Reference and Education > Ignoring Email Messages is Discourteous and Confusing to the Sender
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Michael Hart
The following email messages (printed in reverse chronological order) offer a quick insight into the deleterious effects associated with educational conditioning of primary teachers, based on my personal observations of ***.
----- Original Message -----
From: M.O.Hart
To: ***
Subject: Last recourse of the desperate.
Dear ***,
It seems that what you believe is of little consequence, the fact is that I have a better degree that you, and I wrote about your behavioural management issues. As a direct result, an educational psychologist carrying out a programme of research, wrote back confirming what I believed to be true.
Well, he got back to me, after I annotated and published your "reply" (below), but I’m not going to tell you what he wrote. It included some interesting phraseology such as "last recourse of the desperate". He is going to use all this in his thesis as "anecdotal evidence based on others' personal observations".
This was written in ink, in the top margin of the following hand delivered reply, "I am writing you a hand reply as the computer would not send this".
Dear Michael
I find your discussion of my supposed cute (awful word) inferiority complex in e-mails an infringement of my privacy. I also wonder if you equate modesty with inferiority. And when I saw the comments by an Ed Psych
I'm afraid my credulity (sig) was seriously undermined. I have had dealings with many Ed. Pcshs (sig) over the years and in that time I only met two who had any connection with reality.
I must also add that I don't know where he found his subjects, I assume it was in the plural, but in his findings I don't recognise any of the hundreds of teachers I have worked with and met over the last thirty years.
The language above is interesting:
1) "The computer would not send this": I'm not overly impressed, surely a case of a poor workwoman blaming her tools in a laughable attempt to refute responsibility.
2) "Cute (awful word)": This is a classic avoidance tactic, to dodge conversation, where given the choice between dealing with a problem and ignoring it, a typical response is to answer any side issue and refuseing to acknowledge the real problem, thus creating the illusion of action.
3) "Infringement of my privacy": Email is not necessarily subject to protection by intellectual property rights. Even if this were not the case (the content in question is not hers to control), there are exceptions that allow use of copyrighted works of others because they are not considered copying. For example, reproduction of others' work where it is felt that some more important social principles would be violated otherwise.
4) "My credulity (sig) was seriously undermined": This is where the real problem arises, a case of "do as I say, not as I do". How many times have we all heard that expression, never a particularly inspiring credo, this doesn't work well. In fact, there's not more than a 50% chance of it ever working.
5) "Teachers I have worked with": An unintelligent argument, obviously another avoidance tactic. By definition, the study relates to retired teachers.
6) "I only met two who had any connection with reality": If you don't like a theory but can't acknowledge that the evidence exists, then the most sensible thing is to provide a plausible alternative explanation. She is attempting to deride the social principle by attacking the credibility of the person conducting the research and its subjects! The lady protests too much, methinks :-).
Dear ***,
I am copying this message to your classicfm address, as it looks like you may have stopped downloading from your blueyonder address and just not told anyone, but I happen to know that this is not the case, you just never acknowledge the emails I send you.
This is most likely a mentality issue, I bet you don't respond to any messages, except when people phone up and ask about them!
I often send you emails I feel you may find interesting or helpful. If you dislike the things I send you, please just ask me to stop sending them, instead of ignoring them in the hope that they’ll just stop. 'Ignoring' email messages is discourteous and confusing to the sender and will not help much.
With kind regards,
Michael Hart
----- Original Message -----
From: M.O.Hart
To: ***
Subject: Power over others for its own sake is by definition evil.
Dear ***,
An educational psychologist (PhD), found the article I published last week about your cute little inferiority complex (An Interesting Letter - A Theosophical Article). He liked my "surrogate school children" analogy saying "the situation between you sounds like a typical response to her displacement".
He is studying behavioural management and is presently conducting research into the deleterious effects associated with educational conditioning in primary teachers.
His research shows that female teachers whom are unable to discard their conditioning after retirement can become maladjusted and self-centered introverts. He believes that the ability to successfully manage teaching related behavioural issues is critical if they are to survive outside the classroom in a socially acceptable way.
His basic premise is a perversion of the teacher-student relationship. In the normal course of events, the teacher's goal is to empower the student, where the effect is to create a bond of affection between them which gives both the power "over" ("for") each other that arises from love.
The research shows that, in a minority of cases involving middle aged female primary teachers, the relationship becomes closer to that of master-slave, where the master does everything possible to keep the slave powerless. (If the slave's power increases, the master's power decreases by an equal factor.)
This seems to be the teachers defence mechanism against becoming attached i.e. A teacher allowing herself to love her children gives them power over her insomuch as the children now have the power to hurt her by growing up and leaving.
If primary teachers are unable to "de-programme" these rude, insensitive and unapproachable behaviours, it will ultimately lead to alienation due to them being 'maladjusted', because they will be unable to interact with "young people" in a socially acceptable way after retirement.
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