A sop for the bullies
The really scary thing is the abject apology Jessica Cluess felt compelled to give.
Well, I tell you what, if she does learn more about “Ms. Germán’s important work with #DisruptTexts” she won’t be impressed. She probably knew that when she said it. She was either appeasing the bullies or mocking them, or perhaps both at once.
Having just read a bit of Ms. Germán’s important work I can report that it has no value. She’s not literate enough to do that kind of work; she’s not sufficiently interested in literature to do it. She’s the wrong person for the job.
The reality is there are already teachers reading against the grain, encouraging students to think critically about what they’re reading, and the like. I have no idea how general that kind of teaching is, but I know it’s not completely absent, because scholars of education have been writing about it for decades.
Apparently this isn’t abject enough for her critics, since she failed to mention her “violence” and “racism” and “all the harm” she caused. Nor did she outline the concrete actions she’s going to undertake to make up for what she did.
Which was unforgivable anyway, mind you. It’s just that the apology which won’t be acceptable under any circumstances needs work. It’s “not even close” to an apology.
Never apologise.
Never back down.
Always stand up for your ideals.
I know, I’m a white, retired male, so it’s easy for me to say it. But I will stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are fighting this disease.
Encouraging the development and refinement of a student’s own critical faculties is what western education is all about. Its history goes right back to the Ionian Greeks.
Christianity, based as it is on all the separate ‘books’ of the Bible, both held it back at some times and encouraged it at others. At times, the squabbles between the Christian clerics broke out into the open, resulting in numerous schisms and reformations.
Islamic education discourages critical thought, lest the ability for critical analysis be turned against Islam itself. The results are there for all to see, side by side by side at the bottom of the Eurasian landmass. Polytheist India has finished up as an economic powerhouse, while Islamic Pakistan is a basket case.
Islam was schismatic right from the death of Mohammad (pbuh). But its holy book is far more internally consistent than is the Bible, and it is organisationally fragmented and competitive, rather than doctrinally so. There is no pope in Islam, and internal fragmentation takes the form of competing mosques, whose imams are each independent businessmen in their own right. Hence the rivalry of the minarets (the higher the better) calling the faithful to prayer: these days using tannoy systems and what have you.
It’s a bit like McDonalds vs Colonel Sanders.
A frightening number of eager, would-be Cultural Revoltionaries and Red Guards commenting there. They can go fuck off with the Trump supporters.
Chamberlain style appeasement.
It doesn’t work.
If you burn all the books, anyone can pretend to be literate by invoking their intersectionality and opwessédness.