Great piece. Glad to see that someone as articulate, reasonable, and wise as Ms. Stangel-Plowe is FAIR's Director of Educational Programs! One small thing I appreciated: Despite her own positive experiences with student-centered learning, she notes that a more traditional approach -- so often caricatured as rote memorization and haughty …
Great piece. Glad to see that someone as articulate, reasonable, and wise as Ms. Stangel-Plowe is FAIR's Director of Educational Programs! One small thing I appreciated: Despite her own positive experiences with student-centered learning, she notes that a more traditional approach -- so often caricatured as rote memorization and haughty lectures -- can also be successful in encouraging engagement and curiosity.
To pre-emptively confront the inevitable accusations of privileged, disingenuous, and harmful "colorblindness" that will be levied against FAIR's "pro-human" approach, it would be good to acknowledge that there are times when racial/ethnic/sexual identity -- among students as well as in a book or subject being studied -- will come up and when it will be necessary and appropriate to address. Perhaps the author or others can come up with examples of constructive engagement with those questions, at age-appropriate levels, similar to her excellent example of the Korean-American student and the Nigerian book.
Simple: on matters of sex, race, religion, etc. *wait until the students bring up the subject* -- and then answer honestly, including admitting the teacher's own biases. The kids will respect that.
Great piece. Glad to see that someone as articulate, reasonable, and wise as Ms. Stangel-Plowe is FAIR's Director of Educational Programs! One small thing I appreciated: Despite her own positive experiences with student-centered learning, she notes that a more traditional approach -- so often caricatured as rote memorization and haughty lectures -- can also be successful in encouraging engagement and curiosity.
To pre-emptively confront the inevitable accusations of privileged, disingenuous, and harmful "colorblindness" that will be levied against FAIR's "pro-human" approach, it would be good to acknowledge that there are times when racial/ethnic/sexual identity -- among students as well as in a book or subject being studied -- will come up and when it will be necessary and appropriate to address. Perhaps the author or others can come up with examples of constructive engagement with those questions, at age-appropriate levels, similar to her excellent example of the Korean-American student and the Nigerian book.
Simple: on matters of sex, race, religion, etc. *wait until the students bring up the subject* -- and then answer honestly, including admitting the teacher's own biases. The kids will respect that.