In my Hispanic Civ class, we discussed the horrors visited by the Spanish conquistadors on the indigenous populations. We read texts, talked, did review. During the next class meeting I asked the students to talk about the consequences of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. That was when I discovered that all my students had retained from the discussion was that “the conquerors murdered unborn babies.”
“What unborn babies?” I asked.
“Well, didn’t they kill pregnant women?” was the response.
Clarissa's Blog 
*Sigh*
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Zombie Cortez is offended! These kids know nothing of his work. He ate so many more brains than that….
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Yes, somebody did a lot of brain-eating here! 🙂 🙂
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I am disgusted. So disgusted that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from asking whether they remember about *born babies* and women themselves. They are like parrots here, telling points from their church without using 1 brain cell of compassion or common sense. Sorry, may be I judge them too hard, even if I doubt it, but I felt so angry & disgusted that decided to share.
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I second el. I probably would not have said those things, because my teaching persona is a little different that my usual persona, but her thoughts are exactly what I would have felt.
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I wouldn’t have said “I am disgusted” in class either, or anything not political and liable to hurt me, yes? But I would’ve asked on *born babies* and women in “a politically correct way”.
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Make it a talking point/discussion subject? Hell yes.
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I’m not prepared to get into the unborn babies discussion with the students. A colleague once got into that, and there was a huge scandal. And that was in the very enlightened city of Montreal. Here, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen.
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I wanted to say this before you answered, but now especially: I didn’t want to make it sound as any kind of implied criticism. At all.
I was surprised you didn’t describe having any emotional reaction in the post.
A colleague once got into that, and there was a huge scandal.
Do you know what he said that caused it?
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That’s a good catch. 🙂 When I teach, I get into this state where I’m outside of any emotional response to anything except the texts we deal with. This is what allows me always to be patient, receptive, unflappable, and kind towards students.
There was this newscaster who was reporting on a hurricane in his studio. In the middle of his report, a gust of hurricane reached the building of his TV studio. The lights went out and something crashed right next to him. The newscaster, though, never stopped, or even took a breath. He continued reporting in the same calm and measured way, telling people not to worry and that everything was fine in the dark studio. That’s professionalism. This is how I am when I teach, too.
“Do you know what he said that caused it?”
-Yes, he was talking about the tragedies caused by clandestine, unsafe, illegal abortions in Latin American countries, and indicated that any ban on abortions never “saved lives.” It only led to women dying from unsafe abortions. And that was, apparently, too much for the students. (Some of them.)
Pardon my ignorance, how are things with this issue in Israel?
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Check this wiki entry from the beginning until “Judaism on abortion” part.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Israel
Fortunately, private clinics aren’t attacked yet here and one can find their ads in Russian free newspapers among other places. Besides, not in a private clinic abortion costs money too, so most women shouldn’t get hurt. It’s not like huge US with entire states without abortion services, Israel is a very small country and physically reaching a provider isn’t a problem imo.
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Good! In the US, the situation is, indeed, getting dire. Fanatics abound. It is mind-boggling that the same folks who screech about being pro-life, celebrate death penalty and scream “Let them die” about the uninsured.
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Fell free to share! I was floored, too. We were talking about the destruction of entire civilizations here and this is what they retain?
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