Student protesters at Seattle University (MRC Student Coalition) are demanding a " non-Eurocentric interdisciplinary curriculum".
Here’s an excerpt of the demands. The entire list is availble here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mrc-student-coalition-demands-
Your thoughts on what should be taught in colleges nowadays? What should be mandatory?
I don’t know what should be mandatory but I am so against this. Why not learn a history of successful culture and adapt to it to further the progress made. Take a candid look at colonialism, slavery, and everything else but isn’t history power dynamics? Do you learn much just looking at oppressed culture? My kid’s HS left out everything european. They taught non-eurocentric history, African history. My kid was studying Gabon. History of Gabon? The father was a dictator for 40(?) years and the son took over continuing the dictatorship. There may be more to say about how Gabon came to be but the present day Gabon doesn’t have much of a story. To spend a whole semester on that when the world is big and changing fast and there are so much learn.
It’s pretty rare that I am left speechless, but this is one of those times.
As a US Historian, I am 100% for this. Believe it or not, dead white men were really not what built the US and our “success.”
We can’t really comment , since the petitions are no longer online, but I wonder about the demand that faculty reflect the non-white , non-hetero-normative profile.
I think that yes we need to learn the entire version of history, but that cannot be done without learning about the full arc of history., which includes historically oppressed and marginalized populations. For instance take people with disabilities in the United States. How often do you hear about their stories? If ever it was probably one line in a chapter about the civil rights movement. But they have a long and painful history that no one talks about.
During much of the last century, they faced rampant discrimination and had no infrastructure of support. They were called awful names like “crips,” shunned by society, and the government refused to hire people with disabilities. There was eventually change but only after very militant protests. Things that we take for granted, such as curb cuts to allow people to get onto sidewalks, and handicapped accessible buses were not available. There was a huge protest against Greyhound where people chained themselves to buses because they refused to make these available. People shouted “At least Rosa Parks could get on the bus.”
The American with Disabilities Act was only passed in 1990, outstanding considering how long these issues have been around. Additionally, people with chronic and mental illness were not accommodated or protected until 2009… less than 7 years ago. This gets glossed over and DOES NOT GET TALKED ABOUT. I can’t stress how important learning history like this is and I have friends with disabilities and are part of oppressed populations that still face many issues today.
I think this should be a part of everyone’s education to make people feel more empathetic and understanding toward their peers rather than the bullying and discrimination that has often become commonplace in schools. It is all part of a well-rounded education and if we cannot even understand the people around us, what can we understand? If we do not remember the past, we are inclined to repeat the same mistakes as the past and forget to be grateful for how far we have come (and how far we need to go).
As a STEM major, it was hard enough getting all my math & sciences requirements done on time. Being required to take non-Eurocentric/non-cisgender humanities classes would have been a burden.
I think perhaps the goal is to not necessarily require everyone to take a certain classes, but to have a selection of those classes available to choose from and have people required to choose some of those classes just to broaden people’s perspectives and education. That way at least people are educated about some of those issues and there can be an exchange of ideas during out of class discussions. Hopefully once people learn about some of these issues they will realize how riveting and relevant these discussions are in understanding our world today.
Honestly it is not uncommon for schools to require students to take classes outside the European tradition. My school has a humanities “outside the European tradition” requirement and I think that is really valuable if we expect the next generation to have a global perspective outside the spheres of the world they already understand. Students pretty much have a basic understanding of US history traditions that is drilled into them throughout grade school, but so many students have very minimal understanding of worlds and traditions outside their own. I have friends in Europe that are required to learn at least 2 foreign languages and know more about U.S. history than some Americans do. At the very least I think we should encourage students to get some exposure.
As Steve Jobs once said, "Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.”
I am so embarrassed. This is my alma mater. They aren’t seeing another cent of my money. It’s a bunch of rich, spoiled brats, who need something to protest against. I’m sure they’ll be complaining about all the microaggressions they are suffering through, next. I am thankful that my sons chose another school (though they were both accepted there). It will be shocking, just shocking, I tell you—when they have to go out in the world and they can’t get everything they want. It will be tough to demand their “safe spaces” and whom is allowed to do what. Are these the people who are going to lead our country to prosperity? Defend it? Fight for it? I doubt it.
So they are demanding the dean’s resignation for these transgressions, and want a “woman of color” to take her place…as if they have the right to demand what skin color the dean should have. Though I wonder if that’s good enough. Must she be gay? Or trans? Does she have to check all the blocks to be acceptable?
I put partial blame on people with this kind of entitlement for one of the current election cycle choices we have now, and I resent it. As if you couldn’t tell 8-|
“Is taught by prepared staff from marginalized backgrounds, especially professors of color and queer professors.”
Demanding what color and the sexuality their professors must be, wow.
Well, if you don’t want to go to a college taught by Jesuits, then don’t go to a Jesuit Catholic University.
And I know it’s a stunning suggestion…but if you want to learn specifically about non-Western history, you don’t have to take a class on it. You can actually read a book that isn’t assigned to you by a teacher. On your very own. Or read about it on the internet. They only have to take a few required classes on Western civilization, not really so surprising for people living in a Western society. There are tons of classes available on Latin American studies, Global African studies, Asian studies, a plethora of choices. But how terrible to be required to take a few history classes featuring dead white men (ignore the fact that most people in history are dead…because apparently they don’t realize that history took place in the past).
Those dead white men were pretty talented, and created most of the ideas and knowledge base than runs the most advanced (and liberal) societies in the world today.
Like it or not, history, politics, and economics have a lot to do with power relations. Historically, white males have predominated in the wielding of that power, given their greater access to education, wealth, and opportunity. Cutting them out of the narrative makes no sense. Nor does it make sense to teach about the rise of industrial capitalism without including the history of African slavery which undergirded capital accumulation in Europe. Would you exclude the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, two privileged white guys, who brilliantly exposed the exploitation and sexism inherent in capitalist society?
False dichotomies and reverse stereotypes aren’t helpful. It doesn’t have to be either/or. I doubt that most professors today limit themselves to the dead white guy narrative. Nor are white straight educators necessarily and inherently insensitive, clueless, or bigoted because of their color, class identity, or sexual orientation.
As far as I remember Karl Marx was not privileged - he spent most of his life in poverty relying on Engels for financial support. So the study of his writings should be allowed.
“As far as I remember Karl Marx was not privileged - he spent most of his life in poverty relying on Engels for financial support. So the study of his writings should be allowed.”
Yeah, but he’s a dead white guy, supposedly heterosexual, too. So he’s out.
I just read on Wikipedia that there were less than 11 people at his funeral. Maybe this counts for something. Please have some mercy.
^ Yes, but he started out privileged before he was exiled. You didn’t get to attend university in Germany in the first half of the 19th century without education, money, and status.
As far as I’m concerned, if your friend supports you and your family in reasonable comfort (yeah, I know that Marx griped about the quality of the wine), that’s still privilege. 
I suppose that could be considered some sort of privilege, if you get someone to work at a factory to support you, while you neglect and starve your family, believing that work is beneath you.
Holy Cow! that is quite a word soup!!! Looks like if you are White, male, upper middle class/rich, heterosexual, patriotic and a US Citizen with no disabilities, then you are scum unless you openly acknowledge you are scum and apologize daily and frequently for it :))
Good to know
We’ll never end bigotry - though doing so is a worth goal - and where people are free there will be multiple levels of prosperity. If I had to choose between economic liberty and coerced economic equality (at the extremes…), I would take liberty every time. (Of course, we’re something like two-thirds capitalistic – maybe a lot more, depending on how much of taxation is actually socialistic)
I think the best way forward is simply to teach kids to work hard and to be good to others and treat them fairly; have some sort of charity or safety net (ideally both) for those who lack, while preserving as much liberty as possible; and try to involve ourselves and our children with as many different types of people as possible.
I don’t know about everywhere, but plenty of colleges have a diverse curriculum. In fact, for the 2 colleges I know best, (granted, highly selective and east coast,) student interest in some aspects of history has diminished and it’s the classes with the alternate perspective that get fuller enrollment. (What do you see, Romani?)
I was fortunate that a hs history course was taught by a woman with strong interests beyond the power structure and conventional approach. As well, other courses through college emphasized the wholer populations, their perspectives, struggles, and wins (or not.) Sparked a long term interest for me. I just hate to see the traditional obliterated. As it is, kids just aren’t as interested in, say, the Renaissance. Education/becoming educated is a big job and, unfortunately, there isn’t time to cover everything.