Townhall
The
Role of 'Educators'
by Thomas Sowell
Jan 08, 2013
Many
years ago, as a young man, I
read a very interesting book about the rise of the Communists to power
in
China. In the last chapter, the author tried to explain why and how
this had
happened.
Among
the factors he cited were the
country's educators. That struck me as odd, and not very plausible, at
the
time. But the passing years have made that seem less and less odd, and
more and
more plausible. Today, I see our own educators playing a similar role
in
creating a mindset that undermines American society.
Schools
were once thought of as
places where a society's knowledge and experience were passed on to the
younger
generation. But, about a hundred years ago, Professor John Dewey of
Columbia
University came up with a very different conception of education -- one
that
has spread through American schools of education, and even influenced
education
in countries overseas.
John
Dewey saw the role of the
teacher, not as a transmitter of a society's culture to the young, but
as an
agent of change -- someone strategically placed, with an opportunity to
condition students to want a different kind of society.
A
century later, we are seeing
schools across America indoctrinating students to believe in all sorts
of
politically correct notions. The history that is taught in too many of
our
schools is a history that emphasizes everything that has gone bad, or
can be
made to look bad, in America -- and that gives little, if any,
attention to the
great achievements of this country.
If
you think that is an
exaggeration, get a copy of "A People's History of the United States"
by Howard Zinn and read it. As someone who used to read translations of
official Communist newspapers in the days of the Soviet Union, I know
that
those papers' attempts to degrade the United States did not sink quite
as low
as Howard Zinn's book.
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