Author: Lindsay

Comment on The Hidden Brain Also Has Hidden Bias by Lindsay

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I really appreciate discussing how we tend to overlook certain elements of “diversity,” like disability of both the invisible and visual sort, at the institutional level. It also seems like disability and accessibility is a problem within liberation movements as well. I also like how you went through and broke down the demographics for the facilitation. As a facilitator I cringed when I saw the mandatory training part since they’re usually, well, awful as a facilitator and participant.

I have to be honest though, your ending caught me off guard. When you say “racism is racism,” how are you using that term?

Is there a space with that usage for acknowledging power, privilege, and a contrast between prejudice that reifies a social structure and prejudice that emerges in response to historical degradation (ultimately leaving aside questions of permissibility or impermissibility)?

Comment on Achieving Diversity without Doing a Disservice by Lindsay

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I really appreciate the points you’re making in this post. Too often (*cough* InclusiveVT *cough*) it seems like diversity, inclusion, and whatnot are just the new “hot topics” and check-boxes for universities and intuitions to use in furthering their own projects. In several of the departments I’ve been in a common line is:”Oh, we need diversity for this search committee? Why not ask Person X?”. Person X is almost always the one person in the department who holds a minoritized identity and they get volluntold, and tokenized, for all the committees since we need “diversity”.

To your question, I like to think we can achieve an inclusive pedagogy but not with our current methods and approaches. I think we need to move away from an acceptance and tolerance model of diversity towards a nurturance model that doesn’t value diversity as a means to an end but as an end in and of itself.

Comment on An Age Dilemma by Lindsay

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Just for fun: have you ever played the trick where you sit down like you’re a student on the first day and then surprise everyone when you get up to start facilitating? Just kidding! (That sounds terrifying…)

On a more serious note, when it comes to respect I almost wonder if we’re working with a broken concept of what it means…or a gendered concept of what it means at least. Where did we learn that openness precludes respect and is there a different way for us to reframe what it is and what it feels like? That said, who gets to be open and respected with the least amount of risk. Your post has given me a lot to think about going into next week’s topic.

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Comment on Adapting Diversity by Lindsay

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I really appreciate the take away from your blog about reflecting, and acknowledging, how where we’ve come from influences our own styles and approaches. Sometimes it feels as if we all have the desire to be “self-made” people that didn’t have any help getting to where we are or becoming who we are. Likewise, sometimes it seems that we may no longer view ourselves as learning even as we facilitate and teach.

This stands as a nice contrast to both of those mentalities.

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Comment on Engaging My Students in the Classroom by Lindsay

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I really appreciate that you take the time to show them real world applications of what they are learning. I think that a number of students might not initially see the application of the things they learn in various classes, but having a concrete yet malleable idea to work from in understanding, applying, and creating can really make the material stick (sometimes).

Out of curiosity, I see that you say you “train [your] students to be active thinkers and [who] are able to adapt to any situation necessary” (since I’m quoting it I made it fit my sentence usage with a few edits). Do you tell them that this is one of your outcomes for the semester? Some folks I know have similar outcomes, and some tell their students and some don’t.

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Comment on Grand Theft Education by Lindsay

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Oh lord, I haven’t thought of Mathblaster in years! Your thought about how the games we’re attracted to (or at least more interested in) could be a reflection on our inherent interests is cool to think about.

I wonder, though, whether we could also have a conversation about the passive lessons and skills games may help us work on. While not a game, some folks I know now “know” some facts about history from listening to Hamilton. While they didn’t intend to remember dates, themes, and orders of events, they just happened to key in on this information in the process of listening to and enjoying the musical. Do you think this might happen in games as well?

Comment on Statecraft by Lindsay

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Statecraft seems like a very cool game and it’s interesting to see how different groups of students responded to the game and one another’s actions (I found it slightly humorous that the country called Nukehavistan got nuked).

Just out of curiosity, do you know what the demographic breakdown was wrt/ the Foreign Policy Attitude Test class to class and whether there were changes in attitude after the couse.

Comment on That “D” In Sixth Grade Though by Lindsay

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While I keep wanting to agree and say “yes, grades could still have a place!” I’m hesitant to do so.

I keep wondering if my inclination to keep grades in some respects would, in fact, be obscuring alternative possibilities that would achieve the same outcome as current grades/grading systems (i.e., with respect to showing mastery of certain things including nursing and the like).

What would it look like if we had self-selected tracks of mastery for certain vocations/disciplines/areas that were customizable and portfolios that reported the content of what was chosen in more detail than the customary A-F demarcation?

Is there a way to mesh the wants, needs, and desires of students with the materials they are engaging in and, in doing so, provide feedback on their progress towards their goal and framing of “doing x requires mastery of y and z” as to also provide additional motivation for them achieving the goals they have specified?

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Comment on Just Follow the Rules by Lindsay

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What you said about forced distributions and the frustration (in my opinion) they can cause really resonates with me. As a work study I often heard the grumbling of professors in my phil dept at UVM about this very thing, and it always struck me as an odd model to have. After all, what if you have a really good class and they, even by the problematic evaluatory metrics, excel overall? Do the Bs suddenly become Fs in order to meet the “bell curve” that (wrongfully) we (wrongfully) think represents the distribution of human ability? Where did we and universities learn about this “normal distribution” anyways and why do we still think that it’s true?

Comment on But Why be Mindful When I Can be Productive? by Lindsay

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I really appreciated your post and a lot of what you said resonates with me! It also made me wonder whether or not we can reformulate, or reimagine, the *what* of mindfulness since, while you say in one part we should “meet students half way,” I don’t read the end of your post as a half-way approach. Rather, I read it as an approach that is also open to the possibility that the mutual labor and learning won’t always (usually?) be 50/50 and that the “unequal” distribution isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I hear the “half way” line a lot, and it can sometimes be followed by a “well, they didn’t meet me half way so it’s their problem” which seems contra mindfulness. As such, I think you’ve made a very important nuance in your post that we shouldn’t ignore.

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