Know your value and your values

“Don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem/Baby girl, respect is just a minimum.” - Lauryn Hill (photo credit: John Margolies)

You may have heard that a University of Georgia professor resigned on the spot when one of his students refused to wear a mask properly.

The professor, Irwin Bernstein, was a “retiree-rehire,” who had officially retired in 2011 but has been teaching on a part-time basis.

I can’t blame him for deciding, at 88 years old, that life is too short to argue with an undergraduate about masks. And I certainly can’t blame him for attempting to enforce a mask mandate in his classroom due to the ongoing threat of death.

People can argue endlessly about the mask-vs-no-mask debate and whether there should be mandates or not. I’ll skip that. What’s interesting to me is that Dr. Bernstein skipped that debate, too. He didn’t kick the non-mask-wearer out of his class. He was the one who opted out. He walked away. He quit.

We live in a society where people stay with jobs that they don’t like because they’ve been told it will look bad on their resume if they leave too soon. They are afraid of getting fired even though they dread going in to work. It’s refreshing when someone says, “enough is enough” and stands up for what they believe in.

The rest of us can follow that example, and we don’t even need to wait until our ninth decade of life. We simply need to know our own value—what we have to offer—and our values—what we stand for. When we are firm on these things, we have the clarity to make important decisions in the moment.

The student who refused to wear her mask over her nose was, presumably, acting according to her own values. That’s fine, as long as one is willing to deal with the consequences. She did not have as much power in the situation as she may have thought. Dr. Bernstein called her bluff, and the University System of Georgia’s as well.

A friend recently realized that instead of frantically putting on makeup in the car on the way to an event, she could just skip makeup. She could choose not to participate in that particular societal expectation. When a person starts thinking that way, the thrill is addictive. What else might she say no to?

Granted, being able to opt out of something, especially a professional obligation, is a privilege. Presumably, Dr. Bernstein no longer needs to earn an income or a glowing recommendation, so he is in the rare position of being able to walk out on the job without turning his life upside down. However, there are plenty of us who believe that we can’t make a choice even when we can. We compromise our values and don’t recognize our power. We do what’s convenient or comfortable instead of what’s right.

Those of us who do have the privilege of standing up for justice—or even just for ourselves—ought to do so. As we develop agency and expand our understanding of our choices, we might be starting important conversations or helping to create more freedom and choice for others.

It stinks that there are students who have had their educations disrupted by this incident. There are a lot of things that stink about the pandemic, and neither you nor I nor Dr. Bernstein is responsible. We each get to decide how we want to contribute to the world we’re in. When you’re in a situation in which you feel trapped because no one can do quite what you do, you’ve got it backward. You’re worth far more than you realize. If you’re being taken for granted, you’re the one who can begin to change that.