10-15-2016, 10:47 AM
I think Giroux has an idealistic notion of what schools "used to be like" that borders on fantasy. Sure, the trend of recent years of making schools into something like prisons is a complete abomination, but that mythical time when schools were about open-minded learning and imagination never existed. The American system of public schools was strongly influenced by the Prussian system and has always been just as about creating a compliant and reflexively nationalistic citizenry ready to be docile wage-slaves in the factories as it is about educating kids.
And adults have come to accept this as normal. Look at the opposition to "New Math" in the 70s and 80s and the opposition to Common Core, today. Both were about showing kids the principles behind what they are learning rather than learning by simple rote memorization. But parents flipped their shit because it is "not how they learned it".
I have learned far more from reading non-fiction on my own time than I ever learned at school.
And adults have come to accept this as normal. Look at the opposition to "New Math" in the 70s and 80s and the opposition to Common Core, today. Both were about showing kids the principles behind what they are learning rather than learning by simple rote memorization. But parents flipped their shit because it is "not how they learned it".
I have learned far more from reading non-fiction on my own time than I ever learned at school.
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