Where's America? Where Are The Americans? (Good Read From The Sagacious Barry Rubin)

My son who is 10 years old is going to the Montgomery County school system in Maryland this year to give him some wider experience after having all of his previous education in either Israeli or Jewish community schools. It certainly is an experience!

In some ways, it seems like a parody of multiculturalism. My children are tough, well-informed and have strong characters, largely informed by an Israeli world view. But they also have a very American persona, though one that may be becoming increasingly rare among upper middle class elite counterparts.

--He wrote a fantasy genre story in which there was violence (quite a good story by the way). The teacher refused to let him read it because it included violence and said that this was not permitted. He received another warning after his second such story.

--Two units on man-made global warming as a fact with no indication that it is still an unproven and controversial issue. Children are told that unless carbon emissions are vastly reduced the oceans will rise, large parts of the land will be flooded, catastrophe will ensue.

--But there was no commemoration for the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed around 3,000 Americans (including a number of local people). When my son brought it up and complained, he was allowed to speak two minutes at which point the teacher interrupted him and said that now they would discuss some happier subject.

--Another student in his class, a Nigerian Christian, on finding out that he was from Israel said in private conversation between them that she’d heard Israel “was one of the worst countries in the world.” (My daughter had a parallel experience while attending a summer course at an elite Washington private school.)

--They had a session in which they were told that the “Golden Rule” is observed by people all over the world. This is an ironic example of multiculturalism as provincialism since of course it is a specifically (in the version they were being taught) Christian concept. In addition, while “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” can be a good social and ethical guideline (though don’t try it with con-men, sociopaths, etc) it is a very bad concept for international relations.

Those trying to defeat you in war or conquer you or get the advantage of you in a trade deal (hundreds of examples could be offered) don’t want you to treat them in the same way they treat you..

Under Islamic Sharia law, there are very different treatments of the two genders, for example. Law is based not on individual preferences or reason but on what is believed to be divine legislation.

--But the apex of this indoctrination so far is the “Schedule of Book Projects, October 2009. No, I’m not making this up. Here’s the entire plan:

“October 22 (Thurs.) Fiction book about an Hispanic American OR Native American (American Indians).

Jan. 14 (Thurs.) Non-fiction OR Fiction about an African-American or a book with the setting in Africa

Learning to know about and respect minority groups is certainly worthwhile but it should never be the center of the educational process. First, establish your own identity and understand your own society as a whole, then go into details, sub-cultures (a word which expresses an outdated view of a pluralist rather than multiculturalist society!) and only then compare it to other societies.

In the class of 23, there are four black people (two from Africa; two from the Caribbean); two Asians; and at least one South American. All, along with a couple of Europeans, are either the children of foreign nationals (diplomats and the like) or recent immigrants to the United States. In other words, these are the people who most need to learn about or be integrated into mainstream American life.

Note that this is not defined as a unit on international literature or learning about other countries and cultures (which would be more understandable and quite reasonable in a balanced context) but as their main interaction with literature, at least for the first half of the year.

There’s nothing whatsoever on the majority of Americans (70 percent or so?) who don’t’ fall into any of these groups and are now reduced to being their own “other.” Perhaps more important, there’s nothing about Americans as such. Americans don’t exist as a category; there is no overall experience or culture in this concept. (The school, of course, could pretend that this is to be covered in the one out of four book of choice but there is no indication that this is intended).

Yet perhaps the most egregious problem is this one: these aren't defined as novels with a range of characters—including Native American or Hispanic or Asian or African-American ones—mixing together in American society but take each group as if it is in a separate (dare we say, “segregated”) world of their own. Yes, in a sense—I don’t want to exaggerate here—it’s a return to the pre-civil rights days. What is multi-culturalism, after all, but a revised version of “separate but equal” societies?

There are tremendous political and psychological implications to such an approach that I will let you fill in for yourselves. But it is worth noting that America succeeded brilliantly as a melting pot, as a country with a unified worldview but freedom for groups to maintain their own organizations, customs (within reason), and beliefs.

Recently, I engaged a graduate student in a discussion about Judaism. She only had one question that interested her (and it was not based on personal interest, which would have been understandable): That life must have been difficult for homosexuals in past centuries.

Now there is nothing wrong with raising this as one issue to discuss, but I realize that in her education the more marginal and minority had become paramount, the majority experience or mainstream ideas were of little interest. And of course on such secondary issues any system could be made to seem illegitimate and oppressive.

In the same way, all America’s achievements could be invalidated by the situation of various sub-groups. Even the fact that it had allowed for the recognition of all of these problems and the solution of many of them did not count if any “oppression” could be found (or invented) to still exist.

For example, the fact that racism in America has probably declined by 90 percent over the last half-century (the number cannot be proven but the proportion seems reasonable) did not say anything great about the United States. Even the election of an African-American president might only be the occasion for acting as if racism had greatly increased.

In addition to all that, however, something else struck me on hearing all of this, as well as from my son’s cross-cultural observations. Aside from the subtle indoctrination to the left and the quite open indoctrination to multiculturalism, there is a kind of naïve-making process. These children are not being prepared for the world as it is but rather a cocoon in which they are taught to harbor unreal expectations and unworkable methods.

So the bottom line is this: the structure of the world view and skills being taught is similar to what went on in the 1950s, albeit without the patriotic aspects and confidence in their own civilization.

The destruction of the commonality of experience, the very concept of mainstream, is terrible. The dissolution of the concept of America is terrible. The creation of a foundation on which college professors can later add a superstructure of saying that America stinks, Western civilization stinks, capitalism stinks, is terrible. The creation of a generation of naifs unable to deal with a tough real world and an even tougher global world is terrible.

No wonder Bill Ayres, former but unrepentant Weatherman terrorist, close friend and apparently key political patron of Barak Obama’s early career is now putting his efforts as a professor into designing the public school curriculum.

Of course, things are much more complex and mixed than these generalizations indicate. It is easy to exaggerate. There will be a U.S. history unit later in the year, though such a thing should come before the current reading project. When we get there I’ll tell you about that one. I’ll just mention for now that a correspondent whose kids go to a school in the western United States told me they covered 1492 to 1789 in one week.

Yet there are worrisome trends and a lack of consciousness about what is being done and why it’s wrong that may grow even worse in time.

When asked about the main goals of their educational effort, the principal at another local school said that the most important was to teach children self-esteem. Yet what about social, civilizational, and national self-esteem?

Of course, they won’t even know what their civilization is, why it has been great, and how to sustain it. That is extraordinarily dangerous and troubling. This is an area, and an era, in which parents—especially the educated and affluent--take a tremendous interest in their children’s schooling. They want them to be advanced in everything, to get into good colleges, and they often arrange extra courses for them.

Barry Rubin's worries about the effect of liberalism, multiculturalism and political correctness are real enough. America is in effect raising a generation of naifs who don't know their country, its values and how to defend it from its enemies. MUST READ!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

Good read. My wife is in education, and over the course of her 20 plus years in the field, she has seen a lot of changes. Although she wouldn’t be so crass, I will: We are creating a nation of wussies. She is especially concerned about the emasculation of our young boys. Boys are boys. An occasional fight is not the end of the free world. Break it up, give them a dressing down and send them on their way. Other than a very few rare cases should the law be involved, or should counseling be required. (In other words, use common sense.) Another thing - everybody can’t win. The schools are so concerned with a child’s self esteem, that they give everybody a pat on the back or a trophy. Real self esteem can’t be given - it has to be earned. You give it to yourself - by mastering a difficult task, persevering and overcoming obstacles. When nobody loses, nobody wins. It is all right to be proud of your heritage. I am of mine. But, anymore, look at our textbooks. The whole wide world is right, The good ole USA is the source of all our problems. I will admit we as a nation have made mistakes. They should be taught - students need to learn from them. But do we need to spend 3 weeks on how we interred our citizens of Japanese descent and 3 days on Pearl Harbor and how we defeated an evil axis? Do we really need a Black History month? How about an American History Year? Every year? How about quit telling our kids about hyphenated Americans and telling them about Americans - Black, White, Yellow, and Red and all shades in between. How, while we are not perfect, banded together, reached down in our gut and kicked ass and overcame. The trouble really boils down to this: Some people, our own citizens, don’t really like America, some even hate it. Me, I love my country. Warts and all. Because, if we look honestly, we will find a few warts. But we will also find a thing of great beauty, unmatched by any other nation in human history. It sure is a damn shame we are denying our children their rightful legacy and denying them their opportunity to excel or fail. As I said earlier, we are making them wussies. And I don’t know where you stand, but I think Americans should be anything but wussies.-—JM

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