Jenna Robinson’s latest Martin Center column highlights a failure of American education.
America’s system of education has failed in one of its most important goals: forming future generations of American citizens.
This is particularly true in higher education, where students are encouraged to become “global citizens” instead of Americans. At many of our institutions of higher learning, character education has been replaced by moral relativism at the same time that rigorous academic standards have given way to a mentality of “college for all.”
We are seeing the results of our education deficit now, as rioters tear down statues that commemorate not only the former Confederacy, but America’s founding fathers, abolitionists, and former presidents.
In a new book from Templeton Press, 20 conservative thinkers articulate their vision for halting this trend. How to Educate an American: The Conservative Vision for Tomorrow’s Schools focuses mostly on K-12 education. The entire book, edited by Michael J. Petrilli and Chester E. Finn, Jr., is a must-read for education reformers—even those who work most closely with colleges and universities.
Its four sections address “History, Civics, and Citizenship;” “Character, Purpose, and Striving;” “Schools, Family, and Society;” and “Renewing the Conservative Education Agenda.” According to the publisher, the book is targeted at anyone who wants to teach future generations to “preserve the country’s heritage, embody its universal ethic, and pursue its founding ideals.”
A chapter by Robert P. George, entitled “What Causes—and What Might Cure—Illiberalism and Groupthink in Education?” focuses on higher education’s role in creating our current predicament. …
… George begins by acknowledging that the politicization of the academy is a “grave threat” to universities’ “three fundamental purposes: the pursuit, preservation, and transmission of knowledge.” Politicization, he says, manifests itself in disinvitations and shout-downs of campus speakers, the failure of schools to host heterodox speakers at all, and the absence of opportunities for students to engage with “competing perspectives and points of view.”