There are a lot of controversies these days about education. There is a lot of misinformation regarding schooling too. A friend who is a Democrat is all up in arms because Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned some texts from schools. The intimation is that DeSantis is a Nazi burning books. That is until you see the books he wants to be banned. DeSantis wants critical race theory (CRT) out of the classroom and everyone who is interested in having an educated not indoctrinated population ought to support him.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work hand in hand with CRT to pollute everything it touches. Instead of creating opportunities for people, it is designed to control outcomes. One example is the judges appointed to the Federal bench by the Biden Administration. The other day, Republican Senator John Kennedy questioned a potential appointee on the finer points of the US Constitution. She didn’t know about it.
Last I checked, judges should apply the US Constitution to their assessment of cases brought before them. In their oath of office, they swear to defend it so shouldn’t they be able to recall parts of it?
These books being tossed into the ash heap of history are not “educational” texts. They are indoctrination texts. 1776 Unites Founder Bob Woodson tweeted about critical race theory being taught in our classrooms.
This is a big deal. Woodson is doing all he can to fight frauds like the 1619 Project but he doesn’t have the mainstream media megaphone. His and other efforts become more significant when you layer on artificial intelligence (AI).
Venture capitalists are flooding the AI space with dollars. Many of them are throwing money at things they don’t truly understand, just like they did with crypto. The money will fuel a lot of innovation and applications which you will interact with in the not-too-distant future.
Have you seen the repartee about ChatAPI and Dan? Here is one example.
What’s the solution to this invasion?
Classical learning. Classical texts. Original sources. You can argue that many peoples have contributed different things to man's knowledge, increasing mankind’s standard of living. However, the most outsized contribution is the canon of Western Classical Civilization. Aristotle, Socrates, the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and the great Scottish scholars on the rights of man and liberty. No one has contributed more, and when the United States was born, their ideas and practices were written down into two documents, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
They weren’t perfect and they weren’t perfectly implemented but US society has done more to help and raise the standards of living of mankind better, faster, and more efficiently than any other society that ever graced the earth. It doesn’t mean we don’t respect other contributions, but you can rest assured if you master learning the way that Socrates mastered it, you should be able to think and reason objectively.
It helps you cut through the bullshit that is exactly CRT, DEI, and ESG. Go down their “path of enlightenment” and you’ll find yourself in a dark hole you cannot climb out of.
When you are educated and understand the canon of Western Civilization, it’s much easier to point at the emperor with no clothes on. It’s easier to be innovative and think out of the box.
For parents today, that means pulling their kids out of government-run schools. They don’t educate, they indoctrinate. But, frankly so do a lot of private schools. Before you enroll, spend some time with school administrators and ask pointed direct questions about their philosophy of education and what texts and concepts they are teaching kids. Even good schools can be bastardized. My kid’s school Francis Parker in Chicago is a perfect example of that.
For further evidence, just look at applications to classically liberal Hillsdale College in Michigan. Applications are up 53%. The thirst for real independent knowledge and learning is great. With higher demand, perhaps we will see an increase in supply. Colleges and universities that have embraced the DEI/CRT/ESG track can change course if they have the desire to do so. But, since they have such a perceived monopoly on the market they don’t see the need. They are becoming more stuck. I predict in 20 years, many won’t exist just as Glenn Reynolds wrote years ago.
I laughed at the supposedly classically liberal University of Chicago recently. Their Institute of Politics run by that middle-of-the-road guy David Axelrod (HA) just hired Beto O’ Rourke (political party of failure) and Steve Sisolak (monkey see monkey do) to join their troupe. It is supposedly non-partisan, but really it just discriminates actively against conservatives. No surprise coming from someone like Axelrod. Here is their list of “Fellows”. Not one conservative. The IOP isn’t serious, it’s a joke. It’s an indoctrination institute masquerading as some serious academic effort.
You can probably get a classically liberal education at UChicago these days but it would be a minefield trying to take professors that actually taught in that discipline. There are a lot of Marxists walking the halls there, but that’s true of every university.
Artificial Intelligence is a very cool thing. However, when computer programmers train the AI brain on data that is biased, or they set artificial limits on what the AI will let you do, it becomes a dumb tool. In many cases, that tool will be useless.
Only a classically trained and objective human brain can innovate. My advice, make sure your children learn the skills necessary to think that way.
Dumbing down curriculums over the decades goes a long way in achieving followers as opposed to leaders and thinkers. Very Soviet behavioral psych methodology. Well documented as intentional. Why do you think Billy Ayers went into the Ed biz?
The problem with reforming the public schools is that the left has long mandated its ideology through the system of standards. These standards, which have been developed and imposed over decades will be almost impossible to dislodge. Attempts by some governors to overturn this long-established control over curriculum, discipline, teacher training is being mischaracterized, of course, with the help of the media. This is playing out now in Virginia where a fight is occurring about a revision of state k-12 history standards. I have long supported the public schools having had an excellent public education in the distant past. I have come to believe now that only imposing parental choice through education savings accounts and maybe more charter schools is vital. State education bureaucracies are a “deep state” that will fight viciously to keep the status quo. By-passing the schools of education and their stranglehold on certification coupled with an advertising campaign that documents failures showing up in the only tests that count - the NAEP, could be used to effect change but I don’t see these tools being used. Virginia and other states have a serious teacher shortage. Change the requirements for certification so that a bachelor’s degree in a standard discipline qualifies the holder of same to teach that discipline in a public school. And by the way, return the focus to standard disciplines. What is “social and emotional learning” and why is it imposed with its own curriculum and standards? Aren’t teachers and others just supposed to model good behavior?