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2011-04-14 06:56 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Reference: Chris Hedges, Alternet, Our Public Schools Are Churning Out Drones for the Corporate State, April 11, 2011

I admit to being a fan of Chris Hedges, and with this article he hits on a point that I have brought up in other postings: the lack of critical thinking skills in our society. I have extracted a few lines that resonated with me:

A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy.

Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers--those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential--and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point. The No Child Left Behind program, modeled on the "Texas Miracle," is a fraud. It worked no better than our deregulated financial system. But when you shut out debate these dead ideas are self-perpetuating.

The capacity to think is the only bulwark against any centralized authority that seeks to impose mindless obedience. There is a huge difference, as Socrates understood, between teaching people what to think and teaching them how to think.

"It is better to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself," Socrates said.

"The greatest evil perpetrated," Hannah Arendt wrote, "is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons."

You should read the entire article at the above link.

For an alternative perspective on teaching, I recommend this April 11, 2011 Time article, Finland's Educational Success? The Ant-Tiger Moth Approach by Josua Levine. Quoting Levine:

In the latest PISA survey, in 2009, Finland placed second in science literacy, third in mathematics and second in reading. The U.S. came in 15th in reading, close to the OECD average, which is where most of the U.S.'s results fell.

Finland's only real rivals are the Asian education powerhouses South Korea and Singapore, whose drill-heavy teaching methods often recall those of the old Soviet-bloc Olympic-medal programs. Indeed, a recent manifesto by Chinese-American mother Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, chides American parents for shrinking from the pitiless discipline she argues is necessary to turn out great students. Her book has led many to wonder whether the cure is worse than the disease.

"In Asia, it's about long hours — long hours in school, long hours after school. In Finland, the school day is shorter than it is in the U.S. It's a more appealing model," says Andreas Schleicher, who directs the PISA program at the OECD.

There's less homework too. "An hour a day is good enough to be a successful student," says Katja Tuori, who is in charge of student counseling at Kallahti Comprehensive, which educates kids up to age 16. "These kids have a life."

One of the major differences between Finland and the USA is the effort and respect that Finland puts into the teaching profession. All Finland's teachers have Masters degrees, and it's a highly respected profession.

As Levine attests: "But Finland's sweeping success is largely due to one big, not-so-secret weapon: its teachers. "It's the quality of the teaching that is driving Finland's results," says the OECD's Schleicher. "The U.S. has an industrial model where teachers are the means for conveying a prefabricated product. In Finland, the teachers are the standard.""

As teachers and teachers unions have been in the spotlight (cross hairs) lately, I thought I would share these two excellent articles to broaden ones thinking. But for me at least, it helps explain the submission that such a large part of our populace has for the mindless Republican rhetoric that Fox News and other media sources turn out. It is my major frustration with that segment of the American public...but I recognize that it is also a prelude to fascism. Comments are welcomed.

2011-05-14 07:59 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Many of you may be aware of Mike Huckabee's latest attempt at revisionist history with his "Learn Our History" sets of bulls**t videos to teach kids about our history...not our real history...a revisionist history through the cartoon lens of Mike Huckabee. Remember that Huckabee was also the one who wanted to recast Obama as being raised in Kenya.

Of course, Huckabee is not alone. At the higher education levels, the Koch brothers are seeking to mold the thinking of college kids by making donations to universities with strings attached...they get to screen the collge professors that are hired.

Chauncey De Vega has written a good article for Alternet entitled, The Right's 'Big Lie' Strategy: When Losing, Simply Rewirite History. De Vega exposes Huckabee's "Time Travel Academy" for what it is..."patently absurd."

"If judged by its artistic qualities, the cartoon is so poorly done as to be a pitiable joke. Its main characters are a contrived group of multicultural "tweens." The history is predictable: Ronald Reagan is America's savior, America is a Judeo-Christian country preordained by God to be exceptional, and flag-waving jingoistic nationalism is a virtue and never a sin. The guiding principle of this right-wing approved version of U.S. history is simple: "What we see and hear isn't always the same as what we read in books, or see on TV. We know the truth. And that's good enough for us.""

De Vega points out that Huckabee's latest effort at overt historical revisionism is not just one isolated instance, but rather a part of a larger national trend that has been decades in the making. You should read De Vega's entire article at the above link, but I'll close with some of his concluding words that hit home with me:

"Collectively, conservatives want to create a class of consumer-citizens who are passive and ill-equipped to ask any hard questions about power, politics or society. The Right does not want critical thinkers or active citizens. Instead, they want to create drones who worship the market and live out a dystopian reality..."

The bolding is mine. De Vega's remarks echo Chris Hedges words: "The capacity to think is the only bulwark against any centralized authority that seeks to impose mindless obedience. There is a huge difference, as Socrates understood, between teaching people what to think and teaching them how to think."

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