The argument that race is the primary factor motivating the Republicans in schooling issues and in just about everything else is valid and significant. More fundamentally, it is fear, xenophobia, and religious mythology. DeVos is a Christian Dominionist. But knowing that gets us exactly nowhere.
Fearing loss of control and chaos are big …
The argument that race is the primary factor motivating the Republicans in schooling issues and in just about everything else is valid and significant. More fundamentally, it is fear, xenophobia, and religious mythology. DeVos is a Christian Dominionist. But knowing that gets us exactly nowhere.
Fearing loss of control and chaos are big for conservatives and Republicans who are actually reactionaries and cult members. Science, knowledge, enlightenment, education, personal autonomy, and democracy are inherently liberal and therefore, threatening to these people. They are grasping at straws and fighting the demons in their imagination.
The association to communism is in the rejection of traditional training and indoctrination and in the inevitable disappearance of rigid discipline, moralistic influence, and individual responsibility for sin of the original variety. They distrust human nature, and they expect a society that is not suppressed and carefully controlled will quickly become debased and degraded.
The solution is education. The most pressing problem, however, is that schools do not and cannot provide education according to our American dreams and mythology. The problem is that our schools are vulnerable because they fail so profoundly to reinforce democratic principles or to endow students with the skills, “critical thinking”, intellectual curiosity and capacity, self-generated knowledge, empathy, creativity, and love of life which are needed for our society to advance.
Authority is inimical to education FULL STOP. Arbitrary authority is toxic to human development and autonomy. Authoritarianism is a cancer on the society. Compulsory attendance LAWS - remember, these are the codes and requirements that control the daily lives of children and teachers quite indiscriminately and mostly anonymously – necessitate a hierarchy and a bureaucracy. Authoritarianism under this paradigm is inescapable.
Everything else is a distraction and a superficial issue. If people will tolerate paternalistic, unconstitutional, and misanthropic laws to stand, all is lost. There is no such thing as mass education. Education and coercion are antithetical. The separation of school and state are no less crucial than the separation of church and state and are often the same thing. I keep repeating myself hoping the message will sink in someday. Minorities in bad public schools will not fix our problems. Bad schools merely harm more kids. Are there no minorities out there at least who get it?
The argument that race is the primary factor motivating the Republicans in schooling issues and in just about everything else is valid and significant. More fundamentally, it is fear, xenophobia, and religious mythology. DeVos is a Christian Dominionist. But knowing that gets us exactly nowhere.
Fearing loss of control and chaos are big for conservatives and Republicans who are actually reactionaries and cult members. Science, knowledge, enlightenment, education, personal autonomy, and democracy are inherently liberal and therefore, threatening to these people. They are grasping at straws and fighting the demons in their imagination.
The association to communism is in the rejection of traditional training and indoctrination and in the inevitable disappearance of rigid discipline, moralistic influence, and individual responsibility for sin of the original variety. They distrust human nature, and they expect a society that is not suppressed and carefully controlled will quickly become debased and degraded.
The solution is education. The most pressing problem, however, is that schools do not and cannot provide education according to our American dreams and mythology. The problem is that our schools are vulnerable because they fail so profoundly to reinforce democratic principles or to endow students with the skills, “critical thinking”, intellectual curiosity and capacity, self-generated knowledge, empathy, creativity, and love of life which are needed for our society to advance.
Authority is inimical to education FULL STOP. Arbitrary authority is toxic to human development and autonomy. Authoritarianism is a cancer on the society. Compulsory attendance LAWS - remember, these are the codes and requirements that control the daily lives of children and teachers quite indiscriminately and mostly anonymously – necessitate a hierarchy and a bureaucracy. Authoritarianism under this paradigm is inescapable.
Everything else is a distraction and a superficial issue. If people will tolerate paternalistic, unconstitutional, and misanthropic laws to stand, all is lost. There is no such thing as mass education. Education and coercion are antithetical. The separation of school and state are no less crucial than the separation of church and state and are often the same thing. I keep repeating myself hoping the message will sink in someday. Minorities in bad public schools will not fix our problems. Bad schools merely harm more kids. Are there no minorities out there at least who get it?