#182 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday October 29)
Good morning,
I’d like to refocus on education. There is so much sturm und drang in California about the ethnic studies curriculum. There are those who seek to make such studies a major part of students’ education. There is no question that we should study the various ethnicities that contribute to our society. But, as is the case with most issues these days, there is considerable controversy regarding the content. Whose ethnicities? Should it be just about the exploitation of ethnic groups? To some, the treatment of slaves and Native Americans condemns the United States to little more than an exploitative power, devoid of moral standing. To others, the American experiment and the extension of self-government, individual rights, and non-State controlled capitalism is the story of the conquering of nature and science to create a great, modern, economic powerhouse that has improved everyone’s lives.
In any event, ethnic education is fraught with those who seek to provide a single narrative, devoid of, and lending no credence to, alternative narratives of our country’s history. I have several concerns with the ethnic studies debate:
To me, ethnic studies ought not be the study of victimization as much as the study of the contributions that different groups have made to our common culture. Instead, there seems a desire to make the study not so much instructive as political indoctrination. There has been racial discrimination throughout our history and we should be studying that racism in the context of all the positives of the emergence and development of the United States and the ideals upon which it was founded. Certainly, we should expose kids to different ideas—even uncomfortable ideas—but we need not indoctrinate them. As a friend said, “One can study capitalism without being preached to be a corporate fat cat. One can teach about Marxism without indoctrination to be a Marxist.” One should teach it all and need not “connect the dots.” Show, don’t tell.
I fear that, in teaching about ethnic animosities, we run the risk of pitting students against each other. Instead of studying past ethnic crimes and current ethnic disparities in and of themselves, we should encourage dialog and interaction with texts and history lessons. Don’t abandon Locke and Jefferson, de Toqueville and Voltaire. Study them together with Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Dubois. Importantly, each ethnic group should be encouraged to “walk in the shoes” of another group and see the world through that lens. The teaching should be to encourage interchange, interaction, and empathy. These cannot be accomplished by preaching from the “top down.”
The more one focuses on ethnic studies, gender studies or other social studies one must necessarily push other areas of studies back. There are only so many hours in a day and days in a year. It is important that our students, lagging in reading and mathematical skills, as well as critical thinking skills and scientific method, do not suffer further decline from their already abysmal levels. Sufficient teaching time for these critical skills are necessary to allow students to pursue constructive careers and participate responsibly in our economic and political lives. The key is how to add without subtracting.
The study of ethnicities, their experiences and their contributions need not be restricted to a dedicated class on the subject. I think this is where the debate went sideways. Why must there be a dedicated class? In fact, it arguably would be preferable to incorporate the study into other aspects of the pedagogy. Perhaps rather than teaching about race relations directly, one can learn indirectly, through the study of literature—James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and others. And race also can be explored by studying the current western canon, including literature like Huckleberry Finn and musicals like West Side Story. These works can inform understanding and spark discussion, all while developing necessary reading and vocabulary skills.
Let’s study it all. Study the Buffalo Soldiers but also study what happened with the Tuskegee Airmen. Teach about Daniel Boone and John Johnson but also about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War and the Black Cowboys. One lesson should not be to the exclusion of the other.
In the words of someone smarter than I, “Universities [or secondary schools] must be brave enough to expose the warts on our society and humble enough not to require the answers of an orthodoxy that is preached. We should be expanding minds, not closing them.”
TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC, ART AND LITERATURE
I attended a public high school back in the days a public high school education was something of which to be proud. I studied physiology, Russian Literature, and Physiology. We had classes in sociology and psychology. But one of the best aspects of our education was the ability of students to choose their curriculum in English. In our Junior and Senior years, we chose a different class each quarter, having a voice in our choices. It would be a great idea today to empower students to choose the literature and genre they study.
One of the best experiences was a class called “Twentieth Century Music, Art and Literature” (affectionately referred to as “20 MAL”). It was so successful that the teacher, Larry Klevos, added a “19 MAL” class as well. In these classes, we studied trends in these three art forms and their interrelationship with each other and with the social and political movements of the time. I will always remember listening in the dark to Stravinsky’s Firebird (or was it “Rite of Spring”?), with slides of popular artists on the screen at the front of the room. We would go home to read Ralph Bellamy and Frank Norris, addressing on the great social issues of the day. Through this interdisciplinary study, I believe we came out better educated and better prepared for the world.
One wondered whether the model from Mr. Klevos’s classes so many years ago could be the right model to study ethnicities and our shared successful and unsuccessful journey together.
Have a great day,
Glenn
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