teaching in college: 2nd Note to Mike Yates

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

I think that teaching at a community college (even as a tenured professor)
is a lot different from the working conditions that you described. My good
friend Michael Hoover says, if I remember correctly, that in Florida a
state law mandates the *word count* of each community college student's
coursework output. As to teaching as exercise of creativity, traces of it
still remain, but Hoover says that he has to 'teach' a prepackaged TV
course. In general, much more micromanagement of course content, office
hours, minimum enrollment, etc. seems to be the norm in the community
college land. (Maybe you'll discuss all that in the 'debasement' chapter
you mentioned in your post?) I hope Hoover will expand on this.

I agree wholeheartedly with the following statement you wrote:

"As I came to see it, the problem was not that I was in a privileged
position but that most other workers were in unprivileged ones."

The only reason I don't quite agree with you on everything is that workers
who are not paid intellectuals, in my view, don't see us with 'envy and a
lot of hostility.' I'd say that the prevailing working-class view may be
affectionate condescension toward Professors (pronounced with ironic
emphasis) both in the USA and Japan. (Then again, I never had to experience
a conflict with my father over Vietnam.) The reason why I harp on this
matter is that the Right has been putting forward their pseudo-populism
(which has us believe in the existence of 'workers who don't like PC, Pomo,
Multiculti, Literature, etc.' in conflict with the 'Cultural Elite'--except
that the Right doesn't say 'workers'--they say 'taxpayers' or something
like that). Our lefty angst over privilege usually doesn't help the working
class _objectively_ and instead helps the Right by giving them ammunitions
with which to destroy the past gains of the working class: wider access to
higher education. Of course I'm not saying there is no objective difference
between steelworkers or waitresses and college teachers with regard to time
and control over work process. It's just that when we publish our thoughts
on the matter in non-left fora, we ought to be really careful so as not to
help the Right.

Yoshie

P.S. Our lefty angst kills comradely discussion among leftists too, as in
the recent case of Lou, Mark Jones, and Doug.
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