Some topics are too easy, so I avoid them.
I like to discuss things that require me to exercise the ol’ melon.
But once in a while I have no choice.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has a new book called Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.
So the president of a national teachers’ union characterizes her opponents as “fascists.” Terrific.
I think dismantling a national education bureaucracy and turning authority over to localities might be something like the opposite of fascism. I wonder what ol’ Randi has to say about that. Probably nothing.
According to the book description, “Attacks on teachers are part of a larger, darker agenda — to undermine democracy, opportunity, and public education as we know it. After the Trump administration declared its intention to dismantle the Department of Education, that alarm became undeniable.”
When the Department of Education — an institution we got by just fine without for over 80 percent of our history — was proposed in 1979, the American Federation of Teachers itself opposed it, as did Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), who said we would thereby “risk the politicization of education itself.” The New York Times and the Washington Post, those bastions of fascism, ran editorials against it.
You already know what Randi’s book says: fascists hate knowledge and opportunity, so they hate teachers.
If the public were educated, the argument goes, the people would never fall for demagogues (at least not the kind of demagogues Randi dislikes).
They would be informed!
That’s a laugh. American schoolchildren emerge from high school as propagandized zombies, with the official version of every historical event seared into their heads.
Actually, scratch that. The brightest ones emerge with the official narrative in their heads. The rest know nothing at all.
Bryan Caplan, in his provocatively titled The Case Against Education, goes into much detail about how little Americans know about the most basic things, even after thirteen years of daily instruction.
For example:
Here are a few of the questions that American adults were asked not long ago, along with the possible answers (the correct answer will be in bold). Then I’ll share two figures: the percentage who got the correct answer, and the percentage who really knew the answer (in other words, correcting to account for people who got the question right simply by guessing).
(1) Which of the following is not protected by the Bill of Rights?
Freedom of speech
Trial by jury
The right to bear arms
The right to vote
39% got the correct answer; 21% really knew the answer
(2) Which of the following events came before the Declaration of Independence?
Foundation of Jamestown, Virginia
The Civil War
The Emancipation Proclamation
The War of 1812
49%, 26%
(3) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits
Prayer in public school
Discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
The ownership of guns by private individuals
Establishing an official religion for the United States
The president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill
26%, 8%
The questions continue, but you get the idea.
The vast majority of American adults are not even entitled to an opinion on major issues in American life.
Note also that Randi thinks we “fascists” oppose “opportunity.” This from a woman whose system does zero to prepare students for the world in 2025.
We hear nonstop complaints about young people that the deck is stacked against them, everything is too expensive, they can’t get a break, etc.
What has Randi done, exactly, to help them navigate that?
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