What you see is what you get.
I have heard this phrase in relation to many physical items. I have been told that what my eyes tell my brain is a truth that my brain already understands.
In discussion of an airplane meal that is already packaged, this phrase might refer to the fact that what one sees listed in the in-flight meal brochure is guaranteed to be the meal awaiting the passenger under the heated tinfoil lid. The passenger reads rice pilaf with chicken, dinner roll, fruit crumble, and steamed broccoli, and the passenger has a vision with expectations as to what s/he will find when the cart rolls around. The passenger expects that the broccoli will be soggy and unseasoned that the rice with chicken will be drowning in some sort of barely-flavored sauce, and that the dinner roll be a white round roll with a pat of butter on the side. The passenger assumes that, having flown this airline twice before, the meal will be served with pre-packaged plastic utensils, and that the wine on this international flight will be 'all-you-can-drink'.
And so the passenger may be right.
The meal will arrive in the usual tin-foil-sealed package with the usual bland meal underneath.
However the passenger may be wrong.
The meal may be served in the usual tin-foil-sealed package with perfectly-seasoned chicken and broccoli and with a whole grain triangular roll.
When discussing an in-flight meal, the stakes are generally low. The hostess will not be offended if a passenger does not differentiate the fruit crumble from those before. But when we discuss the tin-foil packaging as representing a person, the stakes quickly grow.
What you see is what you get. This, as discussed Kumaravadivelu (2003), is a slippery slope for TESOL professionals, as well as any teacher or person in any profession. Stereotyping a student, a customer, a client, a coworker, etc., based on past encounters will lead to mistreatment of each person as an individual. A person's looks may or may not describe that person's behaviors and thoughts. While one may pretty safely assume that a student wearing a Lakers jersey and hat is in fact a Lakers fan, one cannot assume that that student will not participate in class discussion just because the last Lakers fan in class never prepared class readings.
The thing that struck me the most, right off the bat (yes, I may be sticking with a sports theme here) in reading Kumaravadivelu this evening, is that I feel completely opposite from the 'Asian' stereotype discussed, which K works to dissolve through each section attacking each of three stereotypes.
I was honored by the presence of three Chinese exchange students in my French class two semesters ago. Each one had a different style and work ethic (just as my white and black students do). One of the girls was constantly raising her hand, was always prepared for class, and was the first to catch errors when I would carelessly make them on the blackboard. She, in contrast to the authority statement in the article, would always ask questions about the material, why do some adjectives come before nouns in French while others follow? why are some nouns feminine and others masculine? I can't say I always had answers for her questions, but in her quest for perfection with the course material, she was very forward about using all the materials at her fingertips. I feel she was an asset to every member of the class.
Another of the exchange students was always prepared, sometimes an entire section in advance, but was not as vocal as her peer. She would always converse with partners and would respond when called-on, but seemed more content to listen to others.
The third Chinese exchange student was always ready to speak and participate when called-on, but was rarely prepared for class. This lead to some communication breakdown, but never a drop in attitude. He was cheerful, when he came to class, and always had a story to tell about some weekend adventure to Chicago.
Three students from the same city in China with three different attitudes in the classroom.
Going into the classroom at the beginning of each semester is a blank slate. Each student bears a tin-foil package which I must see through to understand each individual in order to effectively teach to reach each student and to provide an opportunity to each student to learn. I have taught brothers (during different semesters) who portrayed vastly different levels of motivation to read and participate, I have taught young students and 'non-traditional' students, white students and black students, theater majors and undecideds.
One stereotype I have learned, is that I can usually count on Theater majors to be more willing than other students to act-out dialogues for the class.
The other thing I have learned, is that what you see is not what you get. When it comes to people, we can't expect the pre-packaged comfort of an in-flight dinner, expecting to see the same thing each time when we open the lid, and once we see it, already knowing the taste will be the same as the last time. We have to take each person as a new individual with a completely different background and mingling of cultures which will lead that person to react and to interact in completely different ways with each presented context.