This is somewhat overstated, Michael. I never experienced a teacher or professor who took a position "to promote...notion[s]." Rather, those notions were what motivated them to seek the positions in the first place, a "calling." They were individuals who had a good sense of what it took to get students to think and feel for themselves, to pursue education as a life-goal and not something limited to their classes. They knew how to promote excellence in the Arnoldian sense, although their passion to do so undoubtedly found articulation, privately, in a great variety of social and political beliefs. You might also consider that no student is so dry and passive a sponge as to accept everything they hear without modification.
A+ for "effort and intent are equivalent to results," a disturbing and widely held notion. On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 11:47 AM, Michael Brady <[email protected]>wrote: > Or do you mean the 70s, when the 60s radicals began to get faculty > positions > in high schools and colleges and to promote the notion that "right" and > "wrong" answers are social constructs that only serve to sustain the > hegemony > of privilege? That preferences of grammatical forms and logical arguments > are > social discriminators that promote the racist subtext of society? That > effort > and intent are equivalent to results? That rote work in school is > conditioning > the drones for the assembly line? > -Lew Schwartz
