Job Discussion Forums

[ls650]

Prue Jarvis, I hope you found an answer to your question buried in all that...

[Cdaniels]

Aramas: Edited to make less irritating! I was looking forward to rebuttle. Instead I'll clarify my own position on the matter. I think everyone should feel free to share opinions about "illicit drug" policies. But, in that case, one should probably not share English terminology or vocabulary which indulges the stoner students. The teachers that allow discussion of dissenting opinions have the onus on them for not encouraging or promoting drug use.
Aramas, have you been reading "The Emperor's New Clothes" in Amsterdam? There's a theory circulating that the petroleum industry has conspired to keep mj illegal so greener alternatives to oil and plastics aren't developed. Interesting theory that also provides an all-too-convenient rationalization for smoking! BTW Barbara Bush, whatever her faults, has a very nice clothing sense that more people should imitate, not less!

[Justin Trullinger]

To each their own- but I try to use the classroom to teach English primarily, and cultural education issues related to the situations my students are likely to be in secondarily. I do NOT feel that the classroom is the place for preaching or futhering a moral agenda.

As such, I would be more than willing to clarify drug vocabulary that students have learned from other sources. (Movies, music, whatever) I would also be willing to dedicate homework assignments to research, particularly if students have questions that I don't know the answer to. (Given the constant changes of drug culture vocabulary, and the fact that it isn't really my scene, this happens pretty often.)

I also frequently dedicate a class or two to cultural differences in attitudes towards drugs. This is particularly important for students going abroad, as Ecuadorian attitudes to drugs are extremely conservative (many students have told me that they would support the death penalty for ANY drug offence) while the attitudes in countries they are heading for are often more liberal. It is NOT encouraging drug use to want students heading to the UK to know that marijuana use is seen is a very different light there than here.

Regards,
Justin

[Aramas]

lol - I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories. The real world is quite bizarre enough, thankyou

Personally I consider conservatism to be the ultimate perversion, so I would find it difficult to comply with a management directive to disseminate 'policy', be it conservative, government or fringe. I'm perfectly willing to help students look at any issue and decide for themselves, but the only possible 'balanced view' is one that encompasses all possible perspectives. The forces of conservatism demand that only their own views are valid, and that's something that I refuse to be complicit in.

It's a sad fact of life that the course of everything in the world is determined by greedy, ambitious b*stards who are hell bent on stuffing their own pockets while lording it over as many people as possible. Capitalism is the last gasp of the robber barons, and I hope I live long enough to experience its successor.

WARNING: I'm in the middle of a 2000 word essay on moral relativism and the absurdity of existence, drawing on Neitzsche, Camus, Nagel and de Beauvoir, so if my posts are overly turgid and convoluted, then perhaps you can understand why On the upside, I actually get distinctions for writing overly emotive and opinionated tripe like this

Oh, and what's a 'buttle'? Is that like a sashay, or more of a prance? I'm assuming that one 'rebuttles' when one doesn't buttle correctly the first time and has to try again

[JimDunlop2]

I think you got some good answers.

In addition, if you wish to avoid the whole moral/ethical debate but don't want to get into the topic, just explain to them that "drug terminology" does not fall into the scope of the course's curriculum and that you will have a hard enough time covering the materials you NEED to cover without taking detours to learn things that they will not be able to use practically.... (right?!?!) Of course this only works if you have a well-established curriculum and don't use the class only as free-conversation.

[spidey]

What do YOU say when students ask for drug terminology?...

"Spark it up!!"

S

[Gregor]

Actually, Justin brings up a whole different (though related) issue:

[Sweetsee]

What do YOU say when students ask for drug terminology?...

"Don't hide it, divide it!!"




Nice one Gregor, like reading you.

Ditto Spidey, word.

[Cdaniels]

I guess I spelt rebuttal wrong. Just for that, here's a list to make it clear.
Fran�ais (French)
preuve contraire, r�futation

Deutsch (German)
n. - Widerlegung

Italiano (Italian)
diniego, confutazione

Portugu�s (Portuguese)
n. - refuta��o (f)

Русский (Russian)
опровержение

Espa�ol (Spanish)
n. - impugnaci�n, refutaci�n

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - motbevisande

中国话 (Simplified Chinese)
n. - 辩驳, 举反证

中國話 (Traditional Chinese)
n. - 辯駁, 舉反證

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 反駁, 反論, 反証

العربيه (Arabic)
‏

[chechevitsa]

I believe the book is the emperor wears no clothes, just so nobody gets confused...

my teaching experience has yet to happen, but I agree with Gregor that you shouldn't withhold knowledge simply because it's not directly contributing to learning knowledge.

however, I can understand not feeling like you can toe the party line, as it were, and say "drugs are bad, mmkay?" when you believe the real picture is more complex than that, even if you believe it's what your employers and the students' parents would like to hear. or feeling like you can glorify drugs to help interested students rationalise their own drug use.

in the end, though, it seems like it would be appropriate if not ideal to allow a discussion of drug terminology to blossom into a cross-cultural survey including the major "moral" positions. that is, if you choose to present the moral aspects, try to present both: for example, that addiction is dangerous (which they've probably already heard in their native language), and that drug use carries associated health risks even without addiction, but also that not all drug use leads to addiction and that the prevalence of problematic drug use is highly exaggerated (sure, we all know that heroin junkies infest most downtown cores, but did you know that in BC, Canada in I think 2000, "hard" illegal drug use including opiates, hallucinogens (except cannabis), and stimulants accounted for only around 5% of all treatment of addictions?), and ultimately open the students' minds to the realities behind both sides.