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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTeaching consultant claims grades and punctuality is a form of white supremacy
Heather Hackman operates Hackman Consulting Group and was formerly a professor of multicultural education at Minnesotas St. Cloud State University, where she taught future teachers. On Friday, Hackman was given a platform at WPC to deliver a workshop with the lengthy title No Freedom Unless We Call Out the Wizard Behind The Curtain: Critically Addressing the Corrosive Effects of Whiteness in Teacher Education and Professional Development. The long title masked a simple thesis on Hackmans part: Modern education is hopelessly tainted by white supremacy and the white imperial gaze, and the solution is to train prospective teachers in college to be activists as well as pedagogues.
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The racial narrative of White tends to be like this: Rugged individual, honest, hard-working, disciplined, rigorous, successful, she said. And so then, the narrative of U.S. public education: Individual assessments, competition, outcome over process (I care more about your grades than how youre doing), discipline where we care more about your attendance and making sure youre not tardy than we care about your relationships proper English must be spoken (which is just assimilation into standard U.S. dialect), hierarchical power structure, and heavy goal orientation.
While the traits listed may simply be regarded as positive traits for success in the modern world, Hackman described them as specific cultural traits chosen and emphasized to favor whites to the detriment of non-white groups, who are forced to assimilate white traits such as good discipline and goal orientation or else be left behind.
Hackmans natural solution, then, is to train teachers to move away from all these aspects of white privilege in education. She routinely touted the benefits of collective assessments (measuring student learning at the class level instead of determining whether each student knows the material), as well as eliminating all school grades entirely.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/16/professional-educator-grades-showing-up-on-time-are-a-form-of-white-supremacy/
Sorry, but this is nuts.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)... extreme right wing (read nut job) sources became acceptable here. There was a time when they were held up for derision . Never were they viewed as reliable
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)A foundation of a good education is making sure the student knows the material--at least well enough to move on to the next level. That has NOTHING to do with white privilege or racism. It is sad that someone is suggesting that.
xmas74
(29,675 posts)In the working world.
Punctuality -a needed skill in their future lives. No one will hire or keep employed someone who is constantly late. And arriving early can be advantageous for any number of reasons.
Proper English - uniformity. It allows for someone to be easily understood no matter where in the U.S.
Goal orientation -that's life. You set goals, reach them, reward yourself and set a new one. Hopefully you learn and grow from the experience.
Determining grades at the class level seems to me to make teachers want to "teach to the test". No individual assessments hinders and could actually punish. A student's learning disability might not be noticed. Another student's gifted status might not be recognized. Both types of students are punished this way.
Albertoo
(2,016 posts)If one can milk gravy
ileus
(15,396 posts)linuxman
(2,337 posts)Truly the tolerance train has come full circle.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Maybe they should have different schools, too, so they don't disrupt the white students when they wander in late.
This is a perfect example of "liberal" thinking that winds up being SUPER racist.
clarice
(5,504 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Of course shaming Black kids for using AAVE is racist and should not be done, but the rest of that screed is utter nonsense.
tkmorris
(11,138 posts)But AAVE is not the language one should use in an educational or professional environment, not if one wants to be successful.
I learned from my parents an odd Appalachian/Kentucky farmer hybrid dialect, and I can tell you that that is NOT the language you want to use in the Washington DC area school system, or really anywhere else, if you want to be taken seriously.
Nevernose
(13,081 posts)I don't think educators spend enough time thinking about what the system is teaching, why it's taught, etc. Not the curriculum, but the entire system. It does stand to reason that a system designed by, and primarily for, white males, might tend to focus on the values that 19th century white makes thought were most important.
This is some basic Paolo Freire, Critical Literacy stuff. Her questions are good, in my opinion. Her solutions, and best, are the opposite of pragmatic, and at worst they're dumb. But I think her questions are valuable.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Igel
(35,337 posts)"Student X has learned this material" mean, actually, that "Student X may have the degree, but Students Y and Z were the ones who really knew it."
I have a lot of kids like this. They copy answers and say they know it. Then they fail the test, "But I knew this."
Some copy test questions. I continually hope that they get doctors and lawyers with their education ethic. And that they're not responsible for me or my circumstances when I'm unable to take care of myself.
Orrex
(63,220 posts)TipTok
(2,474 posts)So Far From Heaven
(354 posts)I teach classes having up to 95 percent minority enrollment so maybe my non-white students are different than hers, but every ethnic group I've ever taught had some form of acceptable discipline and goal achievement traits incorporated. Every last one of them.
They may encourage group achievement as a cultural benefit but they also always encourage individual achievement to increase or add to the society as a whole.
What the hell is she talking about?
Individual student assessment is a whole new bag of worms I struggle with continuously and is intentionally left out of my discussion.
Takket
(21,611 posts)This is what I'm getting out of this: only whites are capable of good behavior and grades, so in fairness to blacks, we need to stop tracking these things.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)by holding blacks to lower standards.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)can you people read?
tkmorris
(11,138 posts)Further, as it would appear that you disagree that this is "nuts" (though your commentary is too terse to be entirely certain), could you elaborate on why you think it is not?
Democat
(11,617 posts)Or a parody.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Green Buses Matter.
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)It's from the Daily Fucking Caller.
Ace Rothstein
(3,183 posts)LOL
Kingofalldems
(38,469 posts)I could find someone of no consequence who has an opinion based on nonsense too.
I would say good try but it really wasn't.
Kingofalldems
(38,469 posts)jumped in to agree with their boy Tucker.
Ace Rothstein
(3,183 posts)But in this case they are literally quoting someone. The content is embarrassing to the left so no liberal rags are going to cover something like the White Privilege Conference.
yuiyoshida
(41,835 posts)good luck wit dat!
tenderfoot
(8,438 posts)Orrex
(63,220 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)education just look at India, Japan, China, Korea. Horribly competitive. None White. The best rated educational system is ultra White Finland which tossed competition out the window as well as other changes that run counter to mainstream thinking about education. Amazing stuff.
hunter
(38,325 posts)kwassa
(23,340 posts)Due to the extreme bias of the Daily Caller. A tainted source if ever there was one.
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)And downright racist.
Phrased differently, "Black people can't be on time, and can't be expected to remember things and processes."
What.the.fuck.??!??!??