Friday, August 2, 2013

Why I Have Not Try to Turn My Best Classes into a Higher Ed "Common Core"



Over the last 20 years, I have developed  4 classes at Fordham which have become very popular with students--. The Sixties, Rock and Roll to Hip Hop, Affirmative Action, and the Worker in American Life. By every standard, enrollment, class participation, new student projects, publications, future teachers produced, they have been successful. NEVER have I tried to make them part of a national curriculum for African American Studies, Cultural Studies or Labor history. Why, because with a different student population, a different teachers and in a school with a different academic culture, they might not work as well. So, what if Pearson approached me and gave me a million dollars to take my courses annd institutionalize them nationally? I would be horrified. Not because I don't think other scholars couldn't possibly benefit from looking at the syllabi, but because I don't want it forced on any body, especially for my profit or those of a global corporation. Same with Common CORE. Once profit and oercion enter, I fight it tooth and nail

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