[Peace-discuss] WaPo: Liberals, Dems, Women Abandon Afghan War

[Morton K. Brussel]

So, become a teacher!

I've had a couple good skeptical ones in American history classes in  
both Junior HS and HS, and they made lasting impressions. Even so,  
"delicate" questions were too often avoided.


On Aug 20, 2009, at 4:49 PM, LAURIE SOLOMON wrote:

> Ah; but the rub is that students grow up to be the teachers.  As  
> teachers, they perpetuate the non-skeptical and non-questioning  
> attitude, which now is replaced with real professional and economic  
> vested interests in not questioning as opposed to when they were  
> students and it was a matter of the authority and power relationship  
> between student and teacher that kept then uncritical vessels for  
> the ranting of their professors.  It would appear that each  
> generation of teachers teaches the next to be less and less critical  
> and more and more accepting of the established discourse.  Each  
> generation of teachers teaches the next generation of teachers to be  
> dumber and dumber relying more and more on a highly in-the-box  
> technical perspective with great reliance on technology over  
> critical intellectual thinking. The more things change the more they  
> stay the same.
>
>
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net 
> ] On Behalf Of Morton K. Brussel
> Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 3:08 PM
> To: C.G.Estabrook
> Cc: Peace-discuss List
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] WaPo: Liberals, Dems, Women Abandon  
> Afghan War
>
> Chomsky not so infrequently over reaches, as in the assertions below.
>
> Chomsky puts students on the same level as their teachers; most  
> students do not have confidence enough, knowledge enough, or are not  
> well read or experienced enough to challenge what is being told to  
> them in their classes. They do not have enough self command to say  
> to their teachers: That's a ridiculous lie. You're an idiot .
>
> Perhaps Chomsky is projecting onto others his own experience, but I  
> don't believe that that's an extrapolation that should be made.
>
> But yes, I would agree that students generally do not have enough  
> skepticism inbred in them in their prior lives.
>
> One should also be skeptical of Chomsky, all the while respecting  
> generally what he has to say.
>
> --mkb
>
>
> On Aug 20, 2009, at 2:32 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
>
> I don't think he goes far enough. I'd say there are certain things  
> it wouldn't do to think. A good education instills in you the  
> intuitive comprehension--it becomes unconscious and reflexive--that  
> you just don't think certain things, things that are threatening to  
> power interests.
>
> Not everyone accepts this. But most of us, if we are honest with  
> ourselves, can look back at our own personal history. For those of  
> us who got into good colleges or the professions, did we stand up to  
> that high school history teacher who told us some ridiculous lie  
> about American history and say, "That's a ridiculous lie. You're an  
> idiot"? No. We said, "All right, I'll keep quiet, and I'll write it  
> in the exam and I'll think, yes, he's an idiot." And it's easy to  
> say and believe things that improve your self-image and your career  
> and that are in other ways beneficial to yourselves.
>
>

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