tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post5596605103207941748..comments2024-03-17T12:51:46.412-07:00Comments on Cutting Through The Crap: 15 SecondsSid Schwabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14182853083503404098noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post-24613007227880280572012-04-20T14:34:41.326-07:002012-04-20T14:34:41.326-07:00Sid, thank you very much. I believe that you'...Sid, thank you very much. I believe that you're correct insofar as the right wing's dismissal and denigration of education is concerned; the smart ones in that crowd recognize that an ill-educated populace is easily manipulated by unsound reasoning and rhetoric. Such a demographic is a blunt but effective weapon - think of the hordes marshaled around the [wrong side of the] Terri Sciavo case, or Casey Anthony, or Trayvon Martin. <br /><br />I find it ironic that the people who manipulate people with unsound rhetoric are often themselves very well educated indeed. I tend to equate the sort of manipulation they engage in with proxy bullying, such a popular sport in junior high schools everywhere - if they can make someone feel insecure about their position, they can target that insecure person's rage at an easily identified third party, and hence exercise power without direct action. Scary.<br /><br />-mattAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post-72000119358601166122012-04-20T10:33:22.913-07:002012-04-20T10:33:22.913-07:00Way to go, Sid! A fine testimonial essay (of cour...Way to go, Sid! A fine testimonial essay (of course, this means I agree with all of your points).<br /><br />I have fond memories of the Surgeon blog, but this is my first visit to your new digs. Keep up the good work!Larryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13215738689578440672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post-51429082503662854412012-04-19T17:27:54.054-07:002012-04-19T17:27:54.054-07:00Thanks, matt. I think you just explained -- as I&#...Thanks, matt. I think you just explained -- as I've tried to do here too -- why the right-wing feels the need to cast education as elitism, to degrade it, and to steer people away from it.Sid Schwabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14182853083503404098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post-17963737530435980812012-04-19T17:02:43.210-07:002012-04-19T17:02:43.210-07:00More hope:
Similar anecdata to Margy's:
Th...More hope:<br /><br />Similar anecdata to Margy's: <br /><br />This was in the early nineties when I was teaching at a small school in CT. I learned, to my infinite astonishment and delight, that students taught to evaluate sources and taught criteria for identification of logical fallacies tend to adopt more fact-based positions (vs revelatory or logically ill-informed positions). <br /><br />Interestingly, much of the demographic I was teaching was one or two generations out of shuttered mills and manufacturing plants, and were the first in their families to attend university. They were a tough, pugnacious bunch, quick to anger if they felt they were being shortchanged. At least one of them complained about their grade when their work was demonstrably not up to par. <br /><br />Almost universally, first-year students tended to be reactive, deeply suspicious of the world around them, susceptible to demogoguery, and driven by the beliefs of their upbringing. By the third year, those who remained - admittedly not as high a percentage as I'd have liked to see - tended to have become much more thoughtful, and had learned to think before opening their mouths to speak. The transformation was dramatic - kids who had been deeply skeptical of the value of school versus getting a job, a place of their own, and some folding money had started down the road of becoming thoughful, humane, articulate, decent humans. <br /><br />At the timeI noted that children of educated parents - that is, those children from homes where one or both parent had at least a B.A. - were vastly better prepared for an academic environment. <br /><br />And they were intellectually far tougher and ready to debate, to think on their feet, to adapt and hone their positions on the fly if they needed to. <br /><br />The working-class kids, for all the bluff and bluster they brought to the classroom, were far readier to abandon rational argument in favor of poorly-constructed logical fallacies (and, it should be noted, into class-clowning and, once, a fistfight when a fellow student failed to grasp a point of the intricate logic of Mr. Limbaugh espoused by the aggressor). The kids raised by more thoughtful and well-educated parents tended to try to construct some modicum of rational argument to support their position, and were more willing to adapt their thinking in light of evidence. <br /><br />Intellectual rigor and holding kids to standards will result in a more thoughtful, evidence-based world. And if that way leads atheism, so be it - like you, I find it normal to require an evidentiary basis for assertions.<br /><br />Keep writing - your work is wonderful. <br /><br />-mattAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post-2344568961776985832012-04-19T15:55:56.414-07:002012-04-19T15:55:56.414-07:00Thanks, Margy. Maybe not all hope is lost.Thanks, Margy. Maybe not all hope is lost.Sid Schwabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14182853083503404098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4988839706387198339.post-1245489737248050622012-04-19T15:49:29.354-07:002012-04-19T15:49:29.354-07:00Here's a little hope for you: I teach writing ...Here's a little hope for you: I teach writing at a university. We focus on research, evaluating sources and developing critical thinking skills. Once in a while one of my students will say something like, "I realized I probably shouldn't base my whole opinion of health care reform on what Glenn Beck says." One of my favorites was a student writing against gun control shortly after Obama was inaugurated, who ended up with a thesis that involved the idea of gun-rights supporters educating themselves so they stop freaking out about things that aren't actually happening. I'm also really glad when one of my students writes something that makes me think about something differently. It can happen!Margyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16419496585978892467noreply@blogger.com