University of Minnesota Under Fire for Task Force's Discrimination-Based Teacher Education Plan

The University of Minnesota is under fire for the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group's discrimination-based teacher education plan. The task force was formed as part of the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative at the university's Twin Cities branch and may require all education students to understand and accept that they are either privileged or oppressed and that they be well-versed in issues like "white privilege," "institutional racism" and the myth of meritocracy in the United States, according to My 9 News. In a nutshell, what this boils down to is that race, class and gender issues will be the "overarching framework" of all teaching courses, as My 9 News states.

The people who made up this task force should be ashamed of themselves for promoting racism. The main aim of the task force is to change the way future teachers are trained based on the ridiculous assertion that the teachers' lack of "cultural competence" somehow contributes to the poor performance of minority students. There is absolutely nothing wrong with looking at ways to improve the education of future teachers, but to make it all about race, class and gender is just downright offensive, not to mention racist.
 
Some of the proposed curriculum requirements are:

• "Future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."

• Teachers will be able to articulate a "critical analysis of this story of America, for what it illuminates and what it hides or distorts" including:

- "myth of meritocracy in the United States" - "historical connections between scientific racism, intelligence testing, and assumptions of fixed mental capacity"
- "alternative explanations for mobility (and lack of it)"
- "history of demands for assimilation to white, middle-class, Christian meanings and values" Source: My 9 News

The reality is that it is not the teacher's fault if a student doesn't want to learn. The parents play a great role in on that front. To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Click here to dowload the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group's final report.