What Do We Have to Fear?
I am concerned about the state of our nation because of the heavy political manipulation at every turn. This is especially true with education.
In truth everyone wants children to have a good education. In some ways we have lost our direction because we have made education a means of employment and career. This has led students and families to assume that the importance and value of an education is to earn a high salary and to be upwardly mobile. In one sense this has always been a component of the educational system. In another sense – perhaps a more invaluable one – it should be a means to learn to understand the world around us and to think both critically and creatively. In these last elements we have lost ground.
The political intrusion into education has also become a problem. On the one hand we have political leaders who want to encourage students to remain in school and to excel at what they are learning. This is and can be a laudable effort. It can also be seen as a means of gaining political ground with parents and perhaps with future voters.
On the other hand we have a political force that is more concerned with keeping an opposing political leader’s message from being disseminated. The accusations and efforts to use fear and/or bias to keep a message out of the schools is probably doing more damage than anything that might be stated by a political leader in encouraging children to do well in school.
I am troubled as much by the message it transmits to the students: political leaders are evil. They are to be feared and to be silenced. And in the end, perhaps the message will be that one should not vote since that would mean having to deal with politics and leaders.
A friend of mine is afraid of our president and what he might do. I am less worried about what he or any other leader might do and much more concerned with what is being done. I am more worried about the unintended (?) consequences of the behavior we find in creating such conflict in the schools and classrooms.
