Garelick laments, “Although virtually all of my female students expect to pursue careers, this is where their enlightenment seems to end. For them, the reassuring power of a college degree to unlock professional doors seems to have rendered ‘feminism’ obsolete. In other words, the fires of feminism may have burned down to the ashes of careerism.”
To revive these fires, Garelick says that she has looked “to introduce contemporary politics into classroom discussions.” Alas, such efforts “meet with blank stares. Even this past year, as our country began a war, I encountered mostly silence when I broached the topic of Iraq, a mix of paralysis and anxiety, plus some disgruntlement over my deviating from the syllabus.” Rather than consider that, perhaps, students whose parents are paying $37,900 annually for them to attend Connecticut College enroll in classes at the school to learn academic subjects rather than to have professors lead discussions of contemporary politics, Garelick admits that, “each year, frankly, I feel increasingly compelled to look beyond my syllabuses and to devote myself more to teaching ‘wakeful’ political literacy.” She goes on to criticize the Bush administration’s policies toward overtime pay and the war in Iraq, and to laud Howard Dean’s reliance on the internet in his campaign—all perfectly reasonable political positions. But unclear is either their connection to French and Italian or Garelick’s professional training to “teach” on such issues. And, of course, every minute spent in class on “wakeful political literacy” is one minute less spent on the academic subjects Garelick’s course is supposed to cover.
At least, to her credit, Garelick doesn’t hide her teaching goals.