As a follow up:
There have been a couple incidents with said teacher trying to assert authority and win debates over, like, actually listening to her students.
Today, we had a quiz on 1984. When, during the allotted study time beforehand, students started to go over the material with each other, the teacher told everyone that this was a silent study time; after the quiz, she expanded on this, mentioning a story she had told earlier in the year.
It was a story of how a student who had helped their friend on a quiz was rejected by a college the friend was accepted to; the moral from this that she repeated throughout the year was “Your peers are your enemies. You should not help them, because that just actively hurts you in college admissions. Also, let’s be real, helping them in this way before the quiz, telling them the answers, is cheating. So, don’t help your fellow students; it’s cheating, and it only hurts you.”
I pointed out that a former teacher of mine had lamented grading on a curve strictly because it makes them see their fellow students as competitors instead of friends and allies, and that her argument proved too much; under that, helping other students study in any way counte—she interrupted me, saying that I was equivocating between helping and cheating; when I tried to explain myself she shut me down, saying “You don’t want to argue with me about this.” (in an earlier conversation, she attributed her aptitude in this to doing debate.)
Another relevant time was when, when at one point I misspoke during a debate, repeatedly said “But you said X!” in response to me.
“I don’t believe that, either you misheard me or I misspoke.”
“You said X!”
“You are purposefully misinterpreting my words.”
“I’m just saying back what you said!”
“You aren’t being at all charitable.”
“I’m just saying what you said!”
The point here is that, repeatedly, she’s only cared about asserting authority rather than listening or being a charitable debate partner. It’s not fun to be effectively shamed in front of the class without a valid chance to defend myself, and I already feel that impacting my decisions now; if I cared more about what the people in my classes thought, I’d never have spoken up in the first place. Maybe that’s why nobody else does.
(there’s also a level here of “i have no idea how to handle this situation/dynamic”, and if you think I did something wrong either in the events described in these posts or by posting this, feel free to tell me i’m an idiot and that I should’ve done something different)
As a follow up: There have been a couple incidents with said teacher trying to assert authority and win debates over, like, actually listening to her students. Today, we had a quiz on 1984. When, during the allotted study time beforehand, students started to go over the material with each other, the teacher told everyone that this was a silent study time; after the quiz, she expanded on this, mentioning a story she had told earlier in the year. It was a story of how a student who had helped their friend on a quiz was rejected by a college the friend was accepted to; the moral from this that she repeated throughout the year was “Your peers are your enemies. You should not help them, because that just actively hurts you in college admissions. Also, let’s be real, helping them in this way before the quiz, telling them the answers, is cheating. So, don’t help your fellow students; it’s cheating, and it only hurts you.” I pointed out that a former teacher of mine had lamented grading on a curve strictly because it makes them see their fellow students as competitors instead of friends and allies, and that her argument proved too much; under that, helping other students study in any way counte—she interrupted me, saying that I was equivocating between helping and cheating; when I tried to explain myself she shut me down, saying “You don’t want to argue with me about this.” (in an earlier conversation, she attributed her aptitude in this to doing debate.)
Another relevant time was when, when at one point I misspoke during a debate, repeatedly said “But you said X!” in response to me. “I don’t believe that, either you misheard me or I misspoke.” “You said X!” “You are purposefully misinterpreting my words.” “I’m just saying back what you said!” “You aren’t being at all charitable.” “I’m just saying what you said!”
The point here is that, repeatedly, she’s only cared about asserting authority rather than listening or being a charitable debate partner. It’s not fun to be effectively shamed in front of the class without a valid chance to defend myself, and I already feel that impacting my decisions now; if I cared more about what the people in my classes thought, I’d never have spoken up in the first place. Maybe that’s why nobody else does.
(there’s also a level here of “i have no idea how to handle this situation/dynamic”, and if you think I did something wrong either in the events described in these posts or by posting this, feel free to tell me i’m an idiot and that I should’ve done something different)