Education, race, class, and gender
Rogers doesn't give much attention to the race, class, and gender when discussing education. Rightfully so - neither of these has anything to do with people's ability to learn. Mind has no color, of wallet, or chromosomes.
Interestingly enough, the ides of race, class, and gender influencing people's intelligence is one of the most researched. Sociology provides us with a plenty of reasons why we would think, or even wish for these three irrelevant characteristics, as well as a host of other inborn features of our physique, to influence people's intellects - yet all of these reasons would turn rather ugly if we apply the most common ethical standards to them. Plenty of research has been done on the subject, yet it consistently failed to yield any significant proof for the race-, gender- or class-dependency of the intellect.
Interestingly enough, the research on the "intelligence gene", the influence of race and gender on the ability to learn, etc., continues to attract large funds and disproportionate attention. I doubt that any other hypothesis that time and again produced no empirical support would survive that long. Some published "findings" can be discarded by anybody with one course in research methods. For example, I just saw a nice color chart of the IQ measures in the populations of Asian, While, Hispanic and African Americans. Even without thorough analysis, the issues of biased sample (Asians) and unclear criterion (White-Hispanic-African) are enough to disqualify the chart from ever being treated seriously...
Another interesting issue that I discovered at the third year of my undergrad is that race does not exist as a biological fact. If we take an imaginary walk from Finland to Capetown, we will see a gradual change in physical characteristics, with most of the people falling between the extremes. The differences between individuals in any possible "racial" feature would be as big within the supposed "races" as they would be between them. The illusion of race appeared when Europeans traveled far enough to encounter people who lived in different climates and thus looked differently; the idea came handy when they wanted to justify their mistreatment of others. Interestingly enough, the largest attempt in history to classify people according to the "scientific" racial criteria failed. Nazi Germany tried to sort out the "real Aryans" from the "lower" people, and undertook a large campaign of anthropomorphic measurement. However, they had to stop it quickly, as they realized that they cannot classify the majority of German population as "Aryan" To carry out their genocidal dreams, they had to resort to formal documents as a proof of ancestry.
After ages of educational discrimination, the only attention to the race, class, and gender in education should be, in my opinion, focused on fixing past injustices and creating a level playing field.
Interestingly enough, the ides of race, class, and gender influencing people's intelligence is one of the most researched. Sociology provides us with a plenty of reasons why we would think, or even wish for these three irrelevant characteristics, as well as a host of other inborn features of our physique, to influence people's intellects - yet all of these reasons would turn rather ugly if we apply the most common ethical standards to them. Plenty of research has been done on the subject, yet it consistently failed to yield any significant proof for the race-, gender- or class-dependency of the intellect.
Interestingly enough, the research on the "intelligence gene", the influence of race and gender on the ability to learn, etc., continues to attract large funds and disproportionate attention. I doubt that any other hypothesis that time and again produced no empirical support would survive that long. Some published "findings" can be discarded by anybody with one course in research methods. For example, I just saw a nice color chart of the IQ measures in the populations of Asian, While, Hispanic and African Americans. Even without thorough analysis, the issues of biased sample (Asians) and unclear criterion (White-Hispanic-African) are enough to disqualify the chart from ever being treated seriously...
Another interesting issue that I discovered at the third year of my undergrad is that race does not exist as a biological fact. If we take an imaginary walk from Finland to Capetown, we will see a gradual change in physical characteristics, with most of the people falling between the extremes. The differences between individuals in any possible "racial" feature would be as big within the supposed "races" as they would be between them. The illusion of race appeared when Europeans traveled far enough to encounter people who lived in different climates and thus looked differently; the idea came handy when they wanted to justify their mistreatment of others. Interestingly enough, the largest attempt in history to classify people according to the "scientific" racial criteria failed. Nazi Germany tried to sort out the "real Aryans" from the "lower" people, and undertook a large campaign of anthropomorphic measurement. However, they had to stop it quickly, as they realized that they cannot classify the majority of German population as "Aryan" To carry out their genocidal dreams, they had to resort to formal documents as a proof of ancestry.
After ages of educational discrimination, the only attention to the race, class, and gender in education should be, in my opinion, focused on fixing past injustices and creating a level playing field.
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