This is our 5th posting on Wacko College Courses. A big hat tip to Minding the Campus, The College Fix, and Campus Reform for the below links.
Since I just posted something on Texas A&M and the linguistic skills of one student there, let's start this cavalcade with Texas A&M's San Antonio campus, where one (required) English course teaches that standard English is part of social oppression. And when you take this course, there is also The Pledge:
“We acknowledge the land we are on, the Yanaguana, named for the life-giving waters of the San Antonio River … We acknowledge the physical and cultural violence of colonialism … We acknowledge the complex history of the U.S. university system, which has expanded access to education but which has also profited from the dispossession of Indigenous land and from the labor of enslaved people. In the face of this history, we commit to decolonial work… We pledge to learn about and act in solidarity with Indigenous struggles for social justice.”
Staying on the topic of language, Leo Krubner has a post in Minding the Campus describing composition classes he took at an unnamed state university, in which the professor, also unnamed, tied it all in with racism, marginalized communities of color, and all that jazz.
Syllabus: "In this class, we will continue to explore issues of composition theory,” it says, “all through the lens of anti-oppressive, antiracist ‘critical’ approaches to assessment.” Further, the class “will focus on social justice” and investigate “how merit and assessment are socially constructed at various levels.”
Meanwhile, at the University of Virginia, founded by Thoams Jefferson, there is an "eco-feminist" course that teaches our kids all about how listening to birds and plants can teach us about-you guessed it-oppression.
"The syllabus defines ecofeminist research as 'any mode of inquiry guided by critical ecological feminism, the idea that women and the more-than-human world share a political fate determined by a master model that divides up the world into unequal and antagonistic dualisms.”
And for those of you who are into pornography, Georgetown University has just the course for you. It's called, "Understanding the pornographic", which I guess means that after taking this invaluable academic course, you can understand just what it is you are watching. You can read about it here on Campus Reform.
Getting serious again, Minding the Campus has an interesting report on how all this junk fits into the "progressive ideology" mold that so many universities are classifying as required general education classes.
In reference specifically to the last article, so much for the claim often heard that universities are teaching our kids how to think as opposed to what to think. It's bad enough that so many of these courses are ideology-driven, which means they are based on the personal opinions of the professor. If they were electives, that would be bad enough. To make them required is nothing less than indoctrination.
"Meanwhile, at the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, there is an "eco-feminist" course that teaches our kids all about how listening to birds and plants can teach us about-you guessed it-oppression."
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't say that, Gary. But before you think I'm defending it, I say that because I don't think that it's actually saying anything. It's the worst sort of jargon-filled rhetoric that can mean almost anything anybody wants it to me. (Then I guess maybe your definition can fit after all!)
I think that a lot of this is over-correction. I teach a unit on the history of the English language. I take the time to emphasize how there are certain dialects (like AAVE) that people tend to look down upon as simply being "bad English". This, of course, assumes that there's some sort of completely objective "proper English", and anyone who knows about how languages form know that it's just not so.
I tell my students that two things can be true.
1. In the United States, you will likely get further ahead in the job market if you speak the standard American English.
2. Dialects like AAVE (formerly "Ebonics") are just that - dialects, and the people who speak it aren't just speaking "bad" English, and shouldn't be made to feel inferior as a result.
Oddly enough, my mother was very sympathetic to this sort of a thing. As you know, they speak the Franconian dialect in Erlangen, which much of the rest of Germany cannot understand. Growing up, she would have people tell her that she needed to speak "correct German" like her "cousins in Hannover". They would actually make her feel bad.
It's a shame, really. While it's useful for a country to have a standardized version of the language, that shouldn't come at the expense of insulting people.
I feel like this is what the first class you mentioned is trying to do, but the course description seems to lack all nuance. Hopefully the teachers can be more thoughtful in the presentation of the material.
Lance, Don't shoot the messenger. I am going by the headline and what the article described. Reading through what the teacher himself says, who knows what goes through that guy's head?
ReplyDeleteAfter DEA, I taught English as a second language for 20 years. I also wrote a book on Papiamentu (a creole) and learned the language to boot. I fully agree with you that people should not be made fun of due to the vernacular they grow up with. If you read the previous post, I do make fun of the Texas A&M student, but because he is a white guy-or Arab- trying to talk in Black English Vernacular.
It may not be right or fair, but in any society, if you cannot speak the standard version of the language, it's going to hurt you in life. If you are French and cannot speak the standard variety, it will hurt you in life. The way you speak reflects your level of education. That matters in the job market-depending on the job, of course.
In Erlangen, I leaned German-self taught, and my grammar shows to this day. I never could make head or tails of Franconian German. I happen to have a good friend in Erlangen who writes books and poems in Franconian, but he is well educated (an English teacher).
The simple fact is that if we don't teach our kids proper English in school, they are being cheated.
I know you're used to me arguing, but we are in agreement here. I actually think that those course descriptions might be more ridiculous than even you do. It borders on self-parody.
ReplyDelete