"10 Most Harmful Books of the Last Two Centuries"

Factual Part:
The Chronicle of Higher Ed ran a short blurb pulled from Human Events Online (a "national conservative weekly," as they state on their website). This conservative publication asked a panel of conservative scholars to name the 10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries. The list is at http://humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591

Reaction Part:
Of course I disagree with the list -- I disagree with the entire premise, which smacks of censorship. I will defend till the end the right of conservative loonies like these to print their ideas, but this list seems like it's headed down the same slippery slope the Kansas Public Schools are going down. Okay, so back to the list. Despite my distaste for lists of this kind, The Communist Manifesto was no big surprise, nor was Quotations from Chairman Mao. I could also see how this panel would get their knickers in knots over philosophical tracts that question the black/white, literal-translation-of-the-Bible, generally intolerant kind of Christianity that today's self-titles "conservatives" tend to subscribe to (Comte's The Course of Positive Philosophy and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil both made the list).

Rant Part:
But, what floored me was the inclusion of John Dewey's Democracy and Education!!!!!!! The blurb in the Chronicle lists one justification per book from the panel of "conservative scholars." Here's the big threat that Dewey poses: "'His views had great influence on the direction of American education--particularly in public schools--and helped nurture the Clinton generation." What!?! I said. John Dewey is so innocuous, really. What possible justification could they have (not that I give any credence to this list at all, but curiosity got the better of me, so I went to the Human Events website to read the full blurb). The big problem with Dewey, according to Human Events Online, is that he recommends that school stop "focus[ing] on traditional character development" and instead recommend that teachers foster an environment where students engage in "'thinking' skills" as opposed to rote memorization of facts to be spewed out on test day then promptly forgotten. Dewey proposed that educators create lessons that required students to do problems solving, using critical thinking and hands-on experiments (like growing a plant in the classroom window to see how photosynthesis takes place instead of only reading about it in a textbook).

At any rate, I guess these conservatives are scared that American students will learn to think for themselves and see right through the malarky of the Right Wing!

Rant over, please comment : )

Gotta Start Somewhere . . .

With much trepidation regarding the reaction of my *imagined* enormous audience, I post my first entry to my blog. This is more or less a test and practice so I can tell my students what the hell to do when I require them to set up blogs.

I enjoy reading witty and informative blogs, so I hope to create one that I would actually like to read.

Wish me luck!