Uneducated
Graduates
By David Truskoff
10 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
I
am often amazed at how some people with impressive academic credits
can be so stupid when it comes to the most important subjects that affect
their very lives? Cindy Sheehan described the out of touch, right wing
spokes person William Kristol this way," By all accounts, Mr. Kristol
is a brilliant man, who like his father before him, uses his brilliance
for destruction. He is a shameless supporter of a failed, murderous,
and miserable strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan and one of the "mushroom
cloud" crowd. One thing Mr. William Kristol is not, is a combat
vet."
I think she gives Kristol
too much credit. Does she believe he is brilliant because he graduated
from Harvard? George Bush graduated from Harvard, although I am yet
to hear any Harvard folks brag about it. I never equated academic credentials
with character or smarts and certainly not with moral structure.
All during the sixties the
Kristol types baffled me. They claim to be patriotic and they are not.
Patriots stand up for what they believe is in the best interest of their
country not the best interests of a chosen few, or the best interests
of a foreign state. They claim to be knowledgeable and they are not.
One day I debated a representative from then Senator Tom Dodd’s
office. (Chris Dodd’s father who was later censured by the congress)
Dodd was a Vietnam War hawk. It soon became obvious to the audience
that the man didn’t know much about the history or the oppression
of the people of South East Asia nor did he know much about the political
situation. I can remember him saying things like, "The people of
Southeast Asia will be so grateful to us for bringing them democracy."
Cindy also reports,"
On February 20, 2003, Mr. Kristol incredibly gushed: "If we free
the people of Iraq, we will be respected in the Arab world."
It is De’JA vu all over again as Yogi Berra said. What Arab world
is he talking about? After the murder and mayhem we have brought the
people of the region it will be a long time in hell before we can gain
any respect there.
Acadamia is shuddering and
shaking like the empire.
Matthew Abraham said on September
5th, 2007 " I am an untenured, assistant professor at DePaul University
in Chicago, where Norman G. Finkelstein, the most heroic critic of U.S.
and Israeli policy in Palestine ever to set foot in the U.S. academy,
was denied tenure over nearly three months ago. I was, and am, deeply
saddened that DePaul University, the institution where I have chosen
to make a career, has so effectively undermined its social justice mission
in a series of actions that have put us, as a faculty body, in grave
peril.
By capitulating to the threats,
antics, and pressures of Alan Dershowitz, the Israel Lobby, and its
numerous affiliates, DePaul has compromised something so integral to
an educational institution’s mission, that once so compromised,
it is impossible to regain. That something is institutional autonomy.
An institution’s ability to withstand outside pressure, and economic
coercion — which can often be tantamount to blackmail —
is a must in an age of corporate scandal, sleazy deal making, and political
cover-ups. The general public used to look to the academy for leadership,
vision"
Noam Chomsky of MIT says, "[Dershowitz] launched a jihad against
Norman Finkelstein simply to try and vilify and defame in the hope that
maybe what he is writing will disappear."
Yes, this is the same Harvard
Professor Dershowitz that not only defended the Pollards who were found
guilty of spying and giving US secretes to Israel, but also campaigned
for their release. Obviously His country did not come first.
How can anyone call themselves
a patriot when they write junk yard dog attack letters to the dean of
a school asking them to refuse tenure to a respected professor simply
because he does not like the professor’s writings? He made the
professor so uncomfortable that he resigned. Dershowitz also has campaigned
to keep others, who may say anything, negative about Israel from speaking
at schools. He is Jewish and as such how can he not realize that he
is the same as one of the brown shirt book burners?
The influence all of this
has on students, in particular the Hillel members on campus must be
enormous. If you do not like what someone says, try and get him or her
fired. Dershawitz is a main contributor to the Divisiveness that leads
to the isolation of many students on campuses. Extra security is needed
when incidents like the showing of the very offensive Muslim Cartoons
were shown on campuses. Thousands of Muslims worldwide protested both
on and off the college campuses. One wonders who put them up to it on
the Harvard campus.
More divisiveness is just
what is not needed as we start this new school year.
The entire US education system
is under duress. The "No child left behind act" has further
divided the system. --Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said that
"the U.S. higher education system is the envy of the world but
primary and secondary schools are failing to adequately prepare students
for college." Mr. Gates sends his three children to private schools
and he himself is a college drop out. (Proving that the key to financial
success is a college degree is not always a fact.) One of the wealthiest
men in the world also said, "This nation has to do something very
challenging, which is to provide a strong education to almost every
student,"
It is true that if you are
one of the football elite in high school or a member of the new phenomenon
the girls basketball elite and a member of a minority group chances
are good that you can go on to college. The chances are also good that
you may join the ranks of America’s uneducated graduates. I have
had conversations with students at some of America’s most prestigious
citadels of higher learning and was amazed that they maintain such high
averages in their masters of business administration classes and can
not tell you anything about what really makes their government run.
As the rich in America get
richer and the poor get poorer US News and World Reports published these
figures. "An academic year at a typical public university is $16,400:
$5,836 for tuition and fees, almost $7,000 for room and board, and an
additional $3,500 or so for books, travel, and entertainment, If prices
keep rising at the current rate, (6%per year) students who don't receive
any grants will most likely pay more than $115,000 to reach graduation
day."
In 2005 Act (The ACT test
assesses high school students' general educational development and their
ability to complete college-level work) reported half of last year's
high school graduates did not have the reading skills they needed for
college-level science and math courses. The report, based on scores
of the 2005 high school graduates who took the exam, some 1.2 million
students in all, also found that fewer than one in four met the college-readiness
benchmarks in all four subjects tested: reading comprehension, English,
math and science.
The 2007 report was glowing,
well sorta, "Scores have trended upward for nearly all racial/ethnic
groups since 2003. All groups with the exception of African American
graduates posted an increase on their ACT composite score this year
compared to last, with Asian American students showing a sizable gain
of 0.3 point. Scores for African American students this year are 0.1
point higher than in 2003, but have fluctuated slightly in the intervening
years, dropping 0.1 point this year compared to last year."
With the reorganization of
the militant Students for a Democratic Society forming on many college
campuses across the nation and the huge demonstration against the war
Planned for Washington DC September 16, 2007 all taking place in a divided
society and a divided student body I fear for our young people.
College campuses are just
an extension of our society. The anger and alienation splitting racial
and ethnic groups amid the fear and anxiety created by the Bush administration,
with the help of the Dershewitz types, can soon lead to the violent
explosion that will further accelerate the crumbling of the empire.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.