In 3 paragraphs: C. S. Lewis, Albert Einstein, and Virgil two centuries ago {(1) at the very bottom} argue that if education for the student or parent-mentor includes the best classic liberal arts and civics, students will be BETTER CITIZENS AND BETTER PROFESSIONALS in physics, medicine, engineering, business, etc. (Courses are required outside your major anyway). Let us make the case that our information, tested in debates with professors, will get you started on the road to an elite education. Through this, students can be engaged in unique learning and life experiences that will SET THEM APART FROM OTHER APPLICANTS TO THE BEST COLLEGES WHICH HELPS GET THEM THE BEST OFFERS.
Review Paragraphs in the 9 Parts Below and/or Contact Us for the 15-Minute Key Summary Tailored To Your Priorities.
0. Introduction
1. The Stakes Are High - Expose Students to Conservative Colleges?
2. Some Say There Is No Problem
3. Parent Mentoring and the Failure of College Leaders
4. How Systemic Is Poor or Biased Teaching?
5. Does College Change Students' Very Worldviews?
6. Students: Sponsor Centers for Civic Engagement!
a. Key Introduction b. Education c. Economics d. U.S. History e. Psychology f. Art, and Science g. English Lit. h. Mathematics, Statistics i. Social Studies or Sociology Movie Project
Advanced college planning covers some aspects that many college advisors do not cover, and starts when sons and daughters are as young as possible. How best to save for and fund college can include tax-advantaged savings options that accumulate tuition credits for private colleges offering smaller classes, better graduation rates, etc., and some are nationally noted for their classic liberal arts-conservative coursework that families committed to diversity would want to have included. On the other hand, some savings options also have the flexibility to pay for apprenticeships in high-paying trades followed by using those funds to purchase ownership in the business under the same four or so year college timeline, which may appeal to some innovative-thinking families. Also, long term extracurricular and coursework planning requires more pro-active effort for conservatives (or for liberals committed to a rich, diverse education) because the best in a classic liberal arts education is absent from much college coursework (as shown in studies at www.whatwilltheylearn.org).
Students can thus learn important principles many Ph.D.'s or the wealthiest people do not know. With this preparation, they can have the confidence to pick difficult but high-paying majors, win debates with smart people and thrive in school and college.
Numerous financial measures indicate that a slow growth or even just a competitive world economy will make it more difficult to land high-paying jobs. Thus, it is more important than ever to take your pre-college education, and college planning very seriously in order to build an impressive resume. Yet, the sometimes tedious, long-attention-span efforts required to master difficult subject matter is starkly different than peer group fun (made more effective by social networking), instantly gratifying media and texting on iPhones, countless TV channels, and the internet with easy links to tempting subjects tangentially related to anything you are reading. The best - and the worst - the world has to offer is a click away. That was essentially the message of Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1993 upon his return from exile to Russia when he prophetically said that the exponential increase in the power of technology will be "the great trial of our faith." The effect of sustained exposure to this type of high-tech living is the subject of new cognitive research, summarized in a recent Atlantic Monthly cover story: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The ability to reject these omnipresent temptations that impede our long term success requires wisdom, discipline, indefatigable patience, and resistance to peer and popular culture. Students can develop these positive traits, and embrace the advantages of new technology yet eschew the disadvantages, even while finding enjoyment in studying the best of classic scholarship that has NOT changed. This is difficult, but it is possible with mentoring from parents and carefully chosen teachers and peers. Dr. Robert George of Princeton, author of the Manhattan Declaration, said that studying the traditional classic liberal arts helps us channel our passions in productive ways as opposed to secular-left professors' transmogrification of the "liberal arts" by saying its purpose is to find new ways to indulge our passions. (8)
This same discipline and wisdom will help students excel with the hard work and tenacity required to be the best in their difficult but rewarding major in engineering, mathematics, medicine, etc. Also, their motivation to be the best may not just be to gain more money and recognition but may even be a statement of their gratitude for being born in the time and place of freedom and opportunity not available to most others in history. The student may later risk time and money to be entrepreneurial and earn more in their specialty, which risk may be easier to face because if worst-case scenarios came and a lot of money and time were lost, the student still has the wealth that cannot be lost, i.e., faith, family and a wide-ranging knowledge of the world.
Because these objectives are so challenging, starting early to save for college in the most effective way is important because after all is done to maximize the student's qualifications, financial aid, etc., the best college may not be the least costly. In Section G. to the left of the home page, we have discussed some tax-advantaged savings options that can accumulate scholarship credits for colleges that include some great conservative institutions. Organizations like www.yaf.org and www.isi.org have lists and publications on most major colleges while spotlighting the best conservative colleges. But even with a well-executed strategy, the "conservative college" that has both the best reputation and placement rate in the student's preferred major, AND a good moral and classic liberal arts environment may or may not be easily available. College preparation then should include exposing the student to the best of classic conservative and left-wing scholarship so the student can not only be less propogandizable but also be a better leader.
Some progressive researchers tell parents to relax. Kids will find their own way and "judgmental" parenting will be counterproductive. Some conservative parents say: "My child was raised well. And he can't be kept in a bubble, oblivious to the diversity of beliefs and experiences in the world. Even if school and college are populated with left-wing teachers, he will just buck up and get through (and have to pay for) whatever general education classes or leftist campus orientation and events are required so he can get his accounting or engineering degree and get a good job." Through our coaching and other paragraphs in this site, we will make the case that better preparation really is worth it.
College can be like a Trojan Horse. It is a beautiful work of art and a focal point in the town square for public enrichment. But if problems lurking within are not dealt with, dangerous results could occur.
Even if the student majors in a technical field, they may encounter controversial and moral issues in student events and orientation, general education, and even in some technical classes. They will get the most out of such learning opportunities (and their money's worth) with proper preparation. But do not expect professors to offer moral leadership, though some could. They may be outright biased in championing their leftist views or if not biased, they leave students to fend for themselves on how to handle the most vexing and important issues of the day where experts widely disagree. Therein lays the opportunity for parents to offer some leadership. (Bias exhibited by right-wing teachers is much less common).
A popular (in 5th printing) book "Letting Go" is a parent's guide to helping kids go on to college. It is endorsed by a number of College Deans, VP's, etc. And it has much good mundane advice, but where it really counts, it takes a morally relativistic stance:
"There is pressure on both men and women to be knowledgeable and comfortable with sex. Rarely are sexual encounters between college students as ... smooth and carefree as parents might think. ... They worry about the dangers of (STDs) as well as pregnancy and how to integrate these clinical intrusions into their sex lives. Those who choose to remain virgins ... may question their own desirability or their sexual identity. ...
The dean of arts and sciences at one southeastern university comments:
' This {sexual identity} struggle often interferes with academic achievement. Students are sent to me because of academics...They are not sure about their sexual identity; they can't talk to their parents; some of them feel uncomfortable going to gay groups. What I do is listen. I'm not sure what parents can do, but I think they should know that many students are questioning their sexual identity.' "
The authors hardly encourage any students who wish to reserve their power of procreation for their future spouse to seek out traditional values student groups. The book's approach is consistent with morally relativistic counsel given thousands of times by former UCLA student psychologist Dr. M. Grossman, recounted in her book "Unprotected." Debating the quality of this advise could be a memorable topic for our Center for Civic Engagement at 6. below. A study by Prof.'s Carroll and Willoughby in 2010 showed that students with similar pre-college moral behavior were more likely to engage in casual sex and drinking when living in coed versus single-sex dorms, yet for major colleges, most dorms have changed to coed in the last several years. Also, colleges will default assign most students to coed dorms. Students and parents may need to go out of their way to request single-sex dorms. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5AN4DS20091124)
While students need to take command of their college life without "helicopter parents," a further reason for some parent mentorship during college comes from the mental health and neurology professions whose studies show that the young person's mental processes are not fully mature, especially in the areas of wisdom over taking risks, and impulsivity, until they have reached an age of around 21 to 25.(15) Parents should therefore consider working with their new college student to sign the Federal FERPA waiver which would make it easier to obtain from the college timely information about the student's grades, attendance, and medical events.
Probably the most popular class at Harvard is Prof. Sandel's Poli Sci course on "Justice" which covers the big issues of the day: stem-cell research, marriage, abortion, race relations, etc. But in the opinion of Manhattan Institute fellow Charlotte Allen in the Wall Street Journal, "...many {students} are likely to walk out of Mr. Sandel's class as clueless as to when they walked in about ways to solve the moral problems that complicate our own time."(2) To talk about virtue or morals without showing leadership in any direction is incomplete, especially if no parent jumps in either.
Former Cornell U. Pres. Frank Rhodes opined on this same topic: "If universities succeed only in questioning assumptions or destroying convictions while not encouraging students ... to rebuild or refine or replace them, they leave students deprived. ... 'Knowledge is virtue and virtue knowledge,' declared Socrates. ... When Will Rogers {other sources cite Theodore Roosevelt} observed: 'A simple man may steal from a freight train, but give him a college degree and he will steal the whole railroad,' he shared a common assumption with Socrates - even though he reached a rather different conclusion."(3) In one major article, the collegiate backgrounds of the major perpetrators of the Enron scandal showed the lack of good ethical training in their elite colleges , which appeared to be in part coming from the culture of moral relativism.(4)
Derek Bok, president of Harvard for 20 years, in "The Politics of Happiness" wrote: "(quoting Yale Law Dean Kronman) '...giving life {a real} purpose and value ... this question was taken more seriously by most of our colleges ... in the middle of the twentieth century than it is today.' ... Most programs of general education do little more than require students to take one or two courses - any one or two - in each of the major bodies of knowledge. It is only by the merest chance that the courses chosen will help undergraduates think deeply about the purposes of their lives ... Surely educators can do better than that."
At a major meeting of science faculty, Harvard President Lawrence Summers, as the speaker, posed a hypothesis to explain the relative sparsity of female faculty in the upper echelons of physical science, by wondering if it is because female cognitive abilities are stronger in other fields. (Neuroscience research does show that female and male brains process some things differently). Just bringing up the idea caused enough outrage among a majority of especially faculty in the humanities and social sciences that he resigned. See the sordid details at www.city-journal.org/html/eon_06_03_05hm.html. How can researchers operate freely if they feel they cannot even bring up a topic unless they are sure it will not offend some people?
One of the classic but small books that seek to refute this moral relativism is C. S. Lewis' "The Abolition of Man" and should be part of the student's coursework.
Teacher quality evaluations in K-12 are very different than professor evaluations in college. Student improvement in uniform examinations is a more common metric for teachers. Without similar uniform exams, professors are often "graded" with student surveys if at all which studies have shown to be very imperfect for a number of reasons. {(16)-See especially the conclusion.} Encourage students to ask administrators, Deans, or students specific questions about how rigorous and fair a professor is, not how easy the class is. Many professors overly focus on teaching to the immediate tests at hand rather than spending time understanding underlying principles that will help students in the future mastery of advanced coursework. Thus, does the professor have the patience to use innovative analogies, etc. to make clear difficult concepts? Do students experience epiphanies in finally understanding difficult principles as a result of the professor's effort or the quality of assigned texts?
If only professors were merely absent in providing moral leadership as in 3. above. Often they are leaders in promulgating secular-leftist worldviews, despite some denials that are unpersuasive (per our experience in debates and with broader studies at www.aei.org). We will not attempt here to give you numerous anecdotes about individuals but will focus on examples of widespread bias. For example, during the Duke University Lacrosse team scandal, some players were proven to be falsely accused of sexually assaulting an "exotic" dancer at a party. Before evidence was in, 88 Duke professors condemned them as guilty in the most dramatic way in a full-page New York Times ad, couching the issue in classic leftist terms as white privileged youths ravaging black lady. When the proof was in, about all of these professors refused to recant, apparently basing their defiance on the fact that this incident was more of a metaphor for the real climate of systemic cultural white privilege in America oppressing other races. Should students feel that this large body of professors (and many other professors who were deafeningly silent about their peers' conduct) would be objective scholars in their normal semester teaching? This problem does not even cover the undiscussed issue of why supposedly exemplary sports leaders at Duke would engage in a frat party entertaining strippers so as to make the ultimately spurious allegations seem so plausible. Where was the minimal moral leadership from Duke?
Another example occurred at the 2006 annual Texas Academy of Science award meeting attended by 400 mostly biology and other science researchers and professors. The keynote speaker, Dr. Eric Pianka discussed how he would reluctantly look forward to an Ebola-type epidemic spreading across the world and killing perhaps half of the earth's population so as to create a more ecologically sustainable planet. The vast majority of the attendees applauded. Suspecting that this National Review article was surely exaggerating we called the Academy's President David Marsh and did confirm that this was what happened.
A number of studies have examined the political registration of professors in states where this is public knowledge. In "values-oriented" fields like English, Sociology, history, etc. the ratios are typically some 10 to 1 Democrat or Green Party to Republican. (See www.aei.org for research specifics). Professors typically say that their political beliefs do not manifest themselves in class (perhaps like unbiased-in-class but left-wing professor Denzel Washington in "The Great Debaters" movie). Yet, we examined over one hundred textbooks at a major university in Washington that covered controversial topics. The vast majority championed leftist views to the relative exclusion or straw man treatment of conservative worldviews. There were a small number of impressive exceptions, where in-depth views on the major positions were represented and perhaps those classes should be chosen. But where are students encouraged to go out of their way to know what they are getting before they enroll in a class? Are we being tongue-in-cheek when suggesting that a warning sticker on the course catalog should say that because there is minimal quality control as to the degree of bias in classes because of tenure and academic freedom enjoyed by professors (see Part E. for more detail) the student should engage in careful due diligence before investing in the class?
The vast majority of early teenagers do not have firm left-wing world views regarding economics, social issues, or patriotism. From high school through college a high percentage of students do seem to acquire such values, per the following studies:
The 2010 survey of adults at www.americancivicliteracy.org found that the more college adults had, the more likely they were to have liberal views on social issues. You too can take their 2009-2010 multiple-choice test on the 60 most important topics in economic, history, and government and compare your score with students at U. of WA, Harvard, Brown, etc. Students in especially elite universities performed poorly on these basic tests.
The Cardinal Newman Society/HERI group studied students at 38 Catholic colleges and found that most graduates had become pro-abortion pro-gay marriage, and sparingly prayed or attended church. An additional study by HERI in 2007 for a broader population of college students similarly showed students becoming more liberal in worldviews during college years.(17) A Pew Research Center study showed similar shifts for key social issues.(18) Prof.'s Bruce Chadwick and Terry Olson at BYU surveyed 6000 "traditional values" students and found that the half that did not attend BYU but had attended major secular universities were more secular-liberal after graduation compared to BYU graduates.
Studies by NAS.org/Zogby and Luntz/Bill Bennett found quite liberal views among college students, such as:
A lot of the issues posed above, and in 6.b. - 6.i. below, cry for explanations from high school and college leaders. Students could interview these leaders, and if expert opinions differ, Great Debates should be sponsored, inspired perhaps by the in-depth 3 hour Lincoln - Douglas debates of 1858 or the 3-hour Firing Line Debates with Bill Buckley on PBS TV. (Debate team competition is good but too few topics are covered per year). Most universities do not have enough of such in-depth varied debates, although they often sponsor monologues by experts where the attendees or students may not feel comfortable asking probing questions. We have attended numerous such "singing to the choir" events at major colleges and have had to go out of the way to confront professors who only covered their own view of a controversial issue. No one in the audience would even pose a question like: "Dr. Smith, what would be the most compelling opinion opposing your position, and who do you think would be the best expert to defend such a contrary view?"
More topics for robust debate for your Center for Civic Engagement are at the Groundbreaking Term Paper Topics at the end of Topic D.2. Others follow as just a sample.
A Good Education Is Comprised of Physical & Academic Engagement.
This college major is most crucial because it impacts the views and readiness of teachers teaching your family members in grades K –12. While accounting courses may be similar between colleges, Education curricula differ markedly from conservative colleges to other colleges. For example, consider the course summaries at a typical state university, the U. of Utah: www.acs.utah.edu/GenCatalog/crsdesc/ecs.html
Numerous courses highlight classic leftist themes like "whiteness theory" and oppression of minorities. Also, in courses 6615, 6621, and 7655, Marx, John Dewey, Paulo Freire, Ira Shor, and Henry Giroux are studied as heroes. Yet, for example, at www.isi.org, a national association of professors and students supporting the classic liberal arts has published: "John Dewey and the Decline of American Education." The other heroes listed here are prominent socialists. Ask your lawmakers, especially those on the Education committees, why taxpayer funds are used for such a large amount of curricula whose worldview balance is not what a majority of taxpayers would want, while classic conservative heroes and scholarship are curiously absent, or de facto censored.
Another question would come up in the following: One of the top-rated public charter schools in the country at www.ridgeviewclassical.com has more detail about their teaching philosophy and teachers' resumes than other schools. When they hire teachers, they prefer that teachers NOT HAVE EDUCATION DEGREES. Arthur Levine, former Dean of Columbia Teacher's College, published a study showing that most doctorate programs in Education were of poor quality; see details at http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/x6843.xml.
Even though economics affects all aspects of everyone's life, most colleges do not require any economics course to get a degree. (See www.whatwilltheylearn.org). A popular text, "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond basically takes a materialistic view that geography determines the fate of societies. Not studied usually, is Hoover Institute Economist Tom Sowell whose texts marshal evidence that culture and moral norms in society are just as or more determinative. WHY ONLY STUDY ONE VIEW??
Or, why is the unemployment rate in 2010 much higher for black young people than it was in 1955, despite there being more racial discrimination back then? Other economics projects are discussed in Part 8 below. Be sure to look at the one-page dramatizations of economics topics at www.acton.org/impact.
Over time, students do not remember a lot of what they learn. Most history texts are focused on chronology, where a laundry list of topics is briefly discussed from the earliest years to the present. More exciting, and relevant to bringing wisdom to the most vital issues of today, after understanding the basic chronology of history, is to have student teams study and report to the class: The History of a Controversial, Important Issue, such as:
How Presidents Balanced Civil Liberties v.v. National Security in Prosecuting Wars; or Abortion from the 1770s to the Present; or The Place of Christianity in K-12 Education; or Helping the Poor; or The Accuracy of Forecasting the Cost of Implementing New Laws At the Time of the Law's Passage, Compared to the Actual Costs Years Later; or Eugenics and Its Relation to Current Bioethics Proposals; or How Old People Were Cared for Before Medicare, Social Security, & 55+ Continuum of Care/Nursing Homes. Ask students to pull out a pay stub from their summer job, where their pay is reduced by 15.3% (counting employers' shares) for Medicare and Soc. Sec. taxes. Why isn't it 5% (It was near 1% in 1955)?? The answer can come from this last history topic as well as demographics issues under Topics from D.2.
Under the History of Abortion, there are interesting parallels between the first major pro-life advocacy society in New York City in 1830-1 and the tireless abolitionist work by David Ruggles in 1837-8, also in New York City, the big commercial hub for trade with the multi-trillion-dollar (capital value in today's dollars) slave related industries in the South. This makes an important, and maybe contentious topic for your Center for Civic Engagement.
When reading about key figures in history-making life and death decisions, you must analyze plausible but counterfactual scenarios, that sometimes are, in hindsight, more plausible than what really happened! Read a chapter from "What If," an anthology of counterfactuals by numerous historians. Ask us to give you troubling and controversial examples as well.
Working with your high school teacher to improve history can make your learning better and can serve as a distinctive experience to impress College Admissions.
These classes are popular for Gen Ed. They will mention that the American Psychological Association is the premier association for professionals in this field. But should students know about the book: "Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The well-Intentioned Path to Harm?" The editors are two former division managers of the APA and are self-professed liberals. Yet, they document how political correctness has often resulted in bad scholarship coming from the APA. Another liberal and past President of the APA, Dr. Perloff, has actually spoken to conservative groups about this same problem. The APA has accused the Bush administration of torturing what was the most dangerous couple of Islamic terrorists without answering book-length rebuttals to this classic anti-war posture. Does this sound close to politicizing science? The President of the American Psychiatric Assoc. writing to the NY Times, was indignant about the Supreme Court putting limits on partial-birth abortion, then commented that there are no negative health consequences from abortion. Yet, a www.humanlifereviewarticle.org (Spring, '07) article by two psychology Ph.D.s has summarized 24 separate studies that found there WERE negative repercussions. Students often do not study both sides of this argument. Beyond that, how could one have confidence in the integrity of research coming from these two associations if their research dealt with scientific topics that seemed to touch on political issues?
One psychology professor has written an essay "Against the Current" outlining the anti-Christian bias in the APA. The book "The Politically Correct University" by Redding, Hess, and Moranto references numerous studies showing left-wing bias in universities. But it focuses also on disturbing repercussions of bias in the psychology profession. Many patients are Christians, and their psychologist is supposed to have a close bond with and fiduciary responsibility to the patient. Yet, how can that work well if the patient's most important values are not felt to be important by this psychologist if the latter's values reflect the ant-Christian bias of psychology degree programs??
In colleges offering family counseling majors throughout the country, Christian students are pressured to essentially renounce their very mainstream beliefs in order to even finish their degree, as revealed in lawsuits involving Augusta State, Eastern Michigan, and Purdue.(9) For every student bold enough to go through public litigation, numerous others tolerate dramatic bias in their coursework.
See also the Max Born quote in 6.f. Art and Science below.
The National Art Education Association is influential in K–12 education and their key mission are to integrate "social justice" and related left-wing political issues into art projects.(5) The former President of the American Assoc. of U. Professors, Roger Bowen, has described good art as that which "demeans tradition." Yet, the classic purpose of art was that which glorified tradition and God and showed evil as evil. Many art classes are not political, but many are. What is still often missing is to understand how art has been uniquely effective in propagating healthy virtuous worldviews.
Here are two classic paintings that dramatize key public policy issues that affect us today: First, Holbein from 1533: the moral nihilism of elite, brilliant leaders in Big science and Corrupt religion, where without a foundation of Biblical moral principles, death and destruction may eventually reign. The top left shows Christ on the Cross more or less shoved aside. Notice that if you look at the "smudge" in the lower center at a 30% angle it becomes a skull, representing death.
Holbein's concern about science, unmoored from virtue and religion was shown to be prophetic, as described by Max Born, one of the world's great theoretical physicists, who won the Nobel Prize in 1954. In 1965 he sought to explain, in part, why Europe almost committed suicide in WWII: "I am haunted by the idea that this break in human civilization, caused by the discovery of the scientific method, may be irreparable. ...the political and military horrors and the complete breakdown in ethics which I have witnessed during my lifetime may be a ... necessary consequence of the rise of science. ... If this is so, there will be an end to man as a free, responsible being." (6)
Dr. Born's last phrase crystallizes the deep, core beliefs of secular-left academic leaders and how their positions on EVERYTHING almost, criminal justice, ethics, bioethics, psychology practices, limited versus a high-tax-cradle-to-grave government, going to war, etc. differ from more mainstream worldviews. This is explained in only 5 pages, 373-77: http://www.mmisi.org/ma/43_04/matson.pdf. Or read the key 3 paragraph summary at (13) below.
Hans Holbein the Younger 1533
These principles become a "unified theory of matter" that helps students see through biased underlying assumptions in so many areas of material they would be studying. Further reading is at (12).
Dr. Born's comments become more sobering when you visit the "Eugenics" topic under Groundbreaking Term Paper Topics at the end of Part D.2. on the home page.
The next painting may not be often discussed in college because it makes a strong case for moral virtue, with "Broken Eggs" used as a metaphor. This theme contrasts starkly with what happens on many college campuses, or groups within campuses as discussed by a UCLA health clinic psychologist, Dr. Grossman, who wrote "Unprotected," and in the book "The Five Year Party."
Here is the explanation of this painting from the MET Gallery Label:
This picture was painted in Rome, but despite the Italian costumes and setting, the source of the subject is a seventeenth-century Dutch painting by Frans van Mieris the Elder, "The Broken Eggs" (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), which Greuze knew through an engraving. The broken eggs symbolize the loss of virginity. The little boy trying to repair one of the eggs represents the uncomprehending innocence of childhood.
This picture attracted favorable comment when exhibited in Paris at the Salon of 1757. One critic noted that the young girl had a pose so noble that she could embellish a history painting. Its pendant was "The Neapolitan Gesture" of 1757 (Worcester Art Museum) in which the same four models appear, but the seducer is foiled by the old woman.
Art or social studies project: Bring these classic paintings to your school or college class and just ask, non-judgmentally, if the class can explore their themes.
Jean Baptiste Greuze "Broken Eggs"
(French, 1725-1805)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
English majors may read 1000 books in their college careers. But what are our nominations for the most important dozen pages of literature you could read? Let us make the case for the following:
The best paragraph (text at footnote (11), in The Aeneid, the most assigned literary classic in 1920's high schools. Two thousand years ago Virgil prophesied the unique role America would play in the world as contrasted with Europe. It refers to "The New Order of the Ages" from the Latin phrase around the pyramid on the dollar bill.
Three key paragraphs from Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village," starting with:
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay: ..."
{See the internet for the full text}.
This poem helps us understand why political divisions today are not best represented by red states and blue states, but by "small town versus big city." For example, small towns in California are more conservative than Salt Lake City, Utah! One phrase from the above poem is the title of a new political book by an Oxford professor. This poem inspired the first President of Yale to write "The Flourishing Village" in the 1790s that dramatizes what Thomas Jefferson felt was best emblematic of America, and possibly why, in part, such difference is given to the rights of smaller, more rural states in the constitution's rules for electing Senators, and presidential electors. Today, major efforts by some groups are seeking to change the constitution, not by amendment but by a deft end-around, to de facto, eliminate the electoral process. At least students should hear the founders' argument for the electoral college (in a book at www.isi.org) which may seem at first glance, to be un-democratic.
How are the first two paragraphs of Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes" related to Edmund Burke's famous paragraph in "Reflections on the Revolution in France" that starts with "The science of constructing a commonwealth ... ." {Full text at the bottom - (14)} Why does Supreme Court Justice John Roberts read "The Vanity of Human Wishes" once a year as a ritual? If George Bush and Bill Clinton had believed this Burke paragraph, they would have been, respectively, better prepared for nation-building in Iraq and helping the former Soviet Union turn to democracy. It also explains the critical role of federalism where states experiment with what civic initiatives work best before other states or the nation take on the same changes prematurely, which risks the damage from unintended consequences. Do your teachers or professors agree?
Jonathan Swift's caustic 6 page 1730 satire, "A Modest Proposal," appears in numerous literature texts. But they miss the most important theme that must be understood with Swift's earlier, less successful but more informative essay "The State of Ireland." The full context helps us better understand Ireland's great economic success (up to the 2007 mortgage crisis) and brings uncommon wisdom to demographics and economic success issues today. It is another example of how classic literature can sometimes be more effective in promoting social themes than can the marshaling of compelling facts in a research study can to further social initiatives.
What hugely successful novel in 1890 America had a subtitle of "The Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Horse." How does this exemplify literature being a more effective vehicle for public policy advocacy than other methods, and how the abolition movement was "religion embroiled in politics" (fortunately)?
Mathematics is considered part of general education because it helps develop critical thinking skills that are accountable to rigorous standards of truth and falsehood (in contrast to moral relativism), and also helps you master technical majors that have the best job opportunities. Note that some universities have little or no requirements for math coursework to complete degrees (www.whatwilltheylearn.com). Also, countless claims made about the value of new medications, the effectiveness of countless rules of living in marriage, parenting, politics, consumer goods' quality, etc. are based on testing of samples and conclusions made based on statistical research. You can better verify the integrity of such assertions made if you know math and statistics and the difference between absolute and relative risk. For example, if you read that a drug is effective for controlling pain but increases the chance of getting a particular bad disease by 300% (relative risk) that is alarming until you read elsewhere that the absolute risk of getting the disease increased from .001% to .003%. Let's say that households in the affluent community of Medina, WA gave an average of $3 million to charity last year. That is impressive unless you know that of the 1000 households, resident Bill Gates gave $3 billion and all others gave zero. The $3 million is of course the arithmetic "mean" average, not the "median" average which would be zero. Attend MIT now and listen to a physics professor explain how to better remember mathematics principles (see video links).
While mathematics is usually not political, problems do occur. At www.thefire.org, you will see cases of math professors, without scurrilous motives using story problems that are politically incorrect and run afoul of Diversity Affairs officers. Some professors must incur large legal fees defending themselves that the fire never handles because professors are afraid of a hostile working environment if they publicly and fully asserted their rights. Yet, secular-leftist beliefs can be championed through math education, which is widely taught to our future K - 12 teachers, such as with "Rethinking Mathematics," a popular Education School text; see a critique on it at http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_freirian-pedagogy.html
Some school or college courses and events involve showing movies of dubious value. But for good or ill, movies affect our culture, so let's prepare our students to be leaders by seeing through Hollywood. Dr. Brett Latimer has had a highly popular class at Utah Valley U. that contains narration with numerous brief excerpts from movies around the theme of "Hollywood v. Religion." One leaves the class feeling manipulated by the movie industry thus creating more discerning citizens. Students could produce a similar type of "documentary" around the theme of "The best & the worst: "Important public policy themes in cinema that have eluded the movie critic industry, and that the student could write profoundly consequential essays about."
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