11-24-2009
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Star Tribune
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Subject: Indoctrinating the Indoctrinators
As the government continues its speedy imposition of forced community
service work on the country's students through the
Service-Learning initiative, one might
wonder just what sort of training do the teachers in these classrooms
have for administering these programs, and what type of mentoring
can we expect them to provide to their charges. Well, wonder no
longer. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Katherine Kersten
does an excellent job of reporting on one answer in her article,
At U, future teachers may be reeducated. Did she
actually mean to report that teachers were to be educated? No, she
really means reeducated! From the article:
Do you believe in the American dream -- the idea that in this
country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed
can get ahead on their own merits? If so, that belief may
soon bar you from getting a license to teach in Minnesota
public schools -- at least if you plan to get your teaching
degree at the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus.
In a report compiled last summer, the Race, Culture, Class
and Gender Task Group at the U's College of Education and
Human Development recommended that aspiring teachers there
must repudiate the notion of "the American Dream" in order
to obtain the recommendation for licensure required by the
Minnesota Board of Teaching. Instead, teacher candidates
must embrace — and be prepared to teach our state's kids
— the task force's own vision of America as an
oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic.
The task group is part of the Teacher Education Redesign
Initiative, a multiyear project to change the way future
teachers are trained at the U's flagship campus. The
initiative is premised, in part, on the conviction that
Minnesota teachers' lack of "cultural competence"
contributes to the poor academic performance of the state's
minority students. [...]
The report advocates making race, class and gender politics
the "overarching framework" for all teaching courses at the U.
It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework
and practice teaching based on their willingness to fall
into ideological lockstep.
The first step toward "cultural competence," says the task
group, is for future teachers to recognize — and
confess — their own bigotry. Anyone familiar with
the reeducation camps of China's Cultural Revolution will
recognize the modus operandi.
The task group recommends, for example, that prospective
teachers be required to prepare an "autoethnography" report.
They must describe their own prejudices and stereotypes,
question their "cultural" motives for wishing to become
teachers, and take a "cultural intelligence" assessment
designed to ferret out their latent racism, classism and
other "isms." They "earn points" for "demonstrating the
ability to be self-critical."
[...]
Future teachers must also recognize and denounce the
fundamental injustices at the heart of American society
[...]
In the process, they must incorporate the "myth of
meritocracy in the United States," the "history of
demands for assimilation to white, middle-class,
Christian meanings and values, [and] history of white
racism, with special focus on current colorblind ideology."
[...]"How can we be sure that teaching supervisors are
themselves developed and equipped in cultural competence
outcomes in order to supervise beginning teachers around
issues of race, class, culture, and gender?" [...] Perhaps a
training session disguised as a thank you/recognition
ceremony/reception at the beginning of the year?"
When teacher training requires a "disguise," you know
something sinister is going on.
[Emphasis added]
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And only then will they will be ready to send forth and pass on their
indoctrination to your children.
[Thanks to Mark Kalinowski for bringing this article
to my attention.]
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