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The Side Entrance to Newcomb Hall at Tulane

May 23rd, 2011

Teaching is the best job ever, and I love it, but after a long semester and in the midst of a multi-move summer, I really am not in the mood to teach summer school night school. But I gotta eat/buy a mattress in Baltimore, so after a long, long day finishing up packing the apartment, I hopped on the bike and pedaled to work. If I have to teach right now, I want to teach this class to these students. I have some hunches as a teacher: classes are better small, and we should probably sit in a circle so we can talk to each other instead of just through me, we will learn by discussion, not by writing down what I write on the board, and the more diverse the students in the class, the better. We all come from somewhere, and that somewhere’s going to affect how we read and what we think is important and the kinds of questions we ask. Too often we talk about diversity like a numbers game that aims to show that we’re interested a least a little bit in equity and maybe doing the right thing. That’s not what diversity in the classroom is for. I am teaching a diverse class right now, in terms of race, gender, age, and national origin, and we are having different and deeper kinds of conversation than I have in the typical mono age/race/class classroom at Tulane because everybody’s bringing different stuff to the table, and everybody benefits from being really, truly, and genuinely challenged. We are just learning better. I snapped this picture of the door to our building as I was leaving after 9:00pm, grateful to be challenged at my job, and grateful for the windless ride that made my ride home its own breeze.