Word: kleine
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...fear that she may be rationalizing away her discomfort, though, still weighs on Klein. "I guess I've decided that I have the right to be happy, that in my great desire to wish happiness to the rest of the world, I have to do it in a way that allows me some kind of self-fulfillment," she says. "But you always get into a trap, because self-fulfillment and social conscience don't necessarily work together. Sometimes things can be extremely comfortable for you, and it means you're not really doing anything for anybody else...
...Klein is left a feminist leftist in a university, and a field, peopled mainly with more conservative men. There are advantages to the role--her course, among the very few that focus on the political left in America, draw many of the students she wants to reach. "I really feel the pressure of communicating to a lot of people what humanist politics are all about, without the rhetoric that turns so many people off," she explains...
...have a captive audience, and hence a responsibility not to impose yourself beyond a certain point. I try to challenge people's assumptions that make them very comfortable. All of that is very political," Klein says. "But not directly," she adds. "I will not say, 'I want you here at 2 p.m. for the following event, arms folded...
Dealing with students, though, provokes one of the thornier philosophical conflicts for Klein, who remembers with fondness her politics-centered years at college. Going to school in a politically turbulent era was "definitely a plus," she insists. "It disrupts classroom learning, but the education one gets from experience and the challenge of having to address an issue on the spot without the luxury of sitting down and thinking are worth it. In some ways, it is a very forced research projects...
Many junior faculty at Harvard and elsewhere succumb to the same pressures as Klein's students, in search not of grades but of the elusive academic grail, tenure. Klein insists it's not a trap she will let herself fall into; ask her about her chances for tenure, and she will reply: "Zero. I don't think I could take any other kind of perspective on it. My way of coping with this place is to really work on developing the very best record that I possibly can so that when my tenure decision comes up I will be able...