In all seriousness, covering everything that is screwed up about the educational system on the US today would surely end up as a book at least as long as War and Peace. Okay, maybe Anna Karenina. But most people, and I’m not trying to be condescening here, see only part of the picture.
This is an insider’s perspective. I’m not promising that it will necessarily be a party-line conservative scoop; we run into that insider’s perspective thing again there, and frankly, the conservatives are in some ways just plain flat-out way off track. So you’ve been warned. And understand that my experience is in the university, so even though there are a lot of problems with secondary and primary schools, I’m not going to talk through my hat.
The problems with education are both institutional — the problems you usually see discussed, that have to do with the system, or those who hold power within it — and social. By social, I mean problems external to the system itself. And to make it even more complex, these problems feed one another, in kind of a feedback loop from hell.
The institutional problems everybody knows about — though I don’t think people outside the system realize how bad those problems are. Ward Churchill is not in any way unusual; I’ve known, worked with, and sat in symposia with hundreds of him. And more often than not, Ward Churchill holds all the power: he’s the Dean, the Chancellor, even the President of the university. Ward Churchill is not going to step down, give up power, or even cease his indoctrination willingly — and boards of trustees and state legislatures refuse to do anything beyond issue meaningless statements which they have no intention of enforcing (not unlike the UN).
But the institutional problem I want to talk about, the one that few outside the university know of, is what people need to know in order to understand these leftist moonbat professors. Look at the various academic units of any college or university, and you will see that those with the nuttiest left-wing students and faculty are the liberal arts. The reason?
Postmodernism and all its related and descendant schools of “thought” (and the sneer quotes there are intentional), and multiculturalism and identity politics.
Postmodernism is anti-intellectual, anti-scientific, and anti-common sense. In the weird, topsy-turvy, amoral world of the postmodernist, there is neither truth nor reality, in the sense sane people understand the words. Reality is something you “construct” in your head, and does not exist otherwise. The postmodernist is the clueless dolt who will insist that the tree does not make a sound when it falls because nobody is there to hear it, and will discount sound waves as a mere “construction” of reality.
Postmodernism allows the academic to unmoor from reality and the mission of the university, since he does not believe in anything other than what we “construct” in our heads. It is attractive to all kinds of academic schools of “thought” (again, the sneer quotes are intentional) that are not based on anything in the real world, such as radical feminism, and lends itself well to political movements, such as identity politics and multiculturalism.
Obviously, the postmodernist is a cultural and moral relativist.
I said that reality and truth are concepts postmodernism scorns, but if you have some experience with these nutjobs, you know that they are quite fond of talking about “truth” when it comes to politics, specifically multiculturalism and any anti-American politics. This is not a paradox. “Truth” to a postmodernist, as it is to a liberal these days, is whatever he happens to believe at the time. It may change tomorrow or it may not; it is not, however, what sane people mean by the same word.
“Truth” is a concept that creeps in from multiculturalism and identity politics. It is weakly identical to “moral authority,” and has nothing to do with reality or facts, but who says what about which group. An example of “truth” would be a black professor claiming that Bush hates blacks; it has “moral authority” because the speaker is black. “Truth” would also be a Ward Churchill making the same claim.
The whole concept of “truth” or “moral authority” rests on the belief that the male caucasian of European descent and Judaeo-Christian faith is the ultimate transgressor of human rights and decency, and whether deliberately, covertly or unconsciously is always driven to “oppress” other groups. All other groups are excused for any such transgressions, because they are victims of the evil Euro white man, and because said evil white man is “privileged.” “Bias” refers solely to this imaginary “unconscious oppression” all white males exhibit; non-whites, that is “oppressed” groups, cannot display racism or bias because they are merely reacting (justly) to “oppression.”
Because these groups have “moral authority” or “truth” on their side and we evil white males do not, the university campus is Jim Crow turned on its head. In a conflict between a white student and some “oppressed group” student, “moral authority” and “truth” are always on the side of the latter. University speech codes and sensitivity training seminars are created and upheld to place the balance of power on the side of the “oppressed” groups, because they perceive that “the man” has been keeping them down–and because perception is reality, and because they have “moral authority” on their side, this is the only position the university is capable of taking (well, unless you get an attorney to utter the magic word: lawsuit).
Because “truth” is a subjective expression of this white vs. everybody else power balance, and because postmodernists view the world through Marxist glasses (the mode of oppression has just been expanded from its original economic status), these leftist faculty see the indoctrination of students as “exposure to the truth,” and therefore, as the university’s mission. Note, however, that they do not believe so ardently in this nonsense that they admit it; the AAUP, as well as many faculty in the last few years, have performed incredible acrobatic stunts trying to deny that there is any liberal bias or indoctrination going on at all–despite the fact that the documented cases would fill a football stadium.
Like I said, these people will not willingly stop what they are doing. They must be forced. And they will do anything to hold onto the power they have.
Another institutional problem is education schools. These are hotbeds of the most viciously leftist politics; the chair of one department at an education school (which I will not name, for obvious reasons) has posters of Castro and Che on her door, as well as a Soviet flag in her office. Newt Gingrich shares my view that one thing we should do is shut down all education schools and void requirements that teachers have education degrees, and let students teach subjects in which they have degrees (that is, math majors would teach math classes).
Because education schools are dens of leftist postmodern courses, the courses are some of the mushiest, most nonsense-ridden pap available at any university, and take very little, if any, work whatsoever to pass (other than parroting the PC postmodernist drivel). These mindless courses attract those students who, frankly, don’t have the brains to do any other major, and these dolts end up with the education degrees, teaching our children in the school system.
For examples of the kind of idiocy that is passed off as education in universities today, read my UACJOB (University-Affiliated Creature with Jell-O for Brains, pronounced “wackjobâ€) Chronicles, in the site links here on the left sidebar.
Like I said, however, the institution is only part of the problem. There are also problems outside the institution. These social problems, external to the university, are the ones that are most likely to raise the ire of some conservatives–if they read too quickly. Because first and foremost, I believe from what I have seen that the largest problem is the sense of entitlement students and their parents exhibit.
It just isn’t honest or right to place all the blame at the door of the educational system.
A few summers ago, I participated in a state-sponsored meeting of educators from all levels. Yes, it was one big long nightmare dealing with most of these people, but during a break, I was talking to a level-headed woman who was a high school principal. She was amazed when I told her, that I had the same problem at the university with parents as she had in high school, that parents would call me at the end of the semester and rudely demand that their son be given a higher grade (usually an A) even though he had not done the work.
Oh yes. Parents have threatened to sue me, to have me fired, to contact my Dean, you name it. About the only thing parents have not threatened to do is murder me.
This sense of entitlement is bad enough from students — though I should say that most students do understand that they have to work for a grade — but from parents, it is inexcusable. Yet, it is far from unusual these days. The parents feel that because their taxes support the university, and because they paid their son’s tuition, he deserves an A, no matter what he did or did not do in the class.
When parents feel that their dime buys Johnny’s grades, the educational system is in serious trouble.
This isn’t the only problem. Too many parents refuse to take responsibility for their own children, and foist it onto the school system — yet simultaneously tie the system’s hands. While I am disgusted by the trend to medicate children who are merely acting out as the result of no discipline at home, I have to say on the other hand, what are the schools supposed to do? They cannot discipline the unruly children, because parents and society have prohibited them from doing so. Their only choices are detention and expulsion, and while examples of these often seem utterly ridiculous, the schools really have no other options.
I applaud parents who homeschool their children. Over the last few years I was at my last post I got more and more homeschooled students, and they were by far my most competitive and motivated students, and none exhibited any sense that he was entitled to a grade. The problems are so numerous, so complex, and they feed each other to such an extent that I don’t see any other option for parents who do take responsibility for their children and want them to receive a quality education.
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‘The whole concept of “truth†or “moral authority†rests on the belief that the male caucasian of European descent and Judaeo-Christian faith is the ultimate transgressor of human rights and decency,’
This is a strawman, it could easily be reversed into those who are Male, caucasian, and Judaeo-Chritistian are the holders of the truth. And really Judeo-Christian is a misnomer. They believe radically different things.
‘I applaud parents who homeschool their children. Over the last few years I was at my last post I got more and more homeschooled students, and they were by far my most competitive and motivated students,’
My experience has been far different. Home schoolers with a few notable exceptions are usually behind, often unmotivated, and generally poorer students.
Even if this wasn’t the case you have set up a false dicotomy. Home schoolers with good parents produce good students. Likewise in a public school setting. Bad parents produce bad students more often. So really your not seeing a benefit from home schooling your just seeing good parents who have happened to home school their children.
Have you ever had a good student who wasn’t home schooled? Many? Your argument simply doesn’t hold up.
I agree with much of what you said about postmodernism, but as a rule your to much of an idealogue to be taken seriously.
I’d say given your own illiteracy above that you’re either full of shit, or one of those education majors.
All the recent studies have shown that as a group home schoolers are doing much better than public schooled children. They score higher on SAT & ACT tests. As a group they do better in college. Brian Ray found they are more involved in politics. Studies on socialization found that homeschoolers do better in relating to people
So there may be some instances where children homeschooled don’t do as well, but the research has shown these are the exceptions.
All of this side steps the important isuses of what is the purpose of education, and who is responsible. Public schools seem to think that the purpose of public education is to provide jobs for teachers, and that the parents have no say in the matter.