Keeping opinions to yourself
All anyone can talk about in the media is the Jussie Smollett case. I'll let them do that. I wouldn't say anything that has already been said before.
I liked Charles Barkley's take on it. "American, don't commit a crime with a check." My son tweeted that he is the hero we need now.
Last night at 10 I got an email from a faculty member. Two of her online students were escalating an argument about race and culture on the discussion board. Let's just say one of them should have kept her opinion about other races to herself.
One benefit of working for a state organization is that it reminds me to be very careful on social media and that I don't have absolute freedom of speech (though I'm a free speech advocate, free expression is never absolute). I especially don't when it comes to student relations.
My point is that those restrictions are good training for the rest of my life. As a novelist I think in particulars and stories and love examples, but I can't use my friends and family as rhetorical examples and illustrations--or my students or my colleagues, really, unless I am very, very vague. Neither can I just rant and spout off on Twitter (which I find a cesspool anyway) or Facebook.
So when I hold myself back, I remind myself my opinion is not all that important anyway and the world can do without it 99.9999999% of the time.
I liked Charles Barkley's take on it. "American, don't commit a crime with a check." My son tweeted that he is the hero we need now.
Last night at 10 I got an email from a faculty member. Two of her online students were escalating an argument about race and culture on the discussion board. Let's just say one of them should have kept her opinion about other races to herself.
One benefit of working for a state organization is that it reminds me to be very careful on social media and that I don't have absolute freedom of speech (though I'm a free speech advocate, free expression is never absolute). I especially don't when it comes to student relations.
My point is that those restrictions are good training for the rest of my life. As a novelist I think in particulars and stories and love examples, but I can't use my friends and family as rhetorical examples and illustrations--or my students or my colleagues, really, unless I am very, very vague. Neither can I just rant and spout off on Twitter (which I find a cesspool anyway) or Facebook.
So when I hold myself back, I remind myself my opinion is not all that important anyway and the world can do without it 99.9999999% of the time.
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