Students did NOT experience "learning loss." Students absolutely learned during Covid: how to navigate new and shifting learning environments, persisting when all society's institutions failed them, responding to adversity, on and on.
The "Learning Loss" framework simply amplifies already-existing inequities in K-12, and reinforces the deficit model of higher ed, where all we talk about is what our students *can't do*, as opposed to what they can. Curricula were disrupted. Learning, though, did not stop.
We're gonna have a whole bunch of campuses that say they're committed to DEI work, and then turn right around to talk about how to "compensate for learning loss," as if that whole framework isn't an archetype of "the college-ready student" saturated in whiteness and wealth.
I say this all the time: we should be designing courses and curricula for our students, not in spite of them.
And to cap this mini-thread/rant, one of the best ways to get about this work is to read @joshua_r_eyler's How Humans Learn. I'm rereading it again right now, and remain in awe of how insightful and humane a book it is.
PS--Yes, students missed specific things in specific subjects. But content coverage does not equal learning. When we say "covering content," remember that describes what teachers are doing, not students. Learning is not simply being in the same space as someone "covering" things.
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There. Is. No. Constitutional. Prohibition. On. DC. Statehood. These are bad-faith arguments in service of keeping a majority Black city unrepresented in Congress. A mini-thread. /1
2. Those who say that the constitution prohibits DC statehood argue that the document gave Congress the exclusive legislative power over "the seat of government," which was to be no more than 10 sq mi. But location of that district wasn't decided until 1790. /2
Until then, NYC and Philly served as temporary capitols. DC came about as a backroom deal to get Hamilton's funding and assumption fiscal measures through congress. See this explainer: www2.gwu.edu/~ffcp/exhibit/…
/3
I had the chance to speak to a group of HS sophomores and juniors today as they visited GV's campus, and was asked to offer some advice/perspective on academics and such for folks just starting their college discernment process. Here's what I suggested (brief thread)
2/when you enroll in a college/university, that institution is asking you, and your family/care group, for a significant investment. Not just money. But your time, labor (emotional, cognitive, perhaps physical), willingness to take risks/question your priors, and more.
3/but you need to ask: is this an institution that wants me to invest all that, and yet doesn't reciprocate that investment? The "asks" associated with college are big ones. You shouldn't be asked to undertake all of that work alone and/or unsupported.
Of course Prager misquotes Jefferson. The actual quote is "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."
Also, I doubt Prager sees the irony of deploying this bootstrapping language as uttered by someone like Jefferson who, as an enslaver, built an entire life by "wasting the labors" of people "under the pretense of caring for them."
And by "labor," one could also include the coerced sexual labor of Sally Hemings, given that Jefferson began raping her when she was 14 (carrying on a tradition of white Jefferson men raping enslaved Blackl women).
"The board statement acknowledged the faculty vote and concerns; affirmed a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusivity; and said the board expects Salsbury to unite the broader university community." LOLOLOLLLLL insidehighered.com/quicktakes/202…
Like "unite the broader university community" is something he can just check off the list one day, between "order new coffeemaker for the office suite" and "cut humanities budget."
This is why most institutional DEI work will ultimately fail--it implicitly conceives of it as a collection of things to check off a list (a CDO, more diverse faculty, multicultural night in the dining hall) rather than an ongoing process of critical reflection and reparation.