Are we sure we know why we teach what we teach?

A recent article in the New York Times:

“MEMPHIS — Jack London was the subject in Daterrius Hamilton’s online English 3 course. In a high school classroom packed with computers, he read a brief biography of London with single-paragraph excerpts from the author’s works. But the curriculum did not require him, as it had generations of English students, to wade through a tattered copy of “Call of the Wild” or “To Build a Fire.”

“Mr. Hamilton, who had failed English 3 in a conventional

Project 400 – Backstage Fashions

A large percentage of our students get jobs at foreign trade companies. Backstage Fashions is a woman’s fashion exporter doing business in several countries in Europe and in the USA. One of my former students works there.

As part of the 400 Project, I visited my former student and her boss. In the photo, I am talking to the manager of Back Stage. I am learning (1) what kind of English do companies need (2) what kind of English we taught our students that they use at their jobs (3)  what kind of English we taught our students that they do not use at their jobs (4) what kind of English our students need but were not taught.

From this research, I am learning how to prepare our students to find jobs easier and to do great at their jobs.

>Confessions of a white American racist

>I posted a message from a school in China which was looking for a teacher. Because the school director expressed a ‘preference’ for a female teacher in her 30’s a teacher came to the conclusion that “This job is obviously from a racist school, not to mention sexist, to say nothing of age prejudice.”

I found this response laughable. It’s kind of a knee-jerk politically correct automoton response, isn’t it? I think so. Especially since I must be, according to such definitions, such a deranged dirty hideous bloody racist. Now don’t get me wrong. I won’t say there is not a detremental manifistation of racism but not all racial preferences are evil.

OK, I’ll just admit it. I have ‘preferences’, too.

First of all, he is way too old fashioned. He is living back in the days of the black-white racial strife as carried out in the USA as well as some other places. I’m one of the new breed of racists. Our breed can even indulge in ‘reverse’ racism.

But perhaps I am not alone. Perhaps you are one, too. Take the test with me:

You might be a racist if…

You want to eat in a good Chinese restaurant. You know nothing else about the restaurants except that one restaurant is staffed by white Americans from Arkansas but you choose the one staffed by Chinese from China.

You want to study the Torah. You know nothing about the teachers except one is a blonde blue-eyed guy from Sweden named Sven but you choose the guy from Israel named Mordecai.

You want to learn the art of Japanese flower arrangement. You know nothing about the teachers except that one teacher is a white guy from Scotland but you choose a teacher from Kobe, Japan.

You want to learn Chinese martial arts. You know nothing else about the schools except that one school is staffed by white Londoners but you choose a school that is staffed by Chinese from Shaolin, China.

You want to study Buddhism. You know nothing about the teachers except one is a white guy from Miami but you choose the guy from India.

You are intensely interested in authentic African music. You know nothing about the schools except one is in Alaska staffed by a bunch of white guys but you choose the one in Nigeria staffed by a group of native Nigerians.

I don’t know how you answered those questions. Perhaps you closed your eyes and just pointed to choose an answer to ensure your sense of racistic morality. But I would vote AGAINST the white guys in every single one of those examples.

Call me a white American racist.