Avoiding Confrontation

Today I was talking with one of my classes about the assignment I had just given, which entails the students having to go out into the community and find an example of visual rhetoric. An idea I offered, to give the students a starting place, is the new signs just put up around my home, signs with a bicycle and the message "Share the Road." This prompted one student to say, "The city should take down all those signs." Some other students chimed in, saying cyclists shouldn't be allowed on the streets. Another student then said, "They should have to use the sidewalk." This exchange took all of maybe 15 seconds, and to say the least, I was stunned at the vehemence with which the words were spoken. In my cycling endorphin-induced, euphoric world, everyone loves cycling, and by default, cyclers.

I didn't comment after the students' proclamations. Rather, I continued giving examples, none of which elicited the kind of response the Share the Road signs did. And now, ever since, I've been thinking about how naive I am when it comes to the motorist/cycler relationship. I'm wondering, too, if my students' responses are indicative in any way of the larger population. I certainly hope not. Perhaps their response is merely immaturity raising its goofy little head.

The real worry I have about their rancor towards cyclists is now I'm figuring I'll get fifteen papers about the signs, all asserting the signs should be removed and cyclers should be restricted to the sidewalks. I might have to make this topic off limits in order to preserve my sanity.

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