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Teaching Against Idiocy
Name
Professor
Course Date
Teaching Against Idiocy
Idiocy has not just plagued our time but was also a problem for ancient Greece, although the meaning might have changed over time. The author explores the challenge that democratic societies encounter in developing public-minded citizens. He argues that schools are in the best position to succeed in finding the root of idiocy. He also continues to compare schools to “village squares, cities, crossroads, meeting places, community centers, marketplaces,” since today schools are growing large and turning into small cities (Parker).
While contemplating the root of the term “idiocy,” the author explores the problems faced by democratic societies in the development of citizens that are mindful of the public. Schools today are working to create democratic environments in fulfilling their obligation to create public citizens. In addition to his argument on schools being suited to deal with this task, he provides suggestions on how best to improve these efforts and archive much success.
The role of schools in introducing children to different situations cannot be undermined. Integration allows children to meet other children from various backgrounds. The various types of tasks presented to these kids allow them to think for themselves. However, the idea that school does this solely is misplaced because the so-called idiots still go through these systems, which indicates that it is something beyond school that they lack.
If my understanding is correct, this description of Mr. Parker correlates with the high school I went to that was like a miniature college campus. In this, institutions are where children should learn how to deal with life. He thinks that schools are where children are made into adults or at least given the ability to deal with life and to become independent. He creates a reference to his school as having the most useful resources that are beneficial for children.
I grew up in a home that is well-grounded, family-oriented, which I believe has equipped me with the value of rationalizing, being compassionate, considerate, understating, and a good listener, with the latter being the foundation of all these other qualities. His idea is that school nature children into “puberty,” which is a term I believe he is using metaphorically. It is true that school probably play a crucial role in engaging children into various issues that define an environment outside the comfort of a home, but I am not sure whether diversity and problems are the most essential tools for a child to develop and become naturally capable of “growing up and thinking for themselves.” Instead of tossing them into a scenario like a simulation or a practical exercise, it is important to first teach a child right from wrong. A well-rounded person that is “democratic” is a result of guidance from the most important mentors the world has offered them, and that is their parents.
Before I joined the school and started interacting with various children from diverse races and ethnicities, my dad had taught given me reasons as to why our skin tone did not make us different. I was really curious because I did not know why God could create people who differ in terms of appearance and so I had questions. My dad went as far as bringing me to work where I was able to interact with people from different races because my neighborhood was not that diverse. So when I got to school, I was the only child that was friends with all minorities at my school. I knew what it meant to be “democratic” before I was five years of age.
Why this effort requires an all hand on deck approach is its complexity. Democratic citizens do not just come from nowhere to perfect the principles of tolerance, the need to question unmeasured power for the majority, the separation of state from the church, impartial justice, or the distinction between liberty and license. Children are not born with the natural disposition to agree with beliefs and cultures that are not familiar or with the ability to deliberate on public policy with different minded people. Rather they are molded by society, presented with moral and intellectual abilities in the process, virtues that are extremely hard to win.
There are many situations that can be presented to a child where a decision or a reaction is required depending on what they have learnt. Who should prepare the prior for these decisions one might as. The answer is parents, relatives, the community, and teachers. The only way a child can mature is from every person’s input and rationalization. Leaving such a task for school is illogical because of the overwhelming nature of school work and the lack of specific concentration of teachers on individual children. In this case, the “school should not be the center of attention. It is what the child learns from a collective unit that makes them “Democratic” and goes a long way in helping them avoid idiotic characteristics.
Works Cited
Parker, Walter C. “Teaching against idiocy.” Phi Delta Kappan 86.5 (2005): 344-351.
Restricted view of Human Reason.
Name
Professor
Course
DateChapter 7
Criticism of the Rational Model
Restricted view of Human Reason.
The rational model specifically confines to the human reason view. Ramos (1981) in his book, “the new science of organizations” gives a connection between growth of market economy and modern concept of instrumental rationality. The rational model leaves little space for self actualization and mostly when it happens it becomes as a surprise. Politics administration dichotomy links to rational model’s distinction of means and ends. The rational model advocates for participation in societies when it comes to societal values and decisions although rationale sometimes ignores the human life aspects of intuition and emotion. Also, the model tends not to focus on the moral context within which an action can occur.
Incomplete understanding of knowledge acquisition.
The rational model assumes a single way in which absolute knowledge is accessed and that is through spontaneous application of positive scientific methods to technical and social relations in an organization. A positive science model has basic tenets that must be thoroughly applied. The tenets guide an individual to come with science oriented solutions. However, limitations of positive science model should be as well taken into consideration. A limitation such as the fact that human behaviour varies due to new information, human subjective experiences, and the scientist own objectivity in the areas of study.
Inadequate link between theory and practice.
The gap between academics and practitioners, theory and practise can be explained as ways individuals want their experiences to be important in influencing disciplines and giving explanations on phenomenon. However, the gap between theory and practice widens in an organizations in the sense that sometimes individuals consider one way of acquiring knowledge, that is through jargon which leads to communication breakdown and not appreciating other people’s way of understanding knowledge. The rationale model seeks to objectify human experience and at the same time it comments on experience therefore, it deviates from its course.
The Inspiration of the Public Service and the Restoration of Democratic Citizenship
The development of the official race and ethnicity groups is nothing ‘natural’ according to Yanow but an American contemporary race ethnic discourse. Although, this is also a governmental policy that seeks to identify and give a sense of identification to groups. The Queer theory that originates from gender and feminism studies builds itself from the experiences of people who break societal norms.
The Queer theory rejects the advances of ‘normality’ that may have been in existence in the society. Denhardt and Denhardt (2007) in their ‘new public services note that it draws its inspiration from; alternative approaches to management and organizational design and democratic political theory. The latter; democratic political theory is mostly used model. Whereby, the government and the citizens have roles to play. For instance the government provides for the rights and enforces these rights in order to protect its citizens and the citizens in return exercise their rights through voting to choose leaders that meet their personal ideologies and respect other people’s rights. An individual in this case is given the rights to act on behalf on the rest of the society through the individual self interests to the general good interests of the citizens. This kind of arrangement is referred to new public management.
Moreover, democratic citizenship allows for the idea that an individual is more active in self government. Citizens should shelf personal interests and pursue general and public interests that transcend them. This obviously requires much more from an individual therefore; individuals should have knowledge on public affairs and a sense of belonging. For citizens to share self rule they should have a civic virtues that they as a community embrace. To restore a new public service and democratic order there should be systems in place that prepare individuals at basic levels in order for them to have stronger political systems for the people.
The “First Wave” of Feminism
Name
Professor
Course
Date The “First Wave” of Feminism
The first wave of the women’s rights movement began with the formation of a women’s rights movement. The movement, however, split due to differences over the issue of suffrage of African American men. This is when Susan B. Anthony formed the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1869. Susan B. Anthony was the president of the NWSA and worked tirelessly for the right of women to vote. Her work is was what paved way for the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 which allowed women to vote. In honor of her work, the Amendment was named the “ Susan B. Anthony Amendment.” She also became the first woman to have her face minted on a coin from the national mint (History.com Editors).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton like Anthony was a fierce abolitionist, an advocate for human rights and the founding mother of woman’s rights movement. she came from a privileged family and made a resolve very early in her life to fight for the rights of women. She was a close associate of Susan B Anthony-and was stated to be the intelligence behind Anthony’s brawn- for half a century and supported her to win the rights of women to vote. She was instrumental in the formation of the First Women Rights Convention with the like of Marry Ann M’Clintock, Jane Hunt and Martha Coffin Wright (History.com Editors). She also contributed to the writing of the Declaration of Sentiments, which was liberation documented that imitated the model of the Declaration of Independence and outlined the rights that women should enjoy and compared the struggle of women to that of the founding fathers.
She and Susan B Anthony formed the Women’s National League that encouraged the enactment of the 13th Amendment and the abolition of slavery. However, contrary to the disagreement of fellow women activists, they lobbied against the 14th and 15th Amendment, which allowed black men the right to vote citing that these amendments had no sections that allowed women to vote. Stanton went on to advocate for liberal divorce laws, the liberty for won to reproduce at will as well as greater sexual liberty for women. This sentiments, however, made her marginalized as a voice for women reform. After diving from the Women’s Rights Movement, Anthony and Stanton formed the NWSA. Anthony, however, managed to reunite the women under the NWSA in 1890 (History.com Editors). Although like many others, Anthony and Stanton did not get to enjoy the right to vote, they were instrumental in the enactment of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote on August 18, 1920.
Victoria Woodhull is mostly remembered as the first woman to run for president of the United States. Woodhull was a progressive American reformer who fought for free love, championed mystical socialism, women suffrage, and the Greenback movement. She was an ardent speaker and delivered moving speeches. She delivered a speech before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives in 1871 that opened a way for her to join fellow women suffrage leaders that initially kept away from her due to her apparent off-putting newspaper and reputation (Encyclopedia Britannica). She was invited by Susan B. Anthony to the NWSA and soon emerged as a rival for the top position in the land.
Anna Julia Cooper was an author and educator that wrote one the most classic feminist text A Voice From the South by a Black Woman of the South. She was the daughter of a slave but overcame the obstacle to become a distinguished student and later an educator. She joined the club movement, which constituted educated middle-class women who made it their duty fellow African Americans that were less-privileged. During this period, Cooper became a renowned public speaker who addressed important functions such as the First Pan-African Conference in 1990.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a journalist that focused on the anti-lynching campaign and was an active justice reformer for African Americans. She began an anti-lynching campaign in 1892 after witnessing the lynching of her three friends (Encyclopedia Britannica). She later joined the National Afro-American Council and participated in the Niagara Movement and contributed to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She also founded Chicago’s Alpha Suffrage Club that is possibly the first woman suffrage group for black women.
All these women had one thing in common and shared in the sentiments of the speech delivered by Susan B. Anthony on American to vote. Susan gave the speech after she was arrested for casting a vote in the 1872 presidential elections. Although the United States was the land of the free and every individual was born with unalienable rights that even the state could not deny, women and people of color were exceptionally excluded from these rights. Anthony quoted the Preamble of the constitution that swore to protect the welfare of the people of the United States without specifying gender, color or origin (Anthony). She reiterates this statement citing that the preamble was representing the people, not the white male citizen but the citizens regardless of color and gender.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Echoed these sentiments in her speech dubbed The Destructive Male were called out the white-dominated government as disorganization in matters religion civilization and society. The male element had made society a reflection of him without an element of womanhood, there was violence everywhere, acquisition, selfishness and all the ills of a disorganized society (Stanton). She called for women enfranchisement, as a step towards the realization of a healthy government, and a strong prosperous nation.
The speeches of these four women called out the domination of the white male and the mockery of the principles that were set by the founding mothers. Cooper and Wells-Barnett connected the suffrage of black people to that of women. Both groups were considered unimportant and shared no significant in the male-dominated government. They all called for the organization of activists and the effort of the marginalized in the fight against this great imperialism.
Just like the sentiments in these speeches, women’s studies began as a response to prejudice against women and their exclusion in various aspects of academics and disciplines (Thompson). These speeches proclaimed action against the exclusion of women from major leadership positions, denial of self-liberties and the inferior rhetoric awarded by the male-dominated society. The exclusion of women in academics and the dismissal of their opinions from traditional academic disciplines was only a subset of the overall exclusion rhetoric that was being fought by these women in these speeches. Another connection between these speeches and women’s studies was that both the instigators of the curriculum and the speakers were active feminists.
Works Cited
Anthony, S. B. “Great Speeches Collection: Susan B. Anthony Speech – Women’s Right to Vote.” The History Place, 1873, www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm.
History.com Editors. “Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” HISTORY, 20 Nov. 2019, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/elizabeth-cady-stanton. Accessed 2 Feb. 2020.
—. “Susan B. Anthony.” HISTORY, 20 Nov. 2019, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/susan-b-anthony#section_2.
Encyclopedia Britannica. “Ida Bell Wells-Barnett | Biography & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 12 July 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Ida-B-Wells-Barnett. Accessed 2 Feb. 2020.
—. “Victoria Woodhull.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 19 Sept. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Victoria-Woodhull. Accessed 2 Feb. 2020.
Stanton, E. C. “Great Speeches Collection: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Speech – The Destructive Male.” The History Place, 1868, www.historyplace.com/speeches/stanton.htm.
Thompson, Jane. Learning liberation: Women’s response to men’s education. Routledge, 2017.