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Peter Maguire's avatar

“Trigger warnings” made me stop teaching. It is impossible to teach about genocide and war crimes without exposing students to horrific and eye opening material? I feel sorry for today’s college students. When I entered Bard College in 1984, the drinking age was 18, the bookstore sold rolling papers and there were no “speech codes,” “microaggressions,” Title IX star chamber courts, much less “trigger warnings.” I was educated at Bard, not coddled, pandered to, or indoctrinated. The most important parts of my undergraduate education were the tiny classes and full-contact exchanges with intense and intimidating professors. It was impossible to hide in the smoke-filled seminar rooms because we sat around tables. While all of my teachers cared about my education, they did not care about my ego. Back then, students were not treated like customers, and if you complained to administrators they laughed in your face. Instead of inflating me with fraudulent and flatulent “self-esteem,” they hammered me on a Socratic anvil. Over the past two decades, many academics and intellectuals have embraced the lamb’s freedom, and their students have paid the greatest price. Their timid perceptions of comfort and safety are now higher priorities than their education. Colleges and universities should not be self-esteem builders where “student success” is guaranteed. I am thankful that my teachers made me earn my success, because it is meritless if mandated.

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Eve Matheson's avatar

Couldn't agree with you more--particularly within a classroom setting. The point is learning not swaddling!!! True learning is often uncomfortable.

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Peter Maguire's avatar

My comment was stolen from an essay about my beloved teacher Mary McCarthy

https://petermaguire.substack.com/p/mary-mccarthy-and-macroaggressions

Eve, please read her essay "The Man in The Brooks Brothers Shirt" (Partisan Review 1941) and her book The Group. Mary kicked my ass and held me to a higher standard like all great teachers.

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Eve Matheson's avatar

I absolutely will!!! I look forward to reading your essay and hers!

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Michelle Martin's avatar

A few years back I read Pattie Boyd’s memoir, Wonderful Tonight, and it was SO good! She is such an interesting person and I also love getting all the behind the scenes of some famous musicians. Highly recommend!

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Eve Matheson's avatar

Ooo must check that out!!! The muse’s perspective!

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Spencer's avatar

I’m With The Band is another great rock star muse biography! Pam Des Barres was a big influence on the character Pennie Lane in Almost Famous!

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Mason Currey's avatar

Thanks for the shout-out! So glad you enjoyed the Clarice Lispector piece. Sounds like I need to read An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures!

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Eve Matheson's avatar

Absolutely!!!! It’s a real winner.

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Spencer's avatar

Layla, Wonderful Tonight, and Something--Pattie Boyd was quite the muse. Thank goodness my best friend is not Eric Clapton.

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Eve Matheson's avatar

❤️‍🔥

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Kathryn Matheson's avatar

What a magnificent post! It brightened this rainy day. There are so many things that pleased me in it that I can’t list them all without rewriting the post itself! You are a beautiful soul.

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Eve Matheson's avatar

<3<3

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Rob Stephenson's avatar

Thanks so much for the shout out Eve! Delightfully nerdy, that could be my tagline..I can't imagine what it must be like to move today, hopefully that dog has an extra umbrella for you. Good luck!

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Eve Matheson's avatar

Thank you, Rob!! I love your work :)

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Martha's avatar

Good luck with the move today! That dead bird is absolutely stunning, it looks like it just peacefully passed away in its sleep? That’s how I’d like to imagine it’s death anyway!

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Eve Matheson's avatar

Unfortunately I think a big glass window may have been to blame 😢 thanks, Martha!!

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