Would you go to class naked?

[marylander1940]

A visual arts professor at University of California, San Diego, has come under fire this week for an assignment that requires students to be naked in front of the class.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrOCWaWQyEU

 

For his class “Performing the Self,” Associate Professor Ricardo Dominguez makes students perform what he calls a “nude/naked gesture,” which is basically a short performance in the nude.

 

This week, the mother of one student in the class spoke out against the assignment. “It bothers me; I’m not sending her to school for this,” the mother, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told local 10News on Friday. “To blanketly say you must be naked in order to pass my class… It makes me sick to my stomach.”

 

Jacquelyn Bulkowski, a current student in Dominguez’s class, supports the assignment. “As strange as it might seem to other people, nudity is an artistic expression of self that could not be more classic,” she tells Yahoo Parenting. “My professor is amazing and very kind and as a current student and I can say he has two, if not three, times explained the assignment. Everyone is on an equal playing field of being naked in a pitch black room sitting in a circle. Each of us are supposed to choose a part of us that is more ‘us’ than the rest of us (big toe, shoulder, whatever) and hold up a light to it (candle or flashlight, whatever you choose) and explain why. No one’s genitalia will be on display unless that is what they choose. If someone can’t bear the thought they are given an assignment to emotionally nude themselves.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/mom-sick-over-daughters-controversial-class-118791379642.html

 

More:

 

http://fox59.com/2015/05/11/get-naked-or-fail-professor-requires-students-to-take-final-in-the-nude/

[marylander1940]

[bobchitown]

In my nightmares? Hundreds of times.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I'm guessing that my choice would depend on the size of the class. If this was one of my smaller classes in college, and everyone had the assignment and I knew everyone, I wouldn't think twice about it. However, I might think twice about taking that class if it was in a lecture hall with 200 other students.

[anotherjohnindupont]

No

[+ WmClarke]

This is college. Why is a parent complaining?! Damn helicopter parents--cut the umbilical cord, let your children grow up, and let the student(s) complain if it bothers them.

[Guy Fawkes]

Yes.

[OneFinger]

This has been a hot topic in San Diego this week. On the local news they indicated this has been done for years. The room has low lighting and the professor is also nude.

 

This requirement for the final is disclosed prior to signing up for the class.

 

This is not something I would do. But, considering the type of class this is, I don't find the assignment inappropriate. And I totally agree with WmClarke that helicopter parents are the real problem.

[McLeanspider]

I'm guessing that my choice would depend on the size of the class. If this was one of my smaller classes in college, and everyone had the assignment and I knew everyone, I wouldn't think twice about it. However, I might think twice about taking that class if it was in a lecture hall with 200 other students.

 

I might get a hard on if someone else I like is there and also naked.

[tanman4u]

If I looked like one of the guys in the first pic above, yea I'd go to class nude...when I wasn't at my stripper or escort job.

[whipped guy]

Funny! When I was in school I don't think that I would have had the guts to do it, much less even take the course for that matter. However, we all develop over time and I have become more comfortable with being more adventurous. Consequently, today I would have no qualms about doing it.

[+ sync]

Keeping my body covered is my community service.

[Guest Starbuck]

One of the recurring dreams of my life is showing up at school in nothing but my little boy briefs and being sent to the principal's office because of it. Now you want me to take those off too!?!?

[bigvalboy]

This is college. Why is a parent complaining?! Damn helicopter parents--cut the umbilical cord, let your children grow up, and let the student(s) complain if it bothers them.

 

 

"Helicopter parents"...I've never heard before. So very true!!

[Epigonos]

I definitely don't find the assignment immoral or indecent, rather simply silly. I am certain the prof could find another less controversial assignment to accomplish the same thing.

Now as to helicopter parents complaining I have always believe that he "who pays the piper calls the tune". If parents are paying for kids eduction I don't find their involvement inappropriate.

[Guest AnthonyDriller]

Cool! I would take the class if he were teaching here at UNF.

[+ FreshFluff]

I'm guessing that my choice would depend on the size of the class. If this was one of my smaller classes in college, and everyone had the assignment and I knew everyone, I wouldn't think twice about it. However, I might think twice about taking that class if it was in a lecture hall with 200 other students.

 

No way would I ever make students do something like that nor would I get naked in front of them myself. Who knows how many abuse survivors are being triggered by this kind of exercise? If you want to show people how it feels to be vulnerable, there are myriad other ways to do it. It will be interesting to see if the Regents stand behind this prof.

 

However, it's unclear why the student is complaining now? This should have been on the syllabus and discussed in detail on the first day. If it was, she should have dropped the class then. If it wasn't, this prof is in big trouble.

[Kenny]

If I signed up for a class in which the description laid that out as a class requirement, like writing a paper or taking a final exam, of course I would. Otherwise, I would be dumb to choose the class. That's on me, not the professor (or Mommy).

[BabyBoomer]

Cool! I would take the class if he were teaching here at UNF.

 

I would too, but only if I could stand next to you during the final.

 

~ Boomer ~

[Kenny]

Cool! I would take the class if he were teaching here at UNF.

If you got naked, the class would grind to an immediate halt. ;-)

[nate_sf]

There's got to me more to the story. It says the mother told local news that her daughter was not aware of the assignment before last week’s class, though Dominguez tells Yahoo Parenting the assignment was presented to students at the beginning of the course.

 

My bet would be that the daughter knew all along and was on board, and then somehow the mother recently found out and got angry so the daughter backtracked.

 

It's an art class for crying out loud! The assignment is unconventional but it sounds like an unconventional class, which is probably what the students are looking for when they signed up. Perhaps mama doesn't like that her daughter is wanting to be a free spirit.

 

Personally I think there is way too much baggage around nakedness, so having an assignment that considers nakedness something other than dirty or shameful is interesting to me, but definitely not for everyone. Like whipped guy I don't think I'd have had the guts to do it when I was an undergrad, but would be fine with it now.

[whipped guy]

There's got to me more to the story. It says the mother told local news that her daughter was not aware of the assignment before last week’s class, though Dominguez tells Yahoo Parenting the assignment was presented to students at the beginning of the course.

 

My bet would be that the daughter knew all along and was on board, and then somehow the mother recently found out and got angry so the daughter backtracked.

 

It's an art class for crying out loud! The assignment is unconventional but it sounds like an unconventional class, which is probably what the students are looking for when they signed up. Perhaps mama doesn't like that her daughter is wanting to be a free spirit.

 

Personally I think there is way too much baggage around nakedness, so having an assignment that considers nakedness something other than dirty or shameful is interesting to me, but definitely not for everyone. Like whipped guy I don't think I'd have had the guts to do it when I was an undergrad, but would be fine with it now.

Funny Nate, when I an an undergrad I took so many high powered courses such as organic chemistry to name but one, that I was always looking for a "gut" course, something that would assure you an A with minimal effort. One course was "Big Game Mammals of North America". All the other easy courses originated in the Art Department. Fortunately I was and am still interested in art and architecture.

 

I would bet the farm that the word "on the street" was that if you got naked you were guaranteed an A. For some reason art professors always had some deal going. One canceled class for the entire semester. The catch was that you had to write a book. I wrote extensively on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. I made a deal with another professor that ensured me an A. All I had to do was write a paper on the Temple of Venus and Rome in Rome.

 

In retrospect getting naked would have been much easier!

[+ beethoven]

I wonder how that student reacted when her mother complained. She must be embarrassed as hell. That must have been quite a conversation! The mother isn't taking the course, is she? She's not getting naked, is she? Mind your own business, lady!!