Related to my previous blog entry, here are some more instances of pedagogical bias I have uncovered during my tutoring time here in a suburban Boston high school:
- The English reading assignment of the Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem, “Bird with Two Right Wings’ – a more U.S.-loathing screed is hard to imagine. See: Hating the U.S.
- A multiple-choice English quiz which asked students to classify statements as good, bad, or ugly. Then they are asked to rewrite bad or ugly statements into good ones. Here are a few samples of these leading and (I think) inappropriate suggestions: “Transplant patients should not have to pay for their new organs,” “The reason I was rooting for Obama was because if McCain died, Governor Palin would become President; also, Obama would be a change for our country, and lastly, Obama’s vice presidential (sic) candidate Joe Biden has more experience than Governor Palin,” and “Mike Capuano should be our state’s new senator because he will bring the change our state needs.”
- A history quiz which asks students to classify statements as either Socialism, or Laissez-Faire (italics mine) Capitalism [only]. These statements include: “Bill’s 10 year old son has been working 14 hour shifts down at the factory 6 days a week,” “In [our town] each business has been allowed to break up and destroy any trade unions that have been forming,” and “In [our town] each business does not have to allow the Environmental Protection Agency come in and check their factories for chemical leaks.”
- Another multiple-choice history quiz in which the correct answer choice for Socialism was “What economic theory said that the public owns all factors of production and they are used for the good of everyone?”
Stay tuned for more bias cuts over the next year …
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