Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Paglia: The Dumbing Down of America Began in Public Schools
Intellectual Takeout ^ | 20 Oct 2021 | Anne Holmquist

Posted on 10/20/2021 3:19:13 PM PDT by Rummyfan

In the last several years, Americans have been sensing that something is seriously wrong with the current crop of young people. True, they are likely to have the most education credentials any generation has ever received. They also are technically-savvy, and as such, have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips.

But in spite of these factors, today’s students seem to exhibit a character that is high in sensitivity and low in knowledge. What gives? Why are our students turning out like this?

Camille Paglia recently revealed the answer to that question. Paglia, a long-time Democrat, feminist, and college professor, believes the problem started in the earliest stages of education in the nation’s public schools:

“It’s really started at the level of public school education. I’ve been teaching now for 46 years as a classroom teacher, and I have felt the slow devolution of the quality of public school education in the classroom.”

According to Paglia, teachers at elite institutions are unable to see this decline in knowledge because their students often come from private schools and wealthy homes, which presumably still retain some elements of rigorous education. The great majority of students, however, can be described in the following way:

“What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense of history – of any kind! No sense of history. No world geography. No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history. So, they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of nice, comfortable world where you can go to the store and get orange juice and milk....

(Excerpt) Read more at intellectualtakeout.org ...


TOPICS: Education; Miscellaneous; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: anneholmquist; arth; camillepaglia; paglia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 next last
To: meatloaf

A lot of those protesters became professors and teachers, especially targeting the education schools where people go to get education degrees.

You’re right, many of my teachers served in WW II or Korea, one in Vietnam, one of my favorite science teachers, Mr. Patton.
He flew F-8 Crusaders.


21 posted on 10/20/2021 4:54:51 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: stanne

“they have also been taught not to bully a person on the basis of their race, class, gender, or any other trait.

On the surface, that seems like a good thing. But as Paglia implies, such a singular lesson gives students a heightened sensitivity and a stilted lens through which to view the world and its problems. As such, she fears that students are catapulting their country toward a situation similar to that of ancient Rome in its last days.”

The statement taken in context provides the actual point she was making, which is that the emphasis on these things alone, or apart from a broader knowlwdge of history, has not been a good thing.


22 posted on 10/20/2021 4:58:28 PM PDT by bluejean (Surviving one day at a time in the global psych ward.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

Stupid people are even more dangerous than evil people—this link explains why:

https://fitzinfo.net/2021/10/18/the-basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/


23 posted on 10/20/2021 5:00:10 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bluejean

“they have also been taught not to bully a person on the basis of their race, class, gender, or any other trait.“

They have not been taught this. They are being taught that white people are oppressors and that white males in particular are tge least bc worthy of respect. There is much more to argue here

“ On the surface, that seems like a good thing…”

Bla bla bla.

I read the whole thing. This next statement is moot as the stee as Yemeni prior is false. Quit wasting my time.


24 posted on 10/20/2021 5:13:59 PM PDT by stanne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

“But in spite of these factors, today’s students seem to exhibit a character that is high in sensitivity and low in knowledge. What gives? Why are our students turning out like this?”

Simple but correct answer: So-called conservatives are more interested in weekend barbecues, remodeling their kitchens and their stock portfolios than they are in their children.

How else to answer the quandary of how screaming, liberal pukes have taken over schoolboards in hundreds of conservative areas?

Next question...


25 posted on 10/20/2021 5:15:57 PM PDT by sergeantdave (Federal courts no longer have any standing in America. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

A good friend of mine referred to American public schools as failure factories.


26 posted on 10/20/2021 5:22:05 PM PDT by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: metmom

Read the letters to home from Civil War Veterans who were taught by their Mothers. They could write legibly, use language like a poet, and describe situations and humanity in a superior manner. I bet they could add, subtract, multiply, divide and everything else that govt schools were instituted to provide also.


27 posted on 10/20/2021 5:28:51 PM PDT by Glad2bnuts ((“If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

65 becomes 78. How to get percentage of change ? A team lead in my wife’s financial organization asked her. The guy is black. She tried hard not to show any sign of surprise and patiently showed him how to do it

I could not believe when she told me. But she said it’s true


28 posted on 10/20/2021 5:31:30 PM PDT by Lee25 ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurkinanloomin

Nearly all male teachers were veterans. I remember every time I crossed one of them. First time was snapping towels on bare ass guys in the locker room OUCH, that paddle hurt on bare and wet skin. Second time was throwing snowballs in the hall, I was jacked up the wall and was staring directly into the eyes of the Wrestling coach. His words were clear. The third time was playing Weird Al Yankovitch in Choir. The Teacher pulled me out and embarrassed me fully in front of all, with an ability to levitate me to his level and scream without raising his voice.

I had a buddy who was screwing around and running on the wrestling mats with tennis shoes on, a big no no. The Coach threw a roll of duct tape at him and squarely hit him in the forehead. Message received, no parents told.


29 posted on 10/20/2021 5:36:33 PM PDT by Glad2bnuts ((“If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan
Public Government schools
30 posted on 10/20/2021 5:37:33 PM PDT by windsorknot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Glad2bnuts

And had great handwriting at that.


31 posted on 10/20/2021 5:38:30 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Glad2bnuts

Home room teacher, also geography teacher and wrestling coach pinned me to the lockers when I smart mouthed him in 7th grade.
Never did that again.


32 posted on 10/20/2021 5:39:43 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Glad2bnuts

“They could write legibly”

We have letters at the family homestead from the 1830s, and these farm boys’ handwriting was not only legible, it was art. Gorgeous handwriting. My dad’s was, too.


33 posted on 10/20/2021 5:40:33 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (When government fears the people, there is liberty. Don't forget his cohort)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Lurkinanloomin
"Leftists targeted education from the 1960’s on."

Progressives have been targeting education since prior to 1900. So have the socialists.

Making socialists out of college students; a story of professors and other collegians who hobnob with radicals.

https://archive.org/details/MakingSocialistsOutOfCollegeStudentsAStoryOfProfessorsAndOther

We make a grave mistake by limiting our view to the 1960s and it's a big reason why we keep getting defeated.

34 posted on 10/20/2021 5:42:59 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (Public meetings are superior to newspapers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: MayflowerMadam

Excellent handwriting is a skill I never developed. I am left handed and I think my penmanship teachers just said “do the best you can.”


35 posted on 10/20/2021 6:00:04 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

A college history professor took a survey of recent classes and an overwhelming majority of them think that slavery was invented by colonists in the New World. They are astounded with disbelief when told that slavery has been practiced by every society since prehistoric times.


36 posted on 10/20/2021 6:27:58 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (When elections fail, we will either live under tyranny or rebel and throw it off.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan
I have said for years now that this newer generation has completely confused “intelligence” and “information”.

This generation thinks the two are the same thing.

Indeed, they are NOT the same thing.

“I have all this information at my fingertips,” they proclaim as they clutch their iPhones... “QED, ( so they continue ) I am intelligent!”.

Sadly, of course, this is not necessarily true at all. Information is just a small part of what we call intelligence...True intelligence requires more, much more, than just information.

37 posted on 10/20/2021 8:17:04 PM PDT by China Clipper ( Animals? I love animals. See? There's one there, right next to the potatoes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

Bill Gates Common Core designed to dumb down the kids.


38 posted on 10/20/2021 8:32:45 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MayflowerMadam

Not a whole lot of handwritten letters going out these days. Mostly emails soon to evaporate into the ethernet. Maybe the NSA will turn out to be the go-to resource for archives.

I have stacks of family letters from old. The subjects tend to be mundane, the author probably wishes shredding, and no one will likely ever see those words again. Vanity.


39 posted on 10/20/2021 8:36:43 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (No nation that sanctions the wholesale slaughter of its unborn citizens is fit to endure.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: cgbg

Thanks.

L


40 posted on 10/20/2021 8:45:57 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson