“While Black history is under attack in schools across the nation by these same people, white Americans also need to learn their own history and Reaganism’s role in it.”
Easy for Thom to say. Not so easy to make it happen. When have white Americans ever learned their own history in school? What needs to change so that accurate and unvar…
“While Black history is under attack in schools across the nation by these same people, white Americans also need to learn their own history and Reaganism’s role in it.”
Easy for Thom to say. Not so easy to make it happen. When have white Americans ever learned their own history in school? What needs to change so that accurate and unvarnished history is offered to all students and not merely glossed over or blown off by disengaged or ill-prepared students? How can conditions be changed so that people will not be inordinately fearful and paranoid, and large numbers will not turn to racist, homophobic, and misogynistic scapegoating and fascistic ideology?
The right-wing inspired attacks at school board meetings, the outrageous moves to sanitize curricula and history and to demonize CRT, along with attempts to undermine other honest efforts to teach accurate versions of history, and the concerted attempts to monetize and privatize schools are all extremely disturbing.
School and education come up in these discussions literally every single day. Yet, we have mainly platitudes, bromides, unanswered questions, impractical suggestions, and impossible demands.
This is a special request for Thom to do a “deep dive” and a focused and comprehensive study and at least one “daily take” on this topic.
I Firmly believe that there is massive confusion and no small amount of ignorance relative to these issues and that it will no longer suffice to merely take a position or to issue general statements without much more clarity, detail, and the same kind of phenomenal historical analysis for which Thom is revered. We cannot fight the right and prevent further erosion of knowledge and awareness about crucial issues because of public indifference or lack of insight unless we ourselves have a much better understanding of what has been happening and a vision for what we want for the future.
There are many, many more questions than answers. How do we stop an authoritarian fascist like the governor of FL (do not say his name)? How do we bolster public schools (which I have said are not truly public schools since the states control every aspect of their existence) and create more awareness and public support to maximize the resistance to privatization? What can be done to overcome structural factors contributing to racial inequality and subtle racism in schools and elsewhere and facilitated by media?
Did we all buy into the idealized Johnny Appleseed type image of people such as Horace Mann that we were given (where else but in school?) and did we too easily believe that their motives were pure as the driven snow as missionaries for the Enlightenment’s appreciation for education? Were those people truly striving to preserve democracy by urging intellectual development, edification, and academic excellence?
It should be noted that there are striking similarities between the highly influential and primarily wealthy individuals more than a century-and-a-half ago who were most instrumental in bringing us public schools and compulsory attendance laws and the billionaires, oligarchs, and fascists behind these right-wing machinations today. They were born-again capitalists according to some observers. Horace Mann, for one, was greatly impressed with the Prussian military-style academies which were organized to produce highly disciplined miniature soldiers ready to do battle. Does that comport with what we know about childhood development, child psychology, and an optimal model of pedagogy in 2023? Do we want soldiers (some of whom will die prematurely), or do we want scholars, humanitarians, and good citizens?
Here is what Dr. Peter Gray a highly respected PhD Psychology professor and author wrote in his blogpost on his Psychology Today blog entitled, “Freedom to Learn”, copied on the Salon website: “School is a prison -- and damaging our kids” (2013).
Schools as we know them today are a product of history, not of research into how children learn. The blueprint still used for today’s schools was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were created to teach children to read the Bible, to believe scripture without questioning it, and to obey authority figures without questioning them. The early founders of schools were quite clear about this in their writings. The idea that schools might be places for nurturing critical thought, creativity, self-initiative or ability to learn on one’s own — the kinds of skills most needed for success in today’s economy — was the furthest thing from their minds. To them, willfulness was sinfulness, to be drilled or beaten out of children, not encouraged.
What are the implications for educating youth to enable them to be better prepared to participate in democracy? Elsewhere Dr. Gray says:
It’s obvious that compulsory schooling (which literally means forced schooling) is an assault on children’s liberty. Children are required to go to school, and in school, they are not free. In fact, children are more deprived of their liberty in school than adult criminals are in prison. They are told exactly where they must be and what they must do almost every moment; freedom of speech and assembly are banished; they have no say in the rules they must follow; and when they are accused of violating a rule, there is no due process in determining guilt or innocence or what their punishment will be. School has always been like this, but it is worse today than in times past because there is more of it and it is even more rigidly administered and restrictive than in the past.
Quoted from Peter Gray’s Psychology Today Blog, 2/28/19
It occurred to me to do a thought experiment as I worked on a new project the other day. Jefferson has been affectionally called the father of our democracy, as I recall. He spoke and wrote passionately, eloquently, and often about liberty, freedom, equality, justice, and the brotherhood of man. He almost certainly understood liberty as a concept as well as any psychologist living today or as well as those from the past to whom we look for its definition, such as James, Bettleheim, Maslow, or Rogers.
Jefferson also spoke about the essential need for the citizens of a democracy to be educated and well-informed. He surely would have said that a person must be free in her mind and free in his thinking to be liberated and to participate meaningfully in democracy.
The question to ask then is, would Jefferson ever have entertained the idea of using attendance laws or any form of force or coercion to compel a citizen, or all citizens, to become educated? Are you kidding!!!
The answer to that question should be obvious and swift. Jefferson would most likely have turned his back and walked away in disgust at such a ludicrous and insulting question. Liberty and education must be on an equal footing. There is no education without liberty, autonomy, and agency. Forcing education or schooling at any age is anathema to the concept of democracy or liberty. The mind cannot be free if the body is held captive or kept immobile and restrained for extended periods. Adults who have not enjoyed liberty and autonomy as children are never truly free. Jefferson surely knew this.
What is forced learning if not pernicious mind-control and a deprivation of agency, autonomy, and free thought? The issue arises solely because, since the founding of the country, schooling has mistakenly been conflated with education. The two are different, if not opposites.
We rail against the billionaires and arrogant and powerful people who today are trying to control school curricula or who are determined to privatize schools. But how did we get the paradigm that we currently have? We got it from fascist-minded wealthy capitalists who wanted to proliferate institutions that would shill for capital and for “stability” so they could continue multiplying their profits at the expense of the “rabble” and the students under the thumb of authorities that they could also control. It was never about education or democracy.
Dewey started advocating for change over a century ago and spelled out in great detail what the issues were for decades. Brown v. Board was in 1954. The Civil Rights Act was 1965. Holt and Kozol were active in the 80’s. How much longer are we going to wait for schools to catch up and stop the mediocrity and stop mass-producing mindless drones? Why are educators given a pass, and where is the leadership?
Why would anybody embrace fascism? Because of abject ignorance, fear, and a lifelong conditioning to depend on authority and infallible leaders, perhaps? C’mon people. C’mon Thom. It is time for a moment of truth.
“While Black history is under attack in schools across the nation by these same people, white Americans also need to learn their own history and Reaganism’s role in it.”
Easy for Thom to say. Not so easy to make it happen. When have white Americans ever learned their own history in school? What needs to change so that accurate and unvarnished history is offered to all students and not merely glossed over or blown off by disengaged or ill-prepared students? How can conditions be changed so that people will not be inordinately fearful and paranoid, and large numbers will not turn to racist, homophobic, and misogynistic scapegoating and fascistic ideology?
The right-wing inspired attacks at school board meetings, the outrageous moves to sanitize curricula and history and to demonize CRT, along with attempts to undermine other honest efforts to teach accurate versions of history, and the concerted attempts to monetize and privatize schools are all extremely disturbing.
School and education come up in these discussions literally every single day. Yet, we have mainly platitudes, bromides, unanswered questions, impractical suggestions, and impossible demands.
This is a special request for Thom to do a “deep dive” and a focused and comprehensive study and at least one “daily take” on this topic.
I Firmly believe that there is massive confusion and no small amount of ignorance relative to these issues and that it will no longer suffice to merely take a position or to issue general statements without much more clarity, detail, and the same kind of phenomenal historical analysis for which Thom is revered. We cannot fight the right and prevent further erosion of knowledge and awareness about crucial issues because of public indifference or lack of insight unless we ourselves have a much better understanding of what has been happening and a vision for what we want for the future.
There are many, many more questions than answers. How do we stop an authoritarian fascist like the governor of FL (do not say his name)? How do we bolster public schools (which I have said are not truly public schools since the states control every aspect of their existence) and create more awareness and public support to maximize the resistance to privatization? What can be done to overcome structural factors contributing to racial inequality and subtle racism in schools and elsewhere and facilitated by media?
Did we all buy into the idealized Johnny Appleseed type image of people such as Horace Mann that we were given (where else but in school?) and did we too easily believe that their motives were pure as the driven snow as missionaries for the Enlightenment’s appreciation for education? Were those people truly striving to preserve democracy by urging intellectual development, edification, and academic excellence?
It should be noted that there are striking similarities between the highly influential and primarily wealthy individuals more than a century-and-a-half ago who were most instrumental in bringing us public schools and compulsory attendance laws and the billionaires, oligarchs, and fascists behind these right-wing machinations today. They were born-again capitalists according to some observers. Horace Mann, for one, was greatly impressed with the Prussian military-style academies which were organized to produce highly disciplined miniature soldiers ready to do battle. Does that comport with what we know about childhood development, child psychology, and an optimal model of pedagogy in 2023? Do we want soldiers (some of whom will die prematurely), or do we want scholars, humanitarians, and good citizens?
Here is what Dr. Peter Gray a highly respected PhD Psychology professor and author wrote in his blogpost on his Psychology Today blog entitled, “Freedom to Learn”, copied on the Salon website: “School is a prison -- and damaging our kids” (2013).
Schools as we know them today are a product of history, not of research into how children learn. The blueprint still used for today’s schools was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were created to teach children to read the Bible, to believe scripture without questioning it, and to obey authority figures without questioning them. The early founders of schools were quite clear about this in their writings. The idea that schools might be places for nurturing critical thought, creativity, self-initiative or ability to learn on one’s own — the kinds of skills most needed for success in today’s economy — was the furthest thing from their minds. To them, willfulness was sinfulness, to be drilled or beaten out of children, not encouraged.
What are the implications for educating youth to enable them to be better prepared to participate in democracy? Elsewhere Dr. Gray says:
It’s obvious that compulsory schooling (which literally means forced schooling) is an assault on children’s liberty. Children are required to go to school, and in school, they are not free. In fact, children are more deprived of their liberty in school than adult criminals are in prison. They are told exactly where they must be and what they must do almost every moment; freedom of speech and assembly are banished; they have no say in the rules they must follow; and when they are accused of violating a rule, there is no due process in determining guilt or innocence or what their punishment will be. School has always been like this, but it is worse today than in times past because there is more of it and it is even more rigidly administered and restrictive than in the past.
Quoted from Peter Gray’s Psychology Today Blog, 2/28/19
It occurred to me to do a thought experiment as I worked on a new project the other day. Jefferson has been affectionally called the father of our democracy, as I recall. He spoke and wrote passionately, eloquently, and often about liberty, freedom, equality, justice, and the brotherhood of man. He almost certainly understood liberty as a concept as well as any psychologist living today or as well as those from the past to whom we look for its definition, such as James, Bettleheim, Maslow, or Rogers.
Jefferson also spoke about the essential need for the citizens of a democracy to be educated and well-informed. He surely would have said that a person must be free in her mind and free in his thinking to be liberated and to participate meaningfully in democracy.
The question to ask then is, would Jefferson ever have entertained the idea of using attendance laws or any form of force or coercion to compel a citizen, or all citizens, to become educated? Are you kidding!!!
The answer to that question should be obvious and swift. Jefferson would most likely have turned his back and walked away in disgust at such a ludicrous and insulting question. Liberty and education must be on an equal footing. There is no education without liberty, autonomy, and agency. Forcing education or schooling at any age is anathema to the concept of democracy or liberty. The mind cannot be free if the body is held captive or kept immobile and restrained for extended periods. Adults who have not enjoyed liberty and autonomy as children are never truly free. Jefferson surely knew this.
What is forced learning if not pernicious mind-control and a deprivation of agency, autonomy, and free thought? The issue arises solely because, since the founding of the country, schooling has mistakenly been conflated with education. The two are different, if not opposites.
We rail against the billionaires and arrogant and powerful people who today are trying to control school curricula or who are determined to privatize schools. But how did we get the paradigm that we currently have? We got it from fascist-minded wealthy capitalists who wanted to proliferate institutions that would shill for capital and for “stability” so they could continue multiplying their profits at the expense of the “rabble” and the students under the thumb of authorities that they could also control. It was never about education or democracy.
Dewey started advocating for change over a century ago and spelled out in great detail what the issues were for decades. Brown v. Board was in 1954. The Civil Rights Act was 1965. Holt and Kozol were active in the 80’s. How much longer are we going to wait for schools to catch up and stop the mediocrity and stop mass-producing mindless drones? Why are educators given a pass, and where is the leadership?
Why would anybody embrace fascism? Because of abject ignorance, fear, and a lifelong conditioning to depend on authority and infallible leaders, perhaps? C’mon people. C’mon Thom. It is time for a moment of truth.