September 1, 2004
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Topic: Dumbing Down America, the need for education reform!
Right now, you’ve got republicans preaching to republicans, while protestors are protesting to protestors. You’re got republicans telling each other exactly who bush is, and what he’s about, while democrats are telling each other who bush is, and what he’s about. You have people who already know who they’re gonna vote or not vote for. The only new information people are getting is how the campaigns are progressing, and i’ve just shown you my take on what the campaigns are about.
A big part of campaigns is the obvious divide between the two sides. Obviously, there’s a lot of mistrust between the two sides, and that stems from a lack of understanding. What exactly are they trying to say, and does it make any sense.
For the large part, these campaigns are un-educational. They encourage people to consider black and white ideas, “this war is promoting freedom,” or “drop bush, not bombs” without discussing the grey. They encourage people to latch onto one side with blind faith, and without needing to do anymore thinking. They encourage us to be dumb, as in silent, and dumb, as in uneducated.
While the criticisms go both ways, I want to illustrate my point through an interview I watched on the democracyNow! website. Interviewing 3 republican delegates, they all believed a link between Iraq and alQaeda, something which the gov’t has admitted was a false assumption. They have not seen Fahrenheit 9/11 because it’s not a movie that promotes family values. Also, John McCain, who took a jab at Moore during his speech at the Republican Nat’l Convention, also admitted to not having seen the film, allowing him to paint it inaccurately, while simulataneously accusing Moore of producing a film w/out any accuracies. The point is, a large segment of society is not willing to examine certain ideas about the gov’t. They’re not willing to talk about it, and they’re not willing to educate themselves about it.
I fear that our school systems have not done their jobs in creating free-thinkers who are naturally cynical and able to examine the gov’t. Bush and his supporters are free to influence this country with an attitude that “faith” is more important than thought. Thought will reveal that the idea of the war on terror is so cloudy, that the war on Iraq can only be looked at the same way. It’s unfortunate that Matt Lauer on the Today Show didn’t follow up on some questions, questions that will hopefully be asked in the Presidential Debate at Washington U. in St. Louis on Oct. 8th. Because, then we might have gotten out of Bush what he meant when he said, “You can’t win the war on terror.” Maybe someone will ask the question, “Since bringing freedom to Iraq won’t end the war on terror, isn’t it then necessary for us to invade further regimes with possible weopons of mass distruction, and regimes with evil dictators, and regimes with severe human rights violations, in order to fight terrorism?” Maybe someone will ask, “What if it takes years to bring stability to Iraq, does that mean that we must continue to spend our budget on military action there?” or maybe someone will ask, “Mr. Bush, our country has a history of supporting regime change and supporting dictators that later we didn’t like, for example, at one time America supported Saddam Hussein. Also, this country has a reputation around the world for being a hypocritical nation and a bully (insert historical example here). Some say, this is in part the reason for the attacks on 9/11. Perhaps, preventing further terrorist attacks could be done by building the reputation of America as a nation of peace and justice, a reputation which has been shattered, especially in the Middle East, as a result of not only the war on Iraq, but the inconvenience of the photos released of American’s torturing Iraqi soldiers?”
In order to educate, we must ask questions. Real questions. Tough questions. When John McCain criticized Michael Moore’s movie, not because of inaccuracies, but because his movie posed questions and his own suggested answers, to me this demonstrated the desparate need for people in our country to be educated to question. See the movie. Tell us what’s innaccurate. Give us your answers. To me, criticizing Moore outright without at least thinking about his questions, represents the true dumbing down of America.
Comments (2)
In a book I read subtitled “What the best college teachers do” the author points out that “the problem isn’t what students don’t know, it’s what they “know” that is wrong.” If we don’t train people to be great questioners, education is worthless. Two examples from my own experience: In an economics class: Prof, “blah, blah, blah.” Me: “But that doesn’t work in reality.” Prof, “True, but that’s the theory we’re learning.”
Vs.
The best assignment I ever had: My capstone in Juvenile Justice semester assignment: “Read whatever you find, and come back with five questions you can’t answer.”
I was happy to see one day last week an article in our local paper about a local school that received a grant to do a special history project. Students will be meeting with professional storytellers and learn how to interview their grandparents about their lives. Unfortunately, they aren’t allowed to ask any questions about Vietnam or other “major historical events.” Only about such things as technology and what everday life was like.
What is history without the “major historical events”? It goes right along with the lack of anything controversial ever being addressed in a meaningful way in schools. When it comes down to such topics, schools need to maintain control over what is learned. But my hope is that some of the children will stumble onto such topics “accidentally.”