Advertisement
Advertisement
A participation grade incentivizes engaging over quietly studying for tests. My students have to address larger issues in order to get their grades. Naturally these issues become more urgent to them as they talk about them. They allow themselves to be passionate. Their engagement with one another makes them more passionate. If their grades had not depended on it, they might have gotten through class by doing their own work and keeping out of one another's business. I teach Asian American Studies at the University of Houston, where many students commute, where most students work and are goal-oriented, and where it is very diverse.There is an advantage to keeping our heads down. There is an advantage to working hard, ignoring other people's problems, fighting only for our own rights. But it's the same advantage that makes Asian Americans white supremacy's one success.
Advertisement