The personal

[Chari Norgard <NorgardC@jade.vic.uh.edu>]

I would be extremely hesitant to encourage my students to write about or
discuss the personal.  Although students do not seem to hesitate to share
extremely personal situations with the class.  

Several semesters ago in a business writing class I teach I had a student
get up and do a required oral presentation on the stages of labor in
childbirth.  She was supposed to do the oral presentation  on her research
paper topic which for her was corporal punishment in the schools.  When she
got up in front of the class and started discussing the stages of labor, all
of us were surprised.  Because it was the end of the semester and because
most students are extremely anxious to stand up in front of an audience and
speak, I decided to let her continue her presentation rather than stopping
her.  Well much to my surprise and horror, about three quarters of the way
through her presentation she walked up to the vcr mounted in the front of
the room and put in a video.  Before I had time to react, the whole class
saw an up close and personal view of this student having her episiotomy.
Needless to say we were all shocked.  I quickly asked her to turn off the
tape and had to do some major damage control.

She had had her first child only 3 months previously and felt that everyone
would want to share in her experience.  So, obviously some students do not
hesitate to share experiences with their classmates.  But, her decision to
not follow the assignment guidelines and her feeling that a business writing
class was an appropriate forum for this type of display, not to mention the
discomfort that her classmates experienced, would keep me from encouraging
personal discussions in writing classes.

Chari Norgard