No--you never can escape agenda as it's everywhere. Even my grandmother has an agenda. BUT my agenda can be to complicate the agendas of everyone else by throwing opposing viewpoints into the mix and giving my students opportunities to adopt stances they would never otherwise consider, even if it is only for five minutes. If they come away with an awareness of agenda, of author manipulation, they're going to be able to think critically about the information around them. So, yes--I'm still sticking with the tour guide approach.
Having said that, choosing the essays that they'll be reading for the final was somewhat problematic for this tour guide. I don't know about all of you, but this is the first time I've even worried about my own ideology being glaringly apparent. I've been sifting through the articles again today, trying to decide which ones reveal too much of my own ideology or maybe those that make me want to scream. (I really don't want to read 20 essays on something that makes me crazy, although I found a great New Yorker article on credit card companies that would be crazy fun.)
And speaking of crazy fun...I spent all day at the library yesterday with the intent of writing my bib essay. Hah. I set up camp on the second floor in the back corner where nobody would find me, but the crazies were out in force and I, apparently, attract them. (Does this sound familiar, Tamar?) An old man sat across from me at 12 p.m., fell asleep, and snored with his mouth aimed at the ceiling for THREE HOURS. I don't think he has any tonsils left. Then there was the boy who answered his phone and carried on an hour-long shouted conversation about lawn aeration and proper lawn equipment--all the while pacing back and forth through the periodicals. I looked up once to see a girl crawling through the shelves with a clipboard, watching me. It was one of my students who hasn't come to class for three weeks--she works in the library, and was practicing evasive maneuvers. I caught her anyway. By far my favorite, though, was the pair of boys who came late in the afternoon and sat right around the corner. One described for the other--in graphic detail--the surgery he'd just had to remove the tissue growth on his eye. It was disgusting, and I was a captive audience. By the end of the day I was praying for someone to come read a phone book out loud, slowly and with emphasis. Oh, yeah. And I decided at 7 p.m. my topic is not going to work after all. It's back to the drawing board...and back to the library.
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