One of the key reasons why the statist left has so much control over the nation is that it has succeeded in its project of taking over the education system. In particular, they have wormed their way into schools of education and use their domination of the training grounds for future teachers (many of whom aren’t particularly bright; the education curriculum repels students who don’t want to waste their time on pabulum) to impart collectivistic, pro-government, anti-market ideas in the students’ minds.
In this week’s Pope Center Clarion Call, Jay Schalin takes a close look at a course taught at UNC-Greensboro entitled “The Institution of Education.” Students who want to become licensed in the state need to pass it, but what the course requires has nothing to do with how to teach anything. Rather, it is an exercise in political indoctrination, where every student must write a paper expressing his or her “personal/professional commitment to social justice.”
The readings for the course consists entirely of leftist screeds by such writers as Paolo Freire, bell hooks, and Ira Shor. Topics range from “white privilege” to feminist theory to our “broken system of justice.”
Schalin observes, “The degree of politicization is overwhelming. Looking at the syllabus, one wonders whether this is a course on the ‘institution of education’ or the agenda of a gathering of hard left activist organizations.”
Well, it’s both! Hard left activist organizations see educational institutions as crucial to their power to transform the country. For them, political activism and education are inseparable.
The course, ELC 381, has been part of the UNC-G education curriculum for years and for the Spring 2016 semester, seven sections are offered.
It would be fun to see what would happen if a student submitted that “commitment to social justice” paper, arguing in it that “social justice” is a meaningless phrase but that the way to improve the lives of the poor is to radically downsize government and have it stop interfering with their economic freedom. That student would no doubt fail the course.