Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting Things You Don't Understand by Mike S. Adams Page A
Authors: Mike S. Adams
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infinitives. But I also offended her by suggesting that we ban the Watson School of Education from the UNC-Wilmington campus. What can I say? I like to boldly go where no other infinitive-splitting professor is willing to go.
From time to time, I joke around about things we need to eliminate on our campuses. But I was not kidding about the Watson School of Education. I believe it should be banned. My reasons are twofold:
1. Education majors do not earn a degree in any substantive discipline. They merely learn to “educate.” The obvious question: Educate about what? Why not have them earn a degree in a substantive area like history or English and then learn how to “educate” people by serving a longer term as a teaching assistant? Currently, they only do a one-semester teaching assistantship. Whatever happened to the idea of longer-term apprenticeships? It seems like we hear more about apprenticeships on reality TV shows than we actually see of them in reality.
2. Education majors are indoctrinated heavily in postmodern philosophy, which teaches them that there is really no such thing as objective truth. No one doubting the existence of objective truth should be trusted with the responsibility of teaching anyone at any level.
In our desperate attempt to elevate the self-esteem of students, we have succumbed to the postmodern temptation to eschew objective truth. In the process, we also eschew the notion of objective falsity.
I am not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon. Rita Kramer authored a classic book called Ed School Follies , which dealt with the issue at great length. In her well-researched book, she documented how one education professor taught future teachers how to acknowledge wrong answers. The list of possible responses: “Um-hmm,” “That’s a thought,” “That’s one possibility,” “That’s one idea,” “That’s another way to look at it,” and “I hear you.”
Notably missing from the list: “That’s wrong.” I suppose the professor would have thought it wrong to conclude that an answer could possibly be wrong. But there really is something seriously wrong with never telling students they are wrong.
Sometimes I think we are moving in this direction in order to boost the self-esteem of teachers. No one wants to be the “meanie” who goes around correcting small children. But these people are learning how to to be teachers. That’s their job.
LETTER 19
I Earned My B.S. in Victimology
Zach ,
Sometimes I have a hard time convincing people that the things I write about in higher education are actually real. I even have a hard time convincing them that some of our courses and majors truly exist. One good example is a course called “victimology,” which is frequently taught in our department. I have little doubt that before long Victimhood Studies will become an actual major housed in its own freestanding academic department.
As I look forward to the prospect of a victimology department turning out victimology majors, one question immediately comes to mind: what else could victimology majors do with their degrees except become professional victims?
It should be noted that there are numerous degrees already in existence that prepare students to become experts in certain types of victimhood, so a victimology major would be redundant to some extent. No doubt you have heard of some of these majors already being offered at a number of American universities:
1. Women’s Studies. This is a major that teaches women to consider marriage a form of patriarchal oppression and motherhood a form of slavery. Women are taught that they are so victimized by men that the word “women” should be changed to “womyn” to avoid any association with men.
2. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies . Some of the same lessons learned in Women’s Studies are retooled in these programs using slightly different terminology. For example, marriage is seen as
From time to time, I joke around about things we need to eliminate on our campuses. But I was not kidding about the Watson School of Education. I believe it should be banned. My reasons are twofold:
1. Education majors do not earn a degree in any substantive discipline. They merely learn to “educate.” The obvious question: Educate about what? Why not have them earn a degree in a substantive area like history or English and then learn how to “educate” people by serving a longer term as a teaching assistant? Currently, they only do a one-semester teaching assistantship. Whatever happened to the idea of longer-term apprenticeships? It seems like we hear more about apprenticeships on reality TV shows than we actually see of them in reality.
2. Education majors are indoctrinated heavily in postmodern philosophy, which teaches them that there is really no such thing as objective truth. No one doubting the existence of objective truth should be trusted with the responsibility of teaching anyone at any level.
In our desperate attempt to elevate the self-esteem of students, we have succumbed to the postmodern temptation to eschew objective truth. In the process, we also eschew the notion of objective falsity.
I am not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon. Rita Kramer authored a classic book called Ed School Follies , which dealt with the issue at great length. In her well-researched book, she documented how one education professor taught future teachers how to acknowledge wrong answers. The list of possible responses: “Um-hmm,” “That’s a thought,” “That’s one possibility,” “That’s one idea,” “That’s another way to look at it,” and “I hear you.”
Notably missing from the list: “That’s wrong.” I suppose the professor would have thought it wrong to conclude that an answer could possibly be wrong. But there really is something seriously wrong with never telling students they are wrong.
Sometimes I think we are moving in this direction in order to boost the self-esteem of teachers. No one wants to be the “meanie” who goes around correcting small children. But these people are learning how to to be teachers. That’s their job.
LETTER 19
I Earned My B.S. in Victimology
Zach ,
Sometimes I have a hard time convincing people that the things I write about in higher education are actually real. I even have a hard time convincing them that some of our courses and majors truly exist. One good example is a course called “victimology,” which is frequently taught in our department. I have little doubt that before long Victimhood Studies will become an actual major housed in its own freestanding academic department.
As I look forward to the prospect of a victimology department turning out victimology majors, one question immediately comes to mind: what else could victimology majors do with their degrees except become professional victims?
It should be noted that there are numerous degrees already in existence that prepare students to become experts in certain types of victimhood, so a victimology major would be redundant to some extent. No doubt you have heard of some of these majors already being offered at a number of American universities:
1. Women’s Studies. This is a major that teaches women to consider marriage a form of patriarchal oppression and motherhood a form of slavery. Women are taught that they are so victimized by men that the word “women” should be changed to “womyn” to avoid any association with men.
2. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies . Some of the same lessons learned in Women’s Studies are retooled in these programs using slightly different terminology. For example, marriage is seen as
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