98 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
98 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal.
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Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by
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High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co.,
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80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain
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Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to
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reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein
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without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or
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abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original
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author.!
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IN GRANDMOTHER'S LAP
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by The Spinster Aunt
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After last month's excellent article [from Earthrite BBS --
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Ed.] on the duties, responsibilities and qualifications of a High
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Priest/High Priestess, let's talk about those of a teacher.
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In the wonderful ideal world, where all women are wise and
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beautiful, all men strong and sensitive, and all children are
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uniformly adorable, teachers would all be stable, secure,
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ethical, reasonable, and open to their students. In those
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circumstances, they would be fully aware of the powers and
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drawbacks of their position.
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The primary power/drawback is "expert power." Sociologists
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describe this as the power derived from the powerful one's
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perceived expertise, knowledge, and understanding, which are
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superior to and not shared by the one attributing the power. At
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its worst, this can lead to "white coat syndrome", where experi-
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menters in white coats were able to persuade naive subjects to
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push a button which supposedly gave a stronger and stronger
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electric shock to another experimental subject; even after the
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other subject's voice was heard groaning and pleading for mercy.
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Not just a horror story--it really happened.
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At best, the teacher's expert power leads to a desire on the
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student's part to develop into another such powerful person, who
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knows what to do and how to do it, and that desire makes students
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study hard and really work on their development. But even then,
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this will induce feelings of admiration and awe in the student
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which can make him/her easy prey for an unscrupulous instructor
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-- think of Aleister Crowley.
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This leads to two guidelines. For the teacher, don't
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borrow money from your students unless you're prepared to really
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sweat to pay it all back. Don't attempt to get sexy with them
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unless it's a serious, love-affair, honorable situation --
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they're really vulnerable to you, and the karma of sexual abuse
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is heavy stuff. There are bound to be some "taking advantage"
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situations that aren't, really...many students will want to bake
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you cakes, help paint your roof, or clean out your garage, and it
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can improve their self-esteem and give them a lot of good
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feelings to let them. But by and large, if you wouldn't want to
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see your little brother or sister doing it for Bhagwan Shree
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Rajneesh, don't let your student do it for you.
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For the student, you need to be aware that a lot of your
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feelings of "Gee you're wonderful to know all that" are for the
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knowledge, not the person. Admiration sex can be a big thrill,
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but not if you later find out it's a thrill shared by all your
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fellow students. If you wouldn't do a particular favor for a
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friend/neighbor/sibling, why would you consider doing it for your
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teacher? The worst that will happen if you say "No, I don't
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think I want to do that", is that the teacher will fire you --
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and if this person is unwilling to work with you unless you "come
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across" in some way their ethics may not be what you want to
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emulate for your, anlf.
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It's also necessary to look at the fact that all this can
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work in reverse. Teachers need their students in order to keep
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on being teachers. Students also can borrow money/insist on
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sex/demand favors, and their very vulnerability makes them
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powerful. The teacher can fall into going along with whatever
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the students want without noticing it, and thus do a disservice
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to both him/herself and the student.
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Most of these issues never arise between students and
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teachers in the real world, but the potential is there, and both
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parties need to be aware and to take responsibility for their own
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choices. They also need not to judge hastily, and that means
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saying "Hey, I may have mis-heard you, but I feel like you're
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trying to ........ and I'm not comfortable with that." Bet you
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that four times out of five the response will be "No, I wasn't"
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or "I was, but it's not a big deal, let's drop it.", and you can
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go on from there. Honesty about feelings is highly recommended,
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and fosters trust and good feelings in both teachers and
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students.
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Feedback is rewarding, people. Did this article annoy
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you/enchant you/bore you? Do you have questions, concerns,
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suggestions, topics you'd like addressed? Please send your
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comments, etc to Grandmother's Lap c/o R.M.P.J. -- it gets
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lonely communicating with the void.
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Blessed Be,
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The Spinster Aunt
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.......from RMPJ, Oct. '86
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