Friday, March 23, 2007

"Skewed Perspective"




Chilling news for "social justice" education professors:

LONGMONT — Humans don’t cause global warming, a jury of sixth graders at Trail Ridge Middle School concluded Thursday after hearing opposing arguments from their peers.

“They’re pretty young for this kind of thinking. They did great,” paleontology teacher Ken Poppe said after the 40-minute “trial” in his classroom.


This kind of open democratic open exchange of ideas is taboo to education professors like "anti-anti social justice" (and educational jargon expert) Dan Butin. His education philosophy, like most other "social justice" professors', is that students should only learn from one perspective, one that fosters a socialist utopia in which the past sins of Western Civilization are erased and atoned for by brave young teachers fresh from Social Foundations programs.

The father of this educational philosophy was Paulo Friere who stated:

"What I want to know is whether it's possible to teach biology without discussing social conditions, you see. Is it possible to discuss, to study the phenomenon of life without discussing exploitation, domination, freedom, democracy, and so on. I think that it's impossible. . ."

In other words, subject matter is only taught if it is to further "social justice." Scientific facts are suppressed if students will not think in "socially correct" terms. True history is not taught or misrepresented to support a failed socialist ideology. The canon of great Western literature is replaced by insipid PC feminist and multicultural pap.

Finally, teachers in Social Foundations programs are given only the Left-wing perspective on the value of teaching. The education scholar David Steiner has examined the syllabi at Social Foundations classes at the most prestigious Colleges of Education and proves that "diversity" of perspective is nowhere to be found. In the same article, he undermines and exposes the agenda of Dan Butin and other "social justice" professors.

3 comments:

Dan W. Butin said...

Your ignorance of the facts is really stunning. I might suggest you actually read some of my work before you criticize it. Or is that too much to ask given that your argument is that students should be exposed to more than one side of the story. Here is my article and subsequent discussion with David Steiner: http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=11349. And "anti-anti-social justice", since I'm sure you have no clue, is a standard theoretical move that I borrowed from Clifford Geertz. I can send you the article if you so want. I am probably not one of the first names that comes to mind when most scholars think of social justice educators, in part because my work is oftentimes critical of such a perspective. Again, I'd be happy to send you some of my work. Your citation of my name comes, it looks like, directly from David Steiner's attack. To do so is to really miss the boat about what "social justice" means. Finally, to take up the title of "social foundations of education" for your blog is a disgrace given the dedicated and intelligent individuals who work within this field.

Dan W. Butin said...

John,

I'd be very careful, by the way, about ad hominem arguments. It only took a minute on the web to figure out that your first name is John and then another minute to remember that you actually took one of my classes at UVA.

Gabe said...

Dan-

Bernadette's program was very well-balanced with a diversity of perspectives, which is very rare for Social Foundations.

David Steiner, though, has proven this rarity in his study of 16 prestigious Social Foundations programs. Only two syllabi mentioned E.D. Hirsch, Jr and one Diane Ravitch, both giants in the field of Social Foundations. You yourself in the article lamented any balance in social or political perspective because you claim balance prevents "deeper analysis." Your educational philosophy is definitely that of Paulo Freire.

I'm using my Catholic name on this blog.