Just when you thought the red ink had cleared...
What I find alarming about all of this is the largely unchallenged
assumption that the student's objection is somehow more justified if it is
"cultural". I strongly object to that notion.
I don't really care one way or another about the use of red ink, but you
can replace that with less trivial issues and my points will stand. (also
note that I'm using a generic "you" below - not saying any particular
TIPSter made any of these arguments).
If one student says "I don't think you should use red ink in grading papers
because it offends me personally" and another says "I don't think you should
use green ink in grading papers because it offends members of my culture", I
see no basis for deciding what color of ink to use (even if my principle
were to avoid giving offense at all costs).
At best I can see being concerned in the cultural instance that there might
be more students similarly offended (because they're "from the same
culture"), but that leads directly to an ethic of "please the majority, and
forget the rest".
You might object that I'm setting up a false dilemma, and that what I
_should_ do is use different colors of ink for each student, based on what
does or does not offend that student. Fine - if you mean that I should
identify each student's individual preferences and act on those. But if you
mean that I should use different colors of ink solely to avoid offending
_cultural_ groups, then I'm left having to say something like "Ok, Sue is
African-American, so she gets ___ ink, and Rachel is of Italian descent, so
she gets ____ ink, and Sandy is of Irish descent, so she gets ____ colored
ink...". So do I spend day one of class putting students into ethnic
categories, and writing those categories next to their names in my grade
book?
I don't think I have to go any further with this - it's pretty obvious that
attending to "cultural issues" instead of individual ones leads directly to
ugly racist behavior. I don't mind trying to avoid offending students -
that's common decency. But don't ask me to distinguish cultural preferences
instead of individual preferences.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
