Context

Education has played a role in creating, disseminating, and perpetuating oppressive ideas and practices. The students’ notes shown here provide a view of what and how McConkey taught eugenics. For example, the notes provide insight into how eugenics dissemination relied on rote-learning as opposed to critical thinking.

In the 1930s, the main method of instruction was rote-learning (effectively memorizing). Rote-learning flows from a single expert telling learners what they are expected to accept, absorb, and know. This approach reduces perspectives and reduces access to knowledge. It also means that knowledge advances slowly. The teacher uses the same set of lecture notes from one year to the next, and students are rewarded in their marks by showing that they can repeat the material “taught” and comply with learning expectations.

This process of rote-learning is one way eugenics educators discipline learners into an oppressive worldview.^1(footnote)

In the archival documents here, you can compare the content of the student’s notes with the professor’s lecture notes. They are almost identical.