The Dumbing Down of America

[RebelOne]

SHARECROPPER EDUCATION for EVERYONE!!!!


"Learning to Be Stupid in the Culture of Cash"
By Luciana Bohne
08/12/03:

You might think that reading about a Podunk University's English teacher's attempt to connect the dots between the poverty of American education and the gullibility of the American public may be a little trivial, considering we've embarked on the first, openly-confessed imperial adventure of senescent capitalism in the US, but bear with me.

The question my experiences in the classroom raise is why have these young people been educated to such abysmal depths of ignorance.

"I don't read," says a junior without the slightest self-consciousness. She has not the smallest hint that professing a habitual preference for not reading at a university is like bragging in ordinary life that one chooses not to breathe. She is in my "World Literature" class. She has to read novels by African, Latin American, and Asian authors. She is not there by choice: it's just a "distribution" requirement for graduation, and it's easier than philosophy — she thinks.

<http://www.marchforjustice.com/8.8.03.learning.php>

[goddess40]

1. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

This is (I guess I should say this is a book)available at Amazon. It is by John Taylor Gatto.

I spend a lot of time volunteering in the schools plus I have two son's that are gifted with learning disabilities and the main focus is following orders not learning. They won't help them with their disorders unless they fit in schools regiment.



I have it on my wish list at present but, I think I will order it along with Bowling for Colombine.

[ewagner]

2. Just e-mailed the author

Excellent work.

There is much to be said for a Liberal Arts Education despite that Conservative critics like to say that all liberal arts majors need to be taught is how to say "do you want fries with that order?".

Additionally, there are virtually no required courses on the high school level teaching basic skills in critical thinking/analysis.

Dumbing down is almost criminal.

[ikojo]

13. Public education has always

been about following directions and being on time. Two skills needed to be a good worker bee. Only those children who are intended to be in positions of power are encouraged, at their private schools and elite public schools in wealthy suburbs, to think critically and become problem solvers.

It is part of the plan.

[catzies]

29. And the lack of basic skills in critical thinking/analysis

Has given us right-wing talk radio and Fox News, and the rest of the lying liars and the lies they tell.

Wishing everybody on August 15 a happy "Fair and Balanced Day!"

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. "I Don't Read", My God, I hope you DON'T VOTE!!!!

This idiot is like so many other voters who know nothing about the candidates that they support!!! This is the mentality of America! Were most likely doomed then!

[goddess40]

4. That is part of the plan.

..when people vote the Dems win.

[greekspeak]

6. My experience in college

I can really see this professor's dilemna. I went from being one of the kids in the class she was talking about to being one who hates that people are so poorly educated. Until I reached my junior year in college, I would never have volunteered an answer.

I never spoke unless spoken to. My GOD...I will be one of those brown nosers. There were plenty of other activities to do besides reading. But during my junior year, I had required classes that held 10 or less students. You cannot hide there. That started the transformation. By the time I got into my MA program, it was difficult to shut me up. I had to read to stay alive. And I finally learned to read as an escape-all that heavy reading sapped my energy, and I found I could escape in good literature.

My question is this: how are students graduating college without an experience similar to mine? How are they getting through required courses where they MUST read and MUST verbally communicate to pass?

[Divernan]

5. This essayis an excellent example of what academic freedom should be about

Hope this professor has tenure to protect her criticisms of the educational system which employs her. It's worth reading the whole thing.

"The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote that, in the rapacity that the industrial revolution created, people first surrendered their minds or the capacity to reason, then their hearts or the capacity to empathize, until all that was left of the original human equipment was the senses or their selfish demand for gratification." At that point, humans entered the stage of market commodities and market consumers --one more thing in the commercial landscape. Without minds or hearts, they are instrumentalized to buy whatever deadens their clamoring and frightened senses -- official lies, immoral wars, Barbies, and bankrupt educations.

Imagine, a poet under 30 years of age wrote this nearly two hundred years ago - an accurate forecast of the selfish demand for gratification of Enron, Lay, Bush, Chaney at the top and the audience of the Home Shopping Network at the bottom.

[ewagner]

7. Me too

I was profoundly impacted by that.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. school is useless today

it really is.

Remember, the word kindergarden is an old fascist expression meaning children's garden - ie, growing children to harvest for the machine.

:)

[anti_shrub]

9. What can you do these days?

Public schools are lowering their standards, private schools are expensive and offer a limited worldview.

What else can you do? Homeschool a kid and run the risk of them being socially retarded?

[JohnyCanuck]

18. I have known a couple of home schooled kids. (12 and 8 yrs old)

They were far from being socially retarded. They were outgoing, inquisitive (in a good sense) and curious, math skills, english skills and general knowledge were on par with or slightly above their peers, they asked intelligent questions, made friends easily with other kids and were a pleasure to have around, which is far more than I can say for some of the children with a more orthodox educational background that I have had contact with.

[pretzel4gore]

16. according to michael lind's book

'up from conservativism' there are 3 conservative hoaxes that have been pushed relentlessly for years:
" The three major theories animating conservative domestic policy during the past decade and a half -supply side economics, the illegitimacy epidemic, and the crisis in public education- on close inspection turn out to have been hoaxes, perpetrated by conservative propagandists to justify reforms that benefitted Republican special interests: the business elite, the Protestant fundamentalist lobby, or both."
'up from conservativism' The Free Press, Simon and Shuster, New York 1996...
there's no doubt there's been a thickening of the nation's wit, but it cost US taxpayers vast sums, and that's just in money!

[Yupster]

24. Disagree on two

The schools near me are bad enough that we put our kid in private school at a cos of over $ 8,000 per year. To me that's a crisis.

I guess it depends what you call an epidemic, but the illegitimicy rate is over 30 % overall and is at 70 % for African-American kids. I call that an epidemic. I guess others would think it would have to be over 50 % overall to be a crisis.

[Davis_X_Machina]

32. Rubbish! Kindergarten far antedates facism...

Friedrich Fröbel founded the first kindergarten in the 1830's. He was inspired by the work of Johann Pestalozzi, who, if he were alive today, would be called a 'damned hippie'.

[pansypoo53219]

34. there is a historical marker in WI

for the 1st kindergarden in the US.

[pansypoo53219]

10. god forbid

they teach critical thinking skills.

of course how did i get mine? PBS or was it the overabundance of mystery reading as a kid?

[ewagner]

15. two good point you raised

"overabundance of mystery novels as a kid"

Those mystery novels have been replaced by video games. That's point one.

Point two: My summer vacation time (before I was old enough to get a summer job) was reading time. My friend and I once challenged each other to see who could read the most Edgar Rice Burroughs novels in a summer. That's because there was nothing else to do. Today, kids are rushed from music, dance, footbal/basketball/soccer/nature WHATEVER camp to another by parents who have used these activities as resume boosters AND SURROGATES for plain old-fashioned parenting.

[pansypoo53219]

20. of course i also

watched a lot of 'adult' teevee when young(I claudius when i was what, 11?). ooh cable, what's this channel? c-span debate rocked when i was 18. then all the lefty mags and SPY, which was grand vocabulary builder.
hope harry potter brings back reading.

[trogdor]

11. Well, GW managed to get through Yale and Harvard...

without getting an education. Is it any wonder there are hordes of idiots following his example?

[RichM]

12. An amusing related anecdote....

(from an article by Bertell Ollman....)

Amidst all the turmoil and exultation that marked the final days of the German Democratic Republic, an East German worker was heard to say, “What bothered us most about the Government is that they treated us like idiots”. In the capitalist lands, of course, people are first made into idiots, so when they are treated as such few take notice.

[Merlin]

14. This is an excellent piece of insight.

Though I would like to see it retitled "Learning to be Stupid in America."

This author is onto a very important issue that needs to be brought to the forefront. Many things conspire to produce graduates who have never experienced the "Life of the Mind." These include TV, video games, a culture which mocks intelligent discussion, an electorate that has bought into the idea that they are overtaxed for education, and a deliberate effort by the right to defund the left, including funding for liberal arts.

I hope she develops this into a book.

[samsingh]

17. truly - the world

is a dumber place today because of the dumb pResident.

Dumification of the Presidency.

[jiacinto]

19. I think the article is arrogant

And I hate the "sheeple" argument that people make here. I am just very uncomfortable with it.

I am 25 and a lot of my friends could care less about politics. To them watching the Osbournes is more important. American Idol and clubbing is what matters to them more.

I don't think they are stupid or "sheeple". They probably just don't think their voices matter.

[pansypoo53219]

21. if they were truely edumicated

they wouldn't accept stupid TV, boring service jobs, bad pay, rapacious corporations. all their master paln to control the SHEEPLE.

[laruemtt]

23. my 17-yo stepdaughter says, matter of factly,

"i'm not a book person." sigh...

[catzies]

31. So did my now-23 year old daughter at that age!

And after a public education where she chose not to apply herself scholastically and otherwise avail herself of what it offered, she just now decided to become a serious student toward a veterinary degree.

But she's behind the curve because she disdained education at a young age and that's the lesson.

[jiacinto]

26. Spare me

I like watching TV. Does that make part of the "sheeple" As for boring service jobs and bad pay maybe those are the only sectors, based on their lack of opportunity, they could find work in.

[BiggJawn]

37. Maybe it's all they're qualified for?

Perhaps they should've hit the books a litle harder?

So they like "The Osbournes" better than reading.
There was an ancient Roman Emperor who referred to that as "Bread and Circuses", as in "All I have to do to keep these Sheep in line and following me is give them plenty of shit to stuff in their guts and eyeballs"

Sort of like todays" "Osbournes" and "Supa-Dupa-Size", dontcha think?

Me, I don't like TV. Most of what is presented is inane, moronic, and frankly, insulting to me. And you enjoy it?

Oh well.....

[WEagle]

22. no it's more like playing dumb, than being dumb.

complacent, exhausted and maybe a bit selfish.

[bpilgrim]

25. of course you do because it blows your pandering argument to bits

this is the reality that we live in today.

and they are considered 'sheeple' by their corporate masters and controlled very well accordingly wether you choose to recognize this fact or not.

take a marketing/psyc course or two.

peace

[jiacinto]

27. I resent the arrogance I see

What makes you better than them? And how on earth do you even relate to people if you come toward them in a condasecnding fashion?

[bpilgrim]

30. i think you are confusing arrogance with dispair

and facts.

who said i was better? better educated, better read certainly but better, hell no!

i come from the streets of philadelphia, literally, and i have seen a lot, and i know that we have a huge societal problem regarding education exacerbated by our corporate culture that permeates EVERYTHING and i choose NOT to ignore obstacles in my way so i can better navigate them.

you choose to PANDER to the people, what makes you think that is noble?

peace

[BiggJawn]

39. What makes me better than "them"?

Oh, hell, I don't know, carlos, maybe because I READ? I analyze? I question?

Maybe because I want MORE from life than just enough money to keep 500 channels of intellectual SHIT piped into my hovel?

Try this, Mr. PC...When you call me "Arrogant" you damage my "Self-Esteem"..You really shouldn't do that, should you?

Yeah, I have a high opinion of myself. Deal with it.

[sandnsea]

28. My son is 26

He watches those shows too, I do too. The Osbournes are a hoot.

Doesn't mean he doesn't take time to educate himself and read something enlightening once in a while. He was one of something like ten kids in the history of his high school to check out The Prince from the library. He's just a regular guy, a wildland firefighter.

Being proud of being uninformed and uneducated is becoming engrained in this society and it's pushed primarily by Republican politicians who express their disdain for the 'elites'. I never realized how bad it was until I heard a Kentucky Senator, McConnell I think, express how tired his constituents were of having a bunch of college educated kids who didn't know anything about working for a living protest good logging jobs. There's nothing demeaning about manual labor. But demeaning anybody who has or wants an education, including a logger, ought to be as offensive in our society as demeaning someone for their race or religion.

[leftofthedial]

33. are yu caling me stupud

yu liberl punk?

this is just more fecul madder from the sesspool of liberl docktrun.

yu probaly think Kobee is gilty yu Unamerkan looser.

[U4ikLefty]

35. LOL....have we ever met?!?

n/t

[leftofthedial]

38. not to my knowledge

n/t

[dudeness]

36. well you need to produce cannon fodder

if you intend to fight a 50 year war...by not educating (particularily minority groups) you give them little choice but to take up a career in the armed forces..particularily if you indoctrinate them from an early age..and offer a nice uniform and some kind of community status..this is an empire no different from the british empire that used nepalese,australians and indians to fight for its power and glory...except it must recruit from within..

[punpirate]

40. Luciana Bohne has written for DU on...

... similar subjects in the past.

I am of several minds today about education. I spent a short time teaching twenty years ago at the community college level, and it greatly disheartened me--too many students were there to gain credits and seat time--and the prevailing attitude was "educate me so I can get a better job, but don't dare let knowledge challenge my prejudices--after all, those are my opinions."

Very frustrating. But, in truth, I think my generation is partly responsible for what diminution there has been in the public schools. In the late `60s and early `70s, there was a constant cry among students for the curriculum to be relaxed and for it to have "relevancy."

Typically, prior to that time, a liberal arts degree, no matter the kind, required a minimum of one year of science, one year of math, two years of foreign languages, one year of humanities and two years of English composition and literature. That was simply the groundwork required to teach someone to think, so the person could then apply those critical skills to one's major.

Today, it's quite different. While those courses are still offered, they aren't required in that volume. I once worked for an engineer who bragged that he satisfied five of his required _eight_ credit hours in humanities and English with a history of Boolean algebra course.

That, in itself, says volumes about what higher education has become--increasingly geared to job preparation--and that process likely starts earlier in the educational system. My own feeling is that this condition also came about because of less and less money available to public school systems as corporations began paying less and less of their share of the tax load. Technical and trade courses were common in all public school systems thirty or forty years ago--now they are almost gone entirely--too expensive to maintain. That training is now done at the community college level, if at all. And kids who would have found themselves more comfortable in trade programs are now expected to pursue a standardized college prep program, something in which perhaps 20-30% of students are ill-equipped to succeed.

It's a complicated problem, and the degree of the problem varies state by state, county by county, but one thing's for sure--we need to stop fiddling with programs which do work, and get the corporate world to start anteing up its share of the tax dollars and put that money into problem areas.

When I asked my students what constituted a "good, liberal education," they gasped--they were sure I meant that education was to make liberals of them (rural, Christian college in 1980). When I gave them my definition (one I'd learned years before) they were simply confused because they all thought they could do those things already: a liberal education is defined first as a process to teach the individual how to think on his own, and second, is a means of teaching the individual how to go on teaching himself throughout the rest of his life.

That's education in a nutshell. When it doesn't do that, we've got problems.

Cheers.