OK Dead White Guys, You Can Come Out Now
by Robert PondiscioOctober 5th, 2012
With the advent of Common Core State Standards, English class may be safe once more for Dead White Males. In an op-ed in the New York Daily News, Mark Bauerlein points out CCSS’s requirement that students should be able to “demonstrate knowledge of 18th-, 19th- and early-20th-century foundational works of American literature.”
“A praiseworthy aim,” writes Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University and author of The Dumbest Generation. “It goes right along with reading the Declaration of Independence, studying the civil rights movement and, ultimately, becoming an informed citizen.” But to the gatekeepers of high school English, he notes America’s literary tradition “is not a treasure. It’s a threat.”
“The rich but flawed history of our literature, which stretches back not just to the Puritans, but to ‘Beowulf,’ has been chipped away by identity anxieties. We’re told that female, black and brown students must encounter inspiring female, black and brown characters and authors — or else they won’t realize that they can become successful adults.”
“This is the role-model premise, and it applies a quota system whereby the