But Paying Attention Is Hard
Toni Airaksinen pokes a stick at some contrived agonising:
This “intellectual trauma” is, you’ll be shocked to hear, entirely the fault of “whiteness” and “heteromasculinity.”
As we’re in the realm of the excruciatingly woke, the terms violence and trauma are of course misused and deliberately misleading.
The supposed violence and trauma, then, is actually an attempt to excuse rates of classroom misbehaviour among black students.
Throughout the paper in question, the term “brilliance” is deployed no fewer than seventeen times, as if it were some obviously inherent, pre-existing attribute – of students who can’t be arsed to study, who don’t pay attention in class, and whose grades, as a result, leave much to be desired.
Even more frequent is use of the term “whiteness,” an alleged phenomenon on which the paper is premised. Though readers in search of some clear and convincing definition, or some compelling evidence of its existence, may find their hopes dashed. We are, however, assured that “whiteness” is something that gets in the way of black students “maintaining their Blackness.”
And furthermore,
Saturated, you hear. Positively dripping with the stuff.
So, to paraphrase our fretful educators: Among these allegedly downtrodden and traumatised minority students, expectations of promptness and accuracy, of arriving at correct and verifiable answers, and handing work in on time, are alien things. Instead, it seems, we get lots of loud and goofy behaviour. Thereby disrupting attempts to learn by other, more conscientious students.
And which, it has to be said, isn’t entirely flattering of the drama’s supposed victims, or an obvious basis for sympathy, even pretentious sympathy. Nor is it an obvious footing for some sweeping, de-whitened reinvention of how mathematical knowledge might be imparted. All conjured into being at the expense of those more diligent and whose classroom behaviour isn’t selfish and disruptive.
Well, again, if a student doesn’t feel obliged to do the work, to learn, or to hand in said work by a given deadline, like everyone else, and instead spends class time pissing about, loudly, then being unwelcome seems an inevitable consequence of those choices.
And constructing elaborate, question-begging excuses for such behaviour, as if these inadequacies were somehow proof of obscured “brilliance,” things to which one should defer, and actively affirm, doesn’t strike me as a convincing, long-term solution. Indeed, it sounds rather… what’s the word? Oh yes, toxic.
Readers will note how any feelings of incompetence and not being welcome are immediately blamed on external causes, on some ectoplasmic “whiteness,” that Befouler Of All Things. As if such feelings had nothing whatsoever to do with the choices and behaviour, and the personal shortcomings, of the students themselves.
Instead, Dr Jasien and her colleagues expect the teaching of mathematics to be driven by the goal of “healing… intellectual trauma,” by paying “attention to the minds and bodies of students.” The students being, it seems, much less obliged to pay attention to anything beyond themselves.
Update, via the comments:
As so, with eye-widening obliviousness, those who claim to champion certain supposedly downtrodden demographics do a disservice to those same demographics.
It’s a pattern we’ve seen before, of course:
Hardness and stiffness. And we can’t have any of that beastliness in the minds of people who may one day be working on projects involving cranes and scaffolding. According to Dr Donna Riley, whose words glow above, academic rigour and the expectation of competence are “exclusionary” and tools of “privilege,” and are unfair to women and minorities, for whom rigour and competence are presumably impossible.
Dr Riley goes on to inform us that engineers need to spend less time doing load-bearing calculations, and more time pondering “radical protest” and “Marxist traditions.” Yes, the design and construction of fighter jets, oil rigs and 1000-tonne tunnelling machines will one day be informed not by careful calculation, or a knowledge of materials and thoroughly tested principles, but by criticality, reflexivity, and “other ways of being.”
Update 2:
Regarding Dr Jasien and her colleagues, Aelfheld adds,
Ah, but, you see, Our Betters will purge the world of bigotry by embracing wholesale the mental habits of the bigot.
I’m reminded, for instance, of assistant professor of art education, Dr Albert Stabler, who regards objections to being assaulted in class as “white supremacist violence” – because objecting to violence is violence now – while excusing a near-continual disruption of lessons as displays of “cultural knowledge” and “kinetic” creativity. A creativity that includes vandalism, punching staff, and forcibly cutting the hair of female teachers.
On grounds that expecting even minimally civilised behaviour is “the overvaluation of white feelings,” and therefore “racist.”
And note that those peddling this worldview, this poisonous counsel, can get quite annoyed when minority students don’t want to play along.
Via CavScoutCoastie.
🎯
Dr Jasien and her colleagues are, it seems, bent on framing vice as victimhood, and thereby high status. As if being selfish and disruptive were something to be applauded and rewarded, regardless of the inconvenience to others.
There’s a simple solution to this, and the myriad other ways in which non-whites (allegedly) suffer and (definitely) impose suffering, in Western countries.
Fuck them off out of Western countries.
Somewhat related:
As so, with eye-widening obliviousness, those who claim to champion certain supposedly downtrodden demographics do a disservice to those same demographics.
It’s a pattern we’ve seen before, of course:
Hardness and stiffness. And we can’t have any of that beastliness in the minds of people who may one day be working on projects involving cranes and scaffolding.
According to Dr Donna Riley, whose words glow above, academic rigour and the expectation of competence are “exclusionary” and tools of “privilege,” and are unfair to women and minorities, for whom rigour and competence are presumably impossible.
From the article: “Griffin argues that women’s sense of belonging in math is hindered by values such as ‘objective’ and ‘rational thought.’
Presumably, because women are incapable of such. Gosh, if only someone had told me when the University of California, Irvine awarded me an MS degree . . . in Mathematics.
Should I return it?
Well, quite. As noted above, the condescension and wrong-headedness are hard to miss – and yet commonplace.
Likewise, the paper quoted above is so dense with begged questions and dubious assumptions, and the authors so adamant and wrong-headed, so lost in world of imaginary phenomena, it’s hard to see how one might even have a discussion with such people.
I tend to think of these pernicious clowns as the educational analogue of sudden-onset bone cancer. An ongoing rot.
These are not serious people. No university should employ them.
They do seem very eager to assume contrived and wildly unobvious things, akin to conspiracy theories, and to assert those things as fact, while not bothering with the customary expectations of providing, you know, evidence. Even the term “whiteness,” which is used dozens of times and on which their entire paper is premised, remains oddly nebulous and unconvincing.
Apparently, it’s something that gets in the way of black students “maintaining their Blackness.”
But this is the acceptable standard for inhabitants of the Clown Quarter. Apparently, this is good enough.
I was assured that such idiocy would stop when it reached the STEM universities and professions. There was some sort of magic about logic and reason prevailing there…well…just because. Being concerned about it, pointing to evidence of the initial decline was just being a dumb, dumb, dummy. Real, serious people were smart and they understood that it would all just go away. No serious effort to address it was necessary. In fact, bringing it up was just “giving it unwarranted attention” and thus…not helpful. Intellectually lazy mf’ers but smart.
I tried to read it but God it was painful and I’m still no wiser. I think they’re just making shit up at this point.
*snort*
Well, it suggests the existence of some parallel academic ecosystem – let’s call it, say, the Clown Quarter – in which normal proprieties have been abandoned as both ideologically inconvenient and contaminated by pallor. And in which question-begging is necessary and actively encouraged, and things can be asserted without evidence, or any expectation of evidence, or even clear definitions.
Provided the conclusions – however they were arrived at and however unearned they might be – affirm a predetermined worldview.
Racism: Black girls aren’t smart enough to do math and it’s their fault.
Woke: Black girls aren’t smart enough to do math and it’s society’s fault.
Obligatory: When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything
As a black African co-worker says, the difference between wokes and racists is that racists are at least honest about the fact that they think blacks are inferior. Wokes are not only dishonest about it, they’re arrogant about it, too.
Nobody should employ them in any capacity more responsible than janitor.
Somehow, I’d forgotten about that.
More and more it seems an entire industry has dedicated itself to reinforcing, in contrived and convoluted language, often at book length, the most denigrating racist jokes of the past century or so.
You should demand they upgrade it to a PhD, as justice, or reparations, or something to compensate for the trauma and violence you obviously suffered.
And note that many of those peddling this worldview, this poisonous counsel, get rather upset when minority students don’t want to play along.
From the link:
That is the precisely the poison that Wormtongue dripped into King Theoden’s ear.
And yet if you go to the actual African continent and peek into a schoolroom, you’ll see the kids working away at their times tables and doing long division. While Black.
I don’t know what these hand-wringers think will happen next.
1. Fret about ‘whiteness’ in math.
2. ???
3. Success
Perhaps “success” in this case means “moar grant money to study the issue.”
In the meantime, black (and white) kids go into the world without being able to count change or figure a tip.
I guess the kneecapping must be the point. Because they’re so awfully good at it.
[ Post updated again. ]
If only the fat-phobes had given her two to sit on.
An easy way to handle this problem, which was used at my school, is separate classrooms: one for those who want to learn math, and one for those who want to be “goofy”. But that would be segregation.
Heh. As encouraging as this news is, I wonder how long he has been a quiet Trump supporter. Odd that 10 years into this, it’s the first I heard of it from him. Not that I follow him closely, but Kid Rock, Ted Nuget, and post-Vegas shooting Jason Aldean I have seen a lot from. If I’m wrong, my bad.
My school had ability-based tracking: regular classes for students of average ability and separate accelerated classes for students with superior ability.
Let them self-segregate: If they don’t want to be “traumatized” by expectations of good behavior and hard work, let them go to special schools for the warehousing of losers. After “graduation” they could even be encouraged to live in (and stay in) special loser neighborhoods where the police won’t bother them as they engage in their uncivilized behavior.
I’ve said it before but these people need medication.
Pretty sure I read somewhere maths used Arabic numerals?
In Dr Stabler’s case, it’s hard to miss the brokenness, the neurotic, messed-up quality. He’s a pretty good illustration of why so much progressive posturing is not just wrong or dishonest, but psychologically disgusting.
Well, when you let your feelings take priority over calculations, pedestrian bridges fall down, barges get stuck for a month blocking the Suez canal (the arab pilots were busy arguing when the crash occurred), doors blast off of airliners, and much of the world’s PCs shut down due to a software update. No biggie, as long as feelings are not hurt.
Women are quite capable of doing math and engineering. Up until college, girls get higher grades in math than boys. If they choose less stressful careers, that is a reasonable choice but not the fault of the math. By the way, nerdy engineers have the lowest divorce rates of any profession–they are problem solvers and dependable and make good money.
The assumption that POC simply cannot control themselves is such a racist assumption. These twits are not helping POC succeed.
In other news, we find out what constitutes(ed) bigotry in the lunatic quarter.
Another example of the lack of felt need for evidence is the supposed genocide of indian students at the schools in Canada, schools that Indian parents sent their kids to for an education. It was asserted that there were mass graves but even the suggestion that some digging be done to prove it were hastily pooh poohed as unnecessary. Of course the real reason was that no such genocide ever happened. Never let facts deter a useful narrative.
My school had ability-based tracking: regular classes for students of average ability and separate accelerated classes for students with superior ability.
We had the same thing in the Province of Ontario. High School was 4 years for those who weren’t going to University and 5 years for those who were. So the “core” courses Math, English, Science, History were either phase-4 for 4-year students or phase-5 for 5-year students. All other courses (electives) had only one phase. Some schools actually had a phase 3 for those with low IQs or serious learning disabilities.
They have since phased out the phases and done away with the 5th year (grade 13) and, as you can imagine, standards have been lowered to those of the lowest ability and not raised as was promised.
Interesting that all these woke lefty “researchers” and “professors” who bang on ad nauseum about “racist math” and “other ways of knowing” are using all those Evil Wyte technologies they hate so much to spread their poison, and depend on these same technologies for the ability to work from home, order and receive deliveries of food etc at home, and would be very angry if none of these things worked. Not to mention when constructs that are supposed to be “rigid” and “stiff” become as load-bearing as their arguments.
I still remember that First Female Hispanic pedestrian bridge that was such a Historic First, until it fell down and killed a few people, after which the whole thing went into the memory hole toot sweet.
And yet if you go to the actual African continent and peek into a schoolroom, you’ll see the kids working away at their times tables and doing long division.
The same can be said for some Caribbean Islands where they take schooling very seriously. Unfortunately, there are plenty more that don’t. The ones that do all seem to come from a more British tradition: Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda and Antigua to name a few.
My experience during the 70s, when we had a lot of transfers into our schools from the named islands above, was the kids were all very capable and did as well or better than the kids in the university track programs. Other islands (Jamaica) had less consistent results–some kids were very good, most were not.
In the 70s, my mother was so impressed with the schooling in Antigua, after a vacation visit, that she created a program to send and supply several libraries with children’s books from Canadian school libraries to expand the children’s access to books. She worked in High School and College Libraries and was the head of her Association.
This. But, I’ll add, it isn’t about “less stressful careers” but what really interests the girl/woman when we get to the crossroads of where we want to see ourselves at 25, 30, 40 years old. Whether it is engineering or surgery or the law, when women are *free* to choose, they choose careers based on a conscious decision to prioritize marriage and kids. That why you find more women dermatologists than heart surgeons. Not because they are incapable, but no one calls you out on the weekends or in middle of the night for emergency acne care.
I loved math/algebra/etc up through high school, but I made my algebra teacher cry when I said I wasn’t interested in majoring in math in college. It was fun and I loved the challenge and was good in it, but I just couldn’t picture myself doing it all day every day. Even accounting sounded boring as a profession.
Weird how these Wokes snivel about oppression but they refuse to believe women who say “I choose to be a wife and mom and my career as *X* is secondary”.
I thoroughly dislike anyone who calls out other people for staying quiet about their support. Perhaps they understand that nobody cares what a stupid rock star/country star/actor/artist thinks about politics?
Perhaps the public just wants you to play your guitar and sing and not lecture about what others “should” do.
This.
Also: Those doing the loud calling out display a “strange lack of interest” in the consequences people may suffer for offending the left. Academics who suddenly cannot get funding/tenure/promotions. Authors shunned by publishers who used to love them, and ignored by newspapers and magazines that used to publish glowing reviews. Actors who stop getting job offers. And so on.
The Evolution of Socialist Strategies
Darleen: when I said “ If they choose less stressful careers” I was referring to exactly what you said. If you choose a demanding job, having kids and giving them your attention is going to be difficult.
In one of his podcasts, Jordan Peterson talked about consulting for major law firms which were having trouble retaining highly talented women: The women would rise to the top by virtue of their talent and hard work, but then would “drop out” in favor of raising families and also in favor of a better work-life balance. It seems that far more men than women are willing to work long hours, year after year. Just don’t make the mistake James Damore made and say such things where HR apparatchiks can hear.
“Algebra” as any fule kno, is a pure Anglo-Saxon word.