Dr. and Mr. Vandertramps

We had a great discussion in my Cultural Studies class today about the moment we began to be critical of our own education.  Critical in a good way, critical as in… “Hey, Columbus wasn’t such a good guy!”  My professor asked if there was a teacher that helped us begin to be critical.  I couldn’t think of one, but I could think of one guy that was pretty critical and that instilled a good dose of skepticism and passed on quite a large mouth (literally and metaphorically)… and that would be Wayne Richards (my dad).  Not that Dad was too political or anything, but he certainly was not buying what anyone was selling.  I remember when I came home spouting off about something in my eighth grade social studies class and Dad told me that it wasn’t true.  “But, Mrs. Miller said it was true!”  “Well, Mrs. Miller is wrong!”  Whoa.  Wait, teachers can be wrong?  I’m not sure if that was “the moment” or anything, but I certainly remembering a little shift happening.  I also remember when I was in an undergraduate history class and we read a few primary sources about how Columbus didn’t even know where he was sailing and how the “Indians” were treated and I thought, Mrs. Miller (different Mrs. Miller, this one third grade) lied to me!  I know, I mean, what are you going to tell a third grader?  That Columbus was a murderer?  Maybe that it was just a little more complicated?  I don’t know, I’d be interested to hear what my sister-in-law and aunt think (both third grade teachers).  Also, maybe the story of Columbus is different now than it was when I was in third grade.  Regardless, when I realized that the nice story I was told was actually quite different, I began to wonder what other “stories” I had been sold for so long and I became more likely to question history and narratives presented to me.

I also remember, and I don’t know when it began (I’m sure it was many small impressions and instances), but I had this sense that as a girl I was not expected to be as smart or strive for certain jobs and I hated that.  When I was in French class in high school, my lovely teacher, Madame Pfund, taught us a mnemonic device to remember the irregular verbs, DR. & MRS. VANDERTRAMP.  My first reaction was, “Well, why does the man always get to be the doctor?”  So, I suggested that we change the mnemonic to DR. & MR. VANDERTRAMPS (an easy fix in my mind).  Madame Pfund smiled and continued using the original mnemonic.  I, however, wrote my own version as often as humanly possible on every piece paper that I could (homework, quiz, notes, etc.). I know this might only mean that I was an obnoxious high school student, but I think Foucault would be just as interested in that “harmless” mnemonic and what exactly created the conditions for its use.  What normalizing discourses produced this handy tool and how did it reproduce those same discourses?  I didn’t have the language then to explain it then, but it was really a recognition and desire not to be forced to see a more powerful male and a less powerful female as a normal couple.  Today, I might even have just left the mnemonic alone and could have assumed that the doctor indeed was a woman.  Or maybe I would have changed it to DRS. VANDERRTRAMMP or how about DR. VANDERRTRAMMPS?  Little did I know that this would be the work I end up doing, studying something (like technology in education) and trying to understand it in a way against what is taken for granted.  What fun it is too.  And the best part?  Someday we will be a Dr. and Mr.  Whoda thunk?