Skip to main content

Oh the Humanities



Newly elected Board of Education member Dr. Chao Wu made no secret of his support for STEM education during the election campaign.  (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.)  Yesterday Dr. Wu unwittingly became a prime example of why Humanities education is so important when he chose to share an anonymous post which essentially justified segregation in Howard County Schools.

 It has since been taken down and replaced with this. Here is the original. 


I should add that this post is a response to the information in this blog post by Dr. Richard Kohn, entitled “How Did Howard County Schools Become the Most Segregated in Maryland?”

 What Dr. Wu shared with his readers is essentially a piece that attempts to justify segregation. It provoked concern, anger, and a deep sense of hurt from members of the Howard County Schools community. Only after the damage had been done did Dr. Wu retract the post and state that he had only been trying to start a discussion on the topic.

 Well, he did start a discussion. Let’s have it.

 Let’s talk about why Humanities education is crucial. From an article by Curt Rice in 2014 come some reasons why:
  1. 1. The humanities help us understand others through their languages, histories and cultures.
  2. 2. They foster social justice and equality.
  3. 3. And they reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of the world.
  4. 4.  The humanities teach empathy.
  5. 5..They teach us to deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, imperfect information.
  6. 6..And they teach us to weigh evidence skeptically and consider more than one side of every question.
  7. 7.  Humanities students build skills in writing and critical reading.
  8. 8. The humanities encourage us to think creatively. They teach us to reason about being human and to ask questions about our world.
  9. 9. The humanities develop informed and critical citizens. Without the humanities, democracy could not flourish.
So, looking at this list, let’s see where Dr. Wu went wrong. When Dr.Wu published his piece he did so without paying attention to any of this:
  • He published the author’s work anonymously so they wouldn’t have to bear responsibility. 
  • He published information that conflicts with HCPSS policy 6010 without acknowledging that.
  • He did not perform the due diligence of checking their “facts” to see if they held up. 
  • He didn’t make his intent in sharing it completely clear.
  • He showed absolutely no awareness of how such a post would negatively impact the community and actively damage hcpss relationships with people of color.
Dr. Wu is a member of the Howard County Board of Education. I think it is fair to expect him to interact with the community in a way that shows empathy, weighs evidence skeptically, and helps develop informed and critical citizens. He didn’t do that.

While STEM education is a valuable course of study it shouldn’t be seen as more practical and, therefore, more valuable than the Humanities. A quick look at what happened here proves how wrong- headed that would be. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more