In the Basement of the Ivory Tower Reading Response

• ·         In my eyes, the reading is about how while going back to college looks and sounds great in theory, everyone is not cut out for it. It is a hard realization for both student and teacher to have deal with. While teachers want to help any and every way they can it is impossible to help someone that has putting up a “..wall of defeat and hopelessness and humiliation, the wall that is an impenetrable barrier to learning.”
  ·         The author had several valid points when it comes to come to Ms. L not being ready for this course. He recommends additional help, he tries to tell her gently that she is under qualified for the course by using the word ‘deficit’ and by trying to guide her in the right direction without breaking his moral code or the integrity of the school. While Ms. K might resemble some students I don’t believe she resembles returning students as a whole. What Professor X hasn’t mentioned is that there are prerequisites that a student must pass to be able to take a course like this. Mrs. K shouldn’t have been allowed to enter a class at that level and Professor X should have found a way to tell her without breaking her spirits and making her feel inferior.
  ·         I completely disagree with this paper. While in this situation it does make sense that Mrs. K failed the class, I hate to think that teacher think my about my fellow classmates and I like this. While we aren’t all perfect students (if we were we would be at Harvard) we try out hardest, seek out help, and work until it is perfect. I think I’m taking this essay to personally but I hate to think that from the beginning a teacher didn’t believe in me and knew I was going to fail.
  ·         “Their job in the paper, as I explained it, was to take my arm and introduce me as a stranger to scholars A,B and C, who stood on one side of the issue, and to scholars D,E, and F, who were firmly on the other- as though they were hosting a party.” I chose this quote because it give me a clearer understanding of what we will be doing in the future for this class. Plus I like the idea of a dinner party with scholars sitting on opposite sides of the table arguing while eating a steak and you and your professor siting at the head of the table and watch.