Cognitive dissonance, lack of critical thought, and self-introspection is an outcome of the Conservative push for education elimination.
This is exactly why Conservatives feel educators are evil; they work to enable the ideals/traits in individuals which run counter to what’s most successful for following Conservative ideology.
The department of education is not a service provider.
It is a conduit through which funding flows and is a standards and enforcement body.
They (or at least, they used to) insure that "state's rights" advocates don't implement curricula that teach children that the world is 6,000 years old and flat. They are in the process of being dismantled.
One's local school district is responsible for a vast majority of one's critical thinking skills and it has been this way in the United States since at least the early 1800s when people realized that only wealthy parents had the time, energy, and money to hire private tutors to impart critical thinking skills on their children.
I imagine that in other countries, especially western countries, the story is the same.
We can look back far into history to see that people have used state-run or sanctioned institutions to teach critical thinking skills since well before the Platonic Academy, from which much of our modern system is derived, based on evidence of organized vocational education ranging from Siberia to Ancient Egypt to city states that dotted the land prior to the Old Babylonian Empire.
The main difference between those ancient systems and today is that, for now, all children get the chance to have a formal, standardized education, instead of just the children of the wealthy, well-connected, or lucky.
> They (or at least, they used to) insure that "state's rights" advocates don't implement curricula that teach children that the world is 6,000 years old and flat. They are in the process of being dismantled.
That is, in my view, a good thing. We should not be a monolithic nation and were never meant to be. If the people of (insert state here) wish to teach their children things I don't agree with, or even things which are outright false, that is their right. Nor does it hurt me in any way.
One of the great problems with our country today is people trying to get the federal government to control more and more things. That is directly responsible for much of the division in our country, as federal elections (especially for president) turn into this big fight over who is going to get to impose their dramatically differing way of life on others for the next 4ish years. To reduce tensions, we need to return to the original design: decisions about government should be made as locally as possible, so that the government can reflect the very diverse needs and cultures that exist across our country.
> That is, in my view, a good thing. We should not be a monolithic nation and were never meant to be.
What we absolutely should be is a nation with a minimum standard of education that all American children capable enough are expected to have by the time they leave school. That standard should include the fact that the world isn't flat.
Providing a minimum standard of quality education is critical to the security and success of the nation because a democracy doesn't function when the population is made up of uneducated people who are easily fooled, can't read, and whose heads are filled with lies that will often conflict with what's been taught to the children one state over.
> If the people of (insert state here) wish to teach their children things I don't agree with, or even things which are outright false, that is their right. Nor does it hurt me in any way
If you don't think that it is possible for you to be harmed by the votes or actions of people who are uneducated, intentionally misinformed, and unable to think critically you obviously still have some learning to do yourself.
Look at what happens in poor areas of less developed countries. Honor killings, deification of dictators, rampant scamming and crime, cartels and gangs... all still things.
Your questions betray an ignorance of how a significant plurality of the world still lives to this day. You need to get out more, and not just at the resort towns.
And new problems are cropping up in the foremost developed nations, like depression due to social media addiction, that we'll also need to think critically about, instead of reverting to medieval religious remedies.
Alternatively, maybe you just think we're better off because we're intrinsically better kinds of humans? Gods chosen few? No doubt many people actually believe that.
To be clear on my intentions- the OP said that conservatives wanted to eliminate critical thought. I assumed this was related to the elimination of DOE. My questions intended to dissect why exactly he thought that the DOE was responsible for critical thought.
I am not a fan of the DOE- I think that the relationship between standardized tests and funding mean that schools prioritize skill development and memorization more than they prioritize critical thought / reasoning.
I am not sure where your line of criticism comes from- it doesn't seem like we're understanding each other
You asked a bunch of specious questions about the DoE. The DoE is part of a complicated and fragile system. It isn't as simple as turning off a light switch for a part you don't like, and chances are you probably don't fully understand the thing you don't like in the first place. Chesterton's fence.
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Now, to your point about standardized testing of skills vs reasoning, I would love to hear a proposal for ensuring "correct" critical thinking is assimilating into student populations. This doesn't scale and is subject to severe bias. Standardized testing measures more objective traits that are indicators for critical thought. IMO a solution must build on top of that foundation, not throw it away. You add a compass, you don't throw out the map.
They are openly attacking university and public school educators; calling them liberal agitators with agendas which indoctrinate students to ideologies counter to Conservative values.
This is exactly why Conservatives feel educators are evil; they work to enable the ideals/traits in individuals which run counter to what’s most successful for following Conservative ideology.