Univ of Minnesota "America an oppressive hellhole"

[madjack]

Katherine Kersten: At U, future teachers may be reeducated
By KATHERINE KERSTEN, Star Tribune
Pamela Hill Nettleton: This tradition, yes, breaks the mold
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. Last spring, it charged the task group with coming up with recommendations to change this. In January, planners will review the recommendations and decide how to proceed.
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."
The task group opens its report with a model for officially approved confessional statements: "As an Anglo teacher, I struggle to quiet voices from my own farm family, echoing as always from some unstated standard. ... How can we untangle our own deeply entrenched assumptions?"
The goal of these exercises, in the task group's words, is to ensure that "future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."
Future teachers must also recognize and denounce the fundamental injustices at the heart of American society, says the task group. From a historical perspective, they must "understand that ... many groups are typically not included" within America's "celebrated cultural identity," and that "such exclusion is frequently a result of dissimilarities in power and influence." In particular, aspiring teachers must be able "to explain how institutional racism works in schools."
After indoctrination of this kind, who wouldn't conclude that the American Dream of equality for all is a cruel hoax? But just to make sure, the task force recommends requiring "our future teachers" to "articulate a sophisticated and nuanced critical analysis" of this view of the American promise. 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."
What if some aspiring teachers resist this effort at thought control and object to parroting back an ideological line as a condition of future employment? The task group has Orwellian plans for such rebels: The U, it says, must "develop clear steps and procedures for working with non-performing students, including a remediation plan."

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/70662162.html

WTF is going on in Minneapolis? Clearly the inmates have taken over the asylum.

[Ordie]

Perhaps U's College of Education and Human Development should visit their own Engineering Department and ask if the American Dream is dead.

Here's to name a few University of Minnesota Engineering Faculty Members:

Alptekin Aksan:

Ph.D., 2002, Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI
M.S., 1995, Mechanical Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
B.S., 1992, Mechanical Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Sant Ram AroraPh.D., 1962, Operations Research, Johns Hopkins University
M.S., 1954, B.S., 1951, Mathematics, Panjab Universty

Tianhong Cui
Ph.D., 1995, Mechanical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
B.S., 1991, Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Diwakar Gupta
Ph.D., 1988, Management Sciences, University of Waterloo
M.A.Sc., 1984, Industrial Engineering, University of Windsor
B.Tech, 1982, Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi

Zongxuan Sun
Ph.D., 2000, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S., 1998, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S., 1995, Automatic Control, Southeast University, China

Katsuhiko Ogata
Ph.D., 1956, Engineering Science, University of California - Berkeley
M.S., 1953, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S., 1947, Mechanical Engineering, University of Tokyo

The list goes on and on......................................

[Blue_0]

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?

In my experance this is not the case. I work with a diverse group of people and to put it bluntly, it does not appear to be the case for them either.

-- Bluelight

[Kit]

My counter to these looney-toons is if they can say things like this, then America really isn't all THAT oppressive. Leftist professors can be real drama queens sometimes.

[Mastermind]

So. It has finally come to blaming the as-yet unsolvable problem of "minority" academic underachievement on the bigotry of people who are yet to teach...who are products of the traditional American education system which the board seems to blame for as yet undefined racial and "ethnocentric" prejudices.

In effect, they want the students educated by non-human thinking robotic entities that have perfect objectivity. They want no black persons to come to the classroom bearing the affectations of a lifetime of struggle to garner a successful education in this "Hell Hole" of a racist infested society. They want people applying to their fascist academic society to deny their life experiences, to deny their humanity, to deny their very souls...and to declare they have absolutely not one shred of bigotry left int hem after their little soul searching thesis...making them the perfect candidates to influence the perfectly cleaned, soulless and bigotry cleansed student body...

My God! Are these over-educated idiots really that far gone into the fantasy realm of post-life utopia?

People have prejudices. We are not capable of perfection. We can never deny our very nature. I simply can not fathom that well educated people could come to such ridiculous conclusions as these people have.

It is beyond astounding.

[Noons86]

I have this strage feeling, call it a gut feeling based on no evidence if you will, that this article may be slightly exaggerating or distorting the situation.

[3rdMillhouse]

That's what happens when the anti-american lefties take over the academic enviroment.

[Ordie]

That's what happens when the anti-american lefties take over the academic enviroment.

They are not anti Americans
We live in a country where you are allowed to have unpopular views.

What these professors Fail to recognize is that people will risk thier lives to be here and start from nothing.

If the American dream is dead, why do thousands of peple become naturalized American citizens. And not the other way around.

[Mastermind]

They are not anti Americans
We live in a country where you are allowed to have unpopular views.

What these professors Fail to recognize is that people will risk thier lives to be here and start from nothing.

If the American dream is dead, why do thousands of peple become naturalized American citizens. And not the other way around.
That's not right...

Yes...in America you are allowed to have unpopular views.

But, in America we don't go around using our unpopular views to shut people out of teaching positions...we don't use them to suppress thought in other people. We don't and should not have "Thought Police" such as what these freaks in academia are trying to set up.

They want their prospective teachers to "purge" any thoughts that America is a land of opportunity...which it has been since it began.

We in America are far from perfect. But, we have never tolerated gestapo types to take over. We destroyed the KKK...we destroyed Slavery...we destroyed "Jim Crow" laws...we destroyed Joe McCarthy for using anti-communist dogma to freeze movie stars and writers from jobs in Hollywood.

Americans did that...we hated what they stood for...but, By God! We would fight another war to protect their freedom to live, think, do and say what ever they wanted...because we are a freedom loving people.

Now, those very elements we protected in the name of free speech, free thought and free work opportunites, have grown...like a festering boil, to start doing exactly the same damn things we fought five major wars to prevent.

I would fight like hell again to stop them from ostracizing my fellow Americans of today for their thoughts and beliefs...just as we did to protect these University of Minnesota "America Hating" creeps back when they were being ostracized for being Communists under Tail Gunner Joe.

To hell with them...they are no better than Hitler's dirty little Brown Shirts!

[Elbs]

These same professors are the same that you see walking around campus chatting away on their iPhones, sipping Starbucks lattes and angry when they splash water on their $300 shoes crossing the parking lot to their Lexus/BMW/Mercedes or even better, Prius/Smart car, etc.

American Dream is alive and well folks

[Kaplanr]

Sorry there Mastermind but you're painting a little too rosy a picture there. Ending slavery was the by-product of the war; and Jim Crow, the KKK and even McCarthy weren't destroyed in any deliberate and organized fashion. It took Joseph Welch, defending one of his employees to call out McCarthy; something Pres. Eisenhower didn't have the guts to do when McCarthy attacked George Marshall. Also remember that FDR while trying only half-heartedly couldn't get an anti-lynching law passed - state's rights and all that.

If this crap about the U of Minn. RCC&G Task group is true, I hope the response is quicker than it was in any of the instances you cited.

[Skutatos]

Sorry there Mastermind but you're painting a little too rosy a picture there. Ending slavery was the by-product of the war; and Jim Crow, the KKK and even McCarthy weren't destroyed in any deliberate and organized fashion. It took Joseph Welch, defending one of his employees to call out McCarthy; something Pres. Eisenhower didn't have the guts to do when McCarthy attacked George Marshall. Also remember that FDR while trying only half-heartedly couldn't get an anti-lynching law passed - state's rights and all that.

If this crap about the U of Minn. RCC&G Task group is true, I hope the response is quicker than it was in any of the instances you cited.

Don't forget Rutherford B. Hayes.

"Rutherfraud" seems to have been the wrong guy at a critical point in time and it all just went downhill from there. It's amazing a guy who showed such bravery in the civil war was easily cowed by the south politically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes#Civil_Rights

[Mastermind]

Sorry there Mastermind but you're painting a little too rosy a picture there. Ending slavery was the by-product of the war; and Jim Crow, the KKK and even McCarthy weren't destroyed in any deliberate and organized fashion. It took Joseph Welch, defending one of his employees to call out McCarthy; something Pres. Eisenhower didn't have the guts to do when McCarthy attacked George Marshall. Also remember that FDR while trying only half-heartedly couldn't get an anti-lynching law passed - state's rights and all that.

If this crap about the U of Minn. RCC&G Task group is true, I hope the response is quicker than it was in any of the instances you cited.
Begging to have your pardon, Sir...Americans did that...not anyone else. Yes...some Americans were oppressors. You say, we fought a war to stop slavery. That is exactly my point. Yes. We were flawed...with all those things. AS I said, we were not and are still not perfect...never will be. But, Americans, as a whole have always had this sight of Decency. We seem to understand wrong is wrong, no matter what. That's why we have this magnificent new revolution every four years.

No. I stand by what I said...WE Americans keep trying to improve on freedom. WE keep trying to make sure everyone gets a shot at opportunity. What WE are today will not tolerate what these deceitful professors are trying to do to other free Americans.

Let them preach their poison. America is strong enough to withstand them...but, the second they begin oppressing others because they have the power to do so...thems fight'n words, here in America.

[Noons86]

Before this gets out of hand, I still maintain that the Star Tribune is probably misrepresenting what is going on here to some extent.

The idea that the American Dream is alive and well, that anyone can live their dream lifestyle if they work for it, as well as the idea that we are an oppressive hellhole full of racists and homophobes, are both singular and empirically questionable views if presented as fact. That is why I am skeptical of the notion that a teaching department would push either one as a litmus test.

It is probably a knee-jerk reaction to something legitimate, but less exciting. But, if it bleeds it leads.

[Ordie]

Begging to have your pardon, Sir...Americans did that...not anyone else. Yes...some Americans were oppressors. You say, we fought a war to stop slavery. That is exactly my point. Yes. We were flawed...with all those things. AS I said, we were not and are still not perfect...never will be. But, Americans, as a whole have always had this sight of Decency. We seem to understand wrong is wrong, no matter what. That's why we have this magnificent new revolution every four years.

No. I stand by what I said...WE Americans keep trying to improve on freedom. WE keep trying to make sure everyone gets a shot at opportunity. What WE are today will not tolerate what these deceitful professors are trying to do to other free Americans.

Let them preach their poison. America is strong enough to withstand them...but, the second they begin oppressing others because they have the power to do so...thems fight'n words, here in America.

X2

On its worst day, America wins by default.

There is no other society in the history on Earth that led the way of major revolutions that shook the world.

The most important being was the emancipation of women.

[TheKorean]

They are not anti Americans
We live in a country where you are allowed to have unpopular views.

What these professors Fail to recognize is that people will risk thier lives to be here and start from nothing.

If the American dream is dead, why do thousands of peple become naturalized American citizens. And not the other way around.

Well if they hate America as it is right now I would say they are Anti-Americans, which is legal. Being Anti-American is legal.

[Ordie]

Well if they hate America as it is right now I would say they are Anti-Americans, which is legal. Being Anti-American is legal.

Try doing that in other countries.

[Noons86]

Well if they hate America as it is right now I would say they are Anti-Americans, which is legal. Being Anti-American is legal.


That may be true, but too often "Anti-American" generally translates to "I don't like this, but I don't want to deal with it or argue rationally against it, so I'll just attach a universal negative label to it and hope it sticks."

[Clear_blues]

Sorry but gotta call the bull card on this. Both my parents are English profs at UMD (Univeristy of Minnesota Duluth) and if there was something like this, I'd be hearing it at the dinner table(now that I'm back for Thanksgiving)

[Mastermind]

Sorry but gotta call the bull card on this. Both my parents are English profs at UMD (Univeristy of Minnesota Duluth) and if there was something like this, I'd be hearing it at the dinner table(now that I'm back for Thanksgiving)
Man...I hope you are right.

[KoTeMoRe]

X2

On its worst day, America wins by default.

There is no other society in the history on Earth that led the way of major revolutions that shook the world.

The most important being was the emancipation of women.

Chinese, Britons...actually you own to the first and the second both the material and doctrinal breakthoughs that still enable your country and Nation to lead?


Oh and BTW to protect that society, atrocious crimes have been committed, so please just don't try to shove down our throats that beacon of light image. Your cool kids society still relies on cheap labor, financial scams and military power to keep it's nomber one spot. Please don't mistake a particular reality for a global one. There is one thing for wich the USA would go down in history as the destroyer of humanity. The Credit Society.

Your whole system is based on cash you have not, on prospects you forge. Sad but true...Been to the US several times and what hurts me the most is that the same guys that have a perfect understanding of the way the world rolls, become blind once you mention the role of their country in this whole global Bingo.

[Mastermind]

Chinese, Britons...actually you own to the first and the second both the material and doctrinal breakthoughs that still enable your country and Nation to lead?


Oh and BTW to protect that society, atrocious crimes have been committed, so please just don't try to shove down our throats that beacon of light image. Your cool kids society still relies on cheap labor, financial scams and military power to keep it's nomber one spot. Please don't mistake a particular reality for a global one. There is one thing for wich the USA would go down in history as the destroyer of humanity. The Credit Society.

Your whole system is based on cash you have not, on prospects you forge. Sad but true...Been to the US several times and what hurts me the most is that the same guys that have a perfect understanding of the way the world rolls, become blind once you mention the role of their country in this whole global Bingo.

Yeah...you're right. We really should of stayed home when the rest of the world were screaming for all these nasty American things, arms and ammo, food and American boys to die to stop those paragons of humanity, Adolph and Tojo.

Yep...If you're lucky, , next time, we will have just dried up and blown away...

[KoTeMoRe]

Yeah...you're right. We really should of stayed home when the rest of the world were screaming for all these nasty American things, arms and ammo, food and American boys to die to stop those paragons of humanity, Adolph and Tojo.

Yep...If you're lucky, , next time, we will have just dried up and blown away...


Oh **** forgot that scamming half of the world out of their money, has zip to do with the early 40's? Or has it? It's always the same funny answer...

-Dude I'm stealing from you! But you own me big time from when I bombed the **** out of your continent. Oh BTW to the Japanese crowd we've been drying up your purses for about 20 years keeping corrupt governments and mafia within your island so you'd enjoy our freedom. You know Cold War and stuff.

What does it have to do with a global economic scam? Please explain to me? I don't get it...so by that standart the Russians too should buttfvck the rest of the world?

[Ayub -al -Somal]

America = the most decent country on Earth , I've seen a couple and my curiosity has led me to learn about many.
Fundamentally good hearted are the people in this country .

[sepheronx]

Well, I guess it is up to America to spread freedom to America. Using the big D**k of the law.

[KoTeMoRe]

Hell's paved with good intentions.

[Indiana Jones]

[...] But, Americans, as a whole have always had this sight of Decency. We seem to understand wrong is wrong, no matter what. That's why we have this magnificent new revolution every four years.

No, you did not. Those are soapbox-level narratives that will not stand up to the most superficial empirical scrutiny. Ie: Quite fundamentally, your nation was built on a largely genocidal landgrab, as were many others.

There maybe are decent individuals. There certainly are no "decent" societies, and yours is no exception.

[...]Your cool kids society still relies on cheap labor, financial scams and military power to keep it's nomber one spot. Please don't mistake a particular reality for a global one. There is one thing for wich the USA would go down in history as the destroyer of humanity. The Credit Society.

Your whole system is based on cash you have not, on prospects you forge. [...]To hold this specifically against the US, is on the other hand, quite absurd, as I guess you would concur.
And, by the way, the credit society as an institution precedes the foundation of the American nation by centuries.
Cheers,
IJ.

[KoTeMoRe]

No, you did not. Those are soapbox-level narratives that will not stand up to the most superficial empirical scrutiny. Ie: Quite fundamentally, your nation was built on a largely genocidal landgrab, as were many others.

There maybe are decent individuals. There certainly are no "decent" societies, and yours is no exception.
To hold this specifically against the US, is on the other hand, quite absurd, as I guess you would concur.
And, by the way, the credit society as an institution precedes the foundation of the American nation by centuries.
Cheers,
IJ.


I do concur...I wasn't implying that cheap labor, military might and financial scams are inherently to be blamed on the US. Money, Power, Control, Violence are the fundamentals of domination.

The Credit Society as developped on the USA wich means "something for nothing", is completely unseen. "sequestre-credits" have been the norm, as have been "pawn-credits". Here we have sweet dream credits. Never seen.

A very quick look at stock exchange indicators in the last 30 years would tell a far more interesting story than all my rants. But again you're right. The USA did not invent that process, it only refined it to a global threat level.

[the_Wicked]

These guys need a month in the Soviet Union (if we had a time machine), or better yet North Korea.

[KoTeMoRe]

These guys need a month in the Soviet Union (if we had a time machine), or better yet North Korea.

BTDT...they pretty much would have had a great time as regime's watchdogs.

[seanvi]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I would the last person to call for someone to be silenced regardless of what they are saying. That being said this type of thinking has pretty much become mainstream in the U.S. For all their talk of free speech many so called "liberals" will be the first ones to try to enact laws limiting "hate" speech, ban "offensive" groups from organizing, try to get commentators they don't agree with kicked off radio/tv etc. etc. This kind of speech is the same rhetoric that could be ascribed to a large portion of the current administration and Congress. Many politicians we have today were educated and worked closely with professors that espouse the exact same kind of thinking, or were part of left-wing organizations that did the same. I'm not talking casual associations either but hardcore socialist/communist organizations. Van Jones is the most obvious case that comes to mind, but the White House is full of them. They are literally subverting the country from the inside out.

[Arnie100]

These guys need a month in the Soviet Union (if we had a time machine), or better yet North Korea.

Send 'em to Iran! p-)

[Mastermind]

f.

What does it have to do with a global economic scam? Please explain to me? I don't get it...so by that standart the Russians too should buttfvck the rest of the world?


That's right...so should the US after WWII, instead of billions of our tax dollars going to the Marshall Plan to help bankrupt Europe and Japan back on their feet.

Yes, the SU should have btfked the world along with us considering the crap we we get for helping.

Next time will hopefully be different.

[brainplay]

In my experance this is not the case. I work with a diverse group of people and to put it bluntly, it does not appear to be the case for them either.

-- Bluelight

Blue, working hard and taking advantage of your abilities to the fullest are two different things. Someone can be the best gardener in the world but will still end up working for the crappiest gardener in the world who learned business skills from saving up, going to night school, and taking the financial risks to form a gardening empire.


Chinese, Britons...actually you own to the first and the second both the material and doctrinal breakthoughs that still enable your country and Nation to lead?

Maybe the basis as well as the credit schemes but if anything else you said was true then they would be on top instead of coming in second and third. Much of their own problems are political and social stagnation and cannot be blamed on the US. China is starting to realize this adjust, Britain is slowly drowning it out in apathy.


=[/B]KoTeMoRe]Oh BTW to the Japanese crowd we've been drying up your purses for about 20 years keeping corrupt governments and mafia within your island so you'd enjoy our freedom. You know Cold War and stuff.

Don't do drugs....seriously.

[cx2115]

Yeah...you're right. We really should of stayed home when the rest of the world were screaming for all these nasty American things, arms and ammo, food and American boys to die to stop those paragons of humanity, Adolph and Tojo.

Yep...If you're lucky, , next time, we will have just dried up and blown away...
Might be my history is a little off (not being American and all), but my understanding is that the US govt. was quite content to sit on it's hand and leave Europe to the Nazi's and Asia to Japan - efforts of the president at that time not withstanding. America didn't enter the war until Germany and Japan declared war on America (with Pearl Harbour to boot).

And the arms, ammo and food have been (or are still being) paid for - the UK only finished paying off that debt in 2006 if memory serves.

No-one sane would deny what the US did in WW2 but saying it was done out of the kindness of its heart is a stretch.

[annihilation]

Might be my history is a little off (not being American and all), but my understanding is that the US govt. was quite content to sit on it's hand and leave Europe to the Nazi's and Asia to Japan - efforts of the president at that time not withstanding. America didn't enter the war until Germany and Japan declared war on America (with Pearl Harbour to boot).

And the arms, ammo and food have been (or are still being) paid for - the UK only finished paying off that debt in 2006 if memory serves.

No-one sane would deny what the US did in WW2 but saying it was done out of the kindness of its heart is a stretch.


During that time period america was in a deep isolationist feeling. After world war 1 and the great depression, they wanted to do nothing with the outside world. The point he is making not that we did it out of the kindess of our heart as more so in the end, america, comes around and does "the right thing".

That being said a little isolationism would be nice again.

[KoTeMoRe]

Blue, working hard and taking advantage of your abilities to the fullest are two different things. Someone can be the best gardener in the world but will still end up working for the crappiest gardener in the world who learned business skills from saving up, going to night school, and taking the financial risks to form a gardening empire.



Maybe the basis as well as the credit schemes but if anything else you said was true then they would be on top instead of coming in second and third. Much of their own problems are political and social stagnation and cannot be blamed on the US. China is starting to realize this adjust, Britain is slowly drowning it out in apathy.


=[/B]KoTeMoRe]Oh BTW to the Japanese crowd we've been drying up your purses for about 20 years keeping corrupt governments and mafia within your island so you'd enjoy our freedom. You know Cold War and stuff.

Don't do drugs....seriously.

Oh...drugs now? Frankly one of the major issues of the Japanese economy has been the fact it had its major economical competitor as its major "protector". I hope factual criticism doesn't hurt you too much.

[Zarak]

I suggest that the esteemed Professor vote with her feet and move to a nation more to her liking, perhaps North Korea.

[3rdMillhouse]

They are not anti Americans


Yes, they are. Get your facts straight.

[eskachig]

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 schoolsI don't see a problem with this. Anyone who believes what is stated above without reservations or caveats really isn't fit to be a teacher in this nation because they are blind. The American dream is an idea that in this country everyone should have an equal chance at success. The reality is clearly not quite there, and a teacher should understand the difference and how it affects the students. Pretending everything is great doesn't do anyone good.


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.America is indeed racist, sexist, and homophobic. There are better and (far) worse nations in this regard. Our teachers should be able to explain and show that American ideals do not always conform to the reality. Hopefully they can also show how this nation is always moving forward.


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.Cultural revolution? WTF? As far as I can tell facing and understanding your prejudices is an important part of working in any sort of a multicultural environment. We make soldiers do it when we send then to interact with strange cultures - and it seems like a very reasonable exercise for a new teacher who may have not encountered the sort of diversity they will be faced with in the classroom.


Future teachers must also recognize and denounce the fundamental injustices at the heart of American society, says the task group. From a historical perspective, they must "understand that ... many groups are typically not included" within America's "celebrated cultural identity," and that "such exclusion is frequently a result of dissimilarities in power and influence." In particular, aspiring teachers must be able "to explain how institutional racism works in schools."Once again, is it really so strange to make sure that teachers understand the reality of how things work? How do we fix anything if everyone pretends it is already fixed?


After indoctrination of this kind, who wouldn't conclude that the American Dream of equality for all is a cruel hoax? American dream of equality cannot be a hoax, it's an ideal. Pretending that we have already reached this ideal would indeed be a cruel hoax. It is an ongoing process.


But just to make sure, the task force recommends requiring "our future teachers" to "articulate a sophisticated and nuanced critical analysis" of this view of the American promise. 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."More than anyone the school teachers are the ones tasked with ensuring that the "American Dream" is implemented into reality. Is it really so much to ask that they exercise some critical thinking on the matter?

[eskachig]

My counter to these looney-toons is if they can say things like this, then America really isn't all THAT oppressive. Leftist professors can be real drama queens sometimes.That's a crap counter. Free speech was constitutionally protected during slavery times as well, but clearly the nation had some ways to go as far as lack of oppression was concerned.

Not that anything here concerns the sort of overt black and white oppression that is easy to think about.


People have prejudices. We are not capable of perfection. We can never deny our very nature. I simply can not fathom that well educated people could come to such ridiculous conclusions as these people have.Of course we all have prejudices. The whole point of the exercise described in the article is to bring those prejudices forward and discuss them rationally. Prejudices are most harmful when one is unaware that he is prejudiced in the first place. Once they are out in the clear, even if they cannot be eliminated, a rational thinking person should be able to minimize their impact on their work.



In effect, they want the students educated by non-human thinking robotic entities that have perfect objectivity. They want no black persons to come to the classroom bearing the affectations of a lifetime of struggle to garner a successful education in this "Hell Hole" of a racist infested society.



The goal of these exercises, in the task group's words, is to ensure that "future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."

It doesn't sound like a person you are describing would not be welcome, provided they were also able to rationally understand the prejudices their experiences fostered them with, and put everything into larger context of issues facing all Americans. On the other hand, if such a teacher earned her accomplishments at the cost of simply hating all white people and refuses to accept that this is an illogical prejudice then no, I don't think they are particularly suitable for the profession.

[eskachig]

Yes, they are. Get your facts straight.There are no facts here...
I don't even see any anti-American sentiment, unless to be pro-American one has to pretend that there are no problems left to fix.

[eskachig]

We in America are far from perfect. But, we have never tolerated gestapo types to take over. We destroyed the KKK...we destroyed Slavery...we destroyed "Jim Crow" laws...we destroyed Joe McCarthy for using anti-communist dogma to freeze movie stars and writers from jobs in Hollywood.
An excercise if you will...

Was "The American Dream" dead or a hoax when slavery was around?
Was "The American Dream" dead or a hoax when only landowners could vote?
Was "The American Dream" dead or a hoax when women were basically property?
Was "The American Dream" dead or a hoax when Rosa Parks tried to get on the bus?
Was "The American Dream" dead or a hoax when homo******ity was illegal?

The American Dream is an ideal, a perfect utopia, and just because we're not quite there doesn't mean that it's a hoax. Furthermore, recognizing that we're not there yet is not anti-american.

Now, those very elements we protected in the name of free speech, free thought and free work opportunites, have grown...like a festering boil, to start doing exactly the same damn things we fought five major wars to prevent.Summarize what it is these elements are doing, because I just don't see the problem.

[snafu_72]

In reading the article it seems the Task Force put its oar in the water as to what it wishes to see, not necesarily what will exist after the final report is written. Maybe it was written tongue in cheek to induce the same sort of caterwalling that goes on every time someone on either side of the aisle peddles extremist crapola. Maybe they are trying to leak this article to see which squirrel drops his nuts and runs screaming into the forest. It wouldn't be the first time, and probably won't be the last that disinformation is used to deflect the real work that is going on behind the scenes.

[Kaplanr]

X2

On its worst day, America wins by default.

There is no other society in the history on Earth that led the way of major revolutions that shook the world.

The most important being was the emancipation of women.

No argument there, I'm just saying that history and circumstances are grey areas, not black & white, and there are too many historical instances where it took a long time for enough people to stand up and say "this is wrong, it must stop."

[3rdMillhouse]

There are no facts here...
I don't even see any anti-American sentiment, unless to be pro-American one has to pretend that there are no problems left to fix.

One thing is criticizing, another thing entirely different is claiming your country (world's most wealthy and powerful democracy) is an opressive hellhole, that's being anti-american.

[oldsoak]

For a hellhole there seems a lot wanting to get in.

[Ordie]

For a hellhole there seems a lot wanting to get in.

And a few going out and renouncing thier citizenship.

[Mastermind]

And a few going out and renouncing their citizenship.
Funny, I have not heard that...I wonder who the "Few" might be...certainly no movie stars. Although, Alec Baldwin once famously promised to do that. Strange, since he is a loudly professed hater of our country. I have to wonder why many more of them don't renounce their citizenship...they seem so overly enamored of the Europeans...and the poor. Yet, they just keep hanging onto the American way.

I don't like to think they may be hypocrites ...or that so many people who keep living here and cursing our way of life and heritage and traditions don't just up and leave.

Those people who hate us but keep on living here must be absolutely the most miserable people in the world....I really feel sorry for them.

Yet, to be in such mental anguish, and to have the way wide open for them to find a better country...how sad they must be.

anyway...if you happen to come up with any of the famous miserables who have renounced their American citizenship recently...please, let us know.

[Jobu]

It's better in a hell hole
You know where you stand in a hell hole
Folks lend a hand in a hell hole

[the_Wicked]

It's better in a hell hole
You know where you stand in a hell hole
Folks lend a hand in a hell hole

Maybe in a hellhole but certainly not in any country on the face of the world whether America or not.

[ronnieraygun]

Katherine Kersten is a hack writer who gets people's attention by making mountains out of molehills. Anyone who wants to teach has to take pedagogy courses, they are all highly theoretical with flowery ideas about "cultural inclusivity" and almost everyone ignores it and pays lip service to it and finds out quickly that teaching is more practical than theoretical. That's only a small part of the general reading list and most items on the reading list don't have too many gems in there about "white privilege" or junk like that. Even PhDs with a shred of integrity chuckle at that stuff, from my experience.

I'll take Jobu posting Spinal Tap, that makes more sense.

[Mastermind]

It's better in a hell hole
You know where you stand in a hell hole
Folks lend a hand in a hell hole

yeah. like they do in Baghdad, Somalia, South Eastern Afghanistan...well, Afghanistan in general, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Northern Pakistan, Burma (to name but a few more lovely places than the US)....folks there just love to help each other out....regular places to raise the kids, grow some poppies, have a few tea-socials...lend someone an AK-47, go to "weddings", put some goats on the barbee, go participate in a few stonings of young "Adultresses", watch a few beheadings and amputations, bring in the new year by slaughtering cattle in the streets...lovely places really. They say they smell nice, too.

[oldsoak]

And a few going out and renouncing thier citizenship.

Thats only a few - and I'd warrant a good few do it not because they hate the US, but because holding dual citizenship is not an option due to various laws. Others just might not be the best citizens a country could have.
The ones that hate the US have to be truthful about their lifestyle choices and their mobility within the US. Dont like California ? Move to Florida etc. Dont like living in a bad hood ? dont need to go abroad to get away - move blocks. On the run from an "oppressive society" that doesnt think theft is justifiable or wont pay up for freeloaders ? Most of the world agrees with the US on that - go home . Job dictates it ? People who want to better themselves are welcome most places.

[eskachig]

One thing is criticizing, another thing entirely different is claiming your country (world's most wealthy and powerful democracy) is an opressive hellhole, that's being anti-american.
Nobody is claiming that US is an opressive hellhole. The columnist is claiming that the university is claiming that US is an opressive hellhole, but even the quotes she cites in her article don't bear her out. Essentially everything she quotes says "The American Dream is awesome and all, but throughout history of the US some groups of Americans were not always treated accordingly." That's not Anti-American, that's manifest truth.


Katherine Kersten is a hack writer who gets people's attention by making mountains out of molehills. Anyone who wants to teach has to take pedagogy courses, they are all highly theoretical with flowery ideas about "cultural inclusivity" and almost everyone ignores it and pays lip service to it and finds out quickly that teaching is more practical than theoretical. X2. But I think that those theoretical things are in there for a good reason.

[3rdMillhouse]

Nobody is claiming that US is an opressive hellhole. The columnist is claiming that the university is claiming that US is an opressive hellhole,

Explain that.

[eskachig]

Explain that.

Ok, here is the jist of the article:

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.

I don't have the original report, so I have to trust her paraphrasing:


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."
...
The goal of these exercises, in the task group's words, is to ensure that "future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."
This (fairly worthwhile imo) exercise has nothing to do with the American Dream at all, really. But it sounds spooky or something.

The author then restates her overall thesis:

Future teachers must also recognize and denounce the fundamental injustices at the heart of American society, says the task group.

This is not a quote, so I expect to see some supporting quotes or paraphrasing to that effect. She clarifies what she means by:


From a historical perspective, they must "understand that ... many groups are typically not included" within America's "celebrated cultural identity," and that "such exclusion is frequently a result of dissimilarities in power and influence." In particular, aspiring teachers must be able "to explain how institutional racism works in schools."

Essentially this is the focal point of the argument. She implies that if you accept the above statement you "repudiate the notion of the American Dream". To me this is simply not the case, and either we have very different definitions of the American Dream or she is being disingenuous. To me above statements merely state that the reality of our society doesn't always live up the ideal.