2008 Woodie Awards
MLK Day, Civil Protest and UNH Culture: A Review
Dean Le Mire
Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 5 next >
Last Monday marked the 78th birthday of perhaps the most revered figure in United States civil rights history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And as per usual, schools at all levels across the country honored the late activist, and the dream which he would never live to see manifest, with a day off.
In light of shocking findings from a recent study on civic literacy among U.S. youths, school administrators may do well to reconsider their mode of homage. According to the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy, about 19 percent of college students in the United States believe Dr. King freed the slaves.
Beyond implications this news may have on the state of education in this country (other studies show that U.S. 12th graders barely rank in the top 20 in the world for math and science comprehension), it may prove itself a symptom of a cultural crisis for "Generation Y." In a political atmosphere swimming with the same, centuries-old dialogue about the nature and value of difference among the world's people, do the kids even care?
"In general, this is a culturally homogenous community - not only white and Christian but small-town and focused on athletics, partying and fraternities," says UNH assistant professor of philosophy Kathy Miriam. In Miriam's estimation, civil and political relations among the UNH community are "very poor." As for young people perhaps not being concerned about this, she points to a curriculum that under-represents social justice issues and figures, to a university bureaucracy that makes "only minimal [or] token procedural change that has had little if any impact on the lives of women and marginalized students," and to an atmosphere that in turn, doesn't "nourish the spirit of social and political association among students."
UNH sophomore and chair of the Alliance, Steve Henry, echoes Miriam's sentiments about the UNH experience for marginalized people, saying, "I don't think they're welcomed at all. I think the culture of UNH is very mono-culture, that any person who slightly deviates from this white-heterosexual-male-Christian norm has a difficult time here."
In light of shocking findings from a recent study on civic literacy among U.S. youths, school administrators may do well to reconsider their mode of homage. According to the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy, about 19 percent of college students in the United States believe Dr. King freed the slaves.
Beyond implications this news may have on the state of education in this country (other studies show that U.S. 12th graders barely rank in the top 20 in the world for math and science comprehension), it may prove itself a symptom of a cultural crisis for "Generation Y." In a political atmosphere swimming with the same, centuries-old dialogue about the nature and value of difference among the world's people, do the kids even care?
"In general, this is a culturally homogenous community - not only white and Christian but small-town and focused on athletics, partying and fraternities," says UNH assistant professor of philosophy Kathy Miriam. In Miriam's estimation, civil and political relations among the UNH community are "very poor." As for young people perhaps not being concerned about this, she points to a curriculum that under-represents social justice issues and figures, to a university bureaucracy that makes "only minimal [or] token procedural change that has had little if any impact on the lives of women and marginalized students," and to an atmosphere that in turn, doesn't "nourish the spirit of social and political association among students."
UNH sophomore and chair of the Alliance, Steve Henry, echoes Miriam's sentiments about the UNH experience for marginalized people, saying, "I don't think they're welcomed at all. I think the culture of UNH is very mono-culture, that any person who slightly deviates from this white-heterosexual-male-Christian norm has a difficult time here."
Be the first to comment on this story