At 11:41 PM 4/20/99 -0400, Stephen Black wrote:
>Recently I was informed by a student in my child psychology class that
>my use of the term "mental retardation" was offensive. She recommended
>the illness-inducing euphemism "challenged" instead. She was supported
>by others.
My impression is that this is a movement in the US as well, though most of
academia is somewhat resistant to the change. To me, it appears that it is
all based on the notion that we shouldn't "offend" anyone. People are no
longer short, they are vertically challenged. Of couse, some find the use
of the word "challenged" offensive. As much as I agree that we should not
deliberatly offend people, I feel that someone is always going to be
offended no matter what terms I use. For example, should I use the term
"black" or "African-American"? I've had some students who prefer "black"
while others prefer "African-American". Then there's the whole
Hispanic/Latino/Chicano issue that appears every so often. My intention is
never to offend, but I warn my students that some of the material we will
discuss might not sit well with them. I'm sure that others who've been in
academia longer than I could give more input on this.
As for the red ink, I tell my students that it's the paper I'm evaluating
not them. That personally, I think they can do better. I have heard some
arguments against the use of red, but never the cultural issue. And I've
heard support for the color green as Cheryl mentioned. I wouldn't want to
use black because it wouldn't stand out enough for minor corrections (e.g.
commas). For now, I'll stick with red... if they don't like it, I can just
grade the paper and not put any marks on it at all... let them guess what
their grade was and what they need to change. (Okay, maybe a little
extreme...)
- Marc
G. Marc Turner, MEd
Department of Psychology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
