What is Social Stupidity?
March 29, 1985
Dear Mr. & Mrs. W.,
First, I'd like to commend your daughter for her initiative in approaching me about an alternative exploratory class.
After a thorough discussion with the Superintendent regarding your daughter's request to substitute industrial arts for study skills, we both feel that such a change is not advisable or possible at this time for a couple reasons.
First, to allow your daughter the option of changing her exploratory assignment would undoubtedly encourage many others to seek the same privilege. Second, the exploratory program is designed to provide information for each student in each session, which will enhance and provide for a well-rounded education. Not only do the sessions of art, music, study skills and home economics or industrial arts provide information, which is of immediate value, but each also provides a foundation for future development.
After discussing the above thoughts with your daughter, I feel that she definitely understands why we cannot make such a change at this time.
Sincerely,
Mr. J. B.
Principal
One of the few things I kept from my childhood was this letter explaining why I wouldn't be the first girl to take industrial arts in our junior high. It was a ridiculous decision and so is Loewen's observation in this chapter:
"Girls also dislike social studies and history even more than boys, probably because women's concerns and perceptions still go underrepresented in history classes."
He should heed his own advice - "education and position in society causes some people not to think." All educators, not just social studies teachers, need to provide students with an education that includes the perspectives of those who have been historically marginalized. It does not mean, however, that education should be broken down into categories based on race and gender as if the story of humankind was made up of anything less than our collective memory.
I shared in blog post Loewen: Chapter 11 my sentiments about the illogical intellectual process (social stupidity) that has frustrated me from time to time in the collegiate classroom. I have also witnessed it first hand outside of the classroom, over the past ten years working as a community advocate in the region. It does not dampen my idealism now and it never did. I like a challenge. After all these years, I am a social science teacher because there is a resounding necessity in our country for individuals like myself, to apply our enthusiasm, our intelligence, and our creativity towards being the best possible teachers we can be for our nation's children.
I shared in blog post Loewen: Chapter 11 my sentiments about the illogical intellectual process (social stupidity) that has frustrated me from time to time in the collegiate classroom. I have also witnessed it first hand outside of the classroom, over the past ten years working as a community advocate in the region. It does not dampen my idealism now and it never did. I like a challenge. After all these years, I am a social science teacher because there is a resounding necessity in our country for individuals like myself, to apply our enthusiasm, our intelligence, and our creativity towards being the best possible teachers we can be for our nation's children.
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