LY #18: The F Word and I

So a couple of days ago I ran into a student from last spring's Rhetoric of Film class and he asked how my summer had been.

"It was f***ing awesome!" I said.

And then I immediately apologized. "I'm so sorry.  I've forgotten to take off my summer mouth!"

He said, "It doesn't bother me.  And he's French," he said, pointing to his friend.

I don't use the f-word (or any other obscenities or profanities) in my classes and rarely use it during faculty meetings.  It is, however, one of my favorite adjective/noun/adverb/verbs.  (It's so versatile!)  I do, however, tell my students in public speaking that there is a certain word, not "um", that I have to remove from my vocabulary every fall and let them imagine what it is.

I learned sometime around 2002 that my ability to control my use of the word led to my first adult teaching job.    In a visit to Pocatello, I met up with a one-time fellow student,  Jackie Czerepinski, currently a senior lecturer in the Communication and Rhetoric Department (a department that didn't exist in my day).   She told me that in 1983, when I wanted to change my graduate assistantship from technical theatre to teaching, the long time chair of the department, Bruce Loebs, sat her down in private and asked a pertinent question.  And as she told me the story I could picture Dr. Loebs in his perpetual cardigan sitting and peering over his steepled fingers.

 "Jackie, tell me.  Will Karen say 'f***' in the classroom?" he asked.

She, of course, assured him that I was a professional and could choose language appropriate to my audience.  And thus, reassured, he hired me to teach my first public speaking class.  That semester at Idaho State helped get me the teaching assistantship at the U of U.

And the rest is herstory.