With this in mind, I went back and reread the teacher in question’s syllabus.
This is not 10th Grade English. This is 11th Grade Lit and Comp. Moreover, looking over the EHS language arts offerings, all English courses offered are college prep - they don’t teach a “just graduate from high school” English course - in ninth grade all students take “9th grade pre-AP English” followed by “10th grade pre-AP English.” The readings in this course match the authors listed in their AP course description. This is AP English, and yes, if you are going to get college credit for an AP American Literature course, you should have passing familiarity with Marxist and feminist lit crit.
(It looks like this particular class is blended - students who aren’t sure if they will take the AP American Lit test possibly take it, as well as those whose AP schedule is full up or need a little less challenge than the regular AP course - but want more challenge and/or test prep than the non-AP course offers)
I strongly doubt UrbanRedneck has ever been at a “liberal rally”. Likely his only experience here is watching Fox News and other alt-right media reports which tell him what is going on from their highly slanted perspective.
Last ‘liberal’ rally I was at, was the March for Science last April. We were chanting virulently anti-Trump slogans like:
*
What do we want? SCIENCE!
When do we want it? AFTER PEER REVIEW!*
Depends on the field. For those sciences which don’t need to put “science” in the name, the only ideology which should be visible in class is the scientific method.
I don’t know why you chose that particular delineation, given how apolitical Computer Science is (that is, at least as apolitical as Physics/Engineering/Chemistry/Math and so on).
Because that joke is how English-speaking people often abbreviate “pure and applied sciences” without needing to explicitly indicate whether Biology (a part of Life Sciences) is included or not (it is), whether Engineering disciplines are (that’s the applied part), etc.
Science historically is a political field. From the way the Soviets practiced it to the way its funded in the U.S. - politics plays a huge part in what is studied and taught. The results shouldn’t changed based off politics (though even that hasn’t always held true), but what you look for does.
I wouldn’t want my college biology class to be taught by an Evangelical Christian creationist, unless he would make the disclaimer that was what he was - and then remained open minded enough to teach - well, actual Biology.
One of my girlfriends is a PhD physicist. Her field of study - women in Science - she’s written entire books about how Science is viewed through a “male lens” - especially when you are teaching it and how that contributes to a lack of women scientists.
Oh, in the U.S. we have lots of High School Biology teachers who are Conservative Christians. I have another friend who has one teaching in his high school. The teacher has been reprimanded for teaching creationism, but hasn’t (and won’t) be fired. My friend just moves his kids out of that teachers class and into the class of another teacher - should they get him. (He’s another PhD Physicist).
Getting rid of the teacher would involve suing the district. And that would create issues in a community that finds this appropriate. They’d probably end up moving. So the solution in a smallish city - make sure that the kids who are going to complain (or their parents are) don’t end up in the room - then no one has standing to sue.
Those books of your friend’s with the PhD in Physics are not themselves about Physics; they are about the history of Physics, or their sociology, but not about Physics.
“In here, the only Trinity is the Four Fundamental Forces.” - Father Pedro Victory, SJ. The same Jesuit taught a seminar* on theology which most people found way too advanced (we often had to remind him that most of us couldn’t understand German, Latin or Koiné Greek), but Orgo was about electrons running after each other; faith did not get invoked. That is the kind of attitude I expect from anybody teaching sciences. And in Spain, any teacher who taught Creationism in Biology would get fired quicker than you can say PTA but then, it isn’t even taught in Religion; it is taught in Philosophy as part of the study of religious thought.
seminars weren’t classes; they were “general culture stuff” with no impact on grades and no assistence requirement. You went if you felt like getting cultured.
No, but they are about the fundamental bias in teaching Physics - which is what this thread is supposedly about. Bias in teaching specifically English.
It’s interesting that you should mention Huckleberry Finn. On a possibly related note, a different school district in Minnesota has decided that this novel (as well as To Kill A Mockingbird) isn’t going to be on the curriculum. So whatever those novels have to say about race are real ideas, but are not going to be talked about in class, nor presented thru any lens, Marxist or otherwise.
I’m sure you have a broader–and relevant–point to make with this information, but for the life of me I cannot see it. I blame lack of coffee, but would you kindly elucidate for the brainwashed liberal scum in the gallery? How is it “possibly related?”
Which is why they are using other novels without the racial slurs to teach the same things. From your link:
So they are making a local choice to use appropriate teaching materials, as opposed to ignoring the subject. The subjects are still being discussed, and presented through a variety of lenses. It’s just the source materials that are being changed.
I haven’t read the whole thread carefully, but I’d like to point out to MAnda Jo
1.Wow…you sound like a great teacher.
2. what you are teaching is not “issues of race,gender and class” (in the way that Social Justice Warriors define it)
What you are teaching is how to think critically, and how to compare the changes that societies go through.
What I, and Shodan,disapprove of is teaching “race, gender, and class” the way it is too often presented by lefties: as a study of victimhood and oppression.
Here’s an example: a required course at Depaul University in Chicago: all 15,000 students are required to take a course called"Seminar on Multiculturalism in the US"-the purpose of which is to study " the historical roots of inequality and the lasting effects of oppression."
It all about the oppression.
What you teach in your class on Huck Finn is all about critical thinking and understanding social changes.Not victimhood and automatically blaming the white man for everything.
Keep up the good work!
Oh, noes. White guys have to learn about how white guys oppressed people.
Uh, how about taking an adults approach about this by sucking it up, learning your lesson, and dealing with it? Can’t you just do that, instead of whining about it on the internet?
Bolding mine. I went and dug (by which I mean it took exactly one more google search) for examples of the seminar topics and found this page:
Well over a hundred topics have been offered, including ones like “Multiethnic Comedy” and “Immigration, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the American Economy.”
But I guess it’s a lot easier to do a pull quote and call it “automatically blaming the white man for everything.”
Manda wrote a really thoughtful post, and this is all you got? A whatabout? C’mon, Shodan… I know there’s a decent and thoughtful poster in there. I’ve seen him before. Why not put some effort into some real engagement? Some coming together as people and as Americans? Why not honor Manda’s post put putting some fraction of the effort she did into a response?
I’m gonna cut out the snark in this thread, and I’d encourage you to do so. This really isn’t about teaching kids to be marxists. Let’s try and talk about this like reasonable, adult, and decent Americans, not bitter snarkmonsters.
So if I teach Huck Finn and talk about racism and class bigotry and gendered assumptions, you’re going to call my principal and accuse me of indoctrinating you kid, but if I don’t teach the book, I’m also a liberal wuss who is sanitizing history and is afraid to talk about real issues?
