Focusing divisively on race can be counter-productive, yes. People need to figure out how to work together productively. And yes, there is a lot of nonsense in academia. You want to stir up trouble, ask any group of teachers what they think about the latest educational theories or fads. And whatever new thing their administration or state is pushing on them. Most of which has nothing at all to do with race but is just the latest reinventing the wheel by people who aren't actually doing the job in question.ohio jones wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 10:45 pm Gary, I think you need to include the next sentence:Focusing divisively on race is part of the backsliding and mistakes, and there's a lot of ineffective nonsense in current academia. It will probably take a radical change in methodology for progress to continue.Ken wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:07 pm We have made a lot of progress. I think we can all agree that we are in a better place than we were 50 years ago or 100 years ago. But in many ways we still have more progress to make before we have a true color-blind society. And figuring out how to get there is going to involve lots of fits and starts and backsliding as well as mistakes and ineffective nonsense.
I don't know what radical change in methodology you are talking about. This stuff always comes and goes. Teachers will pick up on the things that are working and discard the things that aren't. And then there will be some new thing that everyone is hot and bothered about. The young teachers will annoy the old teachers and vice versa. The administrators and decision-makers will annoy everyone. And the cycle will continue as it has for decades and decades. Most of teaching has nothing at all to do with any of this. It is the hard work of teaching kids to read or write in complete sentences or care about trigonometry or atomic theory or Spanish gerunds. When they are distracted by hormones and everything around them.