In my second Substack post, I stated the true and factual history of educational reform in America, namely that every attempt has failed. Quoting Joseph Murphy:
Murphy in his 2020 article claimed:
Over the last 100 years, claims that schools are failing have become deeply woven into the fabric of society. This “scorching and unrelenting criticism” can be seen most dramatically in periods of calls for profound changes in the prek-12 school system. Indeed, efforts at reform since the end of WWII have been nearly a complete failure. Things today are much the same in 2020 as they were in 1970 and 1950 “and in some respects not as good as they were in 1930” when asignificant period of school reform was at its peak.
Seven outcome measures have often been employed to document unsatisfactory school performance: 1) academic achievement in basic subject areas compared to suggestions of what is needed for success in the current time period; 2) academic achievement in basic subject areas compared to historical data about the United States and to student performance in other nations; 3) the holding power of schools (i.e., dropout rates); 4) preparation for employment and/or increased levels of schooling; 5) knowledge of specific subject areas; 6) mastery of higher-order skills; and 7) personal character and citizenship. What is reported less frequently is that failure is a dominant element of schooling and that re-forms do not address this reality, that “school reform” initiatives developed to address troubled schools have accomplished very little.
Looking at Murphy’s final three points: 5) knowledge of specific subject areas; 6) mastery of higher-order skills; and 7) personal character and citizenship, we see now a reaction aimed at higher learning specifically a reaction to Anti-Semite-Pro-Hamas sentiments on American campuses which the authors of the GEA state are counter to “personal character and American citizenship. In a November 12, 2023 article in Real Clear Politics, author Peter Berkowitz states the new reform is necessary because of the support for Anti-Western-Pro- Hamas demonstrations on our university campuses after the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
Last month may have marked a turning point. Many who had averted their gaze from the nation’s dysfunctional universities have been shocked by campus support for Hamas terrorists – who massacred some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel on Oct. 7 and kidnapped more than 240, also largely civilians – and by university administrators who, confronted by students and faculty taking the jihadists’ side and calling for the elimination of the Jewish state, suddenly rediscovered the importance of free speech. In the face of students’ and professors’ defense of the perpetrators of mass atrocities and following weak-kneed and equivocating statements from university presidents and deans, demands have multiplied for higher education reform.
In states that adopt it, designated public universities will be required to establish Schools of General Education as independent academic units devoted to traditional liberal education. The GEA mandates that Schools of General Education offer a well-rounded set of 13 courses – and only the 13 elaborated in the act – as a graduation requirement. The Schools of General Education will be obliged to enact bylaws affirming the commitment to promoting rigorous intellectual inquiry in pursuit of truth; cultivating the dispositions and skills that produce independence of mind; maintaining intellectual diversity; and safeguarding free speech and nurturing lively discussion. GEA they believe will do what “Common Core” would do for basic skills re: reading, writing, and math, but focusing on the requirements of matters of mind , intellectual integrity, and civics.
Liberalism Grounded in Western Civilization
The General Education Act weighs in on the necessity for all American students to have intense study in Western Civilization. It highlights America’s founding principles, constitutional traditions, and political development. It covers the preeminent literature and philosophy, and the remarkable history – the debacles and tribulations as well as the achievements and grand moments – of Western civilization. It gives students a choice: an in-depth exploration of the principles of political liberty, fine arts from classical Greece to the 20th century, or the classics of economic freedom and its critics. It features a course on world civilizations. Where appropriate, these required courses will highlight the competing views about individual freedom and limited government around which the West has revolved. Berkowitz stated that:
It has long been evident that higher education in America has lost its way. Colleges and universities have largely cleansed the curriculum of requirements that students study the essential ideas and events of America’s great experiment in ordered liberty, Western civilization more broadly, and, despite multiculturalist zeal, other civilizations. Colleges and universities have entrenched the censorious spirit that spawned trigger warnings, microaggressions, safe spaces, and bias response teams – all aimed at protecting students from exposure to non-progressive opinions and at shielding them from facts that clash with left-wing narratives and fashionable campus causes. And colleges and universities have incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion training and anti-racism instruction into university bureaucracies and classrooms. These inculcate – in faculty as well as in students – allegiance to the dogmas that America is racist to the core, and citizens, private institutions, and government must transform social and political life by classifying individuals, and redistributing benefits and burdens, based on race.
Civilizational “Experiments”
We have been down this road before ,working to have our instutions of learning learn and enculturate the “essential ideas and events of America’s great experiment in ordered liberty, Western civilization more broadly, and, despite multiculturalist zeal, other civilizations.” If we are to spend all this time and money in order to make a substantial change, a change that will result in our future citizens identifying as Americans then we must do so with the revolutionary fervor of our founders. This means moving away from our Western Civilizational roots and all that baggage we don’t want or need.
Education lives in the wheelhouse of culture. Culture is the mechanism for how humankind adapts. Culture is environmentally -specific as well. Multiculturalism in education during the 1990s was a mistake, and we must learn from it. But far more threatening to America and its people is “globalism”, and because The General Education Act fails to address this, it cannot be considered relevant or meaningful. In the five weeks after the Hamas attacks of October 7th, the United Nations create eight proclamations all in support of Hamas, none in support of Isreal defending herself. The authors of the GEA are honest when referring to America as an experiment. I pray the experiment works and is lasting. But not to state that Western Civilization likewise is an experiment, and one thats days seem numbered is not honest.
I can see why there is such a reaction aimed at “higher”learning. The response by so many universities, their professor and students shows that the need is far less than habits of mind. They are showing just plain stupidity. There are over 2 billion Muslims around the world. The overwhelming majority see America as the “Great Satin” and wish to destroy us. We are but 326.7 Million and declining in numbers.
Civilizations, the result of the Neolithic Revolution have never been the desired context for a species wired in the context of hunting and gathering. But, even with their obvious challenges due simply because of scale and population, some civilizations via culture have demonstrated that they can beat the adaptation game. Record holders today such as India and China, no matter what you think of cultures are still here. Note they are not considered to be “first world nations”. If you had to bank on a civilization today, both India and China would be a sure bet.
One can argue that rather than being the most advanced and morally superior culture on Earth, Western Civilization has proven to be just the opposite. Fox’s The Search for Society after reviewing some of the most violent episodes in world history, he is keen to illustrate that:
It should also be remembered that many cultures did not participate in these shifts, at least until the Western powers forced the results onto them. It can be argued that the picture is Euro-centered. True. We are not representing a scheme of world history, but a map of the major swings of the ‘progressive’ pendulum, and these mostly took place in Europe after the Middle Ages; a fact that has obsessed modern social science. We cannot help but be centered on the West, and in consequence on the decline of the West, for this is where the pendulum did its latest and most damaging swing .
Western Civilization has dominated as a culture and as a civilization by essentially eliminating other choices. The hypocrisy after six centuries must be finally addressed. For a culture and accompanying ideology touting liberalism, democracy and fairness in its proudest governmental forms, it became dominant as a world culture by denigrating all others and, it was able to achieve this by inventing history. We need to remember that Western Civilization gave the world Karl Marx and communism.
America should not follow in its footsteps, but like any worthy culture, America has the obligation to enculturate its young and those ideas, principles have not changed.