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Creating an other?
What does it mean when someone says "you're creating an other"?
During debates, my teaher almost always finds a way to say "you guys are creating an other", or sometimes when she says something, a few students will say something along the lines of "uh oh, you're creating an other."
An example of when she said it to me...
We have to do movie talks and book talks in class sometimes. She was letting us pick our movies and I mentioned doing The Ringer [about a guy who pretends to have a mental handicap in order to be in the special olympics to win money in a bet...]
Anyway, she said I would probably end up "creating an other".
It drives me crazy not knowing its exact meaning. Yes, I've googled the phrase. Yes, I've used Urban Dictionary. No, I have not found anything. Yes, I've asked her [my teacher], and she said she has already explained it before.
Now I'm relying on YOU, the people of Advicenators, to help me keep my sanity and learn what exactly 'creating an other' means.
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Approach your teacher in a different way. When a teacher withholds an answer it's not usually a refusal to explain or a desire to be spiteful, it's likely just her saying "I've used my brain enough, now go use your own brain!"
So got back to her and say "I don't think I understand this phrase THIS IS WHAT I THINK IT MEANS. Am I right? Where am I getting confused?"
Instead of asking a teacher to spoon-feed you an answer, present your own answer or solution, and ask for their guidance and clarification.
Learning, as a young adult, isn't just about repetition, it's about dialogue and truly understanding a concept.
To truly learn, to dialogue about something, and to understand a concept, you need to pull it apart and examine it and be able to explain it in your own words. Memorizing the ‘exact meaning’ as you called it, in simply insufficient at this stage in your education.
Don’t worry so much about knowing it’s ‘exact meaning’. Many phrases have more then one meaning or use.
And just because a phrase cannot be 'googled' doesn't mean it doesn't exist or is ‘made up’. There are lots of brilliant ideas/concepts/performances/phrases ect. that have not made their way online yet. Certainly not ever teaching tool or answer will be online.
So go back over your notes and consider what the phrase “Create an other” could mean in the context of your class work. I’m not even in your class, but I could make an educated guess based on my knowledge of debate and the meaning of those words.
My educated guess would be that ‘creating an other’ would be creating an issue, or argument or discussion point that is different or ‘an other’ then the discussion you originally stated you were going to have. To use your example: Perhaps your assignment was to talk about the artistic merit of a movie, but in choosing a book with such large social issue (ie, lying and mental handicaps) there was a high risk that you would appeal instead to people’s emotions on the subject or address the moral issues, rather then what the teacher had asked you speak on.
Go back through your notes. Seriously. Come up with a possible, or three possible meanings for this phrase. Submit them to your teacher and ask for her help and clarification.
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You know what, I'm 48 years old and I'm not sure what she's talking about, there are multiple answers for that. She is a teacher and she is a poor one, what a lame excuse for not telling you what she means by something that is clearly a made up phrase, (and you can tell her I told you so). You can tell her where to find me too. Taking such a high brow attitude to a student is absolutely inexcusable behavior. If she doesn't want to be repeating herself, tell her to get the hell out of teaching.
(Better yet, print this whole message and give it to her.)
Get out of teaching MS., if you are not willing to teach.
Second reply:
Your defense of her is admirable, but misplaced. A teacher teaches, that is what they do. I come from a family of teachers and any teacher that will not answer a question put to them honestly is not a teacher. Read my column, count how many times I repeat myself, then tell me she's an awesome teacher. Teaching is about repetition and reaching people, not pushing them away and making them feel stupid.
I know you can't see this now, but you will. Many teachers teach, because they never grew up themselves. They can't give up the school age mentality and they are addicted to it. They become teachers, because they want to continue acting out their childhood. The thing about it is, they finally get to be the center of attention in school, maybe they always were and don't want to give that up.
Her statement to you wreaks of this, like a stuck up little school girl keeping her secrets and saying, "I'm better then you are." She needs to come back to earth and talk so that everyone can understand what she says, not the select few who know her secret code.
I really mean it, give her a copy of this, I dare you, I want to show you her reaction to this. Watch her attack and call me names, for that is what she knows, how to make people feel small, not lift them up with knowledge.
Follow up,
I appreciate the extra thought you are obviously giving my feed back and I know it was not answering your question and I would have preferred you not treat it as such. I am hard on those who teach and have no tolerance for those who don't understand what they do. The average person remembers only about 10% of what they are taught in any given sitting. If this is below your tolerance as a teacher, you shouldn't teach, because all you will end up doing is discouraging great minds instead of building them. Please remind your teacher of this.
I hope you will carry these words with you into your future in building minds, it is the most important thing you can do in life, or the worst thing you can do. It's yours to choose, do it wisely.
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