Comments on: University of Minnesota Spokesman Makes Things Worse http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981 A professor of English describes university life. Aim: To change things. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:07:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: david foster http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981&cpage=1#comment-15341 david foster Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:58:28 +0000 http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981#comment-15341 At a management class I attended many years ago, one of the speakers was a psych professor (from GW, IIRC)...His advice was to avoid the temptation to hire people psychologically similar to yourself, because then you will all see the same things and fail to see the same things, and will happily all walk off the cliff together... At a management class I attended many years ago, one of the speakers was a psych professor (from GW, IIRC)…His advice was to avoid the temptation to hire people psychologically similar to yourself, because then you will all see the same things and fail to see the same things, and will happily all walk off the cliff together…

]]> By: RJO http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981&cpage=1#comment-15339 RJO Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:33:07 +0000 http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981#comment-15339 > the difference ... between an extreme extrovert [like UD] or an extreme introvert [like RJO] ... Some years ago I had an extended close encounter with a Residence Life department. I still have flashbacks in the middle of the night. These folks were hard-core card-carrying School-of-Education Progressive Developmental Educators. They taught people how to teach people about Diversity. And from my extended close encounter, it was clear that they were the most homogeneous group of people I've ever interacted with. They through they were Diverse, because some of them were black and some of them were white; in fact, they were so uniform in their attitudes and beliefs that they were virtually a cult (and they routinely employed the kind of group-bonding pressures that cults employ). > the difference … between an extreme extrovert [like UD] or an extreme introvert [like RJO] …

Some years ago I had an extended close encounter with a Residence Life department. I still have flashbacks in the middle of the night. These folks were hard-core card-carrying School-of-Education Progressive Developmental Educators. They taught people how to teach people about Diversity.

And from my extended close encounter, it was clear that they were the most homogeneous group of people I’ve ever interacted with. They through they were Diverse, because some of them were black and some of them were white; in fact, they were so uniform in their attitudes and beliefs that they were virtually a cult (and they routinely employed the kind of group-bonding pressures that cults employ).

]]> By: david foster http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981&cpage=1#comment-15338 david foster Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:09:31 +0000 http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=19981#comment-15338 "15 other people of different backgrounds"...academic administrators, like government bureaucrats, tend to assume that a person's identity is defined by characteristics such as race, gender, and class. In reality, the difference (for teaching purposes) between an extreme extrovert or an extreme introvert may be greater than the difference between two people of different races or genders or economic backgrounds. And that's just one example: there are dozens of variables affecting how an individual thinks and perceives. The obsessive focus on race/class/gender is probably partly a matter of fashion, partly a matter of left-wing politics, and partly a matter of "physics envy", in which easily-measurable factors are given a disproportionate weight. "15 other people of different backgrounds"…academic administrators, like government bureaucrats, tend to assume that a person’s identity is defined by characteristics such as race, gender, and class. In reality, the difference (for teaching purposes) between an extreme extrovert or an extreme introvert may be greater than the difference between two people of different races or genders or economic backgrounds. And that’s just one example: there are dozens of variables affecting how an individual thinks and perceives. The obsessive focus on race/class/gender is probably partly a matter of fashion, partly a matter of left-wing politics, and partly a matter of "physics envy", in which easily-measurable factors are given a disproportionate weight.

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