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become engaged as citizens, as individuals who no longer want to stand
by and allow good intentions to deteriorate even further into bad poli–
cies. The question is not only whether or not "political correctness" is or
is not a problem - which is how it is played out at the macro level be–
tween Republicans and Democrats, and by the media - but whether or
not our students are being prepared to function in an increasingly com–
petitive global context, in a world that no longer puts Americans at the
genuine advantage we are accustomed to enjoy.
It is by way of education alone, by way of training kids from early
on to think logically rather than emotionally, to evaluate information
and facts within their contexts (however difficult it may be to be objec–
tive) rather than from ideological perspectives, that they will turn into
responsible citizens. On the one hand, we have gotten used to addressing
issues such as gun control, crime, illiteracy, drug addiction and a host of
other social problems separately - if only because they must be dealt with
in that fashion. On the other hand, we keep hearing that these problems
themselves, as a result of the excesses of the 1960s, have enshrined "me–
ism" and "looking out for number one," and that these attitudes have
become the norm. Thus ethical expectations on both macro and micro
levels have sunk to their lowest ebb.
We all know that parents are supposed to teach their kids to distin–
guish right from wrong and that teachers are to take over where parents
fail. Since we no longer can be certain that either parents or teachers are
able to differentiate properly, we are confronted with having to question
accepted mores in the process of imparting knowledge. If we try to do
so by way of the media , which seems to be the only means of reaching
large sectors of the population, we will be subject to talking in sound
bites, and soon become part of the problem. If we proceed through set–
ting examples, or through individual therapy, we will not be able to
reach many people . What is to be done? Obviously, whatever it is, it
must happen in all of our schools. Thus we're back to square one.
Last month, in a talk for the Graduate Faculty of the New School
for Social Research, Peter Berger argued that sociology lost its way, and
its legitimacy, when it abandoned objectivity and rationality, and became
trivialized and ideologized - often in the name of the people it studied
and whom it set out to help. This is precisely what has happened to our
system of public education. How then do we get it back on track, and
in the process heal the rifts that have grown ever wider through interest–
group politics, through confusing knowledge with politics, and merit
with representation? Clearly, change can come about only through input
on the micro level which, however, needs the support of large sectors of
the macro institutions that set the priorities.
Whereas I realize that nothing can be done without large infusions
