Newtown shooting: Focusing on young black men in hoodies while ignoring young white men with Glocks
Veteran teacher Bob Fecho, now a reading education professor at the University of Georgia, writes about young men, violence and guns in the wake of the Newtown shooting:
I am a white male. I’ve been in education for nearly 40 years and for 24 of those years I taught in three different secondary schools in Philadelphia. The students in all those schools came from working class and working poor black families.
When I would tell other whites who I’d meet casually—a taxi driver or a sales clerk, for example—where I worked, I’d hear anything from the coded “It must be hard teaching them kids” to the bald “You should get a medal for teaching there.” I suspect they imagined a school running amok, with fights breaking out daily, gangs terrorizing teachers, and mayhem rampant. Such was never the case.
Instead, I would see how the young men I taught were frequently vilified in local media, how black on white crime was plastered across the 11 o’clock news, despite its low occurrence rate relative to other crime. My students would tell me about policemen who would pat them down merely for standing on a street corner, about store clerks who followed them from the moment they entered a store until the moment they left, and about whites who, when seeing them approaching, would cross the street.
In America, we seem to live in fear of black males.
On Dec. 14, a white male killed 27 victims — most of them children — in a school in Connecticut. In July of this year, a white male murdered 12 people and injured 58 more in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Before that, U. S. Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 other people were shot by a white male. Six of them died, including a child and a federal judge.
Mother Jones magazine, in a report on mass shootings in the United States, indicated that since 1982 there have been at least 62 such shootings. The magazine went on to report that 43 of the killers were white males. Of the remaining 19 shooters, fewer than 10 were African American.
Rather than avoiding black males in hoodies, it would seem to be wiser to keep white males from carrying Glocks.
Yet we don’t.
In fact, we continue to make it easy for white males, and anyone else with the ready cash to buy weapons that facilitate such mass and random violence.
And it’s the randomness that is especially troubling. When I taught high school in Philadelphia, there would be fights from time to time. You put 2,000 adolescents in a relatively small space and there will be fights. But the violence was always focused. Someone disrespected someone’s mama or made moves on someone’s girlfriend. The offended sought the offender and the incident rarely spread beyond that.
But mass shooters—who are overwhelmingly white males—might start with an intended victim but then it becomes killing for killing’s sake. Anyone is a target. Anyone is free game. You turn a corner at the wrong time or open the wrong door and you’re a victim.
And curiously, we white males might be the greatest danger to ourselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates for white males 24-64 are far higher than any other combination of gender and race, except for Native American males. And the rates for older white males, those beyond 64 years of age, skyrocket.
The suicide method of choice tends to be guns. A Harvard Public School of Health Study showed that suicide rates trended higher in states with high rates of gun ownership and lower in states with lower rates of gun ownership.
We as a nation see the statistics. We wring our hands over the wasted lives. We send money to the families of victims. Yet a U.S. Congress that before the last election was in the neighborhood of 85 percent white and 83 percent male continues to drag its feet on any kind of substantive and pervasive gun control legislation. And we, the voters, let them.
Worse, we allow different standards to exist. If 43 of 62 mass shootings had been perpetrated by black males or Latinos, particularly if whites had been the targeted victims, I can only imagine the punitive legislation, the mandated sentences, the investigative commissions, and the building of even more and larger prisons that would have occurred. We would see these murders as some form of collective uprising that needed to be quelled.
But because white males commit the wide majority of these horrendous crimes, we choose to view them as isolated incidents —sad and tragic— but isolated, nonetheless. We refuse to acknowledge that we as a society create the easy access to weapons of widespread violence and the alienation that often leads to the use of such weapons. We continue to shirk our responsibility in terms of how we facilitate the purchasing of weapons of mass violence and how we ignore the needs of those so alienated that they resort to the use of such weapons.
As one white male to all the others, we need to look in the mirror; we have to begin seeing the realities around us. Whether we are carrying semiautomatic weapons, access keys for electronic voting machines, or legislative briefs in the halls of the U.S. Capitol Building, we provide the American people with far more to fear than any minority in this country.
We can continue in this self-destructive vein or we can re-envision a more compassionate and safer world. I suggest we take the initiative and do the latter. If not, as the last election suggested, all who aren’t white males will not so gently shove us out of the way.
Banning weapons of mass violence and seeking greater support for the families of children and young adults struggling with depression and alienation would be a good place to start.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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213 comments Add your comment
Lexi
December 21st, 2012
9:03 am
Any statistic on which group kills and maims more people in any given year?
Mike
December 21st, 2012
9:03 am
My friend who taught at Jonesboro High for 25 years has told me some stories about daily life in that school that were bad. He says the police were called to their school every week to deal with some out of control situation. So his story does not math up well with the guy who was in a similar situation in Philadelphia.
I live in a rural north Ga. county that is 99% white and guess what? We have almost zero violent crime.
My retired teacher friend lives here now too.
indigo
December 21st, 2012
9:05 am
bootney
You need to spend less time here and more time on your homeschooling lessions.
Too Blessed
December 21st, 2012
9:05 am
Point blank the stats are there so u see it for yourself people, it is what it is, blacks do more “black on black crime” I stay in the city and read about it everyday..More blacks committing senseless crimes is very true, but when “whites” jump on the other hand- they go crazy and kill everybody.. Its been said over and over people, it is what it is, although it shouldn’t be acceptable
Ga Tech Rules
December 21st, 2012
9:06 am
I believe the Virginia Tech shooter was Asian, the shooter in Alabama was a female professor, the shooter at Fort Hood a Muslim of Arab ethnicity, and the list goes on. Perhaps the mass killings cited above were so horrendous because the white males were capable of planning and executing their plans, as opossed to the crook in a hoodie robbing a store and at the last minute deciding to kill all the witnesses. Odd how the special interests have dug their hooks into this mass murder, from the mentally ill lobby, the black lobby, the autism lobby, the gun control lobby, the more money for education lobby. What a pack of opportunist!
williebkind
December 21st, 2012
9:07 am
“Newtown shooting: Focusing on young black men in hoodies while ignoring young white men with Glocks”
Now that is a typical liberal attempt to use journalism to exploit a tragedy.
Young black men in hoodies are simply young men with sound minds choosing a particular dress code. But the attack on white men with glocks is a lie and a Piers Morgan moment of rant to push a personal agenda. The white man in question was an evil manic who had access to another persons firearms. He took them and used them breaking all laws and the moral laws of nature.
Did Piers Morgan invite you over for dinner Maureen?
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2012
9:10 am
I have an idea. Go for a walk tonight. Say 9:00 pm. Metropolitan Parkway or Cumming? You decide
I’m sorry you feel so threatened by discussion of these mass shooters that you have to pull the scary black guy card.
If we’re talking statistical probabilities of dangerous locations: I, as a woman, am in more danger at home with a boyfriend or husband of any color. Far more women are killed by their partners than random black guys. And this statistic is possible because men buy guns, which can kill quickly before that angry impulse passes. Men buy guns and justify it because somebody might invade their territory or god forbid, rape their wimmen property in their territory. The result is thousands of dead women.
Guns are used by tiny little men angry they can’t control _____. It’s notable when it’s a mass shooting, but completely unremarkable when it happens to individual women.
Now let’s watch white men run like rats from THIS discussion.
KIM
December 21st, 2012
9:12 am
@Dr. Proud Black Male: Your points begin as concern that the writer has that perhaps we pay more attention to certain stereotypes and ignore others which are lethal. At first I thought you may have legit points, but then your arguments deteriorate in content and credibility. When people got really upset with Bob Costas about a violent culture, I was puzzled. He is right on. Whether it is race on race or an insane individual with a Glock, semiautomatic or other, death is death. And all cultures must face up to all our responsibility in ending the violence. And I have another bit of advice for you and the two others who do the same in this blog: drop the Dr. and you will have better appeal. Your significance is in your content, not in any kind of handlebar.
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:13 am
Attentive parent
Excellent points. You may also want to reference the expositionalist studies among Ugandan prepubescent males (1973 and 1981) which demonstrated that their perceived continualitionalism and preference for external- rather than internal-structualist norms affected their socialization skills vis a vis the similar studies done in the 1960s among the lower-class Scottish youth raised in Glasgow slums.
Dr. Proud Black Man
December 21st, 2012
9:15 am
@ stop the racism here
“This teacher isn’t pretending there is not black crime. He is saying we are ignoring these angry young white men in these mass shootings.”
You’re wasting your breath. SOME of “these people” here still got that bream in their eyes!
Dr. Proud Black Man
December 21st, 2012
9:17 am
@Kim
Please find your husband and lecture to him and let me know how it goes.
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:20 am
Aquagirl
What you say is true only if you avoid Metropolitan Parkway and show poor judgment in selecting your husband/boyfriend.
Maureen Downey
December 21st, 2012
9:23 am
To Aqua’s point:
http://www.pbs.org/kued/nosafeplace/studyg/domestic.html
Of females killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds were killed by their intimate partners. The number of females shot and killed by their husband or intimate partner was more than three times higher than the total number murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined in single victim/single offender incidents in 2002.
The Violence Pol’y Ctr., When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2002 Homicide Data: Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents, at 7 (2004), available at http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2004.pdf
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:24 am
Aquagirl
And I am not the one who introduced the issue of race. Remember the article we are all commenting on? Fecho is describing a Bizarro world in which young white misfits pose the danger while peace loving black youths study math and volunteer in soup kitchens.
BG
December 21st, 2012
9:29 am
My opinion of the writer went downhill when I saw that the teaches “Reading Education” at UGA. What is that course all about? To teach folks to read who should have learned that in grade school?
Matthew Howell
December 21st, 2012
9:33 am
It is a false equivalency to compare inner city violence with suburban violence because of the lack of opportunities available to inner city residents. Much of the crime in inner city areas could be eliminated with the creation of valid opportunities for young minorities in these regions. Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If a person is not able to provide for basic needs, considerations of morality and ethics will be non-existent. Much of the gun-related violence in urban areas is violence committed because there are no apparent opportunities, and a great deal of futility in the lives of urban residents. Active shooter situations are completely different in nature, as most of these people come from suburban areas and middle class backgrounds. I am not stating that one type of violence is better or worse than another, just that comparing the two is a false equuivalency lading to spurious conclusions. Finally, posting stsatistics from white supremacist funded organizations like the New Century Foundation is not presenting compelling evidence, Lee.
Lee
December 21st, 2012
9:35 am
@Maureen, and statistically, the majority of vehicle deaths occur within 25 miles of your home.
Sorta falls in the category of “absolutely correct but totally irrelevant” stats.
Private Citizen
December 21st, 2012
9:36 am
break for action sequence kung-fu movie, working class black man vs. white guy in suit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS4CWKK-UWA#t=80m15s
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:36 am
Maureen:
What you say is true, but it would be truly shocking if this were not the case. Women spend a lot more time with their husbands and boyfriends than they spend strolling among strangers in dangerous neighborhoods, and domestic disputes are bound to occur. 1500 murderous husbands/boyfriends are 1500 too many, but out of 150.000,000 American men you can expect to find some bad ones.
Maureen Downey
December 21st, 2012
9:36 am
@BG, Teaches aspiring teachers in the UGA College of Education how to teach literacy and writing. He is the author of a noted book on how to work with adolescents on writing, “Writing in the Dialogical Classroom: Students and Teachers Responding to the Texts of Their Lives.”
He is also the author of “Is this English?” Race, language, and culture in the classroom (Teachers College Press).”
M
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2012
9:37 am
and show poor judgment in selecting your husband/boyfriend.
Those women deserve it because they failed to notice the stamp on his head reading “abusive control freak?” If some stalker shoots her after two casual dates well….that dumb woman had it coming to her.
You are a pathetic coward to blame women for their own murders. And doubly so since it’s for the purpose of “winning” an internet discussion. If you’re a man I suggest you warn any potential or current partners of your fragile ego. Guys who do creepy things to prop themselves up over such minor matters are the ones women need to avoid.
Lee
December 21st, 2012
9:39 am
@Matthew, well then, it should be easy for you to go to the source documents (FBI and DOJ publications) and disprove their information. Go ahead, show us where they are wrong.
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:42 am
Aquagirl
You are saying that I said things that I didn’t say or imply.
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:45 am
Lee
Well said. I was going to make this point but you did it first and better. A fact does not stop being a fact if it is cited by New Century or reported on Fox.
BigB
December 21st, 2012
9:47 am
I’m a black man and I found this article ridiculous. If race is to be brought into the discussion related to the Newtown massacre it should only be around the question of why did it take the killing of mostly white children in the suburbs, to ratchet up serious talks on gun violence? There is no question that there is a serious problem within the black community when it comes to crime and the issues that precipitate that crime needs to be looked into more than concentrating “as much” on the relatively rare incidences of white male mass shooters. Some parts of Chicago and Philadelphia are war zones, where the gangs are no different than warlords in some areas of Afghanistan but there is no serious discussion about that. If we combine all the white male mass shootings, this writer used as examples, we still have a death total lower than the gun deaths in Chicago this year. I’m not going to lie, when I carry my handgun, I’m not really thinking about white males, I’m thinking about young guys who unfortunately look like me. Do white guys rob, steal, sell drugs, commit home invasions, shoot up schools, commit hate crimes, conspire to commit terrorist acts, beat their wives, drive drunk…of course!
Smoke Rise Mom
December 21st, 2012
9:48 am
I fear a society that is entertained by senseless, violent killing and the media that sensationalizes it. Evil comes in all colors and it’s idiotic to debate which flavor deserves more attention. It certainly isn’t more comforting to a grieving family to know their loved one was killed by a person of this ethnicity who was troubled by whatever in their past by whatever weapon rather than some other.
The root of the problem is the entertainment industry that gives us movies like Hunger Games that glorifies killing children. Even Batman has turned into a really dark character over the past couple of decades. Video games make killing fun. And don’t forget the media that goes into a frenzy reporting on these horrific events.
Yes, gun control is a much easier solution than taking on this industry which is so near and dear to the politicians.
Lee
December 21st, 2012
9:48 am
And since Maureen and Aquagirl are tossing statistics out there, the probablility that any of us will be victims of a mass murder are probably something like .0000000000000000000000000000000000000001%.
But hey, nothing like some sickly looking white guy with acne and a glock to get everyone ducking under the kitchen table and crying “ban all guns”. Right?
GB
December 21st, 2012
9:54 am
Big B
You make a good point, but why is it that the epidemic of crimes committed by blacks against other blacks gets relatively little attention? What brings out the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world, leading marches and such? Is it the ongoing black on black crimes that are the real problem, or is it non crimes like the Duke lacrosse non rape?
its not about race
December 21st, 2012
9:54 am
race does not really have much to do with it: Poverty is the problem; and one of the best ways to end poverty is through education. somewhere the black community lost the thought that education is the way to equality. Much like the way our own government has treated Native Americans where they where placed on resevations we have placed large parts of other minorites in projects. and we wonder why so many are angry. Next, men like Prs. Obama must come forward and speak the truth; I mean Bill Cosby has and look what ppl have said about him.
EDUCATION or training must be made a priority instead of the continous bloodletting of money that GA keeps cutting from education
Common Sense
December 21st, 2012
9:56 am
This paper feeds itself on racism.
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2012
9:59 am
Then GB please share what you meant when why women are only in greater danger if they “show poor judgment in selecting your husband/boyfriend.”
I’d really like to e-mail your blather to a friend who had to change her phone number, buy a security system, and implement various security measures after “showing poor judgement.” A guy she saw for about three months showed disturbing signs so she asked him not to call her any more. That’s when her nightmare commenced.
I could also recount the friend who had to MOVE and change jobs to get away from creepy boyfriend of less than a year, but by now even you should get the picture.
Here’s a hint: these guys often go ballistic when women try to break off the relationship. That’s when they get killed or seriously injured. And it doesn’t take a long time for these guys to decide a women belongs to them. Some women are literally unaware of their “relationship.”
So please, expound on your weighty experience and lecture my friends on their poor judgement. Fortunately for you women are less likely to violently attack men with a gun, even if those men are know-it-alls in areas where they know absolutely nothing.
Or you could keep your mouth shut. That’s the wisest option when you don’t know jack about a subject but I’m betting you don’t take that course.
BS
December 21st, 2012
10:02 am
Give me a break. 2/3s makes it about even with the population. But please, let’s not forget to mention that a disproportionate number of non-mass shooting murders are committed by minorities, and often on other minorities. Not that I think that means there should be punitive legislation, but if we’re going to talk truth, then you aren’t playing. Instead you are twisting and omitting.
Lee
December 21st, 2012
10:03 am
@BigB, and that’s one of the problems facing this country. In order to solve a problem, you must first be able to talk about it.
However, whenever someone brings up the problem of violence in the black communities, if they are white, they are called racist. If they are black, they are called Uncle Toms. Notable blacks such as Bill Cosby and Walter Williams have brought up the subject and been villied.
I’m all for talking about the issue of mass murderers, irregardless of whether they are white, black, or purple. The very idea of wantonly murdering 6 & 7 year old children is incomprehensible to me. I would really like to know what it is in these murderers minds that allow them to commit such a heinous crime.
Is it exposure to violent movies, songs, video games? Is it being prescribed psychotropic drugs? Is is a mental illness (well, yes, but what)?
Unfortunately, the anti-gun crowd has hijacked this discussion. If it were not a gun, it would be a pipe bomb, or running into a crowd of people with an automobile, or some other method. One thing the human race is competent at is devising ways to kill each other.
But yet, we are still left with the question of why.
homeschooler
December 21st, 2012
10:04 am
@ Lee…I really like you.
My goodness...
December 21st, 2012
10:05 am
Would love to have an intelligent discussion, but this is nothing but race baiting. Reference to Mother Jones magazine (which is like conservatives putting forth National Review as a credible news source) and pulling out the hoodies rhetoric is purposefully lighting a match a couple feet from dynamite. Unfortunately interspersed between meaningful topics on this blog is stuff like this. Have a good holiday season, all.
Don't Tread
December 21st, 2012
10:09 am
“we continue to make it easy for white males, and anyone else with the ready cash to buy weapons that facilitate such mass and random violence”
Wow, that’s an awful lot of racism, Communism, and just plain stupidity packed into one sentence, “Professor” Bob. As a “professor of reading education”, you might try “reading” the Constitution or a history book at some point.
Lee
December 21st, 2012
10:09 am
Three reasons why I would never lift a hand in anger against my wife:
1. I just was not raised that way.
2. My wife knows where I keep all the guns.
3. I gotta sleep sometime.
skipper
December 21st, 2012
10:09 am
Comparing the DAILY murder/mayhem etc. that goes on in Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit and yes, Atlanta to shootings by deranged mental nuts is nothing more than a red herring. Of course these mass dhootings are tragic…..however, the individuals are deranged from the get-go….not just common criminals. Everybody says “pull the stats.” One does not have to pull stats….just watch the frickin’ news. Find the stats in Atlanta and Macon, right here in our own state. See who disproportionately commits the murders, carjackings, robberies, etc. To defend criminals, black or white (or red, for that matter) by putting something like the above article diminishes all crime. The problem is leadership…..Jesse and Al want only to go where money and publicity are. they have NO SOLUTINS to the daily killings in Chicago, so they will not address it. Everyone knows that crime affects (and is committed) by all races. However to diminish the problem the black community now suffers disproportionately is the height of stupidity.
skipper
December 21st, 2012
10:10 am
p.s…..thats “solutions.” Typos “are me!”
James
December 21st, 2012
10:10 am
Fecho”…If 43 of 62 mass shootings had been perpetrated by black males or Latinos, particularly if whites had been the targeted victims, I can only imagine the punitive legislation, the mandated sentences, the investigative commissions, and the building of even more and larger prisons that would have occurred. We would see these murders as some form of collective uprising that needed to be quelled.”
So true.
To proud black man
December 21st, 2012
10:11 am
What, no mention of the ongoing slave trade by your esteemed family in Africa? Talk about crimes against humanity. Haven’t we all fought long and hard to resolve this issue yet “your people” continue to perpetuate the crime. Not even mentioning the Asian human trafficking or the Arab and Indonesian crimes against women. A suggestion, let’s stop the race talk and race baiting and move to all humans saving other humans from atrocities. Didn’t mention white crimes because it it the topic of the hate filled misinformed article.
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
December 21st, 2012
10:27 am
Maureen,
He said Reading Education and you said Literacy and writing. Now I know that Literacy is actually different from reading as traditionally understood because I have copies of all those UNESCO reports that explain the difference. Fecho explaining the difference would make for a much more useful post. Plus it explains why Georgia’s NCLB waiver allows students who cannot actually read most print to no longer be held back. Apparently without telling student or parent they can’t read as traditionally understood.
A dialogical classroom is a dialectical classroom. Which again is not about the transmission of knowledge or academic content. It’s a classroom where the purpose is social interaction and student engagement with each other, not content.
Again explaining the purpose of the dialogic classroom would be a good use of Fecho’s area of emphasis. Not trying to make this tragedy about race and disarming people. When the State itself is the predator, you can understand why gun control would be its desired remedy.
Resistance is futile as the saying goes. Especially if the Second Amendment were no longer enforced or was reinterpreted.
Just A Teacher
December 21st, 2012
10:29 am
Again, I ask the question for which I never get a satisfactory answer. What does race or gender have to do with any of this? If people would just focus on individuals instead of race or sex, we would be much better off. Are most mass murderers Caucasian? I guess so if that’s what the statistics show. Do people of other races commit mass murder? Yes. Has anyone here ever heard of the Sudan or Cambodia? What about that woman in Florida who killed so many men? Each individual is responsible for him or herself and to imply that one’s race or gender makes one more violent is utter nonsense.
I believe the overwhelming majority of people of all races and genders are kind and decent. If I didn’t believe that, I could not be an effective educator. I will not stereotype anyone, nor do I have any respect for those who do. Grow up, people! Whether violence is perpetrated by white men or blue haired old ladies, it is just plain wrong!
Peace on Earth! Good will to men!
indigo
December 21st, 2012
10:30 am
Aquagirl
Years ago, in the early 60’s, I lived in Atlanta. Every Friday and Saturday night I would go out walking, often around Five Points. Not once did I ever have any problems.
Today, a lone white guy walking around downtown Atlanta on a Friday or Saturday night would be a sitting duck.
Atlanta is ruined and, ignoring the reasons and hoping they will just go away, are the politically correct’s way of coping.
PastyFacedWhitey
December 21st, 2012
10:37 am
Why not? Another thing that is obviously my fault for being a white male in America. All of my slaves that I owned (oh wait my ancestors were in Europe then) and all of the hangings I participated in with the Klan (oh wait I wasn’t born yet) justify laws that give any non-white an advantage over me in the job market. What will it take for me to be ‘disenfranchised’ like any other minority?
I guess I’ll just be another non-diverse cracker with a gun, waiting to explode and kill innocent people just so idiots like this can publish pap to fill a word count. Give me a break.(and don’t worry, sheep, I don’t even own a gun…)
Please take away both my first and second amendment rights. I won’t be needing them once China is in charge anyway.
RCB
December 21st, 2012
10:39 am
Maureen, why is this topic even on your blog? The discourse here has very little to do with education.
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
December 21st, 2012
10:40 am
What does race or SES or gender have to do with this? It’s about the purpose of the dialogic classroom. To change the student’s belief system. As this article that Fecho co-authored about his classroom makes clear.
http://www.cocostudio.com/pubs/Fecho-July10_EE.pdf . Creating an atmosphere where wobble takes place. And if that kind of cognitive dissonance and psychological focus on changing the student has harsh side effects and that recognition begins to enter the public domain after a horrific tragedy, you write an op-ed asserting it’s really about race and guns.
And the AJC publishes it as if race and guns really are the issue in Newtown or Aurora or Columbine.
Must not allow tragic consequences to interfere with the political transformation process that’s supposed to occur via the classroom from the inside-out.
Using techniques like the dialogic classroom and refusing to teach reading phonetically because of the inherent side effects it creates of bolstering the abstract mind. Which is what Vygotsky wrote about. The Vygotsky cited on page 1 of the linked article.
skipper
December 21st, 2012
10:45 am
Congrats Fecho,
You have now aptly demonstrated what is so wrong with the education system today: folks like you are involved in it! If you are teaching at UGA, then the pre-requisites must not be too demanding. Makes my diploma from there a little less valuable…..
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
December 21st, 2012
10:53 am
Oh skipper, you have no idea. http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/events/623?x-t=sites_eos.view
“A dialogical classroom is one in which literacy is used to immerse teachers and students in an ongoing, reflective conversation with the texts of their lives. As such, reading, writing, speaking, and listening are seen as tools for making meaning rather than ends unto themselves.”
Kids cannot read and write well anymore because the ed profs refuse to even let teachers try. And by making the essence meaning-making the teachers get to target values and change those and go after purpose and the realms traditionally served by religion and spirituality. So says the organizer of the Education as Transformation conference at Wellesley in 1998.
Like I said. The psychologized, spiritualized, transformative classroom pursuit and complete abdication of the consequences.
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2012
10:54 am
Well Indigo, what is your solution? Round up the dark folk so your hypothetical white man won’t be terrified?
There’s no doubt young black men shoot young black men…and black children, white women,etc at a disproportionate rate. If your solution is “well, black guys should just stop doing that.” Is not gonna have results, except to make you feel superior. Unless you think there is a biological reason it’s pretty clear it’s cultural. Blaming African-American culture seems a preferred response. That’s simply another version of GB’s “teh wimmen should stop being stupid.”
I have my own ideas as to why black men are more likely to shoot others but I’m more interested in what others think, including you if you have an opinion.