#GeoffreyMiller is at it again. Making wild and entirely wrong pronouncements about diversity practices in current academic work, well-directed to his easily outraged anti-academic and/or reactionary audience.
Been reading one of #EricKaufmann's #AcademicFreedom reports. In it, he cites the National Association of Scholar's data sheet on cancellations to highlight how many there have been. 1/
So I went and looked at that. It was fun. It had a number of cases on it that I didn't know yet, and there are links the news pieces and blog posts, so it's useful in its way. 2/
The association itself way oversells what they think the data sheet shows. Just listen to the snippy description below. Aside: the article from which it's taken leads with a dictionary.com definition, ahem. Follow the links for the data sheet. 3/ nas.org/blogs/article/…
Friends, sorry to bother you, I need to give myself a little pat on the back for a moment. Joe proves my point. I responded (maybe I shouldn’t have—I’m not here to back-pat myself for impulse control) WITHOUT SWEAR WORDS. Not opposed to swear words, but it’s on Rod’s timeline.
Still refraining from cursing, swearing, or being verbally aggressive! A little proud of myself.
(This is not that easy for me. Oh, the slight suffering.)
Coming back for a moment here to try to put my finger on why I was so angry and wanted to swear at Joe. My point was that the rule "don't ask people for their motivations, only the truth of the claim counts" denies us the opportunity to ask for motivations because we need trust.
Etienne P. LeBel—the person who runs the Curate Science Twitter account—retweets right-wing crusader Chris Rufo, of the Discovery Institute:
Ah, yes, the leader of Curate Science endorses the view that the "neoracist ideology of diversity/equity/inclusion is toxic and reflects psychopathology."
That's a transparent way of thinking, I give it that.
"Pinker traces the origins all the way back to 1975 and the publication of E.O. Wilson’s 'Sociobiology,' when Wilson and other biologists 'would get shouted down' for expressing the view that genetic & other evolutionary considerations determine, in part, social organization."
What a curious thing to say.
Why not go back to the 19th century when the idea that women should be allowed to study at college or uni was shouted down? When white campus populations shouted down Black students on their campuses?
Student-to-student relations in our courses are such an important buffer, and remote teaching is very limited in providing that kind of important but under-recognized support. The chatting about what's difficult. What the prof didn't explain well enough. . . .
What you find puzzling or strange about the prof's approach. What is something to worry about in this course and what is not. What is best dealt with by staying calm and waiting until the next class. What you're ahead of in understanding, and where you're behind.
I often experience my teaching as a bit erratic. I'm slightly temperamental, and when I get excited about something during prep or in class, I often miss the signs that I should maybe be explaining something else. So, I think about how students can fill those gaps for each other.