fandomhigh | Canada Is Not That Strange And Other Biases | Wednesday

A new term meant a new class and a new challenge for Fraser. He was fairly confident he would rise to the challenge but new things always brought nerves. He was waiting in the classroom for the students to arrive, fully uniformed and posture perfect.

"Good morning," he greeted them all once everyone had assembled and settled down, "and welcome to Canada Is Not That Strange and Other Biases. For those that don't know me, I am Constable Benton Fraser, a native of Canada, so you can rest assured I am qualified to teach this course."

His posture relaxed and he smiled. "As the title of the course says, this is going to be a class on learning and possibly refuting the many, many biases, myths and urban legends that are a part of our different cultures. And, while I don't know everything about every culture, I am fairly confident in saying all cultures have myths, urban legends or biases."

Of course, teaching this class would probably help him learn about different cultures and Fraser was pleased with that. "The definitions for these words are similar but not entirely true. A myth is typically a traditional story usually concerning a hero or an event without any determinable basis of fact or explanation. A bias is a particular tendency that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question. An urban legend is a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror. The similarities are there but the differences are as well. In this class, we're going to be looking at examples of each of these, talking about them, examining them and then deciding if they have any merit at all. This class will be both silly and serious, confusing and easy. And I hope it's interesting."

With that said, Fraser clasped his hands in front of him. "Of course, the first week is almost always for introductions and I think that's a good idea with some new faces. So please, tell me your name and your age and one myth, bias or urban legend you might want to discuss. Let's get started."

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"About the eating little kids? Almost certainly," Karla said. "I think the broomstick thing was real, though. I would say I was a witch and people would ask if I rode one. They seemed more curious than anything else, but..." She tried to organize her thoughts a bit about why it frustrated her, above and beyond the idea that riding a broomstick seemed like it would be uncomfortable. And kind of silly. "My people have no concept of a broom being anything other than something to sweep the floor with. Having people equate being a witch with something I've never even heard of bothered me, even though I know they didn't mean any harm."

"It's understandable," he said, nodding. "This country has been overrun by representations of witches in the media that we sometimes think are true for everything. That generalization gets us in trouble."

"I didn't mind the teasing as much because it's teasing," Karla said slowly, finally pinning down her feelings. "I think it was more the expectation of what a witch was that frustrated me. Their assumptions of what a witch should be like."

Having realized this, she felt much better about it, actually.

Canada Is Not That Strange And Other Biases | Wednesday | Period 2

Re: Class Activity | Introductions [Canada 09/01]

Re: Class Activity | Introductions [Canada 09/01]

Re: Class Activity | Introductions [Canada 09/01]