As if the teachers weren’t lib enough, the Univ of Minnesota is rolling out a new brand of teacher.

University of Minnesota Under Fire for Task Force’s Discrimination-Based Teacher Education Plan

A branch of the University of Minnesota may require all education students at the school to understand and accept that they are either privileged or oppressed and that they be well-versed in issues like "white privilege," "institutional racism” and the "myth of meritocracy in the United States."

Gee, isn’t it possible that someone can be neither privileged nor oppressed?  Because, I don’t feel as though I belong to either.  Although, looking at all of the frightening legislation in Washington, I think that we’ll all be oppressed soon.

Critics are condemning the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, which proposes making race, class and gender issues the "overarching framework" of all teaching courses.

The task group, formed as part of the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative at the state university, aims to change how future teachers are trained, based on the assertion that the teachers’ lack of "cultural competence" contributes to minority students’ poor grades.

Race, class and gender issues will be the overarching framework of all teaching courses. 

Let’s see how that can work.  Math – Johnny has 2 apples.  Julie has 2 apples.  But, since Johnny is an evil white boy, he steals Julie’s apples.  How many apples does Johnny has now?

Who is the racist?  Is the person who believes that a person of any race can succeed in school, if only they try, the racist?  Or is the person that assumes that someone can never succeed on their own merit, because they are of a certain race, sex, class the racist? 

Some of the proposed curriculum requirements are:

• "Future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."

• Teachers will be able to articulate a "critical analysis of this story of America, for what it illuminates and what it hides or distorts" including:

- "myth of meritocracy in the United States"

- "historical connections between scientific racism, intelligence testing, and assumptions of fixed mental capacity"

- "alternative explanations for mobility (and lack of it)"

- "history of demands for assimilation to white, middle-class, Christian meanings and values"

- "history of white racism, with special focus on current colorblind ideology"

• "Future teachers are able to explain how institutional racism works in schools" and recognize that "schools and classrooms are often structured in ways that advantage and disadvantage some groups but are also critical sites for social and cultural transformation."

Every time that I see a story like this, I am more and more thankful that there were no teaching jobs in my field when I graduated college.  Laughably, I would have been a history teacher.  I often wonder how long I would have lasted before my butt was fired.

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