Concealed Carry Essay: Rebuttal from Teacher

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Ok guys.

Got an email from the teacher.

So let's focus on the encounter itself and leave my poorly written, grammatically wrong, weakly cited, C- paper alone for one moment and look at the response. It's alright. Better than I thought.

I like how you used my closing statement back on me, well played.
I never meant that you are paranoid, I meant that people are paranoid and do dumb things when they are scared, like shoot loved ones, i got that statistic from somewhere long ago (like I said, I'm old). Maybe it's changed by now.

I never meant to imply that it was your responsibility to protect people, just that you seem to be implying that if people at Virginia Tech had concealed weapons the situation would have ended differently. What I understand now is that you meant, if the possibility of people having guns was there, then the shooter would have thought twice about going in.
Gunfights are not a duel, what I was trying to say is that he/she is going to squeeze off a few shots before you unholster and put them down. Maybe you are really fast, like you said, I don't have much experience with guns. Maybe you can put him down before he gets you or whoever he was shooting at.

Sorry, I am trying not to turn this into another lecture. You are a smart kid, you have good arguments and logic and you have actually thought about your beliefs unlike some people who just accept what others tell them. That is why your opinion matters to me. It's okay that we disagree, but I want you to understand why I believe what I believe. You may think I am full of ****, but I don't want you to think that I am just spouting off about things I haven't really thought about. Who knows, maybe you still do think that. Not much I can do about it. But I am glad we could talk, that we could discuss things even if ultimatley neither one of us changed our minds. I hope that my letter wasn't the reason you took off from class. That was not my intent. I hope you got some work done on your papers and stuff for other classes.

I think I can call you this now, but be well my friend. It was good having you in class. All the best in the future and I hope you will keep in contact. I might just take you up on you offer to go shooting this summer.
-Rey

(Also, not to be melodramatic, but I would try and stop somebody who came into our class with the intention to shoot one of my students, even if it meant dying. I mean, that's what teachers are supposed to do, isn't it? Maybe it is my naivete, but I think most of us would.)
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I wont give my response until I hear what you guys have to say about this. My response is friendly. :) Especially about the whole "taking him shooting" bit.
 
I would try and stop somebody who came into our class with the intention to shoot one of my students, even if it meant dying.
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What if having the correct tool to stop someone with the intention of shooting one of your students meant you wouldn't have to die?
 
What is your final goal?

A. Convert an anti
B. Be graded on the quality of work (content, not grammar/spelling) rather than being graded on if your opinions match?

If it is A, continue the exchange of ideas.

If it is B grab the following information

It's okay that we disagree, but I want you to understand why I believe what I believe.
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Sir

I am a paying student. I am here to learn, you are being paid to teach me. I am NOT paying to understand your beliefs of any issue beyond english composition. I don't care what your favorite spice girls song is, or your favorite ice cream flavor.

The fact that you gave only a single line detailing where I need to improve, yet were able to invest the time to write 2 pages debating the particular issue I chose to write about causes me to fear you gave me the 85 based on the conflicts of beliefs we have rather than the quality of the paper. Spending 2 pages of grading effort to debate my stance was a waste of time that should have beend directed to proper criticism and instruction of me and my fellow classmates.

I shouldn't be graded on "Why I love Chocolate Ice Cream" based on your prefence for strawberry.

I am sure some of the other writers here like bogie can spruce that up.
 
Akodo,

Right now I don't care about my grade.

Informing this guy is more important. His email is friendly, and I sent a friendly one back to him. Everything's kosher. I even asked if he'd write a letter of recomendation for the University Writing Center for me, as I need one for my application.
 
Ahhh, Politics in the English class...I love it...as an English/Teaching double major I get this too! (Doubly!)

First off, though, I'd realize that he's likely baiting you. He is using emotional responses in hopes that you will use emotional responses, and then he will be able to refute you with opinion.

Like others said facts are the way to go. I haven't read the whole thing but here are some good starting points:

a) crime rate by CHL holders (LOW)
b) crime deterrence (DC vs surrounding area, rising crime rates in England, etc...you laid it out but weakly in my opinion)
c) Constitutional standpoint, backed up by statements from framers
d) ACTUAL tenets of Concealed Campus (I assume this is what it's about?) VS straw man soundbytes or fiction
 
Take the guy to the range. Let him get some experience. Try to make it a fun experience. IOW be his freind, you just might get a convert out of it.
 
I'm kinda disappointed to see how hostile the responses to this teacher have been. To me it seems the guy is trying to debate a point in a very friendly way. Which is why things are less formal. The teacher I think has made it clear by his actions and manner of speaking that he has a current opinion but also has an open mind. He's not going to convince anyone by telling them how ignorant they are. And he is getting a better education by learning to convince someone in a friendly way than he would by having someone correct his spelling.
I think that counts as my .04 (gas prices have gone up ya know)
 
Rey,

Your rebuttal was written very quicky by you, wasn't it? You're a better writer than what you showed me in the rebuttal. Your last email shows it, even. However I wrote what I did about your rebuttal in a thirty-minute craze. Your opinions varied so drastically from mine, and perhaps if I had given you a few citations (or didn't write it while peeved) it would have sounded better. We both fell into that hole.

I wasn't angry at your opinions, but saw flawed arguments that I had to discuss openly with you. The one thing that made me angry about that last paper was the lack of red ink on it. I want you to tear my paper appart and show me how to fix it. I know it's not perfect. I've read over it numerous times now and see that I should have done that before I turned it in. It has typos, poor paragraph structure, and sentences that need revising. Also I needed to cite stronger sources (FBI databases and whatnot). I'm probably going to be working at the university writing center next semester and I want my writing to improve much more before then. That was why I was angry (that, and my grade, which means I was mostly angry at myself). However, your quickly-typed rebuttal to my stance didn't help that much, mind you.

I just hope I have given you some things to think about.

I'd like to think you are my friend. You're a smart guy, don't let anyone tell you different. I don't regret writing a rebuttal to your rebuttal, but I'm sure you don't regret openly sharing your opinions with me. That's good though.

And yes, keep in touch please. I'd like to let you see how firearms work and give you some information about them that maybe you don't have.

-Nick

(It's not melodramatic if it's the right thing)
 
It's okay that we disagree, but I want you to understand why I believe what I believe.
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Prof, ol' buddy, ol' pal...

Consider your statement there - you are talking about "belief." Does this belief rely upon facts and hard evidence, or is it more of a superstitious belief, like many religions? People have told me that they don't believe in guns. Well, I can reach out and touch one, but I have yet to be able to reach out and touch a faery sprite - hence, I don't believe in faeries.

-insert sound of quiet thud...-

"Belief" is a hallmark of "opinion." Open your mind to other concepts.
 
Granted, that "rebuttal" is less than fully professional, but something that I don't think anyone's pointed out yet is that an 85 is far from a serious ding. I teach English at a SEC school (not unlike TAMU) and a student who gets an 85 from me has shown me an awful lot of good stuff. Considering that a 75 is "average" (what the majority people are) an 85 suggests that your prof has judged your work to be well above average. Getting worked up because he doesn't think your essay is exceptional (which is what an A means) strikes me as being a little bit unreasonable. Why is it somehow an insult to "only" be judged above average?
 
I just read most of the thread, and this is a weird situation. It's so unprofessional, and not just in a folksy way, but to the point where I'd question (if I were you) the quality of the education I was receiving. They put guys like this in charge of a class?! Or is he just grading some papers? Either way...yeesh!

Also, there seems to be a strange undercurrent of passive-aggressiveness in your teacher's writing, not to mention how he seems to contradict himself ("big-ass hero" bits vs "I would protect my students" bits). I think the guy ain't quite right.

Also, everyone who is talking about "a lot"..."alright" is a much worse perversion of the English language!!!!
 
When I took my general law class in college (two years ago) we had to do a term paper on an amendment to the constitution- limited to the BoR, 14th, and a few others. I'm the only person in the class that did the 2nd, and I aced it. Something to do with the 11 pages, cites, endnotes, briefs for relevant USSC cases, etc.... but then, this was a general law class, not an English class.
 
You are in School. Write about how the industrial use of paper-clips and the waste that is Alaska's bridge to no-where. Do not write things that are politically polarizing. You are asking to fail if you do.
 
This thread brought back memories of one of my english classes from many years ago. I had a somewhat opposite experience with a teacher. Now mind you, I was in the military at teh time, I was however in an area that allowed me to be in a civilian dress and attire so I had slightly longer hair and I also had facial growth. I was also attneding the local college close to my home town that was about 80 miles from my stationed area so I was about the only full time military guy there, that I knew of.

Anywway, I had an OLD english Prof who didn't like me at all. Every thing I turned in he graded with an Iron pen. Finally, we had to write an argumentative paper on any topic we wanted. I chose to write about how protesters go about changing minds the wrong way and that protesting simply goes to harden the minds of the people they wish to change.

The Professor was very admiant that:"The first sentence has to be the gripper. It's got to make your statement and make the person want to read more!"
So my first statement, first sentence of the first Paragraph was:" I believe GreenPeace activists should be clubbed to death like Baby Seals!" I got my paper back and the grade on it looked like F+. I was so ticked I wanted to beat the old man with my paper and kill him with paper cuts from it. But I took a deep breath and approched him after class so he could explain how I had done so poorly as to get an F+. Prior to that I was getting C's and the occasional B-. He just shrugged his shoulders and asked what I was complaining about, it was an A+ not an F+ and that he didn't know I had it in me.

After that, we sat down and had a long discussion about my political views and from that pint on, my grade greatly im proved. The teacher thought I was a long haired "Hippy", his term not mine, it was the late 80's. Then he foud out I was a conservative American Pie eating flag waver and I got A's from that point on.

Too bad those days are long gone in the college system
 
As someone who went through a similar system, I think what we're seeing here isn't so much about the anti-gun, left-wing nature of the academy, but one of the other serious problems that English departments all across the country are refusing to address.

Your professor is a graduate assistant, which means that he is actually a student working on an advanced degree in English. Generally, such students are granted teaching fellowships to help them defray the cost of their educations and to get some on the job training for the only real career path for folks who get graduate degrees in English, i.e., teacher. The problem, however, is that over the last thirty years or so universities have realized that graduate assistants were really cheap labor--most get payed around 25% of what tenure track faculty make for doing the same job. English is one of the biggest service departments on every campus (everyone who gets a BA or BS at a liberal arts university has to take at least two and probably more like four English courses) so most English departments at research universities like TAMU tend to admit graduate students based on how many sections of 101 and 102 they need to staff rather than how many they can responsibly train and supervise.

Long story short, Valdez was wrong to include his rebuttal, but a large part of what went wrong here is that he most likely has received very little training or supervision from his department. When I was a GA most of what I knew about teaching I'd learned from movies--which is to say I didn't know a single useful thing. Luckily, I think was able to learn a few things in the ten years after graduation. Hopefully Valdez will do the same. Either way Deer Hunter got a solid B for an essay that was less than exceptional. I think, in the end, that should go in the win column. Keep up the good fight and take the guy sooting if you get the chance.

p.s.: JohnMcD348, the English teacher in me has to know--what exactly is American pie ;)
 
George I disagree

You are in School. Write about how the industrial use of paper-clips and the waste that is Alaska's bridge to no-where. Do not write things that are politically polarizing. You are asking to fail if you do.
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Micheal Jordan once mad a remark about all the game winning shots that he had made in his career, as well as the game winning shots he had missed in his career. His point was that if you try and succeed great if you give it your all and still fail, at least you tried.

Public universities are a great place to bring this type of topic up. Think of all the people that might get a chance to read this paper or any other paper like it and maybe get their minds changed.

In case any of you don't remember people who say they think like we do were in control of both congress and the white house yet very little was accomplished. Now peopl who mostly disagree with our opinions are in control of congress and there is a very good chance will have the white house next year.

My point is, we need more people who think like we do. We need to try and convince people everyday that guns are not evil. The more we convince the better off we will be. Some how I don't think we can get that job done by talking about bridges and paperclips, or any other topics. We need to quit being concerned about whether or not we will fail and just do our best trying to get more people to see our point of view. Will we convince all of those we talk to, but I personally guarantee we will not convince any of those we don't talk to.
 
One more thing

I changeg jobs about a year ago, since that time no less than 3 of my coworkers have become gun owners for the first time with hopefully a 4th one coming on Tuesday. 4 isn't alot at the place I work but it is better than none.
 
After that, we sat down and had a long discussion about my political views and from that pint on, my grade greatly im proved. The teacher thought I was a long haired "Hippy", his term not mine, it was the late 80's. Then he foud out I was a conservative American Pie eating flag waver and I got A's from that point on.

Too bad those days are long gone in the college system
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Yes who wouldn't miss dearly the days of students being graded on their political views and chumminess with the teacher more than the quality of their work ;)
 
Awesome job standing up for your beliefs:)

I'm college also and get arguments with my professors all the time.

That part that he said by carrying a gun makes you a hero instead of the cop.... in that court ruling cops are not responsible for your life, or something like that. I can't remember the exact wordage so does anybody else know?
 
21-26 seems to have been on both sides of this and offers good perspective, and I'll echo it. While in grad school, I was trained to teach writing and speech as a GA but wound up teaching more specialized upper-division courses because of my prior teaching experience and familiarity with the university and department. That said, I was really teaching juniors and seniors as a 23 year-old because the communication, rhetoric, and English departments needed help DESPERATELY. Some of my comrades immediately had a knack for teaching, some got it after time, and others never got it--but everyone had to teach something even though few genuinely wanted to. Everyone made mistakes.

Chalk this up as "victory enough". You haven't spoiled any relationships, got a good grade on seemingly average work, and might get to take your teacher shooting. The key is that you correctly juggle your beliefs, your student-teacher relationship, and the long-term, you-crushing necessities of your overall college career (e.g. not screwing yourself by being too stubborn at the wrong time).
 
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