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Thursday, May 24th, 2012

How the Conservative Worldview Quashes Critical Thinking — and What That Means For Our Kids’ Future

Author:     SARA ROBINSON
Source:     AlterNet (U.S.)
Publication Date:     18-May-12
 Link: How the Conservative Worldview Quashes Critical Thinking — and What That Means For Our Kids’ Future
Stephan:   Fundamentalism requires unquestioning obedience to even the stupidest and most obvious nonsense -- the world is 6,000 years old -- a training which accords well with the goal of the Virtual Corporate States to have a society of consumers and workers too dumb to challenge the excesses VCSs inevitably produce because they have no goal but profit. This confluence of interests is one of the main reasons the ideological and theological Rights have blended to become one.

The Conservative War On Education continues apace, with charters blooming everywhere, high-stakes testing cementing its grip on classrooms, and legislators and pundits wondering what we need those stupid liberal arts colleges for anyway. (Isn’t college about job prep? Who needs to know anything about art history, anthropology or ancient Greek?)

Amid the din, there’s a worrisome trend: liberals keep affirming right-wing talking points, usually without realizing that they’re even right wing. Or saying things like, ‘The education of our children is a non-partisan issue that should exist outside of any ideological debate.’

The hell it is. People who say stuff like this have no idea what they’re talking about. The education of our children is a core cultural and political choice that reflects the deepest differences between liberals and conservatives — because every educational conversation must start with the fundamental philosophical question: What is an education for?

Our answers to that question could not be more diametrically opposed.

A Question of Human Nature

Our beliefs about the purpose of education are rooted in even deeper beliefs about the basic nature of humanity.

All conservative politics springs from one central premise: they believe that human beings are essentially fallen and deeply flawed. Human beings are swayed by […]

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