It makes such a difference

I teach both required courses and elective courses. Last night was one of the electives, Intro to GLBT Studies. Students who take this course are actually interested in the topic unlike the students who take my other courses, Composition 1 or Tech Writing. Those students are compelled to take these because the courses are required for their degrees.

Last night, students engaged right away, had things to say, offered answers/solutions/insights to me and to *each other* in a way I infrequently get in my required courses. Last night students felt free to ask questions for which they *really* wanted to know answers:

For example, as we began our course with a discussion of vocabulary and definitions: "My husband's coworker used to be a man and had the surgery and now is a woman. Is she a transsexual or transgender?"

My answer (a paraphrase from memory): "You've brought up a really good issue that has to do with the meanings of words, categories, definitions. Things we think we all know -- like what 'woman' is or means -- aren't really so simple when we're talking about human beings who don't quite fit into our preconceived notions about a binary system. Some folks might call this person a transgender person because she's moved from the gender of 'man' to the gender of 'woman.' Some people might call her 'transsexual' because she's altered her body's sexual parts to be in line with 'woman.' But this person herself might not want either category or label; she might just want to be known as a 'woman,' plain and simple, because she's worked hard to achieve that status!"

I went on to talk more about the premises that undergird our understandings of words, concepts, ideas, and how these premises need to be revealed in order to understand what we're talking about. The mere fact that I brought up the word "premises" made two of my students think that their Logic course would be related to this GLBT course: how great is that! Students making connections across disciplines!

What a good night of conversation and learning with interesting, interested people.