2007-10-03: Even here
by Emily
Here is a disturbing and powerful story:
2007-10-03 19:44:01 Mark W
I remember reading about that in the pages of the Whole Earth Catalog back when I was a kid. Belonging is a powerful human need. Too bad it's so abusable.
2007-10-04 14:23:48 Emily
It's strange that the need for belonging is so powerful that it shuts out normal common sense and empathy for others. Scary.
I like the point made in the article that the students who took part in the "exercise" were just doing it mostly for fun, with the threat/promise of good grades dangled, but not even for their livelihood at risk as people who lived in Germany during the Third Reich would have done.
2007-10-04 16:21:58 Joshua A.C. Newman
Man. It's hard being a human.
Also of note, the Stanford Prison Experiment.
2007-10-05 14:56:52 Ed Heil
Did anybody else read this:
"School systems prepare the ground, Jones says by using only standardized tests for success and failing to recognize alternative paths of learning, as well as a wider variety of individual achievements.
Educational institutions weed out troublemakers and those who are difficult to teach, he contends, rewarding placid students who want to succeed at any cost and will accept authority."
and think about how the administration has been promoting "No Child Left Behind", which turns the entire educational system into a standardized-test-passing machine?
2007-10-05 17:07:37 Joshua A.C. Newman
Yeah, Ed, it's painfully clear.
This is something we're going to have to contend with for the life of our civilization. Maybe longer.
2007-10-05 18:01:36 Pooka
This is one of the many reasons that my partner and I are dedicated to Unschooling our daughter rather than sending her to school. We both had harrowing school experiences that damaged our capacity to enjoy learning in a way I don't wish to inflict upon my child.
My social studies teacher in Junior High did an exercise in critical pedagogy with a similar aim to this one, although laws stop this sort of technique from being used as in this article anymore.
I also reccommend Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" Experiment, which is amazing, and can be viewed here.
2007-10-05 22:13:26 Ron Edwards
Later this month, the university where I teach will be visited by the most recent and vile expression of such principles: "Islamofascism Awareness Week," brainchild of the despicable David Horowitz.
It not only could happen here, it *is* happening here.
2007-10-06 01:55:49 Joshua A.C. Newman
May they drown in their own shit.
2007-10-06 01:56:14 Emily
When is capitalofascism awareness week?
2007-10-06 15:01:36 Mark W
Beginning of May, I think. But we're holding a special session in the Twin Cities next summer.
2007-10-10 18:07:24 MountZionRyan
While it does nothing to diminish other incidents and books mention in this thread, there is some evidence that Ron Jones has exaggerated his account. At the very least, the Third Wave seems to have been much less monolithic than he describes.