Posted on 03/12/2006 4:13:25 AM PST by Born Conservative
The debate about Jay Bennish, the Colorado high school teacher who confused a diatribe against the Bush administration with a lesson in geography, is not about free speech, but about the meltdown of Western civilization.
Jay Bennish, the product of baby boomer teachers and parents, is not unlike other recent high school and college graduates. He was denied the opportunity for an education.
But come to think of it, baby boomers like me were denied educations.
I had a Jay Bennish teaching my tenth-grade "social studies" class in 1973 (note the subject name that already reveals the non-academic nature of the pursuit).
I had made my way intrepidly through junior high and then my first half of high school at Benjamin Franklin Junior-Senior High School in Rochester, New York. I stood out, because I carried books. The school had instituted forced busing around 1969. But by 1973, instead of all-out riots, there were only rumblings of fights.
We were into the sexual revolution at full swing by 1973. Planned Parenthood had gotten its brochures into the school, and the female part of the most popular couple was rumored to be on the pill after having aborted the cutest boy's baby.
We had settled into the ennui that surrounds adolescents gathered under one roof to bide time and attract the opposite sex, with adult supervisors counting success as a day spent with no blood spilled. It was assumed that we had the attention span of gnats, and teachers entertained us with such feats as doing chin ups on the classroom doorway, while girls in the back applied cosmetics.
When we did have class discussion, teachers felt compelled to discuss such "relevant" topics as racism and sex.
It was a spring day. Boys with long hair and tight jeans and girls with long hair and tight jeans and tight shirts slumped languidly into desks (This posture and casual revealing dress was something I encountered again when I began teaching undergraduates in the 1990s).
The teacher, Mr. U, the ur-Bennish, opened up the discussion on "love."
No, we did not get into a philosophical discussion about the different forms of love - of agape, or Plato's ladder of love, or the notion of chivalry.
Instead, the cutest boy in the school blurted out "sex," and the entire class woke up. A Phil Donahue talk show-like discussion ensued.
We managed to fill up the rest of the class time with ignorant students blurting out word associations and provocative statements and the teacher responding in kind. As far as actual history goes, I have had to catch up on my own. Mr. U was typical; another social studies teacher simply had us write reports on the "atrocities" committed in Viet Nam as reported by the local newspaper.
When I entered graduate school in 1993, hoping for an opportunity finally to study the "higher" things, I learned that postmodernists had denounced philosophy, or the pursuit of truth, as a disguise for the ideology of the West that attempted to impose its values on the rest of the (more tolerant, peaceful) world.
Baby boomers, consumed with the issue of their children's "self-esteem," have obsessively nurtured their children to express their opinions and feelings, even on such issues as world politics. At the same time, exposure to systematic and rigorous thinkers has been deemed irrelevant or symptomatic of dominant Western thought.
Back in 1973, I shrank from black power buttons and had the experience of stepping over broken glass and blood in hallways after riots. Today, Malcolm X is on the reading lists of middle school children. Many of my college students have not heard of Plato.
But the difference between now and then is that back then, educators thought they were being "progressive." Back then, there was still something to rebel against, like the notions of fact in history, grammatical correctness, and logic in writing - the pursuit of truth through philosophy.
Jay Bennish is just a symptom of what is wrong. According to the values of our educational system that prepares teachers, he deserves admiration for originality, authenticity, and bravery. But teachers like my Mr. U have moved up in the educational chain and have taught the teachers of Bennish.
The one credited for true originality and radical actions these days is the boy who recorded the diatribe.
Mary Grabar teaches at Clayton State University located in Atlanta, Georgia.
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bump for later
Depends on where the writer lived, went to school, and how old she is. I'm 59, a "boomer", and I got the real education before everything went sour around 1964. I was in college in 1964, and the colleges hadn't really been infected at that time.
To me the category "boomers" ought to be reserved only for those born from around 1946 through around 1956. That was the real boom, that was when the actual explosion of births occurred after the war.
Good find!
I can't imagine a school like this and this writer is only about 12 years younger than myself. What a difference a decade makes.
Btw, does anyone know how old this writer really is??
nuther bump for later.
Amazing........ another reason to get the books from a library and learn all by yourself.
I had a Jay Bennish teaching my tenth-grade "social studies" class in 1973 (note the subject name that already reveals the non-academic nature of the pursuit).
[. . .]
Mary Grabar teaches at Clayton State University located in Atlanta, Georgia.
Teaches what? Mythology?
It should probably be noted that Franklin was a very tough city high school even back then. I visited for a day in the mid 1970's, and a guide stood outside the restroom while I was in there. I guess the school district made sure the children of Rochester's 60's rioters got to hear what they wanted to hear.
I'm glad this woman transcended her experience there.
No, but I'll venture a guess. She wrote: I had a Jay Bennish teaching my tenth-grade "social studies" class in 1973.
Since most people in the tenth grade are around 15 or 16 years old, she would now be 48 or 49.
(The dumpsters are even harder to get into.)
;-)
Great article............... ping
We studies moral development theories (a topic for eighth grade?). Dilemmas such as: your daughter is sick, you can't afford the medicine, is it OK to steal the medicine? When I found out that there were "no right answers" I was supremely disappointed. What was the point of studying something in school with no right answer??
Less than a decade! I was in college from 1966 - 1970 and the differences between the entering freshman clases from '66 to '70 was profound and, to me, shocking.
"Beach Music" rock-and-roll v acid rock
beer/liquor v pot
girls with traditional morals v girls with ah, "looser" standards
respect for authority v contempt for authority
"Affirmation Viet Nam" (remember that?) v anti-war protests
neat clothing (dry cleaned clothes, socks and shoes) v slobby-looking (torn clothing, barefoot)
I could go on and on about it, but, needless to say, I was damn glad to be out of there. But over the years, I've spent some time pondering what the hell happened to America.
Thank God I graduated out of the Rochester school system in 1965. I remember Ben Franklin High School. There was no Junior in it at that time. We used to kick their butts on the football field and basketball court each year. Amazing, that in less than 10 years, they managed to take a perfectly good curriculum and turn it to crap. About the only time I can remember a discussion in class being off topic was the day President Kennedy was assassinated.
Your post is RIGHT ON. And just think what is in store for this country now that this indoctrination has been going on for over 30 years........ and it is getting worse as we speak.
Funny thing is that we really didn't have any racial problems at the school that I can recall. And even after the riot(s), things went on as if nothing had ever happened.
The truth is .......... McCarthy was right. And those old communists/socialists have never left this nation and presently nearly totally control old media (that includes "entertainment") and the public schools.......... nearly all OPINION CREATING INSTITUTIONS.
That is the truth.
****
The old established/liberal/socialist media is America's most ruthless, relentless, and destructive enemy.
Huxley: “ The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth." — Old Media lives these words.
Indeed. Even a year could be night and day. I'm closer to you and seem to have just missed most of the nonsense. I attended high school in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, so things changed a bit sooner than in most of the country. My senior year in high school (1966) was pretty much still the 1950s: the big three sports dominated, kids drank (mostly beer) and cruised, went to the drive-in. Girls were still sent home for sweaters that were too tight or skirts that were too short, or wearing jeans except on designated days. It was right out of American Grafitti. By the time we graduated, I doubt more than half a dozen kids in a class of almost 550 had smoked pot. Of course, we all hit college and pot was the rage, but at least we were all 18 and a little more mature.
By the end of the next school, 1967, reliable estimates were something over 2/3 of the seniors (and almost 40% of the whole school) had smoked pot. The dress code was gone, and rock and roll had been replaced by acid rock, and the hippie scene in the Haight-Ashbury was the height of cool.
In college and graduate school, I must have been just ahead of the post-modern nonsense, because I saw none of it. As a result, I had a solid 'modern' education in history, philosophy, economics and the law. I have a lot of sympathy for the article's author who talks about the effect of post-modernism in graduate school. I've tried to read some of the stuff done over the past twenty years or so in my old academic fields, and find it unreadable, often drivel. The worst areas are political science, history and the humanities. In history, the trivial has become the focus of most work, and things involving real ideas seem to be thoroughly out of fashion.
Self-indulgent teachers generating a society of even more self-indulgent students.
Agreed. I graduated from H.S. in '64. It was all business here in Pittsburgh when I went to school. My father took his own life on a weekend when I was 13 and in ninth grade. My brother, sister, and I went to school the following Monday. There were no counselors or any of that silliness. Things were dealt with, and dealt with well in the family.
Now when there is some little disturbance in a school or some other small thing........ the kids are all getting psychological help. Lord!
We here in Pittsburgh just didn't get as much sunshine as you lucky folks out in California.
I traveled to Riverside, California to play baseball for my University in March in the late 60's. When we left here it was cold and gray. When we were there for a week it was sunny and warm every day. When we got back here it was blustery and nasty with snow. What a difference. Yoi.
;-)
Agree. I was born in 1950 and generally see a huge difference in my generation and those born just seven or eight years later as far as educational experiences in high school.
I would look even earlier . . . to the fifties and perhaps even to the forties.
Between 1941 and 1946 when Truman ended WWII by Presidential procalmation, more than 16 million Americans had served in the military. Millions more worked in defense related industries. We moved from a collection of rather insular enclaves into a much larger world.
One 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran, speaking at a reunion of the 141st Infantry Regiment, made the startling claim that World War II was a good thing, because it forced us to come together as a nation rather than a hodge-podge of races and ethnicities. The proof of that was in watching those Japanese Nesei veterans mingle with those 36th "Texas" Infantry Division veterans. Some of those listening to him owed their lives to him, and to others like him who broke through to rescue the "Lost Battalion."
If you're 59, you may remember watching your favorite serials sitting in front of a radio. :-)
But among the very most powerful influences was the WWII G.I. Bill of Rights. While the troops were still overseas, military newspapers began advertising the Bill and what the G.I.s might do with it--everything from vocational schools to academic degrees. As a result, something like 850,000 G.I. freshmen stormed the college campuses. A good number of those became teachers and professors. By the time Ms. Grabar came along, some where still teaching and some had become administrators.
I would thank that the sudden magical appearance of so many educated farm boys had a dramatic impact upon the country. Pile onto that the displaced Rosie the Riveters, labor movements, and the not-so-gentle stirrings for racial equality, and you get quite a lot of potential energy set to become kinetic in the sixties.
I wish Ms. Grabar had been a bit more expansive and reflective.
My teacher had no idea of this, and told me that I made it up. The next day, he came back to class and apologized, because he had looked it up and found that I was right.
Yes indeed, I totally agree.
I am SO GLAD I started breathing on this earth in 1947 (a Roswell alien seed).
;-)
Sorry to hear about your Dad's suicide. We had guidance counselors, but they were mostly for curriculum choices and college planning. I can't even remember ever meeting with them. Back then people dealt with death and other problems within the family and were stronger for it.
LOL.
Yes I actually do remember sitting on the floor of the living room of my grandparents house staring at the radio intently. I was very young but I remember that with fondness. Jack Benny was the favorite ......... "Oh Rochester".
We would go to my parent's bedroom on Sunday morning to listen to a radio station from Denver with the Rocky Mountain News Funny Paper Hour.
Yes. Now they counsel a student if they get upset when someone ridicules the color of their shirt. So these kids grow up thinking that they can resort to comfort and commiseration all the time. It's sick.
Then they get out in the real world and can't cope.
The GI Bill had its good points, but it also created a demand for faculty that exceeded the supply of qualified scholars. Also, we have had too many seats in an overbuilt college system ever since. Two reasons for nonsense on campus. Read Horowitz's list of 101 Professors who are teaching bogus subjects like 250 Peace Studies departments, ethnic studies etc.
I agree with your timeline for "boomers." I've noticed that my birthdate is sometimes associated with the "boomer" period along with my mom and dad, which never seemed accurate. Now, I realize your "boomer" period excludes not only me, but my folks, too. Oh, well.
Thomas Sowell's "Inside American Education" documents numerous ways teachers attack parental authority.
Teachers have asked third-graders, "How many of you ever wanted to beat up your parents?"
In a high school health class, students were asked, "How many of you hate your parents?"
I don't recall the source (another post?)but another interesting, and seemingly valid, claim about a "benefit" from WWII, was the generation of "leadership" military service in WWII created. People from all economic classes, ethic groups, education level etc., who would have never learned they had leadership skills or had the opportunity to practice them, especially in critical situations, literally under fire, or on such a large scale. The military draft enhanced the reach and impact of this result.
I graduated from a small rural upstate NY school in '71. During my senior year we started to get a few young teachers (who we thought were very cool); but most of my school years were under the watchful eyes of many of the same teachers who'd taught my Dad.
And they were good. I swear one of them, Clara Hall, could have taught a dog to speak Latin. Unfortunately they were all, one by one, retiring
My younger brothers and sisters received an education at that same school that was very different from mine. Needless to say, Latin was not part of it and English wasn't much either.
Not to mention the sudden demand for a warm place where the newly minted soldier scholars, and quite often their wives, might lay down their heads at the end of the day.
Also, we have had too many seats in an overbuilt college system ever since. Two reasons for nonsense on campus.
Yes. Thank you.
That's precisely the kind of unintended consequence I was groping for.
Read Horowitz's list of 101 Professors who are teaching bogus subjects like 250 Peace Studies departments, ethnic studies etc.
Does he look at how why those overbuilt college systems bungled the opportunity handed to them? If not, do you know of others who have tried to explain it? Rarely, IMHO, do we have such a clearly recognizable paradigm shift.
Good questions. No easy answers.
Our daughters are 20 and 18, now both in college in the midwest (one at St. Olaf, one at Northwestern). So, one thing we did was to encourage (strongly) colleges outside of the extremely liberal Northeast where the best schools seem pretty far off the deepend.
Living in the greater New York metropolitan area suburbs, we did not regard homeschooling as an reasonable option when our kids hit school around 1990. At that point, homeschooling was not acceptable for admission to the better colleges and universities and the networks for relatively 'mainstream' homeschoolers that now exist did not, at least around here.
We did pick an affluent community with a reputation for excellent public schools. We were reasonably happy with our public schools, assuming a lot of parental involvement. Character education was all home and church, however. We considered private single sex education for the girls when they were still in elementary school, going so far as to have them admitted to the best of the local private girls schools. Problem was we would have had to have a split year - one in private school and one in public - as the school had no space for our younger daughter (though they promised they would take her the following year). We decided to pass. Except in math, I don't think they were hurt by staying in the public schools: they did lots of honors and AP classes with other very bright kids, and had excellent opportunities in sports (field hockey, soccer, fencing and sailing) and music, of which they took full advantage. We did supplement the public schools curriculum and put the kids in the Pre-College division of Manhattan School of Music. The only area where we were truly unhappy was mathematics: neither of our daughters ever liked mathematics or were particularly good at it. The math instruction the kids received was mostly pretty middling to poor. Some of it was luck of the draw, some of it was give the best teachers the best kids at math. We tried working with them ourselves, and with tutors, but their own resistance could not be overcome. I think a much more traditional memorization/rote drill oriented math curriculum in the lower grades would have helped.
Now, what do I think should be done? I think the very first and most important thing would be to return to the idea that education is a privilege, not a right, albeit a privilege available to anyone who applies him- or herself. I would tighten discipline at the earliest grade levels and boost academic content. I would also have no homework at those levels, but more drill in school where it can be watched (so the parents don't do the work for the kids). I'd have a longer school day, but with significantly more recesses for the kids (especially boys) to run around outside and let off steam. When I was in elementary school in the '50s, we had a 10 minute recess every hour of our 8-3:30 day, except that we had an hour lunch period (most of which was spent playing) and often a half-hour of organized sport in the afternoon. My kids had only a single 20 minute recess in the morning and a 20 minute period after lunch. I think it's silly to expect 5-10 year olds to concentrate for more than 45 minutes at a stretch without letting them blow-off steam.
Next, I would have middle and high schools run by ex-military officers who would set an example of bearing, be a presence around the school, and set a tone demanding respect from and for the students (who by middle school would be addressed by their surnames and Mr. and Miss). And, I would reinforce the discipline by suspending, and if necessary expelling, those who would not conform. Without any alternative schooling provided by the public treasury.
That's where I'd start. I'd revise the curriculum wholesale as well, but that's another story.
I'm about the age of the writer, and things had begun to sour in my 'small' town. There were rumblings, and my education wasn't all that it could have been, but no one could have guessed the direction it was headed at that point. That said, those four years younger than me got squat and the responsibility for that was not shared, no responsibility was laid to rest on the schools-it all was put on the students. Extremely brilliant minds were wasted. And yes, I mean that in all senses of the word.
I, personally, have a very interesting theory about public education which I will offer:
I believe public education began well enough with a sound theology. It became a tool to keep a section of our country, blacks, repressed. WWI and WWII drained first fathers, and then both fathers and mothers from 'the hearth' and teachers took up the slack, bit by bit, as would be natural. Women (guardians of the hearth) began to move into the work force in the 50's, giving teachers more authority over the nation's children. The 60's found everyone stoned....who's watching the kids? Teachers. The 70's found everyone still stoned and now screwing...who's watching the kids? Teachers. I became a parent in the 80's. I and many others took responsibility for our kids. But when mine started school, it wasn't what I remembered. I had a constant struggle to get teachers to understand these kids belonged to me. Why? They'd become accustomed to being in control. And when I made it clear that they were not in control of MY children... that this didn't work in my book- they didn't like it, not one bit.
Much of the problem is the left, indeed! However, much of the problem IMHO stems from the public inadvertently dumping responsibility on teachers (when folks 'needed' help) then taking them for granted and never resuming personal responsibility and/or teachers being in charge and loving it and/or the left seeing a 'in' and taking advantage of the situation.
I certainly didn't think that jumping off the wagon was a good idea (nationally) I decided to stay on the wagon and get the reins back.
BTW, BTS....My mother called to tell me she just rented the best movie of her life. It's called, 'Beyond the Sea"!
The new generation -- our son is 19/ he and his friends are a good representation -- is great. They are clear-thinking, many of them discern and HATE the old hippies who spew garbage in their classrooms, many are conservative and orthodox. They have tried on the Utopia their parents' generation 'built' and found it built on sand.
Do not fear. This tenth grader in Aurora stood tall and said, "The Emporer (Jay Bennish) has no clothes." That was pretty courageous for a 15 year old. His parents did not believe him, tried to discourage him.
I think the new generation holds great promise.
Plus, MANY of them are being homeschooled, where they will be taught to think clearly and to stand for what they believe.
I'm not kidding........ it's time for a revolution....... it's waaaay past time for a revolution. Some people need to be eliminated from power.......... not violently, but they MUST GO!
It's never going to happen, the commie/socialists in our institutions are too strong, numerous, and ensconced, and the people are fat, happy enough, and mostly nearly completely uninformed .......... to be honest the creation of 'The Founders' is finished......... unless the good people get together to revolt".
But that's not going to happen at all (jmo), because the sleeping American public couldn't even get it together to protest the abominable and unconstitutional Campaign Finance Reform or the abysmal Supreme Court decision on PRIVATE PROPERTY!
It's time for a revolution.......... but the media is so strong today, quiting the subjects, they are able to keep most Americans ignorant of what is happening!
What can we do? You tell me!
****
p.s. One of the most obvious ways to illustrate how totally sick this nation is is to just look at how difficult it is to get rid of a lousy teacher or professor in our schools. It's just sick.
LOL.............. I had a Latin teacher in eighth grade who really actully taught me how to speak English!
YES
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