Comments on: Leadership for Social Justice: Making Revolutions in Education http://www.isspa07.org/4824-leadership-for-social-justice-making-revolutions-in-education Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:00:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Preston C. Enright http://www.isspa07.org/4824-leadership-for-social-justice-making-revolutions-in-education#comment-14007 Preston C. Enright Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:04:25 +0000 http://www.isspa07.org/4824-leadership-for-social-justice-making-revolutions-in-education#comment-14007 I didn't know much about this book, but the one-star reviewer convinced me that it was worth buying. "ManSizedTarget" bemoans things like "indifference to homosexuality" and the "undermining of traditional power structures," which are better than enmity toward homosexuality and subservience to traditional power structures. I imagine these concepts sound especially good to gay people and minorities. <br />Go figure. <br />My Child Is Gay: How Parents React When They Hear the News <br />Race Matters <br /> <br />The problem with this society isn't that children are being "brainwashed" by "politically correct" ideologues; rather, kids (and adults) are being brainwashed by the corporate-military media complex The Hollywood War Machine: U.S. Militarism and Popular Culture and a PR industry that has colonized our minds in countless ways PR! - A Social History of Spin. <br /> <br />Here are some other resources to nurture social justice and critical thought in the classrooms: <br />Frontline: The Merchants of Cool <br />Adbusters <br />New Moon: the Magazine for Girls & Their Dreams <br />We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History <br />A Young People's History of the United States, Vol. 1: Columbus to the Robber Barons <br /> <br />And a book on the forces trying to subvert public education: <br />The War Against America's Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education <br /> Rating: 5 / 5 I didn’t know much about this book, but the one-star reviewer convinced me that it was worth buying. “ManSizedTarget” bemoans things like “indifference to homosexuality” and the “undermining of traditional power structures,” which are better than enmity toward homosexuality and subservience to traditional power structures. I imagine these concepts sound especially good to gay people and minorities.

Go figure.

My Child Is Gay: How Parents React When They Hear the News

Race Matters

The problem with this society isn’t that children are being “brainwashed” by “politically correct” ideologues; rather, kids (and adults) are being brainwashed by the corporate-military media complex The Hollywood War Machine: U.S. Militarism and Popular Culture and a PR industry that has colonized our minds in countless ways PR! – A Social History of Spin.

Here are some other resources to nurture social justice and critical thought in the classrooms:

Frontline: The Merchants of Cool

Adbusters

New Moon: the Magazine for Girls & Their Dreams

We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History

A Young People’s History of the United States, Vol. 1: Columbus to the Robber Barons

And a book on the forces trying to subvert public education:

The War Against America’s Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education

Rating: 5 / 5

]]> By: Mansizedtarget.com http://www.isspa07.org/4824-leadership-for-social-justice-making-revolutions-in-education#comment-14006 Mansizedtarget.com Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:31:45 +0000 http://www.isspa07.org/4824-leadership-for-social-justice-making-revolutions-in-education#comment-14006 I recently read this book. It was, one might say, a long and hard slog. It is unfortunately in many places a standard assigned textbook. The book has three main defects. First, it is written in the most predictable, turgid, and jargon-filled academic-ese I've ever seen. Instead of saying something was important it had "ontological reality," knowledge became "epistemological units," etc. Sentences were long, with far too many modifiers, and otherwise filled with classic academic writing errata. Nearly everyone who contributed to this collection should attend serious writing workshops. I realize some of them are not capable of writing well, but it couldn't hurt. Second, the entire work assumes the conclusion. It is taken for granted that education is not chiefly about giving young people the tools to think critically, criticize and advocate for their own values, and otherwise become effective and self-guiding participants in a democracy. Instead, 100% of the authors assume that the society is basically corrupt and that social justice means, in effect, the advance of politically correct values: indifference to homosexuality, suspicion of merit, suspicion of the traditional family, and undermining the traditional power structure of the western world. And, secondly, 100% of the authors take for granted that education's job is to raise the consciousness of students in so doing. That is to say, it is assumed that there is one right answer to contentious social issues, that "consciousness raising" is the answer to the problems, that families and other authorities that disagree with this view are malevolent obstructionists, that if necessary these groups should be misled about wat will be pursued in the classroom (since they'd resist otherwise), and that education should essentially brainwash young and impressionable kids into compliant liberals before they've acquired effective critical thinking skills. Finally, the book does not grapple with developments in genetics and psychometrics that raise serious questions about the now increasingly discredited mantra that "parental socioeconomic status matters more than IQ/Test Scores, etc." Obviously, Hernnstein and Murray's "Bell Curve" is worth reading on this score, but also Arthur Jensen's "G Factor." Minority failure is a troubling part of the educational scene; unfortunately, the prescription offered here is the same old ineffective program of spending more, defining deviancy down, and passing the buck that remains onto mysterious "institutional racists." Rating: 1 / 5 I recently read this book. It was, one might say, a long and hard slog. It is unfortunately in many places a standard assigned textbook. The book has three main defects. First, it is written in the most predictable, turgid, and jargon-filled academic-ese I’ve ever seen. Instead of saying something was important it had “ontological reality,” knowledge became “epistemological units,” etc. Sentences were long, with far too many modifiers, and otherwise filled with classic academic writing errata. Nearly everyone who contributed to this collection should attend serious writing workshops. I realize some of them are not capable of writing well, but it couldn’t hurt. Second, the entire work assumes the conclusion. It is taken for granted that education is not chiefly about giving young people the tools to think critically, criticize and advocate for their own values, and otherwise become effective and self-guiding participants in a democracy. Instead, 100% of the authors assume that the society is basically corrupt and that social justice means, in effect, the advance of politically correct values: indifference to homosexuality, suspicion of merit, suspicion of the traditional family, and undermining the traditional power structure of the western world. And, secondly, 100% of the authors take for granted that education’s job is to raise the consciousness of students in so doing. That is to say, it is assumed that there is one right answer to contentious social issues, that “consciousness raising” is the answer to the problems, that families and other authorities that disagree with this view are malevolent obstructionists, that if necessary these groups should be misled about wat will be pursued in the classroom (since they’d resist otherwise), and that education should essentially brainwash young and impressionable kids into compliant liberals before they’ve acquired effective critical thinking skills. Finally, the book does not grapple with developments in genetics and psychometrics that raise serious questions about the now increasingly discredited mantra that “parental socioeconomic status matters more than IQ/Test Scores, etc.” Obviously, Hernnstein and Murray’s “Bell Curve” is worth reading on this score, but also Arthur Jensen’s “G Factor.” Minority failure is a troubling part of the educational scene; unfortunately, the prescription offered here is the same old ineffective program of spending more, defining deviancy down, and passing the buck that remains onto mysterious “institutional racists.”
Rating: 1 / 5

]]>