An audience member yells reeducation advice at Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity, who asserts that public universities should not sort people according to race and ethnicity:
That's a short clip from the Federalist Society-sponsored debate that took place here on campus on September 13th.
[Video shot and edited by me.]
September 15, 2011
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59 comments:
so the "studies" lobby has manaqed to build themselves into the University Core degree requirements?
2 langauge classes, 2 science, 2 math, 2 social sciences and 2 Ethnic Studies?
Do they have a White Studies Department?
If race and ethnicity are not proper categories to use, then what ever will Democrats do for a living?
The end of an era is upon them. Clegg is storming their Racial Bastille.
If you oppose racism, stop acting racist.
Compusory Re-Education 101.
How come all the black students that CEO claims have been admitted to Madison do not show up at these protests?
I have a term paper idea for my Ethnic Studies class: Top 10 Humorous Racial Stereotypes and Why They're Funny
Do the have a White Studies Department?
Take your choice of canned replied:
o Raaacist! You are a raaacist!
o We've been kissing white men's asses for the past 10,000 years.
"Stop living in a dream, Clegg" the student added.
Clegg is storming their Racial Bastille.
Well-crafted, sir.
WV - "afrio" A funky Brazilian hairstyle
@ST
You forgot, "they are all white studies departments."
Maybe the European History classes are cross listed as Dead White Men Studies 101-110?
That's hilarious.
Okay. One female in the room screamed. Give her a red balloon.
And, IF you should see this bimbo in your class ... set the first test up to be a doozy. As soon as she gets her grade, she drops the class.
And, as soon as she sees she hasn't got an "ethnic studies" class to take ... She'll have to choose something else.
For high standards also make sure that graduation requires some pretty tough courses.
Tests are not exposed before they are given.
If you want to keep bright, and hard working students, those first tests should be a bear. Because as soon as your weaker students fail them, they drop the course. And, your list of students shrinks.
Long ago, and far away, there were teenagers who didn't do a day's work in college. But they hung out at the Student Union until they were 32. As soon as costs escalated ... this group of students disappeared!
I still think the two old white geezers should retire. I'd hate to think they occupy seats of authority ... where it comes to curriculum requirements.
Meanwhile, if you can capture the brigtest students for your classes ... you'll have a fantastic year!
How do I know? I was lucky enough to sit in those kinds of classrooms. (And, Pasadena City College accepts everybody who signs up and pays the admission fee.)
Mark Twain set Huckleberry Finn down as the definitive work that exposes the religious lunatics who thought it was their "right" to enslave Blacks. The most humane portrait in that book belongs to Jim.
Huck, remember, had a dad who was the town drunk. He slept inside a "hog's head." And, he doesn't come to an education, until the widow adopts him. After the gold is found at the end of Tom Sawyer.
If there is an "ethnic studies" department I start with that one.
I'd tell the story, too, about how Senator Sumner from Massachusetts, got the crap beat out of him from the Senator from one of the Carolina's. Who used a cane against Sumner, to beat him unconscious.
I'd see to it that the kids learned about Paris. In the 1850's. When Samuel Morse's telegraph became the news means of communication.
And, a Black man who escaped slavery: William Wells Williams became an author and playwright of substance in that famous city.
Heck, I'd even include PT Barnum. Who began to understand the psyche of people who'd pay him money to see his shows. And, the circus, to come, would also be a hit.
There's more than one way to tackle "ethnic studies."
America has a very rich history to tell. (And, the good guys won.)
Ethnic Studies Requirement classes?
When the NVA took Saigon, they were called political re-education camps.
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
- Chief Justice Roberts
Why is this idea so complicated?
I know the answer of course. People have created cozy little feathered nests where they require 'ethnic studies' and judge people by skin color in order to prove they are not racist.
I said some weird stuff in college, but I'm really scratching my head over what kind of mental space you have to be in, not only to believe that "an Ethnic Studies Requirement class" could be the answer to any sort of problem at all, but that one could feel *passionately* enough about it to actually yell it out at a university lecture.
How much kool-aid can the system hold before the bladder starts expelling?
My children will not be allowed to major in anything that ends in the word "studies" on my dime. Any credits taken in such departments will be paid for by them.
wv = dogypo
That about says it all!
My first degree was at UW-Eau Claire (in business), and to tell you the truth, I wasn't very impressed wtih the school.
Since I graduated from there, UW-Eau Claire has lowered the number of business classes required to graduate, and added diversity type class requirements.
I'd interpret the comment as equivalent to an accusation that the speaker has false consciousness.
In other words, it's a statement that says, "You disagree with me and since I'm not willing to consider that you might be right and I might be wrong, it follows that you must be ignorant."
The horror is, the shouter probably is not aware of how stunningly arrogant and close-minded it is to assert such a thing.
The only valuable courses college students really need have to do with computer programming.
Besides, I don't you can "mind control" today's youth. PERIOD!
One of the best ways to turn kids against your point of view(s), is to demand they adhere to what you want.
A long time ago, and in a place far away, some parents forbid some of their kids ... who were reaching adulthood ... to marry each other. (Because of the differences in faith, or skin color.)
Maybe, some kids listened. But boy did they carry grudges!
And, of course, it may have been Dear Abby, or Dr. Laura, who said "if you want to lose the privilege of ever seeing your grandchildren, go ahead and claim you have a right to tell them what to do, when it comes to love."
So, taking college kids in America and trying to indoctrinate them ... WILL BACKFIRE!
It just BACKFIRE'S!
And, then? When these kids write up their evaluations they are not kind! No Tea & Sympathy from them!
If the resentments run high enough is that when they get alumni letters asking for money ... they'll laugh out loud. And, toss this "correspondence" in the garbage. Or they will only give minimal amounts.
When was it different? When going to a top college brought in WHITE MEN. These guys wrote into their wills that when they died their estate should put a lot of the money into the old alma mater.
Laugh.
But it was the best thing that happened to Harvard. Where you could go and look at what they got out of their endowment funds.
Women's studies? Man, is that a loser at the end of the day. And, at the end of the decade. And, at the end of 100 years.
Clegg and Church should resign! Put in a search committee ... that gets tasked to find the brightest among Wisconsin's U gradates ... to come back AND HOLD DOWN THE FORT!
New blood! It will make the differnce!
Affirmative Action is the societal equivalent to a drunk driver fearing he's drifting to one side so he makes a conscious effort to steer more to the other side.
The end results, however, are identical.
since I'm not willing to consider that you might be right and I might be wrong, it follows that you must be ignorant."
Oh, we're well beyond that.
They're saying, "...it follows that you must be delusional or insane."
Worse.
They're saying you are a racist bigot bastard and must be re-educated.
Actually, Carol, it was even worse for Senator Sumner than you say. He was beaten by a lowly member of the House of Representatives, not another senator. The ultimate insult.
Reason for the caning? Sumner had said, in a speech on the floor, that the representative's father in law (who was Senator from SC) had "taken as a mistress the Harlot, slavery."
Lack of civility, you see.
Pretty much what Lucious said.
Actually African American history is one of the most fascinating aspects of American history overall. I have studied African American history since 1964, when I took a course called "The American South" from Douglass Cater. Cater, a journalist from the south, was a visiting lecturer at my New England school. He was low status because of his journalism background and lack of a Phd, but he was the best teacher I had in college.
The problem with African American "studies" is not the subject but the way it is taught, especially in introductory indoctrination courses like they seem to have at Wisconsin.
NOBODY needs to take an Ethnic Studies class. I minored in African American History because I had never been taught any and found the subject interesting and compelling. But it was history, not communist propoganda.
Trey
Sorry David, your post was not available to read while I wrote mine.
You must be a man of great humour, charity, and wisdom though. 8)
Trey
That's me Trey, for sure. As Pogo said of himself the other day, "a man of mini talents."
Wisconsin has an "Ethnic Studies Requirement?" Bwahahaha! Liberals sure like to make sure everyone stays in his own little box.
Right on!
Ethnic Studies elective classes aint worth shit!
Okay, David. Thanks for the correction.
I still think serious people can, in good conscious, teach an "ethnic" course based on American values. Which started with an acceptance of religious freedom. And, it can cover "history" ... in case, for some reason, history fell by the wayside.
At Pasadena City College I had a required "history" course. And, it covered America up to 1865. (I'm actually sorry I sold back my textbook to the bookstore, after the course was over.)
And, one of the best things that WILL HAPPEN AHEAD ... is that students will expect value for their expended education dollars.
I happened to have picked something from out of the 1850's. Because it was an interesting century. And, by 1850 Samuel Morse's telegraph actually worked across the Atlantic. (Queen Victoria sent President James Buchanan ... the world's first "INSTANT MESSAGE!")
I'm not afraid of the word "ethnic." But anyone who teaches a crap course, should be fired!
And, given that both Clegg and Church as old-old geezers ... they'd provide a kind act by just retiring. And, letting some younger blood into the university system!
I'd also publish the student reviews. So the STINK-O professors weren't just handed the envelope full of evaluations ... where they just laugh (as they do at Cal State LA).
I think we should begin to see ALL evaluations. And, every student registering for classes ... should be able to review the database. Especially, if they underline complaints!
You know, education shares a lot with a restaurant. Serve food that makes people sick, and you get sued.
Print up a menu of stuff people wouldn't eat. And, the customers refuse to bring you their business.
A university isn't any different.
Even if here, the only thing being counted is "who comes in." You're overlooking who drops out! Beause the first tests they see are way too hard!
Then? If your classes are good ... in any topic ... The kids are going to learn stuff.
And, then? At the end of the term the teacher's skills go under the microscope. Because you bet. You can review a STINKER ... not by what's covered in the course ... But if it's a waste of time! Made worse because the lummox who teaches the drivel ... thinks your opinions don't count!
You'd be surprised!
(At Mudd, the bullshit was in "social studies." So my son took Chinese classes ... to get the credits in that particular field.)
A good university doesn't limit you to the ways in which you earn your grades. They provide a menu!
Even better. Tour the bookstores, if all you're doing is bringing your high-schooler ... to see the campus.
SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ADMISSIONS! You'll change how they behave.
Even better if old gradates write in. (And, even better yet, when they write in, they enclose a financial request from the alumna. Who hold them up to ridicule.) Try to find a way to get those letters published, as well.
We're in America. There's nothing to fear, here!
Fedka: Because they're busy studying and having lives, I reckon?
On the main topic, I would never attend a school that had an "ethnic studies requirement" for the general population (as opposed to those poor fools going for a "Studies" degree) - nor would I willingly pay to help anyone else attend one.
("Fire the lot of them", I repeat.)
Carol: As a professional computer programmer, I assure you that
A) taking a few classes won't get them a job*
B) there are other valuable classes they can take; mathematics, the hard sciences, accounting and business skills of various sorts, logic.
Hell, they'll be ahead of the game if they can read and write decent English without effort, and spot common fallacies.
(* Okay, it might get them a job. A shitty one, and they won't be very good at it, just from taking a class or two.
To be a good programmer requires more than knowing a programming language or two; it's necessary but not remotely sufficient.
I'm not sure anyone really teaches what's needed to be good at it in a university... I'm not sure it can be taught very well.)
I liked mandatory annual consciousness raising seminars at work until I was banned from attending.
It seems like they only want people who don't enjoy themselves.
Almost every university in the US has some sort of diversity requirement in the standard curriculum. See for example, this page at the Association of American Colleges and Universities' "Diversity Web" site. A google search also gives a quick view.
There's a lawyer who sometimes posts, here. He's a Duke Law School graduate.
After what happened at Duke to the LaCrosse team ... do you think it's possible donations went down? Not just from the lawyer who sometimes posts here; but from large groups of graduates, as well.
Did you think the infamous 88 won?
Are you pulling my finger?
More valuable advice from our friends on the 'left'.
I think I now know why they are referred to as the 'left'...that is, they long since 'left' the realm of sanity and have constructed for themselves their very own 'matrix' of self-deceit.
'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help'.
Sigivald, @ 2:11 PM
I signed up for Jesse Kornbluth's HEAD BUTLER emails. And, the other day I got one I enjoyed so much, I forwarded a copy to my son.
In the HEAD BUTLER newsetter he described how his ten year old daughter, for two weeks this past summer, attended a course at Columbia. Where she learned some programming skills. She worked from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. And, at the end she produced two computer games all her own!
Yes. My son is a computer programmer. He went from Mudd to Sony. (And, of all things he works on their Baseball Game.) My son's dad is super-duper enthused about baseball. When my kid was young, however, the game held no interest for him at all.
The way things turn out can often be surprising.
(By the way, when my son graduated high school, lots of kids thought they'd try computer science in college. AND, THEY HATED IT!)
I guess you have to be fascinated by algorithms?
When my son is here, what I often see is how his eyes can pick up details on this computer ... that I just don't even see.
What's colleges supposed to do? Open a kid's eyes.
Oh, and instead of the high school history books ... you can read the nitty-gritty.
America is rich in its history.
Heck, you want to know one of the best African American courses I remember taking? JAZZ! (It's offered by the Teaching Company. Man, I just loved that course!)
I still spend my money on stuff that's educational.
And, none of it is propaganda.
The study of people groups at different points in history (including the present) is anthropology, ethnic studies is the attempt to make certain people feel bad about what the anthropologists have learned.
My son at UW dryly noted that, while he could meet his ethnic studies requirement by taking African dance here in Madison, his semester of study abroad IN AFRICA will not fulfill it.
My son at UW dryly noted that, while he could meet his ethnic studies requirement by taking African dance here in Madison, his semester of study abroad IN AFRICA will not fulfill it.
That's simply too insane NOT to be true.
Here's the Wisconsin academic requirement, and here's the 2002 Report of the Ethnic Studies Requirement Review Committee .
Sigivald said...
Hell, they'll be ahead of the game if they can read and write decent English without effort, and spot common fallacies.
I've come to suspect what many programmers lack is a knowledge of design of experiments along with other aspects of the scientific method, especially the importance of falsifiability. Don't assume your code works and then "confirm" that; assume your code is broken, and look for the break.
To be a good programmer requires more than knowing a programming language or two; it's necessary but not remotely sufficient.
I'm not sure anyone really teaches what's needed to be good at it in a university... I'm not sure it can be taught very well.)
I agree; but sometimes I wonder if that's just the way it is for all problem-solving disciplines. Since I only know programming, I'm not sure what it may be like in other disciplines.
I just know that problem-solving is NOT copy-paste-tweaking, and that's all that many CS graduates know how to do. Training them in traditional fundamentals like the scientific method and critical thinking will make them better programmers -- or better lawyers, accountants, scientists, managers, etc.
wv: cotais. Democrats up for election next year are wondering just how short President Obama's cotais wi be.
Carol_Herman said...
The only valuable courses college students really need have to do with computer programming.
Partly disagree.
A good teacher (and that's the hook) can make any course valuable, to the point that, if you want to put in the work, you get something valuable.
My arithmetic teacher for 4th - 6th grades (tough guy, Pacific war vet, MacArthur's Navy) told us 2 things that always resonated with me:
"You'll find a use for every thing you learn".
"You don't go to college to learn to make a living; you go to college to learn how to live".
Both I've found to be true.
I don't doubt a good course about the history of black people (or Hispanics, etc) would be valuable if taught properly and not used as another exercise in PC indoctrination.
OTOH, I can say without qualm the most useless course I ever had was an exceedingly poorly-taught semester in discrete structures (1/3 of the class flunked; when another prof came in one night to sub for the regular guy, while he explained some of the stuff previously covered, you could just see the light bulbs going on as people were thinking, "That's how it works").
Maybe we need Pol Pot to help us.
Without question the most valuable class I ever took, and many classmates agree, was a speech class. The professor was incredibly demanding, but positve and humorous. It not only helped me when I gave presentations or taught history classes, it was invaluable in preparing me how to testify in court.
The only valuable courses college students really need have to do with computer programming.
You can learn to program from a book or online tutorial. A college course for programming is a very expensive way to learn.
There's a lot of stupidity in the education system...administration, faculty, and students. The students are a little less to blame, I suppose. That young woman was actually taught by the other two groups that a banal, cringe-inducing statement like that is a debate-ender.
Almost every university in the US has some sort of diversity requirement in the standard curriculum.
Not where I work—and we're hardly immune to Political Correctness.
Can't help but think of Morgan Freeman on Black History Month, 60 Minutes interview back in '06. It's what I think of all ethnic (cleansing) studies.
Are Ethnic Studies Requirement classes required before you take an
Ethnic Studies class?
My son at UW dryly noted that, while he could meet his ethnic studies requirement by taking African dance...
Latin dance sounds like fun. I wonder if they offer that.
Some subjects are being taken less to compensate. I'm guessing it's probably sociology and anthropology. No great loss, I guess, although "Marriage and Family" (SOC 10?) was an extremely popular class at UW back in the day.
For federal employees, most of the PC brainwashing is done with 40-chart Powerpoint presentations that employees can view at their desk. (You can run the presentation while viewing Althouse in another tab).
Enduring a whole semester, with testing of the material, seems...unfortunate.
rhhardin,
"I liked mandatory annual consciousness raising seminars at work until I was banned from attending."
OK, we demand the whole story! :-)
A relative who recently visited Madison remarked that they probably need an Ethnic Studies Requirement because they're unlikely to encounter any minorities in Madison.
"My impression was that Madison's diversity is most clearly expressed in its polka which runs all the way from Slovenian to Polish."
Any institution of higher learning that does not require calculus is a fraud.
YMMV
But what if I take a class in ethnic studies (History of England 1066-1700?) and am not transformed by it? Or argue? Or flunk? Can one flunk at UW these days?
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