Education in Crisis: Part III

As the California Judge H. Walter Coskey noted In Part I, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," The question then is who decides what defines citizenship and what exactly are the citizens patriotic and loyal to.

Studies indicate that a left wing bias dominates the teaching profession and we have all heard anecdotes of bias in colleges and universities which are far from being a forum for a diversity of ideas. As one study notes, “They are virtual one-party states, ideological monopolies, badly unbalanced ecosystems. They are utterly flightless birds with only one wing to flap. They do not, when it comes to political and cultural ideas, look like America," (Chow) So if we expect that the cultural ideas promoted by the public school system should reflect our history and culture for the good of society what then is the goal of the reconstructionists? I’ll let them explain.

The Transformation of Society
Ultimately, the goal of multicultural education is to contribute progressively and proactively to the transformation of society and to the application and maintenance of social justice and equity.

This stands to reason, as the transformation of schools necessarily transforms a society that puts so much stock in educational attainment, degrees, and test scores. In fact, it is particularly this competitive, capitalistic framing of the dominant mentality of the United States (and increasingly, with the "help" of the United States, the world) that multicultural education aims to challenge, shake, expose, and critique. This is precisely the reason that it is not enough to continue working within an ailing, oppressive, and outdated system to make changes, when the problems in education are themselves symptoms of a system that continues to be controlled by the economic elite.

One does not need to study education too closely to recognize that schools consistently provide continuing privilege to the privileged and continuing struggle for the struggling with very little hope of upward mobility. "Informal" tracking, standardized testing, discrepancies in the quality of schools within and across regions, and other practices remain from the industrial-age model of schools. Only the terminology has changed -- and the practices are not quite as overt.

Educators, educational theorists, researchers, activists, and everyone else must continue to practice and apply multicultural teaching and learning principles both inside and out of the classroom. We must not allow the knowledge that most people working in schools are well-intentioned to lead us to assume that our schools are immune to the oppression and inequity of society. We must ask the un-askable questions. We must explore and deconstruct structures of power and privilege that serve to maintain the status quo.

In a sense, multicultural education uses the transformation of self and school as a metaphor and starting place for the transformation of society. Ultimately, social justice and equity in schools can, and should, mean social justice and equity in society. Only then will the purpose of multicultural education be fully achieved.

As you can see, the rhetoric of the multiculturalist educator is nothing more than a repackaging of Marxist dogma. As Marx wrote, “The Communists have not intended the intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class.”

This is not to say that teachers are a monolithic group whose goal is the programming of students into leftist automatons bent on undermining two centuries of American political culture. Of all the professors I have encountered the last two years many, but not all, adhere to this agenda to various degrees but are usually subtle in their approach. You can see it in the direction that debates or subject matter is steered while attempting to appear objective, while others make the occasional snide aside in lecture that gives a snapshot into their ideology. Only once did I have a professor that openly stated that “We (the U.S.) suck!”

The multiculturalist/ reconsonstructionist agenda is contrary to the purpose of education as envisioned by men like Thomas Jefferson who believed that if Liberty was to be maintained citizens must be educated in republican ideals. I would guess that this philosophy is also contrary to what most people would expect from the education system. If only they knew.

Education in Crisis: Part II

Since I wrote the previous piece on the attack on home schools in California, Governor Schwartzenegger has promised to pursue legislation protecting home schools in his state. (Education in Crisis Part I) My concern, as I mentioned is not so much where the children are learning but the method by which that learning takes place and by extension what they are forced to learn.

By and large what goes on in that big brick neighborhood building we call a school goes largely ignored or unnoticed. If you told a parent that his child is undergoing a Multicultural Education most would not be aware of the term nor could they define it. Most would equate it with the idea that in our increasingly ethnically diverse society multicultural education is nothing more than diversity training for the very young. At its most innocuous level this part of multicultural education is probably true. Who’s child has not had to do a project on Martin Luther King during Black History Month. The problem is that it extends beyond the scope that we can all get along to potentially altering the basic fabric of American society.

What we now call multicultural education originated in the 1960s in the wake of the civil rights movement as a corrective to the long-standing de facto policy of assimilating minority groups into the "melting pot" of dominant American culture (Sobol, 1990). Multicultural education has captured almost daily headlines in recent years, as it has become an ever more contentious and politicized battleground. To cite just two instances, attempts to establish multicultural curricula in New York City and California were the subject of considerable public attention.

In the debate over New York's Children of the Rainbow curriculum, opponents such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1991) argued that multicultural education threatened to divide students along racial and cultural lines, rather than unite them as Americans. The public debate continues. As recently as May 1994, a school board in Lake County, Florida, voted that its schools could teach children about other cultures, but only as a way of teaching them that American culture was inherently "superior," a decision much discussed around the country ("School Board," 1994). (Burnett)

Multicultural Education as it is presented to budding young teachers in the college ranks builds on the idea that people of different cultures or socioeconomic strata may learn differently and as such it is unjust to force that student to learn in a style that may be contrary to that student’s cultural background, regardless if that learning style or behavior is inferior to the American system. It is a purely relativist perspective that forces the educator to formulate educational experiences for as many different “styles” of learning as may be found in their particular classroom without questioning the behaviors of the particular student. Taken to the extreme multiculturalsim works to eradicate the idea of “American Exceptionalism” and eliminate assimilation into American culture that has been the cornerstone of Americas successful integration of diverse peoples for over two centuries.

Of course the teaching profession is not a monolithic group and I don’t want to imply that teachers are marching in lockstep in some multicultural conspiracy. There are in fact several levels of commitment to this dogma.

1. The Human Relations approach students are taught about commonalities of all people through understanding their social and cultural differences but not their differences in institutional and economic power.
2. The Single Group Studies approach is about the histories and contemporary issues of oppression of people of color, women, low socioeconomic groups, and gays and lesbians.
3. The Multicultural Education approach promotes the transformation of the
educational process to reflect the ideals of democracy in a pluralistic society. Students are taught content using instructional methods that value cultural knowledge and differences.
4. The Social Reconstructionist approach to multicultural education goes a step
further to teach students about oppression and discrimination. Students learn about their roles as social change agents so that they may participate in the generation of a more equitable society. (Hanley)

This is just an introduction into the world of Multiculturalist educational thinking and for further information on the topic I suggest reading the works of Hanley and Bennet linked in this piece. Next time we will take a look at the extremist view of this dogma and the direction it is taking America.

Education in Crisis: Part I

This article was forwarded from a concerned reader. He writes: “I guess someone in California is pissed off that the winner of state Spelling Bee competition is always a home schooled pupil.” I think the problem runs deeper than that. California has declared a war of sorts on parents who choose to home-school their children saying that the children must be trained by a state licensed instructor. While at the same time they are abandoning a large segment of students already in the public system.

San Francisco: A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution…
"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the
provisions of these laws." Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.
"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue…
The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.
"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

Of course the Teachers Union was ecstatic with the ruling, eyeing an opportunity to get their hooks into a new source of fertile young minds, but when some California districts have 30% to 50 % of the kids leaving school at some point after ninth grade without earning a diploma their concerns seem seriously misplaced. Except that failing kids leaving the system helps schools meet performance guidlines under No Child Left Behind.

LA TIMES: CALIFORNIA'S CHILDREN are abandoning school at the rate of about 150,000 a year — a number equivalent to the population of Torrance, or Irvine, or all of Imperial County. Fewer than 70% of ninth-graders statewide will graduate from high school, and in some districts the percentage drops to less than half. Shockingly, this is not particularly a problem for schools, which are ranked primarily on their test scores. If marginal students leave, it only helps their averages.The result is a calamity in education that has almost no effect on schools, and that paradoxically has allowed schools to remain on the margins of a public debate about how to keep kids in the classroom. Fortunately, the Legislature is taking note.

Legislators are taking note and road they are taking education down should scare everyone that has children in the system or anyone that cares about educations role in building ":citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation" as Judge Croskey stated above. This affects education not only in California but in the United States as a whole. Next time I will take a look at how the education system is being co-opted.

U of I. Security to Begin Packing Heat

No, you won't be seeing any displays like this on the Iowa River any time soon but the Iowa Board of Regents has voted to allow Campus Secutity to begin carrying firearms. Now if we can only convince the legistlature to allow citizens the ability to do the same.

Regents Policy: Here
Pictured: USS Iowa, firing its 16 inch guns.

U of I's Faculty

Iowa City is known as the most liberal city in Iowa so it should come as no surprise that the city’s largest employer is predominately infested with Democrats. Mark Moyar, a professor at the Marine Corp. University writes at NRO that the U of I History Department in particular is completely staffed by Democrats and because he is of the Conservative persuasion he was passed over for a position at the University. As I read this I got the impression that the article had a little tone of sour grapes. Mr. Moyar is an academic and should not be surprised that these things occur. Unfortunately being a conservative isn't a protected interest group in this state’s anti-discrimination laws (maybe it should be).
As a student at the College of Liberal Arts', (even the name should be a clue) I would have to say that for the most part the four History professors I have had my first semester have been objective with only hint of liberalism. I say that only because the choice of topics for the first essay assignment in one course was an interpretation of either socialism from the view of Marx and his infamous Manifesto, or how Josephine Butler addresses feminism in 19th century society. Even the TAs, which you would expect to be the young idealistic firebrands have been subdued in their indoctrination techniques.
Of course there were the occasional veiled references to how the capitalist white man exploited the world, killed its people, and stole their land, but I never had any professor come right out and say that as Americans "We Suck!" like occurred at Tall Corn College and Technical Institute and that’s a relief.

Education Update: I have made it through the dreaded midterms and have submitted at least one short paper (6 pages) in three of my classes. Some grades should be forthcoming this week. The fourth class consisted of getting familiar with the various arguments about WWI and now the rest of the semester will be dedicated to a topic of my choosing and a 15 page research paper.

Armed Security at the U

As I wrote a few days ago the U of I faculty Senate will be taking up the issue of arming campus security. In a prelude to the vote scheduled next Tuesday, the Faculty council voted 12-3 to recommend allowing security to carry guns. From the CR Gazette.

IOWA CITY - University of Iowa faculty leaders support a recommendation to arm UI campus police officers.The UI Faculty Council, the leadership group of the Faculty Senate, voted 12-3 today to support the recommendation to make guns standard equipment for UI police. The recommendation comes from the directors of public safety and vice presidents at the UI, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

This was an encouraging first step and I hope that the full Senate follows through on the recommendation. I am not sure of the make up of the Senate at this time but lets hope that it isn't dominated by the English and Philosophy departments.

Vote Yes for Armed Campus Security

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings the Iowa legislature ordered a feasability study of arming campus security at the states university's. The Dean of the University of Iowa like the other university's in the state is asking for feedback from campus leaders. At UNI Public Safety Director Dave Zarifis recommended that officers be armed but Friday night the faculty spiked his recommendation 11-3. From the Waterloo Courier:

The senate debated the issue for nearly an hour late in the afternoon as the campus emptied for the long holiday weekend. Ultimately, it decided the university would be safer if campus police did not carry guns....Several professors spoke against arming police, citing a low violent crime rate on campus, the Cedar Falls Police Department's ability to quickly respond to the campus and concerns over the impact of putting more guns on campus.

You mean there are already guns on campus? As a security officer I would feel a little naked knowing that I would be unable to defend myself or others in the event I encountered the working end of a S&W. They should have at least suggested they can have a gun but they have to keep the bullet in their pocket. It gets better, as we hear from the touchy feely wing of the faculty senate.

"This proposal is a knee jerk reaction to what happened at Virginia Tech," said religion and philosophy professor Jerry Soneson, referring to a recommendation by UNI's director of public safety to arm campus police. "We ought to be a model in how to react to social crises in a thoughtful manner." (I just get all tingly when they talk that way.) ...Social work professor Katherine van Wormer said UNI regularly rates as one of the safest campuses in the country, and murders at colleges nationwide are extremely rare. She added that (Insert Race Card Here) national statistics show African Americans are more likely to be shot by police than a white suspect. "It explains why people from the black community are very concerned about this," she said.

This is not about reacting to a "social crisis" its about the ability to react to the next mental crisis of some emotional cripple that got razzed during 9th grade dodge ball and has promised revenge on the bullies of the world ever since. There were a couple voices from the right wing radicals on the panel however.

Jerry Smith, a professor at the business school, spoke forcefully in favor of arming campus police."To me, we're more likely to have lives lost as a result of campus police not being armed, than we are if they are," (Amen professor) ... Political science professor Michael Licari didn't cast a vote as chairman of the Faculty Senate, but spoke in favor giving guns to campus police because they do the same work as municipal officers."We ask them to do the same police work as any officer in Iowa without the same tools," he said.

Under normal circumstances this issue would probably have glanced off the radar screen, but since I am now a part of the college "community" I would urge the University of Iowa to take a stronger stand on this issue than their counterparts in Cedar Falls. I have been witness to a shooting spree and there is no more helpless feeling than waiting to hear the sirens of your saviours as gunshots are filling the air. Arming security will not put students in danger and may someday save innumerable lives. Who will be the one to answer to my wife or to the parents of some slain teenager if the day comes that security does not have the means to save them. If for nothing else we need to "do this for the children"! Or better yet enact CCW in Iowa and I can have the means of protecting of myself.

Bias in Education

Having recently returned to college, (maybe returned isn't the right description as my prior experience in the realm of higher education consisted of a year of welding at the local CC), I have come face to face with the reported bias that has gripped the ivory towers of academia.

A recent study concludes "Today's colleges and universities are not, to use the current buzzword, 'diverse' places. Quite the opposite: They are virtual one-party states, ideological monopolies, and badly unbalanced ecosystems. They are utterly flightless birds with only one wing to flap. They do not, when it comes to political and cultural ideas, look like America,". (Chow)

My personal expieience would seem to back up the study. The overt liberal brain washing has been primarily limited to the professors in the writing department although a more subtle and malicious, form can been found in other areas such as the humanities. Which would not be so disconcerting, but for the fact that many in the captive audiences are not able to discern where the class material stops and the indoctrination begins.
By and large the political sciences are staffed by a more conservative lot and the math department is well, full of mathematicians.

For your listening pleasure, the group that brought you the hit "Bush was Right", here is a preview to "Shut up and Teach".

Chow, Christopher. New Study Reveals Extreme Partisan Bias Among Faculty