The problem in our schools is Critical Theory and I know the solution.

[RandomPoster]

Look at the hostile, overly confrontational environment in American classrooms fostered by Critical Theory. It incentivizes obnoxious behavior, mob mentality, and teaches hostility towards our nation's cultural history.

I will attempt to describe the cause of the problem and my proposed solution. The focus has shifted away from traditional enlightenment values to a radical "critique" of Western Civilization. Let's take a look at the prevailing philosophy among educators today.​

Critical Theory - (not to be confused with critical thinking of course) Created by the Frankfurt School cultural Marxists as well as various shrieking leftist radicals and hysterical feminists. The picture below as well as the videos above depict the environment in modern public schools that has resulted from this philosophy. Children are taught to defy authority in a loud, obnoxious, aggressive, irrational, and snot-mouthed manner as they "challenge the system" and "dig deeper to question historical meta-narratives", especially if the target of the attack is anything the left hates, such as capitalism, mythical white privilege, the patriarchy, etc.

Let's contrast that philosophy with something more productive.

Logical Positivism - Subjecting ideas to rigorous empirical testing using nothing except sensory feedback combined with mathematical and logical reasoning. It was created by Physicists, Mathematicians, and Linguists who also happened to be Philosophers. Think of the entire world as a gigantic truth table waiting to be broken down into smaller and smaller pieces and each piece waiting in turn to be analyzed and labelled either true or false.

Contrary to the commonly held misconception that Logical Positivism is obsolete as a Philosophy, most people would be very surprised to find that Logical Positivism has shown signs of resurfacing in the last place anyone would expect to find it, Computer Science. If Computer Scientists can work with Linguists, they can create the perfect language we need for communication. Computers and humans will eventually understand the same language and we will someday program in the same language we write with in daily life. Crucially, classroom issues will be discussed in a calm and rational manner and students will be taught to control their emotions so as to reduce the side effects of direct human interaction. Irrational children who can not be taught to control their emotions must be either brought to heel or removed from the classroom.

Imagine being able to ground every single classroom activity in a structurally sound foundation based entirely on verifiable facts, mathematical quantification, and logical analysis all expressed dispassionately in a rigidly defined, extremely precise, and completely unambiguous language. This has been the dream of educators for as long as anyone can remember. Could one imagine a more interesting, captivating, and immersive environment for learning? As for things that resist proper analysis, the solution is simple. They are by definition meaningless and have no place in classroom discussions.

Here is the second part of my proposed solution. In addition to completely defunding the U.S. Department of Education and Common Core, we should completely defund Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, Social Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Cultural Anthropology, Philosophy of Science, and Cultural Studies because they are toxic, divisive and destructive in addition to being meaningless. They are not about progress. Additionally, all the work in Philosophy is basically done now and it is a simple matter of tying up loose ends thanks to the work of the Logical Positivists. To be clear, Logical Positivism is not a philosophy of science, it is an all encompassing philosophy that can save our educational system.

 

[night_son]

Look at the hostile, overly confrontational environment in American classrooms fostered by Critical Theory. It incentivizes obnoxious behavior, mob mentality, and teaches hostility towards our nation's cultural history.

I will attempt to describe the cause of the problem and my proposed solution. The focus has shifted away from traditional enlightenment values to a radical "critique" of Western Civilization. Let's take a look at the prevailing philosophy among educators today.​

Critical Theory - (not to be confused with critical thinking of course) Created by the Frankfurt School cultural Marxists as well as various shrieking leftist radicals and hysterical feminists. The picture below as well as the videos above depict the environment in modern public schools that has resulted from this philosophy. Children are taught to defy authority in a loud, obnoxious, aggressive, irrational, and snot-mouthed manner as they "challenge the system" and "dig deeper to question historical meta-narratives", especially if the target of the attack is anything the left hates, such as capitalism, mythical white privilege, the patriarchy, etc.

Let's contrast that philosophy with something more productive.

Logical Positivism - Subjecting ideas to rigorous empirical testing using nothing except sensory feedback combined with mathematical and logical reasoning. It was created by Physicists, Mathematicians, and Linguists who also happened to be Philosophers. Think of the entire world as a gigantic truth table waiting to be broken down into smaller and smaller pieces and each piece waiting in turn to be analyzed and labelled either true or false.

Contrary to the commonly held misconception that Logical Positivism is obsolete as a Philosophy, most people would be very surprised to find that Logical Positivism has shown signs of resurfacing in the last place anyone would expect to find it, Computer Science. If Computer Scientists can work with Linguists, they can create the perfect language we need for communication. Computers and humans will eventually understand the same language and we may someday program in the same language we write with in daily life. Crucially, classroom issues will be discussed in a calm and rational manner and students will be taught to control their emotions so as to reduce the side effects of direct human interaction. Irrational children who can not be taught to control their emotions must be either brought to heel or removed from the classroom.

Imagine being able to ground every single classroom activity in a structurally sound foundation based entirely on verifiable facts, mathematical quantification, and logical analysis all expressed dispassionately in a rigidly defined, extremely precise, and completely unambiguous language. This has been the dream of educators for as long as anyone can remember. As for things that resist proper analysis, the solution is simple. They are by definition meaningless and have no place in classroom discussions.

Here is the second part of my proposed solution. In addition to completely defunding the U.S. Department of Education and Common Core, we should completely defund Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, Social Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Cultural Anthropology, Philosophy of Science, and Cultural Studies because they are toxic, divisive and destructive in addition to being meaningless. They are not about progress. Additionally, all the work in Philosophy is basically done now and it is a simple matter of tying up loose ends thanks to the work of the Logical Positivists. To be clear, Logical Positivism is not a philosophy of science, it is an all encompassing philosophy that can save our educational system.

Welcome to the "those in the know" club. I had been warning about antipositivism, critical theory and postmodernism for months. No one seemed to care. Good luck spreading the news.

 

[jwoodie]

Today's college graduates are less informed than their grandparents were after high school.