Mias

I missed this phlog, but I feel the need to post one anyway.  We all have biases, different tastes, different likes and dislikes, different things that fit our fancy, whatever you may want to call them.  I have a bias against needles, horror flicks, rap music, certain genres of books, specific dog breeds (not a fan of the ankle biters), don’t particularly care for snakes (but I can deal with them), a huge bias against the color pink, certain foods make me cringe…  The list goes on and on.  These are rather insignificant biases to most people, but to me, they make me who I am.  Going with the snake thing, I don’t particularly like snakes, but I can push that dislike far enough aside to do my job if I have to work with one.  This is what I think matters the most.  Yes, we all have biases.  That’s just a fact of life.  It’s how we act upon and deal with our biases that matters.

I was brought up to not associate myself with certain things.  I have found that throughout my life, many of these things are widespread.  I encountered many of these things in college, and still meet them in my work.  One thing I can say that I have a bias against is drug use.  I wouldn’t say I dislike people who decide that this is something they want to do.  It makes me sad because I see it as a waste of funds and good brainpower that would be useful elsewhere.  To me, a lot of the people I have encountered that decide to partake in these activities are looking to fill a void (and this is just my opinion).  So therefore I feel that they should try to find something more beneficial to them instead of spending x amount of time high and unable to function to their full capacity.  But who am I to judge why they are doing it, what they are trying to remedy, etc?  This is where the idea of how you deal with your opinion is important.

I encounter people who currently, have, and probably will use drugs.  Now, I could either (A) find out that someone uses drugs, be disgusted, irritated, and let it control my whole mind frame concerning the person, or I can (B) put my emotional bias aside and realize that I have no control over that and look at what I do have control over.  Made up scenario:  Student, who is a known dealer on campus, is in my class.  I am not going to treat him any differently than any of the other students.  That would not be right.  That is not why I teach.  Yes, I would like to influence students through my teaching to understand that there are better and safer ways to spend their time, but I haven’t the slightest idea as to why that student is doing what he is doing. 

I feel that our biases make us individuals.  However, I think we need to respect the fact that we don’t all have the same biases and we don’t necessarily have all the information about others, so we shouldn’t try to force our ideals on them and maybe we should try to see the world from their point of view.