Ahhh, education.

[libekory]

One of my classes this semester is an Intro to Education class, because one of the things I'd like to do with my life is go to Japan and teach English, but I've never taught anything before, and I don't want to be one of those teachers who hates teaching, so I thought I would take this class and see how it feels

Comments

[mirrorbrothers]

You've got some good points, and the textbook does sound pretty stupid - that description of Confucianism is particularly bad - but don't get carried away. Remember that liberals can be stupid too - there was a famous scandal where a sociologist published a study portraying a Pacific island culture as a utopia of innocence. When someone else went to follow up, the actual situation was so drastically, diametrically different that the original results couldn't possibly have been an honest mistake - they had incredibly high murder and rape rates, for one thing

[maladaptive]

Since we're going into this all debate-like, I hope you don't read this comment as an attack, because it's not meant to be. But I do have a couple bones to pick with your comment.

Remember that liberals can be stupid too - there was a famous scandal where a sociologist published a study portraying a Pacific island culture as a utopia of innocence.

1. Where do you see a debate about liberals vs. conservatives in here? I don't think libekory is making a statement either way (unless you mean the philosophical school), she just seems to be decrying ignorance in general.

2. I don't see where it matters that the sociologist was a liberal or not-- there have been plenty of liberal anthropologists who've described cultures as bestial, and conservative anthropologists who wrote about noble savages. That sort of romanticizing crosses political lines. I don't see how your anecdote applies...?

But Kepler's Laws were purely phenomenological - we basically only learn them as history of science.Is that an excuse to keep teaching an incorrect version of

[mirrorbrothers]

1. Theoretically, liberal politics are supposed to be based in liberal philosophy. Or to put it another way, the definition of liberalism is not "things Democrats say" or even "things liberals say." The fight against bigotry and cultural bias has generally come from liberalism.

2. I wasn't trying to refute her point about Kepler, I was trying to provide balance. Of course Newton doesn't excuse bad history about Kepler, but in her frustration libekory was talking almost as if Europe stole all its great scientific advances. That's as false as the claim that they thought them all up themselves

[crysiana]

Well, but in reference to #3...how does that relate to the original post? The original post is pointing out that while Europe suffered a period of relative stagnation, other parts of the world were making huge advances, and that this is virtually ignored in many history texts. Unless you feel a) that the real point was "WHOO, GO ISLAM" or b) that the claim that Islamic scholars were making great strides while Europe was relatively scholastically inert is untrue, I'm unsure of what your point is.

Leaving aside any discussion of where Islam is now, how does the current state of Islam change the fact that the advances made by academics in eastern Europe in that period are virtually ignored in history classes?

[maladaptive]

The way we whitewash history is so aggravating, I can hardly stand it sometimes. History never fails to be awesome, nuanced, and so utterly human-- and we just ignore it and continue teaching our future generations the same deeply flawed malarkey I learned in high school.

I guess it's because the only family heritage I really know is Hispanic, and my school had no problem teaching me about the horrible things the Spaniards have done. The conquistadors were terrible human beings, how could they be so terrible! Oh, yeah, but we won't breathe a word of the Japanese internment camps, and let's gloss over the treatment of the natives as quickly as possible....

It's funny when one teacher tried to shock us about how most of us had slave owners in our genealogies. Gasp, horror, surely not us, teacher! Well. My grandmother was landed aristocracy in Cuba. I know there's slave owners in my family tree, and they're not even from the white folk side

[littledarkvoice]

Here via maladaptive; hope you don't mind!

Lots of word to your rant! It is late and I can't comment on all of it, nor can I do so too intelligently, but I would like to say that, gosh darnit, I am a Classics major and I am not okay with this propaganda that the Greeks and and Romans were the shining light that invented all of Western Civilization all on their lonesome. The Mediterranean was a very diverse collection of cultures, and while they didn't always get along they certainly influenced each other intellectually and just generally in a far more complex way than "Rome and Athens were more awesome than everyone." Um, doesn't anyone remember how misogynist and classist these societies were? (Oh, and then the undeniably bad parts of Rome tend to get associated--at least in popular culture--with pagan Rome, implying that Christianity was the band-aid that made everything better, which is just another boatload of fail.)

Er. This is probably why I'm going into Classics, so I can get rid of these notions people have. It's tilting at

[haruomi]

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH YOUR TEXTBOOKS? ...AND HOW IS IT THAT I'M LEARNING THE EXACT SAME THING?

Honestly, I'm glad you have that attitude about what you learn. I'm the kind of person who accepts what I'm told and hardly ever bothers to think outside of the box. I think that's why I can really respect you for feeling the way you do, because you can take in everything you're learning and yet not be afraid to ask how valid the information really is.

After all, it's said that "history is written by the winners", so of course there'll be a huge chunk of the past that we'll never know, because the "winners" try to gloss over all the horrible things they've done, and that's rather frightening.

[kupoke]

Uhm. Hi? 8D;;;

Throughout the several past months, I've been constantly thinking to myself, "You know, I really need to get back in touch with Libek. I wonder what she's up to now?" Except I kept forgetting, because I suck with keeping in touch with people. (I really do. No offense to you in the slightest.) And then I finally remembered, and it literally took 10 seconds in Google. And now I feel like an idiot. XD

I added you to my friends' list. And here we are again. :O;;; If you still remember me, I would love to play catch-up sometime!

P.S. I'm aiming to teach English in Japan as well. Since we last spoke, I switched majors to Japanese language and have earned my BA. Wouldn't it be a hoot if the first time we met in real life was on the streets of Tokyo? XD

[libekory]

Hey babe~ X3

Long time no see. Of course I remember you. :3

And that would be dorkily awesome. XD

[kupoke]

Hey, sweetie. How are yah? :D

I would certainly hope you remember me. I just like to play the pity card every now and again. ;D

Hit me up on AIM if you still hang around there. MY SN is BoilerRoomDemon. Otherwise, we can use alternate methods of contact fo' shizzle. :3;;;