Republicans are terrified of educated, curious, open minds. You know, people who can think Opinion
Leonard Pitts Jr.
I owe a lot to Gary Mahoney.
He was the campus conservative back in the middle 70s, when I was a student at the University of Southern California and we went at it hammer and tongs a few times on the opinion pages of the Daily Trojan. I no longer recall the details of our disagreements. What I do remember is realizing that he was good and that I had to up my game tighten my reasoning, sharpen my logic if I hoped to stay in the ring with him.
He made me better in the same way college itself did. Nearly five decades later, I value those years less for any specific thing I learned in class than for the fact that I learned how to think. Not what to think, but how, i.e., how to gather and evaluate information, how to analyze and extrapolate from it, how to defend my ideas in the scrum of intellectual conflict.
Thats a lesson students will be denied if Republicans like Ron DeSantis get their way. Last week, Floridas governor signed a bill requiring the states public colleges and universities to survey students and faculty on their ideological beliefs. The aim, he claims, is to prevent schools from indoctrinating students. DeSantis has hinted that those failing to show intellectual diversity will face budget cuts.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-terrified-educated-curious-open-210147838.html
Skittles
(153,169 posts)DeSantis increasingly shows his penchant for fascism.
cbabe
(3,548 posts)Working in Seattle schools, I saw many excellent experienced teachers harassed and forced out when teaching logic and critical thinking.
Teachers are required to teach to the test. They were monitored closely to ensure compliance by inexperienced administrators.
The district bought expensive curriculum for rote lessons and required teachers to strictly adhere to the lesson plans. I watched teachers be reprimanded for teaching grammar and spelling outside the curriculum guidelines.
If kids can't think, don't blame the kids. Ask who it benefits to have a dumbed down populace.
prodigitalson
(2,425 posts)I taught 3rd graders in Gohmert's district that Columbus kidnapped and enslaved people...but in age appropriate terms. Over 7 years there I only had one parent ask me about me about it. I showed her a well sourced Wikipedia article and she said "I guess you are right." Never had a complaint to administration.
What burned me out was the just the insane level of test prep.
I left teaching in 2017. So I don't know how much parents there would freak out over my lessons today.