Education Matters
Defending at the weakest points is always a good idea, and Christians have not been very good at this of late. One of the weakest points we have today is the educational establishment (I'm not sure what else to call it) at all its levels and all the un-Godly causes that are promoted there today. This if often very subtle, but sometimes becomes more blatant. But in either case, it deserves greater scrutiny that we often give it.
Here begins a collection of some resources on this matter. It is a very serious matter, because the education establishment 'processes' almost everyone today, beginning at a very young age. Because of that, it has the power to do significant harm that can't help but be felt not just in society, but in the church.
Offsite resources:
The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy
Explore this site for an eye-opening experience. Here are some recent especially good articles from the Pope Center:
October 21, 2008
William Ayers has received
considerable attention recently, due to his association with
presidential candidate Barack Obama. Ayers’ past as a member
of the violent radical Weatherman faction in the 1960s is well-known.
He does not repudiate his bomb-building escapades in the
1960s—he continues to refer to himself as “a
radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist,”
(as he did in 1995). Yet somehow, despite that past, and despite the
occasional nose-thumbing incident, such as stomping on the American
flag in 2001, he has achieved a level of respectability as a professor
of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
While some, like the New York Times’ Frank Rich, might
describe him as somebody involved “in education
reform,” the facts are that he has merely traded in his bombs
for books. Quite possibly he is doing far more damage with the latter
than he ever did with the former.
Ayers is an ardent and leading proponent of the American version of the
“Social Justice” (or critical pedagogy) movement in
education. While this philosophy might sound benevolent, it is in fact
a thinly veiled mechanism intended to bring about world-wide socialism.
Not only has Ayers gained entry into the educational mainstream, but
the concept of Teaching for
Social Justice, (the title of a
popular 1998 book of essays edited by Ayers) is rapidly gaining
acceptance throughout the education school establishment.
[continue
reading]
Disorientation At Yale
By Matt Shaffer
August 26, 2009
My freshman orientation at Yale was disillusioning. I thought I would
learn something about the kind of education I could expect over the
next four years, but I was sorely disappointed.
Orientation featured addresses by the President, the Dean, and one
keynote speaker. President Richard C. Levin stressed our need to
interact with other cultures, in order to prepare for global
citizenship, while then-Dean Peter Salovey drew on his expertise as a
psychologist to provide examples of the ways in which people from
different cultures think differently, and told us how much we could
benefit from the diversity of our class. Dean Salovey said, "We will
help you learn how to think rather than tell you what to think." The
unifying theme of these two speeches was diversity and open-mindedness,
things which are as inoffensive as they are uninspiring and
insubstantial.
But with one speech to go, I hoped that perhaps this keynote speaker,
as an academic, rather than an administrator, might say something bold
about what it truly mean to be an educated person. But the speaker, law
professor Kenji Yoshino, was evidently saved for last precisely because
he was the least oriented towards education, and the most overtly
political. [continue reading]