teaching
On the power of pedagogy..
23 06, 21 23:09 Filed in: Remembering
This post is based on the OpEd found at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/23/space-traders-critical-race-theory-teaching/
Professor Jungkunz's oped stirred a memory of how pedagogy can have a significant impact on students....
I took my first political science course as a freshman in 1964 in the midst of the civil rights debate. There was one African-American student in the class, somewhat older than the rest of us -- what we once called a "non-traditional" student. At some point he and the instructor got into a heated discussion about some mundane issue -- so heated, in fact, that the instructor demanded he leave the classroom. The very tone of the exchange implied that the instructor was reflecting racial animus toward the student. The student left the class, and we all sat stunned at what took place.
Of course it was a staged performance. The student (yes, he was actually a student in the class) and the instructor then made their points in the discussion that followed his return to class. While I always had an interest in politics, this proved to be a pivotal event in my decisions to go "all in".
PS: The student involved -- Lafayette Walker -- was a postal worker in his thirties who decided to try out college. He would eventually earn his MPA and PhD in political science at the University of Colorado and hold government positions in the Department of Commerce and the civil rights office in Education....
[More on Lafayette Walker:
That is how I met Lafayette. He had recently won the first anti-discrimination case in the Pueblo Colorado area and decided to go back to school. He worked the night shift at the post office through most of undergrad school; got to CU a year before I did. (He literally shepherded me through first months in Boulder.) Spent many hours around his kitchen table drinking coffee and (in those days) smoking. Often baby sat his three boys while he and Barbara went out.
He died in 1990 at age 53, but by then had retired from government work (he already had 10-15 years at post office when he went to work at National Bureau of Standards and Office of Civil Rights at Education) and then made a small fortune in private sector.
We kept in touch during the 1970s -- even published an article together. Unfortunately I lost track of him in the 1980s….]
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