Reflections on God … Man … Life
Criticism of the Obama agenda has centered primarily on the most visible projects, such as taking over the healthcare system and the massive stimulus packages. I have also spent most of my commentary time on these. Along the way, though, I have called attention to a quieter revolution that most people have missed. It’s time to bring that one to the forefront now. In an op-ed in the Denver Post that appeared last month, two former Republican senators who are… Read more »
There’s a new movie out—a documentary—entitled Waiting for Superman. It’s an indictment of what some people call public education. The more accurate name for it is government-controlled education. I haven’t seen this documentary yet, but the director, Davis Guggenheim, is a liberal who directed Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, which will never qualify as one of my favorite movies. This time, though, he has some genuine inconvenient truths regarding the educational establishment. Apparently, there are some liberals who are scared… Read more »
Since it’s Labor Day, what better day to talk about one of the largest and most influential unions in the country—the National Education Association [NEA]. This also allows me to continue my intermittent history of American education. The NEA was founded in Philadelphia in 1857. The ostensible rationale for its creation was to provide a voice for all teachers in the nation to promote the interests of the profession. A statement from that initial meeting said it hoped to one… Read more »
While my mind is on education, let me continue with a little more of the history of education in America. In previous posts, I mentioned John Dewey and his baneful influence. Known as the Father of Progressive Education, Dewey introduced a number of new ideas: no eternal truths; let the child decide what he wants to learn; minimize booklearning and magnify experiences [which can often be divorced from substance]; socialization of children to fit into his vision of a socialist… Read more »
I have colleagues who are education professors, and I want to make sure they don’t misunderstand what I will say today. I know their hearts—they are committed to doing the best for the students as they prepare to go out and teach others. They might be in the minority, however. All too often, education degrees focus rather heavily on how to manage a classroom or on the latest trendy experiments. Now, managing a classroom is important—I know that from personal… Read more »
As a university professor, I think a lot about what I should do in the classroom. What is the proper way to teach? How much do I let my beliefs enter into the subject? One of the biggest problems in many universities is when the classroom is used primarily as an indoctrination center for leftist ideology and all the trendy movements: multiculturalism, radical feminism, environmentalism (anyone notice an “ism” problem here?). The response of most conservatives has been to call… Read more »
Ever since the revolutionary movements of the 1960s, college education has been altered for the worse. It already had been affected by progressivism, but the radicalism of that era injected steroids into the progressivism that already existed. Now, forty years later, the radicals who protested being taught Western Civilization and the free market are the professors, by and large. Homegrown terrorists like William Ayers are now inculcating their Marxist philosophy into the students’ immature minds. They still hate the nation… Read more »