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Attack Our Educational System, Attack Our Democracy

Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 05:48:40 PM EST

Aaron Barlow begins a new ePluribus Media Issues series with Responding to Criticism: The State of Education in America focusing on the once-was crown jewel in our democratic system: Our Public Education.

He launches the first volley in the series with this thought:

"These past decades have seen relentless attacks on US educational institutions. Too many of them have been aimed at one thing: the transfer of control over our schools and universities from the institutions themselves into the hands of politicians. School vouchers, No Child Left Behind, David Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights, and even Intelligent Design: Each of these moves education decision-making from the local school's teacher and administrator to the legislative hall. Such changes are altering our educational structures, making them more like the systems of centralized economies, where control from the top means schools more responsive to the politics of the day (dictated from the tip of the pyramid) than to the learning needs of students (who reside at the bottom)."

commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!

Barely pausing to breathe, Barlow goes on to discuss just one of the attacks in Othodoxy Versus Bias In his article, Barlow examines the latest critique of American universities as being too liberal. He summarizes:

"The other concern is the very real liberal political tendency of the majority of academics. On its own, this should be no cause of anxiety (any more than it is a problem that most people in business are conservatives). We are not going to provide a “better” education by mandating that people with a diversity of political views be hired to teach in our universities. The reasons that academics tend to be liberal, just like the reasons that businesspeople tend to be conservative, are cultural and not specific to academia. To change that aspect of academia, in other words, requires a changing of the culture as a whole, not simply a changing of university procedures and mindsets. And neither our academic institutions nor our business ones is the appropriate place to start, if that is one’s goal."

ePMedia contributors to Barlow's series "opener" include: BeverlyinNH, Stoy, JeninRI, Standingup and Sue in KY. Barlow's full article is posted at the ePluribusMedia Journal.

Attack Our Educational System, Attack Our Democracy | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

Big Teacher is Watching (none / 0) (#1)

At the rate we're going, I can see all universities and colleges being federalized, and the Department of Education being absorbed by the Department of Defense.

Why not? DOD has already taken over foreign policy from State.

by Jeff Huber on Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 09:37:05 AM EST

: Libby's Sex Book (none / 0) (#2)

Maybe we can take it as what we will see more of as the Conservatives take over education and repress the hell out of folks:
From this week's New Yorker:

"At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a a stick when it seemed to lose interest."
If this is the product of the conservative agenda taking hold of our public education, give me the liberals...
Never mind the misplaced modifier at the beginning, this stuff is just sick sick sick.

by Cho on Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 09:58:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
: This Is Why... (none / 0) (#3)

...we can't simply argue that what we have now is "good enough." We need to constantly struggle to improve our educational institutions, and to strive to understand the basis of each criticism from outside, rather than to simply react against it.

by Aaron Barlow on Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 10:21:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]