AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Welp. Education hit a new low. Fun list of things faculty are encouraged not to say or do because apparently they're at least tacitly offensive.

Some of them are common sense, which is probably why the piece of garbage got any attention: raising your voice or speaking slowly when addressing a blind student, saying "You're a girl, you don't have to be good at math."

Many of them don't make much sense at all: "I believe the most qualified person should get the job", "Where are you from?"

A few - unexpectedly - blatantly hypocritical: "Gender plays no part in who we hire", "Men and women have equal opportunities for achievement."

I don't think I'll be going into teaching anytime soon. Sounds like intellectual suicide.

I love how that text insinuates that all black people are loud. Real progressive there guys.


I hope this is from one particular school or whatever, not some nation-wide guidelines.

And how asking a Latino or Asian to speak up about what they think is asserting a dominant culture or something. I mean, how DARE you ask someone for their input? That's just barbarian.

I don't have a source that says so outright but I think this was developed by a study for encouraged use in multiple campuses - if not this list in particular, the mindset definitely.

This looks like something to be used during "diversity" training or just something to cover in a higher ed class on education. I vaguely remember having a discussion about stuff like that when I was doing the pre-teaching program. We covered it for maybe 2 or 3 classes.

This doesn't look like any sort of official rules or guidelines, maybe more like a handout for a particular class or just stuff for teachers-in-training to think about.


Being in education fields means you have to be more sensitive than the average person to any biases you might unknowingly have. You don't want to be accused of favoring certain students over others because that's a daisies good way to lose your job. So understanding that a statement like "oh, you seem so exotic" might be (very very slightly) racist is important, because over time all the little things you say to a student will add up.

For example, growing up I had a lot of people assume I got good grades because I was Asian, not because of any actual effort on my part. It didn't REALLY bother me, but I wouldn't want to hear that kind of thing from my teacher, because they of all people should be able to see me as a person, not just assume stuff about me due to my race or gender.

I remember spending a lot of time in my college classes talking about finding a delicate balance between understanding the background and perspective of different students, without forming any stereotypes or biases about them. Honestly I feel like education courses teach you more about being "politically correct" than gender/racial studies classes would. But most of it was just common courtesy and teaching us to treat students (and parents) with respect.


TL:DR it's just a handout to get people to think about biased things they might think or say without realizing.
It's not really asserting "black people are loud", it's just saying that many people might think or react that way to a black person who happens to be loud, as an example.

It is not saying that those are wrong to think. It's saying that those are wrong to say when they're lies, which is very often.
And yes, you shouldn't ask someone who's not speaking to speak. If someone decides to be quiet it's probably because they want to be quiet.

I'm usually a very quiet person, super introverted in high school and it hasn't entirely worn off. I can't see the harm in trying to bring someone into a conversation in a group setting even in informal settings since I'm usually the one having to be drawn into it, especially among strangers, new acquaintances, or in some instances even people I've known for some months. I actually appreciate when someone notices that I'm sorta awkwardly standing there not knowing how to join in and tries to make an opportunity. It'd become all the more important to do so in a professional or team-oriented setting.

I can see where it'd be overboard to try to force someone into saying something, but I have a really hard time believing that saying "We want to know what you think" falls into a "shouldn't" category - particularly when stipulating that it's a bad idea based on the person's ethnicity. Is there a reason that wouldn't backfire? Asian/Latino/Native American going "my co-workers never want to know what I think and I just found out it's because of my race"?

As an education major, calling on people in class who aren't speaking without the prompt is a method of formative assessment. It's a way to get them to verbalize that they understand the material, as well as practice explaining their thoughts, depending on the discussion level. It's not just a teacher being an booty and disregarding someone's interaction preferences.

You'd think that, but the text actually put that part under 'Pathologizing Cultural Values/Communication Styles' and clarifies it's about 'The notion that the values and communication styles of the
dominant/White culture are ideal/”normal”.' So the text is saying "being loud" is a black cultural value/communication style. Perhaps that was not their intention, but it is at least very haphazardly worded.

Oh Japan has a Sexy gorilla.

The hell? This is the first I've heard of it. That sounds awesome. Details! (I don't have time for Google at the moment)

Looks like Kerchak learned how to be dashing from Tarzan.

Heard a radio program discussing possible legal precedents set by the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage. The idea was brought up that if all states must accept same-sex marriage licences issued in any state based on the 14th amendment it sets a precedent in support of the argument that all states must accept as valid concealed carry permits issued in other states based on the 2nd amendment, even if the state in question doesn't currently allow concealed carry. Thoughts?

As far as I know the SCOTUS hasn't specifically overruled state law in regards to concealed carry permits. They did do that for same-sex marriage, because it was kind of a huge issue that some states (*coughtexascough*) were handling poorly. Right now ALL states MUST ACCEPT same-sex marriages, no matter where they were issued. It was so ordered, remember? No such ruling was made about concealed carry, so it is still on a state-by-state basis, like same-sex marriage used to be.

I suppose Current Events is the thread for this.

Studies find academically overbearing parenting styles correlate with college age depression




If I had a dollar for every time I freaked out because I felt pressured to take on more classes than I could handle, or felt anxious over some simple life event I had never done on my own before, I could pay off my student loans. Honestly I hadn't even thought about exactly what I wanted to do in college before I went, I didn't have a goal or plan, I just went because it was expected of me. Not just by my parents but by teachers as well. Looking back I wish I had had the chance to sit down and plan out exactly what I wanted to do. Now I kind of feel like I'm stuck on a certain career path and it'd be a waste to try something else... but that could also just be "grass-is-greener" thinking.