Students collude in a professor’s self-destruction to protect his authority

Evidence

Absolutely. That’s why “education as the practice of free do m” is a phrase that has always wowed me. Students leave any classroom with information whether the pedagogy has been engaging or not. I remember a class that I took from a professor who was a serious alcoholic. He was a tragic figure, who often came late to the classroom and ram bled on, but there was still something to be had from the material. But it was a horrible experience. We became complicit in his substance abuse each class when we didn’t see it. This example makes me think again about ways we see the body, the “self’ of the professor. Even though he was stumbling around drunk, giving the same lecture he gave last week, we didn’t tell him because we didn’t want to disrupt his authority, his image of himself. We didn’t break through that denial: we were simply complicit. … Complicity often happens because professors and students alike are afraid to challenge, because that would mean more work. Engaged pedagogy is physically exhausting! — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 316

Categorization

• XREF: Student silence upholding professorial authority parallels the colonial and ward-based silences hooks discusses elsewhere in this book, and echoes the ‘education as practice of freedom’ phrase from chapter 4 (Paulo Freire). — connects to: The professor’s authority, not student essentialism, may set classroom dynamics; Learning from below requires mutual ethical responding with a compromised teacher — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 2217; Accountability-driven evaluation forces teachers into fabricated performances that erode their sense of self — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 675 (+2 more)
• STORYSTEM: The image of students quietly enabling a beloved, failing professor’s alcoholism through protective silence could anchor a campus novel’s moral drama.

Broader Connections

• Professors’ fear of losing control blocks any class critique in the classroom #complicates (0.79) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 377
• Learning from below requires mutual ethical responding with a compromised teacher #qualifies (0.78) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2217
• Professors are often more enthralled by classroom power than by enlightenment #complicates (0.76)
• The professor’s authority, not student essentialism, may set classroom dynamics #expands (0.75)
• Accountability-driven evaluation forces teachers into fabricated performances that erode their sense of self #complicates (0.72) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 675