Word: socialities
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...write to respond to Sabrina Lee’s impassioned criticism of the Social Studies 10 syllabus (“The Social Studies Ideology”, Sabrina G. Lee, Feb. 10, 2010). Lee has raised important concerns, but her argument is misinformed and insufficiently argued. As I see it, she has made two criticisms. First, she claims that Social Studies 10 has rejected “including gender theory or postcolonial theory on the course syllabus.” This is factually incorrect. Her second criticism is that by including only “white, European, heterosexual male theorists...
...Wretched of the Earth.” In the area of sex and gender theory, students not only read Freud, but spend two weeks on Michel Foucault, including a week on his “History of Sexuality.” Aside from their virtues as social theories, the Beauvoir, Fanon, and Foucault texts are foundational in feminism, post-colonial studies, and theories of sexuality respectively. Given the time limitations of the course and the need to choose works of the greatest substance, these texts are appropriately chosen. Moreover, discussions of other social theorists frequently include discussions of family structure...
Lee’s more serious criticism is that Social Studies perpetuates an ideology that implies “capitalism as an institution is worthy of criticism, but sexism [or racism, imperialism, etc…] is not.” I cannot see how Social Studies gives this impression by the sheer design of its syllabus, nor would an attentive listener to the lectures ever get this impression. For one thing, including Fanon and Beauvoir clearly demonstrates that Social Studies takes the study of gender, race, and imperialism as seriously as it takes all other important topics. More...
...further problem is that Lee seems to believe that Social Studies tells or should tell its students what to think. She does not say students ought to learn different approaches to the study of social phenomena, but rather that they ought to learn to criticize not just capitalism but sexism, racism, etc… That is dogmatism, not education or critical thinking. Social Studies exposes students to many different approaches and views –Marx and Smith, Freud and Foucault, Mill and Beauvoir. Indeed, students read not just critics of, say, imperialism and capitalism, but also its defenders...
...historical injustice that a privileged group of mostly straight, white men were granted the education and opportunity to create social theory, but this is why they dominate any survey of classic social theory. Social Studies is not responsible for that historical fact. And one would be hard pressed even to make sense of what is problematic about that history without some of the tools of social theory. The great virtue of social theory is its self-reflective character. That is one of the reasons these theories can be used to criticize positions that their originators might have held...