An Example of How Not to Abet the Ability of Students to Think Analytically: The Imposition of an Anoka- Ramsey Community College Sociology Instructor’s Viewpoints on His Students

One of my students in the New Salem Educational Initiative is now in her first year as a student at Anoka- Ramsey Community College.  Last Friday, she showed me a take-home exam that she must do for her course in general sociology.

 

I will first present this exam for the perusal of my readers, then offer my own analysis and comments following this text:   

 

 

General Sociology-----  Test 2                    

 

Write a one page exploration of the processes or issues presented in the matters below.  There are eight issue problems to choose from.  Choose any three for your writing.  Completion will mean that you have written one full page, double spaced for three of them.  You should submit your writings to me via email or bring the work to my office.  If I am not in my office at the time you come---  slide the work under my door.  The work is due to me no later than December 13.

 

You should submit three full pages---  one for each issue chosen from the options below.

 

1.  Since learning is something that comes naturally and allows human beings to learn knowledge and skills, explain why we have set up the regimented, compulsory, grade based system of education that we have in America.  Include in your discussion the latent functions of the education system.

 

2.  How do both religion and education in American society serve to strengthen and reinforce people’s acceptance and obedience to political authorities?  How do they increase our willingness to accept and do what we are told to do by those who have political power?

 

3.  Education is often portrayed as a way to reduce economic inequality in America.  Discuss the ways American Public Education may actually maintain and perpetuate social and economic inequalities.

 

4.  Discuss how each of the following institutions socialize people to obey authority unthinkingly and

without serious questioning.  How do they reinforce the habit of obeying authority?  The institutions

are:  Families, Schools, Religions, Media.

 

5.  America after World War II moved in the direction of becoming a permanently militarized society.  Cite clear evidence that the United States is, in fact, a militarized society.

 

6.  How have changes in the social and cultural status of women in American society affected marriage, age at the time of marriage, and rates of pregnancy.

 

7.  Discuss any evidence relevant to the following statement of President Eisenhower:  We must be

watchful of the undue influence of the “military-industrial complex.”  Discuss evidence or facts you

have learned that suggests that these interests are in fact a dominant force in American society.

 

8.  What are the social structural reasons that the portrayal of American history in elementary school is often misrepresented and often leaves out significant events?

 

Clearly, this instructor is a political leftist with particular animus toward authority.  As a leftist revolutionary myself, while I am in direct opposition to his views on education as we can glean from question number one, I agree with some of his musings in other questions.  But as a teacher, I am of the conviction that this instructor should be terminated immediately for constructing such biased, leading questions that ironically proceed from an authoritarian stance in such a way as to make the instructor deeply complicit in the use of the type of overweening power that he himself abhors.

 

Instead, students should have been given readings on the issues posed, have the opportunity to debate these issues in class, then given an exam overhauled to read, as follows:

 

 

1.  Based on the opposing viewpoints that you read in the assigned documents and texts, do you think that learning is an entirely natural process, or are there knowledge and skills that must be explicitly taught if students are ever to learn these?  Do you approve of the compulsory, grade-based system education in the United States?  Explain why or why not, then assess the impact of the American system of education for long-term positive or negative effects.

 

2.  Explain whether or not you think that the institutions of religion and education in the United States strengthen and reinforce acceptance and obedience to political authority, and whether or not those institutions increase the willingness of citizens to do what they are told by those who have political power.  Before giving you own view, give a brief overview of opposing stances from readings and class discussions, then give a cogently reasoned exposition of your own view.

 

3.  In your view, do institutions of education in the United States reduce or perpetuate inequality?  Explain your viewpoint in the context of readings and class discussions that present differing  positions.

 

4.  Drawing from readings and class discussions, assess the institutions of family, school, religion, and mass media as to whether or not these institutions promote obedience to authority.

 

5.  With reference to readings and class discussions, give your view supporting or opposing the following statement:  “In the aftermath of World War II, society in the United States became increasingly militarized, so that today the United States exhibits the characteristics of a militarized society.”

 

6.  How have changes in the social and cultural status of women in American society affected age at the time of marriage, the institution of marriage, and pregnancy rates?  Give your own view from

readings and class discussions covering various positions on these matters.

 

7.  Assess the following statement from President Dwight Eisenhower (elected in 1952;  presided for

two terms ending in1960):  “We must be watchful for the undue influence of the ‘military industrial

complex.’”  Drawing from readings and class discussions covering varying viewpoints, give your own

position as to whether the military-industrial complex constitutes a threat, and if this threat has been realized in the United States.

 

8.  Drawing from readings, class discussions, and your own experiences, give an overview of American history as taught in K-5 schools of the United States, with an assessment of the accuracy and inclusiveness of important events and people in that historical narrative.

 

Teachers at all levels should take great care to present as objective an account of major events and issues as possible.   The best available scholarship should be read, various opposing viewpoints should be considered, and vigorous debate of the issues should be promoted in class.

 

Exams should require that students convey an understanding of pertinent facts and a consideration of viewpoints other than their own while presenting the most cogent expression of their opinion as possible.

 

Any teacher or instructor who does not promote genuine debate of issues in the context of varying viewpoints is guilty of shirking one of her or his most vital professional responsibilities.