitive and predictable. Rather than insightful, they utilize a very transparent style similar to the one employed by politicians who use children to push their simplistic agendas. They are merely slightly veiled excuses for an ego to pretend it is noble (and important) by taking up the mantle of 'what about the children?'...I mean 'what about the students?' I can see that everyday on Montel!
She finishes up:
"And, God forbid that anyone ever want to explore, debate or disagree with the posts! The author responds with the exact pretentious defensiveness he accusses everyone else of! Such responses make it clear that he does not subscribe to the ideals he writes about. The anger and smug self-righteousness hints at a zealot more than a deep thinker. As a subscriber, I feel as though I am being used as an audience for a writer who can't, on his own, get one for himself. I really wish the person would stop posting these canned rants and stop wasting my time."
This letter gives us all an opportunity to think about the REAL reasons why we participate in this list. While the author, a non-traditional female professional (proud of her 3.85 GPA at her Northeastern University alma matter, by the way), will remain anonymous, her thoughts challenge us to reflect on the true needs we seek to fulfill when we force unsolicited and vaguely relevant personal views on an audience who actually signed on for other reasons, especially if we are so inflexible that we cannot tolerate constructive debate of those opinions...in or out of the classroom.
Make it a reflective day,
RJ
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