OT Academia (was Re: Dr. Gunn)

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>Unfortunately, my experience is that narrow-mindedness is nearly more
>present
>in academic circles than in average life. At least in France. I personally
>blame it on a conservative education system which tries as much as
>possible to
>wipe out any originality and any individual reflection. You're not
>supposed to
>have your own opinion, but to move with the flow. It cannot help break
>prejudice IMHO.
Even in liberal areas of academia, people still hold to their ideas of how
things should be, and can be surprisingly narrow minded. Here's a good
example:

I had a professor recently who teaches classes relating to issues about
Chicano culture and history. He is constantly telling people of Mexican
descent that they are Chicano, and dislikes the word "Hispanic" because
"It doesn't properly cover the Latino and more specifically the Chicano
culture". But, he constantly uses "Anglo" to refer to all Caucasians, even
if you're say Irish, or even French.No matter how i've tried he tries to
convince me that he's right. He's also convinced that none of the olf
families that settled here in Monterey were Spanish, and that they HAVE to
be Mexicans (even though they were that only politically for a short time
after Mexico took over).

Anyway, it's hard to get him to open his mind. My school is liberal, but
you'd be surprised at how much people can be closed minded if things don't
fit their vision of how things are/should be.


__________________________
Communication is not just words, communication is...architecture
because of course it is quite obvious that  the house that would be built
without that desire, that desire to communicate, would not look as your
house does today.