I am writing to inform you that I have recently begun reading your memoirs, The Art of Teaching. Realizing that this news alone does not surprise you overly much, this might: where are all the women? While I expected a teacher with a scholarly background, favorite english texts, political ideas and agendas, what I didn't expect was how far from your scholarly/academic/teaching life I would feel because of my gender.
Perhaps I have just forgotten that at the time you began your career it was in a field dominated by men. At least that's the impression I get from the first 55 pages of your book. Maybe I think too much along family lines, such as where are your 3 children while you are eating breakfast in your cafe and writing poetry? Or it could be a feeling of neglect. Are all your trusted consortists (it's Shakespeare as I'm sure you know - see Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet) male? And these students picking up your children from school, why? Was your career really that important?
Anyway, I just wanted to mention this initial reaction in the hopes that you will redeem yourself somehow in the next half of the book. Who exactly are you writing for? That's obvious you say, for the teacher. For your teachers? For the students you have taught who are becoming teachers? As you answer I see in my mind a vast expanse of women. I have only ever had female english teachers myself.
Please take time to consider my viewpoint. I don't actually expect you to take into account my feelings or reactions, I just wanted to let you know that I felt a bit of an emotional vacuum.
'Til page 160,
Chrliechaz
3 comments:
This is how I felt too! It's still a male-dominated field, but that's not excuse, right??
I'm so glad you identify! I was worried that I was being too bitter or, y'know.
And, my god, man, get a new author photo! Yours looks like a mug shot. And a badly done, poorly lit, mug shot at that. Find somebody who knows how to pose and light a face, and get a new photograph! Never, ever look straight into the camera.
And didn't you have an editor carefully going over the personal details you've revealed? The bit about having students pick up your kids from school is just too ick. Women students--and perhaps especially women students who are mothers like myself--will find that detail at best confusing and at worst abusive (to the students and to the kids). Maybe you and your wife were both having open-heart surgery at the time, but just go pick up your own kids anyway.
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