Thank you for telling us about Hinton Helper and how his book showed that the slavery oligarchy’s actions only benefited the plantation owners, not the slave or common man. It seems that the play book of the top 1% hasn’t changed in 150 degrees—work to maintain power by convincing the working class to fight among themselves.
Thank you for telling us about Hinton Helper and how his book showed that the slavery oligarchy’s actions only benefited the plantation owners, not the slave or common man. It seems that the play book of the top 1% hasn’t changed in 150 degrees—work to maintain power by convincing the working class to fight among themselves.
Biden is smart to change part of the Democrat playbook—rather than letting jobs go overseas unfettered and adding to the social safety net to aid those whose jobs have disappeared, he’s proposed legislation to create well-paying jobs here. He’s fighting the problem at the beginning, not the end.
This Letter was as an ode to America, an ode to spring in America, an ode to the American people's good sense to take the road to democracy, and an ode to Joe Biden, our President, who has been paving the way. Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson, and to this assembly of fine, caring Americans who believe in freedom, equality, justice and solidarity. Thank you, Mary Hart, for also ringing democracy's bell this morning.
Yes, I agree. I don't know about everyone else but I do not want to move backward to an ante-bellum Southern economic style which is where we are going with the huge divide in wealth in this country. I am thanking Heather for once again giving us the historical perspective about what is going on now and how it correlates to what was going on then.
There's so much history that has not been taught in schools. As time passes, there's more history to teach, but no more time in which to do it. In my college freshman history class, Reconstruction -the present, my instructor got bogged down in Reconstruction (his area of specialty) and we stayed there for 3 months. His comment about the present was to give that day's date. Students get taught American mythology; factual events might be too upsetting because the ways in which the rich have mistreated the poor are horrendous.
I went to school in the American Education of the 50s and that was not a high point in Education!
American Education was scrambling to find teachers and classrooms for the huge influx of us Boomers. We attended elementary school in buildings that had been condemned but patched up while new buildings were being built. We were given teachers who should have been retired; they may have had years of experience, but no actual education in education. The rest were kids who had graduated from college but were not teaching the subjects they had majored in.
No. The myth of quality education in the 1950s is of a piece with all the other myths about the 1950s: it was a great time if you were a WASP man born with a silver spoon.
I went to a poor public school in much the situation you describe, and had teachers who had liberal arts degrees or normal school degrees and knew their subjects. Learned in 1952 as a college freshman, that the 25% of SAT takers with the lowest scores were majoring in Education, so vowed never to take an education course, taught successfully in universities using what I remembered of my best teachers. Although I support public schools and public school teachers, nothing has led me to believe that education courses will make a teacher of anyone who doesn’t love the subject or subjects that person is teaching. I’m sorry that you were a victim of poor teaching.
The NC school I knew (UNC-CH) back in the day when NC was as purple as anywhere and the university was “a hotbed of liberals” according to some, and faculty processions (do they exist any more) showed a lot of Harvard red (which stood out so much that I had trouble learning other hoods), I cannot imagine being taught mythology except in Greek or comp lit class. (I read in The New Yorker about Art Pope, “friend of Kochs” taking over NC education, then saw “Starving the Beast” and the unseating of the UNC president.)
NC woman here who grew up in the “liberal” bastion of Asheville and who went on to marry two UNC grads(different times obviously). Both of my husbands were huge UNC sports fans and I just loved the university and all it offered. As a consequence, I paid attention to what was going on in the university system as a whole but how education was being funded and post integration, messed with by Raleigh as time passed. Both of my boys went to UNC schools but eventually dropped out when they realized they could do better with an education of a different kind and have both succeeded in their chosen fields of tech. In my advanced years, I’ve decided that formal education is wasted on the young and it seems to me that by getting out into this world, meeting others and working can one eventually gain a better understanding of the world they are living in. Politics can always screw up a good thing.
As a scholar with a long view of history I’m not certain how one can swim intelligently in this world without a broad understanding of what preceded it. Tech is only one aspect of the complexities we live in. I too follow UNC sports and am horrified at the influence of Art Pope, friend of Kochs’ on NC universities, which have become primarily job training schools instead of places where liberal arts flourish.
No, education courses will not make a teacher out of anyone who doesn't feel called to be a teacher. Yes, the very best teachers are the ones who feel called to teach. Why else would someone get a degree to take a low paying job where you are disrespected?
It’s time to pay teachers! My husband was not in favor of teachers’ unions. After his death I learned from his best friend that, before I knew him, he had formed the first teachers’ union in the high school where he was choral director. I had to laugh because it was so like him to try to solve problems whenever and wherever he could.
“….. work to maintain power by convincing the working class to fight among themselves.”
yup and unfortunately their propaganda has worked quite well to achieve this.
How do we “un-dupe” those who have been duped to see their fellow working class brothers and sisters are not the enemy, not the source of their ire? I wish there were a simple answer…
Thank you for telling us about Hinton Helper and how his book showed that the slavery oligarchy’s actions only benefited the plantation owners, not the slave or common man. It seems that the play book of the top 1% hasn’t changed in 150 degrees—work to maintain power by convincing the working class to fight among themselves.
Biden is smart to change part of the Democrat playbook—rather than letting jobs go overseas unfettered and adding to the social safety net to aid those whose jobs have disappeared, he’s proposed legislation to create well-paying jobs here. He’s fighting the problem at the beginning, not the end.
This Letter was as an ode to America, an ode to spring in America, an ode to the American people's good sense to take the road to democracy, and an ode to Joe Biden, our President, who has been paving the way. Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson, and to this assembly of fine, caring Americans who believe in freedom, equality, justice and solidarity. Thank you, Mary Hart, for also ringing democracy's bell this morning.
Well said, Fern; it is excellent prose.
Yes, I agree. I don't know about everyone else but I do not want to move backward to an ante-bellum Southern economic style which is where we are going with the huge divide in wealth in this country. I am thanking Heather for once again giving us the historical perspective about what is going on now and how it correlates to what was going on then.
It’s a slow slog, made slower by the opposition and interference of the greedy bastards and the worshippers of idols with clay feet…
Why haven’t all of US heard about Hinton Helper in history class?
There's so much history that has not been taught in schools. As time passes, there's more history to teach, but no more time in which to do it. In my college freshman history class, Reconstruction -the present, my instructor got bogged down in Reconstruction (his area of specialty) and we stayed there for 3 months. His comment about the present was to give that day's date. Students get taught American mythology; factual events might be too upsetting because the ways in which the rich have mistreated the poor are horrendous.
Thank you for this comment. Trump would be impossible without the downward slide of American education since the 1950's.
I went to school in the American Education of the 50s and that was not a high point in Education!
American Education was scrambling to find teachers and classrooms for the huge influx of us Boomers. We attended elementary school in buildings that had been condemned but patched up while new buildings were being built. We were given teachers who should have been retired; they may have had years of experience, but no actual education in education. The rest were kids who had graduated from college but were not teaching the subjects they had majored in.
No. The myth of quality education in the 1950s is of a piece with all the other myths about the 1950s: it was a great time if you were a WASP man born with a silver spoon.
I went to a poor public school in much the situation you describe, and had teachers who had liberal arts degrees or normal school degrees and knew their subjects. Learned in 1952 as a college freshman, that the 25% of SAT takers with the lowest scores were majoring in Education, so vowed never to take an education course, taught successfully in universities using what I remembered of my best teachers. Although I support public schools and public school teachers, nothing has led me to believe that education courses will make a teacher of anyone who doesn’t love the subject or subjects that person is teaching. I’m sorry that you were a victim of poor teaching.
The NC school I knew (UNC-CH) back in the day when NC was as purple as anywhere and the university was “a hotbed of liberals” according to some, and faculty processions (do they exist any more) showed a lot of Harvard red (which stood out so much that I had trouble learning other hoods), I cannot imagine being taught mythology except in Greek or comp lit class. (I read in The New Yorker about Art Pope, “friend of Kochs” taking over NC education, then saw “Starving the Beast” and the unseating of the UNC president.)
NC woman here who grew up in the “liberal” bastion of Asheville and who went on to marry two UNC grads(different times obviously). Both of my husbands were huge UNC sports fans and I just loved the university and all it offered. As a consequence, I paid attention to what was going on in the university system as a whole but how education was being funded and post integration, messed with by Raleigh as time passed. Both of my boys went to UNC schools but eventually dropped out when they realized they could do better with an education of a different kind and have both succeeded in their chosen fields of tech. In my advanced years, I’ve decided that formal education is wasted on the young and it seems to me that by getting out into this world, meeting others and working can one eventually gain a better understanding of the world they are living in. Politics can always screw up a good thing.
As a scholar with a long view of history I’m not certain how one can swim intelligently in this world without a broad understanding of what preceded it. Tech is only one aspect of the complexities we live in. I too follow UNC sports and am horrified at the influence of Art Pope, friend of Kochs’ on NC universities, which have become primarily job training schools instead of places where liberal arts flourish.
What the republican legislature has done since their takeover in 2010 is nothing short of criminal.
Same here. Entered 1965, one of very few women at that “liberal” place. My greater family was appalled.
Haven’t checked the proportion of women lately, but when I was there most of us were housed in three dorms.
No, education courses will not make a teacher out of anyone who doesn't feel called to be a teacher. Yes, the very best teachers are the ones who feel called to teach. Why else would someone get a degree to take a low paying job where you are disrespected?
It’s time to pay teachers! My husband was not in favor of teachers’ unions. After his death I learned from his best friend that, before I knew him, he had formed the first teachers’ union in the high school where he was choral director. I had to laugh because it was so like him to try to solve problems whenever and wherever he could.
Seriously, I never had even heard of that book.
“….. work to maintain power by convincing the working class to fight among themselves.”
yup and unfortunately their propaganda has worked quite well to achieve this.
How do we “un-dupe” those who have been duped to see their fellow working class brothers and sisters are not the enemy, not the source of their ire? I wish there were a simple answer…