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Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

commonwealmagazine.org

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Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#21

[flagged]

> credentials which we liberals have been making steadily more stringent by doing our best to excommunicate racists, male chauvinists, homophobes, and the like.

They're excommunicating a lot more than just those:

Diversity Statements Required for One-Fifth of Academic Jobs - https://www.schoolinfosystem.org/2021/11/11/study-diversity-...

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. If the parents are concerned about the book being part of the curriculum because the author is black, Jewish, homosexual, or any ‘other’ (rather than on the contents of the book), it seems to be a fairly accurate assumption. “Look, we literally can’t force your child to do anything. If they prefer to sit non-disruptively and receive a zero in that part of the curriculum, that works for us.”

Often it happens like this: Teacher: Your kid needs to read a book by a black author. Parent: Why do my kid need to read a book by a black author? I don't think that is a good way to pick books. Teacher: So you say you refuse to let your kid read any books by black people? Stop being such a bigoted racist! Society isn't tolerant enough to tolerate people like you!

Do you think that teacher’s first line is actually “often” the way such a controversy starts?

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#23
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often it happens like this: Teacher: Your kid needs to read a book by a black author. Parent: Why do my kid need to read a book by a black author? I don't think that is a good way to pick books. Teacher: So you say you refuse to let your kid read any books by black people? Stop being such a bigoted racist! Society isn't tolerant enough to tolerate people like you!

Do you think that teacher’s first line is actually “often” the way such a controversy starts?

Yes. How else would it start? The teacher decides that the kids needs to read a book for racist reasons, eg because the skincolor of the books author is what the teacher wants it to be. Teachers associations often writes such goals in their agenda, this isn't a conspiracy theory, they say that this is why they do it openly themselves. Then when people protest that the protesters gets called racists. Maybe there are some real racists out there, but I believe that this version is overwhelmingly more common. I have seen it many times, so I have no reason to believe that the "racism" the author refers to anything more than this sort of "racism".

Edit: Can you give a single case where teachers first didn't pick a book because the author was black but instead that it made the most sense to use that book, and parents still complained in the past 5 years?

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#24
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. If the parents are concerned about the book being part of the curriculum because the author is black, Jewish, homosexual, or any ‘other’ (rather than on the contents of the book), it seems to be a fairly accurate assumption. “Look, we literally can’t force your child to do anything. If they prefer to sit non-disruptively and receive a zero in that part of the curriculum, that works for us.”

Often it happens like this: Teacher: Your kid needs to read a book by a black author. Parent: Why do my kid need to read a book by a black author? I don't think that is a good way to pick books. Teacher: So you say you refuse to let your kid read any books by black people? Stop being such a bigoted racist! Society isn't tolerant enough to tolerate people like you!

I'm pretty sure the first line by the teacher would be something like - your kid needs to read a book by Maya Angelou or they would name some other specific black author.

Or maybe they might say something like in order to diversify our reading we will be bringing books by black authors into the curriculum, authors like Maya Angelou.

But I doubt they would say your kid needs to read a book by a black author.

Because then I guess the kid could just choose the read The Three Musketeers, which actually I would think that a kid choosing to read that had their head on right but probably that is not what the teacher is hoping for.

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#25
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often it happens like this: Teacher: Your kid needs to read a book by a black author. Parent: Why do my kid need to read a book by a black author? I don't think that is a good way to pick books. Teacher: So you say you refuse to let your kid read any books by black people? Stop being such a bigoted racist! Society isn't tolerant enough to tolerate people like you!

I'm pretty sure the first line by the teacher would be something like - your kid needs to read a book by Maya Angelou or they would name some other specific black author. Or maybe they might say something like in order to diversify our reading we will be bringing books by black authors into the curriculum, authors like Maya Angelou. But I doubt they would say your kid needs to read a book by a black author. Because t…

> I'm pretty sure the first line by the teacher would be something like - your kid needs to read a book by Maya Angelou or they would name some other specific black author.

No, they absolutely are talking about people like this, they say that kids needs to read books by black authors, then the teachers reads this and adds books because the authors are black:

> The push to modernize reading lists is challenging traditional definitions of literature. Surprise: Not everyone is happy about it.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/19/08/hooked-classics

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#26
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any teaching that assumes that the student is a biggot that needs to be corrected, and that the student should just accept his truth on the basis of his/her authority as a teacher, is obviously a fairly bad way of teaching. The teacher should make the knowledge he wants to impart approachable and use an angle that the student can accept so as to convince him/her.

Many teachers, professors and daycare workers have been trained to believe that this is an absolute, fundamental ground truth about their students and the air that they breathe; this is an increasingly prevalent worldview in the sphere of education, and we're likely to see further developments as it strengthens its hold.

I’m curious to know the basis of your assertions, to try to get a better idea of this situation from your point of view. First, the idea that many have been trained to believe this. What is this training specifically they are receiving? How many teachers/professors/daycare workers are receiving this training and where? By whom? Is the basis of this belief something you read or personal knowledge of teachers and professors in your life?

Secondly the idea that this worldview is increasingly prevalent: do you have any data on this, that teachers and daycare workers increasingly believe their students are bigots? When did this belief start increasing? How fast is it increasing? If we know it’s increasing we must have a measure on how much and how quickly. Is it a lot rapidly, or not so much over a long time?

I’m seeing a lot of strong conclusive statements in this thread without a lot of accompanying evidence. I’m sure your statements are rooted in well-researched evidence or at least personal experience with the educational community, so I’m just curious to see exactly what so I can incorporate them into my own point of view.

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that teacher’s first line is actually “often” the way such a controversy starts?

Yes. How else would it start? The teacher decides that the kids needs to read a book for racist reasons, eg because the skincolor of the books author is what the teacher wants it to be. Teachers associations often writes such goals in their agenda, this isn't a conspiracy theory, they say that this is why they do it openly themselves. Then when people protest that the protesters gets called racists. Maybe there are s…

Can you provide a single case to support your position? You can’t ask someone to prove a negative. But you have told us this this is happening “often”. In fact it’s so prevalent you can’t even imagine an alternative conversation.

You presented a specific conversation. Did you hear that conversation personally? If not, who told you this conversation happened or where did you read about it happening? I’m not doubting you, I just want to get more hard facts into this thread.

You said that teacher associations have “often” written this into their “agendas” so it’s not a conspiracy theory. What are these associations and do you have a copy of these agendas into which they have written this? Since it happens often and it’s written down, you should show us and we can have a more substantive discussion about what they actually wrote versus your interpretation of what they wrote.

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "We are not so inclusivist as to tolerate intolerance such as yours." More like "we are inclusivist therefore we cannot tolerate intolerance such as yours".

This confuses cause and effect. Intolerance of intolerance isn't just political theatre. It's a deliberate attempt to avoid the kinds of practical horrors that racism etc create in an otherwise liberal culture. Those horrors includes personal and mob violence, lynchings, rapes, other random murders, institutionalised economic apartheid, privilege (and its close ally, corruption), the reduction of public debate to rea…

> Those horrors includes personal and mob violence, lynchings, rapes, other random murders, institutionalised economic apartheid, privilege (and its close ally, corruption), the reduction of public debate to reactionary dogwhistles instead of future substance - and ultimately, with tedious predictability, torture and mass murder.

Those are real problems, yes. But it should still be allowed to question the solutions people claim to have to those problems. The author here claims that you shouldn't be allowed to question solutions, if you do then you are evil and should get rejected by society.

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. How else would it start? The teacher decides that the kids needs to read a book for racist reasons, eg because the skincolor of the books author is what the teacher wants it to be. Teachers associations often writes such goals in their agenda, this isn't a conspiracy theory, they say that this is why they do it openly themselves. Then when people protest that the protesters gets called racists. Maybe there are s…

Can you provide a single case to support your position? You can’t ask someone to prove a negative. But you have told us this this is happening “often”. In fact it’s so prevalent you can’t even imagine an alternative conversation. You presented a specific conversation. Did you hear that conversation personally? If not, who told you this conversation happened or where did you read about it happening? I’m not doubting y…

> Can you provide a single case to support your position?

There is plenty, this article gives a good view, apparently people have been pushing for things I claimed for 50 years according to this article. I have no reason to believe all these "racists" described here aren't just people who push back against these movements. I'm not saying that such movements aren't warranted, however I would not say that people who are against them are racist. There is a huge leap between "I don't want to read a book just because it was written by a black person" and "I refuse to read any book written by a black person no matter what the book is about".

> It’s been more than 50 years since literacy experts first stressed the need for more diverse books in the classroom, and yet reading lists look surprisingly the same as they did in 1970.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/19/08/hooked-classics

Re: Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

#30
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a single case to support your position? You can’t ask someone to prove a negative. But you have told us this this is happening “often”. In fact it’s so prevalent you can’t even imagine an alternative conversation. You presented a specific conversation. Did you hear that conversation personally? If not, who told you this conversation happened or where did you read about it happening? I’m not doubting y…

> Can you provide a single case to support your position? There is plenty, this article gives a good view, apparently people have been pushing for things I claimed for 50 years according to this article. I have no reason to believe all these "racists" described here aren't just people who push back against these movements. I'm not saying that such movements aren't warranted, however I would not say that people who ar…

I read the article. I don’t see a basis for the conversation you presented, nor the assertion about teachers associations, nor any information on the specific training teachers and professors are getting. I’m interested specifically in these claims you made in this thread. You are saying the basis for them is this article? Did you hold these beliefs before reading this article, or did it convince you of these beliefs. If the former, then what is the foundation of that belief? Personal experience? Research? TV?
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