Comments on: We all know what works–but who will pay for it?

By: Anything I can do, you can do better… : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:12:58 +0000

[...] and female students are least likely to do well at large public universities.” Well, duh! I think someone else made this point rather fulsomely nearly six months ago. (Rather brilliantly, I might [...]

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Thanks, Rad–and thanks for checking in again at Historiann.com! Interesting thoughts on SLACs. As a graduate of an earnestly liberal and well-meaning historically white SLAC, I got the impression that non-white students who enrolled there were actually performing more of a service to the institution than the institution was necessarily doing for them. Others have written about this more eloquently than I have, but in sum, the institution could then boast about its diversity, without really having to change the way it did business. I think many SLACs are better than they used to be 20 years ago about giving more than just lip service to ethnic studies and hiring a more diverse faculty, but when I was in college, in the History department I studied in, everything (including even boring, mainstream American history!) was subordinated to Western (European) Civilization.

And, as Gandhi once said when asked about Western Civilization, “I think it would be a very good idea!”

(Rim shot.)

By: Rad Readr

Rad Readr — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:12:38 +0000

Well, I’m sorry to be so late to post here. I was swamped last week and missed historiann. A few thoughts…yes on more Latino/a content — should be woven regularly into Amstuds and Latinamstuds. Latinostuds may be the way to weave together the artificial division of the Americas, especially in those places or moments when the North/South divide wasn’t pronounced.

As far as elite education, I would caution young Latinos/as from attending liberal arts colleges and certain larger private universities. Most of those places were created to educate the white elite (as you point out) and they don’t respond well to fluid subjectivities. Usually, the choice is between buying the program or being unhappy. So, I agree, the goal should be to bring down class sizes at the large public univs.

Thanks for taking up an important topic which doesn’t receive as much attention as it should.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:38:39 +0000

Cool–I like the dog talking about his blog cartoon. I’ve seen T-shirts for sale somewhere that say, “More people have read this T-shirt than your stupid blog.”

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:15:06 +0000

Glad you liked the link. It’s actually courtesy of my brother, http://www.mutantpoodle.com/wordpress/ and there seemed some synchronicity between your posts as I read this morning.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:48:33 +0000

Susan–thanks for the link! I love it! And I agree completely with Rust Belt Intellectual, as well as with you about the “bargain hunter’s approach to life.” If I can borrow a phrase from Wal-Mart: “Always poor results. Always.”

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:13:17 +0000

Historiann, you might find this relevant: http://rustbeltintellectual.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-have-romans-ever-done-for-us_15.html

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:53:25 +0000

Somewhere recently I read that a study had found that the single biggest predictor of student success in intro courses was that the course was taught by a full-time employee of the university. (That included FT lecturers, not just TT faculty.) It turns out that people employed full time are more likely to be available to students outside of class. Imagine that!

I think you’re absolutely right on class size and learning. Like so much of education, we know what the solution is, but no one wants to pay for it. (We know what works in k-12 too.) Even if you capped intro classes at 40 — where you can still get to know people — it would make a huge difference.

Of course we can say “you get what you pay for” about a lot of things — your experience of air travel, the quality of children’s toys, infrastructure, etc. We seem to have been seduced by the bargain hunter’s approach to life, and then get surprised when things don’t work.

Oh, and just a reminder about curriculum. Some of us DO NOT teach about the US or the Americas. There is a world outside….

By: Clio Bluestocking

Clio Bluestocking — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:47:15 +0000

I have a half-baked proposition: abolish private schools. Make all schools public. Then, the rich will have a stake in the quality of education at public schools.

By: James Stripes

James Stripes — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:47:43 +0000

So, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 is a core text in your colonial America? Bravo!

I told people that I never planned on becoming effective at entertaining/teaching lecture classes of 100-200+, but that I had. Lots of pop quizzes, lecture-based test questions, learning 25+ names because of some discussion, and I had fairly good attendance in my largest classes. Teaching a literature class to five non-majors was more problematic. When five have not read the text, or read well, and discussion is the learning media, it is less effective than making deposits through lecture (see Paulo Friere) in the heads of many dozens of passive receptacles. These divergent teaching experiences have taught me that several different class structures and instructive media are preferable to a single dominant mode. Even those I once despised might have their place.

When I was at State U., the central classroom building was redesigned to accommodate technology, and I was furious that some of my classrooms no longer had movable desks that we could form into a circle. Now, I use PowerPoint in history classes of six to twenty-five students. This change in perspective gives me an appreciation of James Axtell’s comment, “Welcome to the cyber domain of a former Luddite!”