REALLY? Professor Punishes Student for Failing to Use 'Gender-Neutral' Language

Beth Baumann | 4:40 PM on March 29, 2017

Northern Arizona University (NAU), my alma mater, has come under fire and for good reason. English professor Dr. Anne Scott docked points from a student for using “mankind” instead of a “gender-neutral alternative.”

Basically, because the word “man” was in the compound, the student was being docked points.

Scott explained her reasoning to the student in an email:

I would be negligent, as a professor who is running a class about the human condition and the assumptions we make about being “human,” if I did not also raise this issue of gendered language and ask my students to respect the need for gender-neutral language. The words we use matter very much, or else teachers would not be making an issue of this at all, and the MLA would not be making recommendations for gender-neutral language at the national level.

I will respect your choice to leave your diction choices “as is” and to make whatever political and linguistic statement you want to make by doing so. By the same token, I will still need to subtract a point because your choice will not be made in the letter or spirit of this particular class, which is all about having you and other students looking beneath your assumptions and understanding that “mankind” does not mean “all people” to all people. It positively does not.

And guess what? People across the country weren’t happy about her point-docking and the reasoning behind it.

@NAU Dr. Anne Scott deducting points for a student using "Mankind"? Really?? #NAU Mankind has always been "Mankind." Even in the moon!

— JimDuBois (@JimDuBois1) March 29, 2017