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by WILL FOLKS
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Clemson University is facing some serious financial headwinds – as well as pressure of a more literal sort. But it seems the Upstate South Carolina institution of higher learning – which has come under fire in recent years for its left-leaning ideological bent – isn’t letting any of that detract from its commitment to taxpayer-subsidized indoctrination.
As students returned to campus last month for the fall semester, one course on early childhood literacy taught by Dr. Heather Dunham veered far afield from its ostensible objective of preparing future teachers to help kids read.
The syllabus for Dunham’s class – entitled ‘Teaching Reading in the Early Grades‘ – did not commence with an overview of its K-3 literacy content, but rather kicked off with a definitionally divisive “land acknowledgement” statement ripped from the pages of a now-defunct website entitled Decolonize Clemson.
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RELATED | CLEMSON’S DAM DRAMA
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The statement read as follows…
We acknowledge that the main campus of Clemson University occupies the traditional and ancestral land of the Cherokee People. Clemson’s main campus is built on land seized through US military and diplomatic incursions culminating in the Treaty of Dewitt’s Corner in 1777. This is also land on which people enslaved by the Pickens, Clemson, and Calhoun families lived and worked, and that was transformed into the campus of Clemson University through convict labor.
We make this acknowledgement to remember the histories of violence that anticipate our gathering here, to recognize Indigenous and Black claims to life and land, and to recenter those claims as we commit to better ways of caring for each other and for this land. Learn more at Decolonize Clemson.
Decolonize Clemson is no longer online, but an archived version of the website contained language expanding on this declaration – noting “the ongoing violent exploitation of land, life and labor that particularly impacts indigenous and Black (emphasis original) people.”
Wait… ongoing?
Didn’t Ben Folds clear all this nonsense up years ago?
The statement further advocated on behalf of “education and action toward decolonization,” urging students at Clemson to “confront the ways we have been complicit with colonialism, and to recommit to decolonial thought and practice.”
So… what does any of this have to do with teaching kindergarteners and elementary school children to read?
Good question…
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“We also insist that land acknowledgments at Clemson recognize the lived experience of enslaved people, people conscripted to convict labor, and racialized people subjected to the ongoing material and ontological violences of white supremacy,” the statement continued.
Again… ongoing?
“In addition, we understand land acknowledgments as opportunities to think again about what land is and what it means beyond colonial frameworks like the university, the state, the nation,” the statement added. “And further to understand that, via the land grant system and the global project of U.S. occupation, in order for Clemson to exist, people and ecosystems have been displaced across the Americas and the world.”
According to her Clemson webpage, Dunham’s research and teaching focuses on “preparing preservice teachers to enact culturally sustaining literacy practices in classroom spaces, as well as working and learning with in-service teachers to engage critically with questions of language, identity, and equity in education.”
Culturally sustaining literary practices? Equity in education?
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Dunham was praised last August by the school as an “innovator” – a professor who “shapes new opportunities for students” and helps them explore “practical strategies for engaging young readers.”
“I work to build a classroom culture where everyone feels encouraged to share their ideas and take risks,” Durham said, adding by way of a backhanded compliment that she was “excited by the opportunities to do meaningful work in this part of the country, where there’s a real need for innovation in education.”
Conservatives in state government were less than thrilled by Clemson’s latest foray into the culture wars.
“South Carolina’s children need teachers who are confident in phonics, reading, writing, and comprehension,” state representative April Cromer said. “That should be the focus of a K–3 reading course, not political or ideological activism.
“Our future teachers deserve better,” Cromer added. “Our children deserve better. And Clemson owes South Carolina taxpayers an explanation.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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