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Show 4 Thursday February 28, 2013 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.corn Post-everything' era needs info literacy mim, MARSTALLER Opinion Columnist N ewspaper readers these days might get the impression that our generation arrived late to the party — or rather, several parties. Jurgen Habermas argues that in the post-World War II era, religious activity in western societies diminished, but the current "trends towards de-institutionalized and new spiritual forms of religiosity" indicate that we are entering a postsecular era. Ron Bailey wrote earlier this month that we live in a "post-truth" era, in which the opportunities to make money by jockeying for government handouts leads "experts" from every field to invent their own facts in order to siphon federal dollars into their pockets. The whole post-modern era has been defined as one in which people are suspicious of any claims to absolute truth. The loth century's faith in reason to provide answers to all our problems has devolved into a suspicion that any claims to truth merely veil attempts to control others. According to U political science professor Hakan Yavuz, skepticism is central to the "post" label. "We see that technological progress and economic growth have caused social and environmental damage," he said. Therefore, we are forced to acknowledge the complexity of global problem solving. If "isms" like secularism, nationalism and modernism were ideological trends encompassing huge swaths of society, the posteverything era is one in which the individual is the most important unit. Rather than drawing ever more people under one ideological umbrella, the post-everything era is about encouraging individuals to forge their own way forward. As Tariq Ramadan points out, a central question for Islamic movements in Arab Spring countries is whether Muslim society can modernize on its own terms rather r THAT'S ALL OVER. NOW THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. ISAAC J. BROMLEY/The Daily Utah Chronicle than assimilating to the Western economic and political model. Muslim countries in what CEO of the Atlantic Council Frederick Kempe calls the "post-Western era" needn't necessarily adopt Western "truths" about free markets and secularism. By taking nothing for granted, a post-everything skeptic assumes responsibility for ascertaining truth for himself. That takes a lot of work. It also takes the right research skills. The post-everything era needs to be the "era of literacy." If we're going to abandon the safety of sweeping "isms," and the explanations of "truth" they espouse, we need more than typical literacy skills: reading, writing and calculating. We need information literacy. An information literate person can identify when new information is needed, find and evaluate information and put it to proper use. Colleges should be teaching the many components of information literacy to every student. Consider how many of the following "literacies" you're acquiring in your classes: media, computer, network, cultural, visual. Most literacies fit neatly into one major or another — media literacy with communications or marketing, network literacy with computer science — but few majors cover all of them. A student in the post-everything era must be skeptical that his or her major alone will provide a sufficiently comprehensive sense of literacy in a world where he or she must be critical of a whole spectrum of claims. Interdisciplinary study, while harder and more timeconsuming, will cultivate the right kind of literacy for our era. Being an exalted individual, a post-everything individual, is hard work. letters@ chronicle.utah.edu NEWPOLL Who will you vote for in next week's ASUU elections? Do you think the firing squad is an unconstitutional means of capital punishment? • The HOUSE party • The PEAK party .1• I don't support the fascist student government LUIGI GHERSI/The Daily Utah Chronicle Spanish should be a required school subject Demeaning 'slut' term not justified w elcome to the 21st century, where women are allowed to vote, interracial marriages are accepted, birth control is a legally obtainable contraceptive and women and men are permitted in the same work fields for (mostly) the same pay. Yet with all of this progressive equality, a professor in the department of communication, Jim Fisher, is still able to refer to female college students as 'sluts' in an effort to get a point across to his class. According to Webster's Dictionary, a slut is the following: "A dirty, slovenly woman. A sexually promis- "Women should not be judged on the choices they make regarding sex." ALYSHA NEMESCHY / Opinion Columnist cuous woman: a derogatory term." How is it that a college student — about whom Fisher knew nothing outside of the academic world — could be blatantly referred to as a slut by Fisher in front of a classroom full of students, even if it was just an effort to prove a point about syntax? Referring to a woman as a slut is damaging and destructive, regardless of the point to be made. It's a mean that does not justify its end. It should be unacceptable in society for anyone — especially a professor in a formal, academic setting — to use this slanderous word. Women have been sexually degraded throughout history through the use of such words. Wear a short skirt? Slut. Have sex with an older man? Slut. Have sex with a younger man? Slut. Have sex with a man? Slut. Kiss multiple boys on a night out? Slut. Have a few too many drinks with your friends? Slut. Enjoy sex at all? Slut. Kiss another girl? Slut. Get good grades in classes taught by male professors? Slut. Society has thrown this label at women ubiquitously and haphazardly, yet none of its usages are justified, as the word's history proves it is used as a mechanism for oppression and a rhetorical tool to assert privilege and superiority over women. See NEMESCHY page 5 T he debate over the nature of immigration laws — what they should be — will never come to a close. The real debate should be about how immigrants are treated here and now Specifically, I want to talk about language, identity and assimilation. As it is now, our educational system does not promote mandatory Spanish-learning courses. As part of his case for reelection, President Barack Obama led supporters to believe that he would push more states to accept Common Core State Standards. This has mostly come to fruition. At least 4o governors have said they would adopt such Common Core Standards — higher educa- Opinion Columnist tional standards for which all schools should strive to reach. Nowhere in the Common Core regulations does it emphasize the necessity of learning Spanish. The only service that the Common Core Standards project provides for Spanish speakers is the Common Core Translation Project, which is exclusive to California. The Translation Project provides translated resources See KEOGH page 5 |
