Yuckity-yucks from the freshman writing class (3 of 3): Hierarchy.

After I made a point about how we sideline our political beliefs, concerns w/self-realization, etc., in class in order to talk about lit, I added that that didn't mean that students shouldn't not read without asking those questions, since they were better, fuller, more interesting people for having those other concerns (=a point that gets expressed by the one prof on my committee who was recently an asshole to me w/my diss, which is some sign that she isn't all bad, I try to make myself remember).

Then, to give an example of how people who think more broadly about a text might restrict themselves in class, I noted that how although I pointed out aspects of stereotypical courtier behavior in the Arabian Nights in a recent class discussion, I didn't make any other observations about it.

"And let me tell you," I was like.  "I *hate* hierarchy.  Sure, Scheherazade did the best she could by trying to be entertaining to the king with her stories in order to keep him from killing all the women of the kingdom, and in that environment she had to plead and plead and plead just to get the person with power to simply be human, but aren't we much better off in a country where people make laws and the king would be arrested for that kind of thing?  And where the riches that he made off the backs of the people would be taxed in order to provide social services for abused women?  I was thinking that all that time that we were discussing that section, but *I* never mentioned it."

Then, I added, "Because that would be counterproductive.  People have different values and class is just not the right forum for that.  Heck, you might think, 'Who loves hierarchy?', but some people *love* hierarchy.  It's like, 'Hey, I took the SAT IIs, I got a pat on the head, I ended up at the #5-ranked college in U.S. News & World Reports, hierarchy worked for me!'  You know?", I was like.

Dead silence from the kiddos.