1 / 24

College and Democracy

College and Democracy. “Democracy seems only to suit very small countries.” Voltaire, 1770.

barid
Download Presentation

College and Democracy

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. College and Democracy

  2. “Democracy seems only to suit very small countries.” Voltaire, 1770

  3. “Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, and many opinions: for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.” (John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644)

  4. “Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.” (Finalist in the “Dilbert” quote contest)

  5. “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe their minds must be improved to a certain degree.” Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

  6. “Education generates habits of application, of order, and the love of virtue.” (Thomas Jefferson)

  7. Stable democracies have: • civilian control of the military; • a distinction between the military and police forces; • a judicial system that protects civil rights of citizens; • multiple sources of power (“checks and balances”); • universal quality education.

  8. The culture of democracy values: • honesty; • tolerance of people and belief systems that are different; • concern for what is best for the community as a whole (not just what is best for yourself); • long-term over short-term planning.

  9. What happens in college • “Dualism” or “Authoritarianism” • “Relativism” • “Cynicism” • Informed, committed, tolerance

  10. Dualism or Authoritarianism • The answers to all important questions are clear. • Every question has one right answer, which can be clearly stated. All other answers are wrong. • Experts know the correct answers. • A good teacher tells students the correct answers. • Students should be graded on whether they have memorized those correct answers.

  11. Relativism • Experts disagree. • All answers are equally valid. • No one has the right to criticize anyone else’s answer. • Truth is relative.

  12. Cynicism • Experts disagree. • Really, all answers are equally valid, but, unfortunately, teachers don’t think so. • Figure out what the teacher really thinks, and parrot it back. • The grade should be determined by what one’s answer is, not by how one makes it.

  13. Informed, committed, tolerance • Experts disagree. • There are lots of “right” answers (and even different ways the same answer can be expressed). • But, there are some wrong answers (and there are bad ways of expressing “right” answers). • It isn’t just a question of what one’s answer is, but how one expresses it (e.g., evidence). • Even with the best of intentions, and the best information available, people make mistakes.

  14. “I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.” (Abraham Lincoln, 1862)

  15. Being willing to let me have my say does not obligate you to agree.

  16. “Free citizenship presupposes the ability to fight--openly, seriously, with commitment, and about things that really matter--without fanaticism, without seeking to exterminate one’s opponents.” (Hannah Pitkin)

  17. “Tolerance is not the same as weakness. Putting up with people does not mean giving in to them.”(E.M Forster, Anti-Nazi Radio Broadcast, 1941)

  18. “Political virtue is a renunciation of oneself, which is always a very painful thing” (Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, 1748)

  19. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

  20. A college graduate has an earning advantage of between twenty and forty percent over someone who ends school with high school graduation. (Pascarelli and Terenzini, How College Affects Students)

  21. According to the Census Bureau, over an adult's working life, high school graduates earn an average of $1.2 million; associate's degree holders earn about $1.6 million; and bachelor's degree holders earn about $2.1 million (Day and Newburger, 2002, qtd. in “The Value of a College Degree,” ERIC Digest)

  22. “Completing the bachelor’s degree may be the single most important educational step in the occupational and economic attainment process” (Pascarelli and Terenzini, How College Affects Students).

  23. A 1998 report published by the Institute for Higher Education Policy reviews the individual benefits that college graduates enjoy, including higher levels of saving, increased personal/professional mobility, improved quality of life for their offspring, better consumer decision making, and more hobbies and leisure activities (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1998; qtd. in “The Value of a College Degree,” ERIC Digest)

  24. “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. Every year if not every day we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that experiment is part of our system I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe...” (O.W. Holmes, dissenting opinion in Abrams v. US)

More Related