The Dogmas of American Education: A Panel Discussion • Part 3
Apr 4, 2022
01:21:17
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Quick takeaways
Thomas Sowell critiques six dogmas dominating American education, highlighting their negative effects on academic standards and ideological indoctrination.
The podcast episode explores the dangers of the self-esteem dogma in education, emphasizing the importance of individual accomplishment and realistic perspectives on love.
Deep dives
The Six Dogmas of American Education
In Chapter 4, Thomas Sowell identifies six widespread dogmas dominating American education: multicultural diversity, sensitivity, relevance, educating the whole person, role models, and self-esteem. Sowell critiques these dogmas, highlighting their negative effects on academic standards, ideological indoctrination, and the failure to prioritize academic learning. He emphasizes the lack of empirical evidence supporting these dogmas and warns against the politicization of education. The discussion among the panelists focuses on the problems created by these dogmas and how they affect student learning and academic outcomes.
The Fallacy of Multiculturalism and Diversity
The podcast episode discusses the fallacy of multiculturalism and diversity as a way of creating buy-in for certain political ideologies. It highlights how these concepts are used to create a two-tiered society where only those who embrace the political orthodoxy are respected. The episode also emphasizes how these ideas result in cultural stereotyping and division, rather than promoting unity and understanding. It questions the effectiveness of bilingual education and argues that the focus should be on teaching English proficiency rather than promoting cultural-centric programs.
The Dangers of Self-Esteem Dogma and Overemphasis on Love
The podcast episode explores the dangers of the self-esteem dogma in education, where teachers are encouraged to prioritize boosting self-esteem above academic performance. It argues that self-esteem should be based on individual accomplishments, rather than artificially inflated by external validation. Additionally, the episode discusses the misguided belief that love is the ultimate virtue and solution for all societal issues. It highlights the need for realistic and balanced perspectives on love, acknowledging that sacrifice and tough decisions may be necessary for the well-being of individuals and society.
NEW NEWS THAT'S NEWSWORTHY: Basic Books (Sowell's publisher) is teaming up with The Genius of Thomas Sowell Podcast to offer listeners a chance to win 4 Sowell books. Enter at SowellBooks.com for a chance to win!
In this episode, we discuss the educational dogmas presented by Thomas Sowell in Chapter 4 of his 1993 classic "Inside American Education."
In Episode 14 we listened to a 1993 interview with Thomas Sowell about the book. In Episode 15, I summarized the first 3 chapters of the book and interviewed elementary school teacher Ramona Bessinger about whether or not the observations made by Sowell match her 23 years experience as a teacher.
In this episode we discuss the 6 dogmas outlined by Sowell in Chapter 4: 1) Multicultural diversity 2) Sensitivity 3) Relevance 4) Educating the whole person 5) Role Models, and 6) Self esteem
We are joined by a panel of well known public school teachers:
• Ramona Bessinger: a 23 year veteran English teacher in Providence, RI. Twitter: @RamonaBessinger
• Frank McCormick: Frank has taught history for 10 years at Waukegan High School and Loyola Academy in Illinois. He is an outspoken critic of the critical social justice movement and expresses his views on his Youtube channel HERE and on his Substack HERE. Twitter: @CBHeresy
• Tony Kinnett: Tony was a public school science teacher in Indianapolis as well as a school administrator. He was fired from both of those positions for speaking out in opposition to an educational agenda which he feels is harmful to his students. He is also the founder of the “The Chalkboard Review” which is a website dedicated to featuring a diverse range of voices on all topics education related. Twitter: @TheTonus.
The listener statistics to the podcast can be found HERE. We will update these stats with each new episode released.
HERE'S the question I asked on the Alan Dershowitz podcast.
HERE'S the question I asked on the Dinesh D'Souza podcast.
In this episode, I mention the Los Angeles bilingual programs currently available. Here is a LINK to a complete listing of all these programs.
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