Hopefully, readers keep
in mind the positive points this blogger shared in the last posting concerning
the critical theory/pedagogy construct while he expresses his misgivings with
that view. To place what is coming into some
context, here is a short anecdote – it highlights what is wrong with basic
Marxian notions which one finds at the base of critical theory.
Surely Marxian advocates will find fault with this story’s
application to their ideas and ideals, but the blogger believes that the story
is relevant. It harkens to a situation with
which his family members lived – it’s a true story. He regularly visited their condo unit in
Miami. He was familiar with the goings-on
of their situation in the condo. One of
his relatives, a fairly bright young man, held vibrant leftist ideas and
strongly believed that capitalism was on its last legs.
Readers should not consider him, the relative, as unpatriotic,
but he surely wasn’t an NRA-MAGA type of person. He didn’t seek or even wish for a violent
overthrow of the system or anything resembling that happening, but he did judge
prevailing political and economic conditions as basically leading to bankruptcy
and doom. He was an educated young man
who had faced various challenges – a hard luck story.
The unit these relatives lived in was not in any way luxurious,
but given their income, the monthly maintenance fees were a bit high – the
complex has a swimming pool (that these relatives never used). Included in the fees was a shared water cost item;
that is, the bill to pay the water usage was shared by all of the apartments
equally.
The apartments themselves were modest – three bedrooms, one
a master suite which had its own bathroom along with another bathroom
accessible through a short hallway. This
story is about the master bathroom where a significant leak in the sink’s
faucet developed. One can estimate that the
leak was responsible for wasting several gallons of water per day. When this blogger visited, he would ask if
anything had been done to fix the leak and the answer was always no.
This situation lasted for months and unfortunately, one day
graduated from a leak to an ample flow, so much so that it flooded the
apartment and leaked into the unit below my relatives’ fourth-floor unit. Of course, this demanded that these relatives
fix the problem. The situation prompted
this blogger to tell his young relative that this is why pure socialism won’t
work – unless the system ascribes personal responsibility to each person or
party, then needed actions will not be performed – be it in fixing a leak or
any other costly problem.
Without personal responsibility for upkeep, maintenance,
and economic development of assets, then no one is apt to take on those
responsibilities. Economists call such costs
as external costs. When some chore is
everyone’s responsibility, it, in effect, becomes no one’s responsibility. Or stated in other terms, personal
accountability is essential in any demanding situation be it in teamwork
settings or in the upkeep of some assets, such as water faucets in condo units.
Keeping people accountable turns out to be essential when it
comes to shared living or work conditions.
When costs are shared – be they labor, money, or the wear and tear on
some asset – it is difficult to bear those costs and they are easily put off or
entirely neglected. Not only do costs
need to be perceived as personal, but they also need to be seen as immediate
before people are willing to make the investment to fix or change whatever
needs changing.
And this even affects how people react to health challenges. When it comes to protecting or maintaining people’s
most precious asset – their lives – they readily put off what needs to be done to
maintain healthy states of being – e.g., in many cases of obesity or in not
maintaining a good exercise routine.
Surely, these relatives
did not foresee the ensuing flooding taking place, but my young relative – the
Marxist – could understand that by not fixing the leak, he and the rest of that
household were wasting an asset to the detriment of the collective, all those
residents in the building who were sharing the cost of water usage.
As the facts above
indicate, the problem was not addressed until it was personally felt and in
full force. With that as context, this
blogger will begin to describe and explain what he sees is wrong with critical
pedagogy. He does not question the honesty,
sincerity, or even the patriotism of those who harbor the attributes of this
construct – he even agrees with several of its elements. But that doesn’t minimize how serious he
believes the shortcomings are.
And by the by, while he
would never insist someone agree with something because everyone feels or
believes in that way, he would suggest that that fact should be
considered. If the collective wisdom of
the American people recurringly finds this construct wanting – even feeling
animosity toward it – one should be wary of its validity or its prudence. Yet, as this blogger has stated elsewhere, a
lot of the hostility, if not disregard, toward Marxian ideas has been fueled by
well-orchestrated propaganda efforts by the business community.
And as for the
construct’s effect on civics’ curricular choices, Cleo H. Cherryholmes wrote, “it
has never been a major theme in social education.”[1] Yes, currently these ideas have captured some
attention in the national media as conservative jurisdictions have proposed or
implemented policy to ban its ideas from the classroom[2]
– a move that is generating a good deal of controversy. In this last regard, the upcoming months
might prove to be interesting. Watch
Florida, for example.
[1] Cleo H. Cherryholmes, “Critical Pedagogy
and Social Education.” in Handbook on
Teaching Social Issues: NCSS Bulletin 93, eds. Ronald W. Evans and David Warren Saxe (Washington, DC:
National Council of the Social Studies, 1996), 75-80, 75.
[2] See for example, Zach Goldberg and Eric Kaufmann,
“Yes, Critical Race Theory Is Being Taught in Schools,” City Journal
(October 22, 2022), accessed May 13, 2023, https://www.city-journal.org/article/yes-critical-race-theory-is-being-taught-in-schools.
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