Tales from the Classroom IV: Profanity
Posted on October 17, 2003 @ 8:50 pm
After one of my students employed a rather crude sexual euphemism during our discussion of presidential popularity earlier today (guess which president we were talking about!), it seems somewhat apropos to reflect on just how commonplace profanity has become in the classroom these days.
I should begin by saying that, unlike some professors, I never use profanity when I’m teaching. On the one hand, I think it sets the wrong tone for mature, scholarly discussion, and on the other, it’s just not my style. Nevertheless, my students are oftentimes more than willing to pick up the slack. For instance, it’s typical to hear students compare a political stance–say, opposition to keeping the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance–to bovine (or, if they’re feeling particularly bold, equine) excrement. I’ve even had a few students drop the dreaded f-bomb in the middle of a discussion–some by accident and others completely unapologetically. Sure, it’s completely inappropriate for students to use profanity in the classroom, but I’m at least willing to give them the benefit of the doubt as long as they don’t make a habit of it. After all, we frequently discuss controversial issues in class–abortion, First Amendment rights, affirmative action, and so forth–and tempers tend to run high about such topics, causing students to blurt out an opinion without quite thinking through what they’re about to say prior to saying it.
What seems a little less justifiable, however, is the fact that profanity also has a way of creeping its way into their written assignments. For instance, I can recall reading about America “kicking Iraq’s ass” in the first Gulf War on several occasions. As I said, I’m willing to give students the benefit of the doubt when they accidentally let a curse word slip in the middle of a heated political debate, but when they’re sitting at home in front of their computers and working on a formal essay, I would like to think they could rein in their passions a bit more effectively. Apparently, it’s just not that simple.
For now, I think I’ll just continue telling myself that my students feel so strongly about the study of political science that they can’t keep their overpowering emotions bottled up inside. Yeah, that’s the ticket…
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Tales from the Classroom |
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F for Foul Language!
wait…ass is a swear word? but its in the bible. i say anything in the bible cant be a swear word. so…hell, ass, cock, damn, etc.
and for that matter, anything that george carlin has ever said cant be a swear word. seeing as he is christ reborn and all.
sound fair?
personally i think people are far too sensitive about which words in the english language are just too taboo to speak. a word is a word, whether it be inconsequencial, make you laugh, make you smile, or make you break things.
Hey, I’m a big fan of biblical swearing myself. Still, you just don’t see too many newspapers or textbooks that refer to one country kicking another’s ass in a war. When it shows up in a student’s paper, it’s not so much a matter of whether it’s profane or not (for me at least), but rather the informality of the language. After all, part of my job is to help students learn to be better writers–and, by extension, better critical thinkers. In my book, that requires a bit more than saying the U.S. kicked Iraq’s ass in the Gulf War.
mayhaps, but personally i think the whole world should get a tad less formal. i.e. take the stick out of its ass. i am an audio engineer, which means i record rock bands and work with musicians. being professional in my field means garnering the respect of clients. i.e. wearing ratty t-shirt and swearing like a sailor.
different strokes man
i pray for the day when i hear a newsreader say something like “the packers kicked fuckin’ ass last night” or “3 cops beat the living shit out of a pedestrian downtown”
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