N. Frank New Faculty Orientation 2006-07

N. Frank New Faculty Orientation 2006-07

Along with many of my colleagues, I teach English 203, which is a required course for every AUB student. In an average semester, the English Instructors teach four courses, and from these four courses we have approximately one hundred students. As you might imagine, interacting with one hundred eighteen to twenty year olds, produces many stories—ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime.

This story contains elements of both—the ridiculous and the sublime. However, the story does have a happy, "Hollywood-type ending." As the first day of classes approach, I hope this story will cast a positive light on teaching at AUB.

Last spring, I was teaching English 203. For this class we use reading anthology called The McGraw Hill Reader. In this book there is an essay, entitled "Arab World," written by Edward T. Hall. All I will say about this text is that it was written in 1966, well before many of us were even born, and it is a cultural anthropologists' attempt to explain Arab behavior to a Western audience. The author uses seven themes, such as "behavior in public", and "concepts of privacy" to explain differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

Naturally, the students have a lot to say about this text. Their comments range from gut-level reactions--"Miss, this is a horrible text"—to more sophisticated answers about the dangers of stereotyping and the need to build bridges across cultures. Noticing that the students were overflowing with ideas and comments, I decided to create an experimental assignment. In designing this assignment I hoped to accomplish two objectives:

1.  Give their students a forum for discussing their ideas in professional and scholarly manner.

2.  Channel some of this negative energy into something more positive.

Hence, I ask the students to write a letter to the Editor of The McGraw Hill Reader explaining why this reading selection was inappropriate for a contemporary college textbook used in numerous American universities.

Clearly, such an assignment requires a lot of guidance and directions. Thus, when I handed out my essay prompt that was a half-page in length, the students were horrified. "Miss, your essay question is longer than our papers will be!" "Don’t worry," I said, "Let's just read this out loud" to make sure we understand the assignment.

Of course some of the directions were as follows:

"You need to support all your points with concrete, specific evidence. You need to quote directly from the Edward. T. Hall's text, I expect you to explain how this text fits in to contemporary media portrayals of the Middle East. You need to suggest an alternative text that better reflects this culture. This should not be a rant." And on and on.

The students left to work on their essays. And I was left for two weeks wondering what thoughts were being pounded into keyboards across the campus.

The essays came in. After reading some of them, I could see my assignment collapsing. Failure was imminent, I told myself. My directions had been ignored, the students' thoughts were not focused, and clearly some essays were written hours or possibly minutes before class.

At worst some of the essays contained direct, personal attacks on Edward T. Hall

At best, in place of concrete evidence some of the students simply invited the editor and author to come visit Lebanon "see for yourself what the culture is really about."

My only redeeming hope was that this was only a first draft. So, I got some candy and a box of tissues and braced myself for the one-on-one conferences in my offices. I was a broken record that week: "Yes, you really do need to quote from the text. Yes, examples will help. No, personal attacks will not get you too far." And on and on.

A few tears and several bags of candy later the final drafts came in. It was a success! The students had produced convincing, well-supported arguments, presented in a very professional and respectful manner. And so it was a happy ending! But, I thought, after all this work how can we not send these letters?

I have never had a more quiet classroom than on the day that I suggested to students that we send their letters. For once, there were no cell phones ringing, no side conversations, and no papers rattling. It was just pure silence and twenty-eight pairs of eyes staring at me. Their reactions were divided between "Miss, the editor's a professor who has written lots of books. He is not going to want to hear from a bunch of 18 year olds." To "Miss, do you really think he is going read all these essays? He is busy guy. They will just sit on his desk."

"Well, let's just try. What do we have to lose?" I told them. So, after continually bothering the students to bring in a fresh copy of their essays, writing a cover note explaining the context and nature of the assignment, which the students gleefully reviewed. (It is fun to use the red pen on your teacher's writing.) I bundled up and mailed the letters. It was at the end of the semester, right before I left for summer vacation.

Several weeks later, far from AUB both in mind a body, I received the following e-mail:

Dear Ms. Frank:

Thank you for your letter and the provocative, well-written essays by your students. You have many talented writers, well-versed in critical thinking and argumentative discourse, and most convincing in the case they lodge against Edward T. Hall's essay.

Later this year, the English editors at McGraw-Hill and I will begin to plan for a tenth edition of The McGraw-Hill Reader. Based on your students' collective response, I will recommend that we replace the Hall essay with a more current, culturally sensitive essay on Arab (or Arab-American) identity. Quite possibly I will be able to incorporate one of the selections recommended by your students. In this connection, I was unable to access the Chaney essay from the Al Jadid website that several students suggested as a suitable replacement; please transmit a copy electronically if this is possible.

Please extend my gratitude to your students. I enjoyed their thoughtful responses to a creative and clearly successful assignment.

Sincerely,

Gil Muller

Professor of English, CUNY

So, that is the happy ending: A nice letter from the editor, and more importantly, joyful responses from the students. And as one of my very intelligent students wrote in response to the news: "It is possible that pen could still be mightier than the sword."

I hope from this story you can catch a glimmer of some of the challenges and rewards of teaching AUB students. As Dr. King mentioned, some of the challenges include motivating the students, fostering critical thinking skills, helping them present their ideas in an appropriate manner. Some of the rewards include watching them improve and engage themselves in an assignment, learning how to partake in academic discourse, and possibly making a positive contribution to society.