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MIT looks to rename housemasters; Harry Potter-influenced names popular

The Tech reports on efforts to rename the title of people who oversee student residences at MIT:

After speaking with students, Essigmann found that "Head of House" was a popular choice, often due to “affection for Harry Potter and Hogwarts." ...

The survey included "House Parent" (which some students considered infantilizing) and "House Maven" (which some students considered silly and subtly feminine). "Dumbledore" stood out as a popular write-in among responses ..."

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Comments

I wonder if anyone actually felt offended by the term "housemaster" or is there just an unproven theory that "someone may find it offensive".

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But the article does mention that other students thought it was a bit too much "pc".

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Sometimes you just pick the easiest ones.

Reminds me of the Chris Rock skit on SNL where he was "Nat X" offended by pool because it was a sport where "a white ball knocks all the colored balls into the pockets".

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Even in the 1980s, it was already considered dated and ridiculous by people who grew up outside of the Northeast.

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But are you really offended by it? Are there any schools out west that have the word "Latin" after it? Or was that concept too silly and dated too?

"It's a beautiful thing, the Destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well........

-1984

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very few schools out west that offer much in the way of education at all.

I *temporarily* live in the Bay Area and I'm absolutely horrified at the level of stupidity and unwillingness to learn that is socially acceptable out here. It's like everyone went to Participation Trophy Coloring Book School, and graduated with an A+ in Having a Pulse.

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Never saw anyone bat an eye at 'housemaster'. The only thing literally dated/ridiculous at MIT in the 80's was the naming of New House and then Next House. Rookie programming mistake naming variables that way, even if they're just temp variables.

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and you'll find a zillion titles with names like Modern X. (Control Theory/Optimization/Robotics/Machine Vision/etc).

Some are reprints and some are 4th or 5th editions that began in the 70s.

It's the rookie mistake that keeps on giving.

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"Maven" is "subtly feminine"? That seems odd.

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These are not literature students.

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I mean, this is one of the most common Hebrew words to cross over into English.

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I'll admit that it has a slightly 'female' sound to my ear.

(Although I think the whole 'house master' brouhaha is so much narrishkeit.)

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Adorable!

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You mean MIT has a lot of nerds now?

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The ScHOLA2RS House is “a scholastic initiative to groom, nurture, and train the next generation of leaders to address grand challenges in society through the promotion of academic success in undergraduate programs at the University of Connecticut and in competitive graduate programs.”

Which is University speak for plans to have a segregated dorm for blacks only at
the University of Connecticut.

Housemaster is an innocuous word which means exactly what you think it means.

That gobbledygook paragraph above means exactly the opposite of what you think it means. Welcome to 2016.

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If not, I don't see the point.

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We are going to censor ourselves into a bubble wrapped "safe space" where we can all enjoy our unicorns and puppy dog days. Unless of course if puppy, dog, unicorns or bubble wrap make you uncomfortable.

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You insensitive clod!

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MIT still has fencing and competitive shooting teams ON CAMPUS.

Who would have thought that the nerds would be the ones still offering adventurous sports when all the other universities in the area gave them due to safety concerns and politically correct bullying,

By the time the whiners are done the only game left on campus will be bean bag.

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this elimination of the term "Master" everything from MIT should make some campus sexual health presentations quite the laugh riot.

"It is against University policy to head-of-house-turbate when your roommate is asleep."

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I chuckled when I learned that the top ranking person at Walnut Hill School is The Head. I guessed that Headmaster was not appropriate since The Head was a woman and Head Mistress probably would not go over well. Nevertheless the title Head (not Head of ..., just Head) sounds odd.

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Your teacher summons you to go to the head?

Umm...

To be disciplined.

Umm...

Lawsuit?

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I like it. A title from a children's book for adult children.

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