Sunday, June 26, 2005

Education for discussion

This post is revised from an email orginally sent to a private Yahoo! Groups listserv as a response to a discussion among a group of friends who developed a kind of debate society called the Society of Reason at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Eventually the Society of Reason developed into the Society of Revelry, but many of us continued to stay in touch and share our thoughts, problems, triumphs and general ravings on life.

From the book "The Culture of Narcissism" by Christopher Lasch:

"The whole problem of American education comes down to this:
in American society, almost everyone identifies intellectual
excellence with elitism. This attitude not only guarantees
the monopolization of educational advantages by the few;
it lowers the quality of elite education itself and threatens
to bring about a reign of universal ignorance."

While I don't agree with much of what this book says, because
so much of it is a condemnation of our national culture in ways
that I don't think are valid, I've made this observation before.

In order to serve the needs of all, we water down our educational systems
to a lowest common denominator in order to be "inclusive."

Colleges are now having to make up for deficiencies in our high school
educational system.

The book argues, as I agree, that much of this is because education has
tended to demphasize competition because of the attitude in America today
that competition entails conquering.

But in fact, competition forces us to attain new heights of excellence. And I think
most of us recognize this, but we're narcissistic in so many ways that the very
concept of competition either leads us to some kind of Ayn Randesque Superman
ideal or it reveals our insecurities.


Not all the blame lies with the educational system, because they are having
to pick up slack left by the other traditional cultural institutions that have
been torn apart: family, religion, government, etc.

The problem, to my point of view, is that education has become less about
academic achievement and more about personal development.
And the training of a proletariat to serve the bourgeosie.

So of course, the limitation of the intellectal development of the proles serves
to reinforce the current social order. Instead of intellectual development, schools
are now about socialization and a kind of "I'm ok, you're ok" feel-good fuzzy
esteem boosting. To the point that standards have fallen for fear that those
who are unable to attain the higher standards will be discouraged and it will
affect their self-image.

But self image should be built on a realistic assement of character rather than
the flattery that we try to suffice with in our current cultural conditions.

It is no wonder so many of us are so insecure. We've been lied to so much.

Many educators are concerned about scientific illiteracy, and so am I because
I am by no means well-trained in scientific disciplines but I at least have a
conceptual grasp in my own subjective way of the subjects of science.
The other day I had an experience where I mentioned global warming to
someone and they had no idea what I was talking about.

But of even more concern to me is cultural illiteracy.
While I am a great proponent of multiculturalism - I have made it a point
to study other cultures and take what I can from them - I also feel like our
common cultural heritage as Americans should not be marginalized.
And this includes an understanding of the great thinkers of western civilization.

Instead, we've got Dubbya saying "disassemble,
that means lie."
And he's our representative to the rest of the world?
No wonder they think we're morons!

We shouldn't have to sacrifice an understanding of the principles
that are at the foundation of the American ideal in order to be inclusive.
The very fact that the historical, literary and artistic knowledge of so many
people is so lacking scares me.

I believe we need a greater understanding of the humanities because these
are the things that make life worth living.

Plus, a democratic society is depenent on an informed populace in order to
bring us to our greatest potential.

Critical thinking skills are greatly lacking in our society and this makes most
of us vulnerable to manipulation by propaganda because without well-developed
critical thinking skills we're dependent on others to do the thinking for us.
The fact that I can talk to a fellow college graduate and they have no idea
when the French Revolution was is appalling.

Marx critisized the bourgeois society of America because the class warfare
at his time was between the owners of the means of production and
the proletariat, the working class.

What I see coming is a further class division based on cultural capital.
Now, while this may be beneficial to me because I make an effort to develop
my cultural capital, I see it as a problem for society as a whole.

And as a whole, the problem IS cultural.

Because our educational institutions have had to compensate for the
failings of other cultural institutions in the socialization process: religion,
the family, government, etc.
After all, it is these things that formerly allowed us to transcend our egotism
and understand our place as part of a greater whole.

Our lack of scientific understanding may cause us make bad policy choices,
but our lack of understanding of the humanities makes us less human, I believe.

Another part of the problem with the equasion intellectualism = elitism is the
idea that there is a barrier there that most people can't cross.
Now I know I'm not that smart, but I feel like I've been able to cross that barrier.
One of the problems with the dumbing-down of our curriculum is that it serves
the elite by continuing the model of the bourgeosie vs the proletariat by
withholding cultural education from the proles because what has
happened is that we've evolved past the old American dichotomy between
bourgeosie vs proles by creating a new "creative class" that will eventually
subvert the bourgeosie system of rule.

This is the cycle of history.

The ruling class creates the class that will overcome it.
The democratization of information is allowing all of us, no matter our
socio-economic status to develop a greater understanding of the world
than was previously possible.
My only fear is that many of us will squander these opportunities by succumbing
to a mediated lifestyle in which weapons of mass distraction keep us from
critically thinking about the issues of our time.

And too many of us are not equipped with the cultural capital to rise above this,
but it is there for everyone to understand according to their abilities and
this will make for a new societal evolution that I think we're just now beginning
to understand.

All I can do is encourage others to take advantage of these opportunies:
learn your history, political science, psychology, sociology, literature, become
scientifically literate, and accumulate cultural capital in order to have a
shaping role in creating the new society that is developing with our current
information revolution.

And I think everyone is able to achieve this in their own way.

So there is no point in us fearing knowledge or dialectic discourse because
it through this that we are better able to understand what we think and believe.
Our educational problems can really be solved by us casting aside the
resentment of intellectualism and taking responsiblity for our own educations.
We do have it within our power to create our own destinies, but it is
by embracing rather than fearing the "intellectual" that we may make new
paths for ourselves.
I have faith in the ability of everyone to work toward their potential of
intellectual development, but it's a hard road and one that shouldn't be
taken lightly.

Thinkers of the world unite!

-mm