i do think a lot of this is determined before high school...not that education doesn't have a real influence. i think they have to come with the moral principles to make that sort of judgment, though, for it to be "ground into their heads" in the first place, and that will happen whether or not you present slavery as bad or more 'objectively'. (sidenote: personally, i have to admit that i find nietzsche's critique of morality very compelling. i've been thinking about it a lot lately w/ regard to the "ascetic ideal" and the academic one, the moralizing of truth...blah) anyway, i don't think you can convince someone just by telling them that slavery was awful.
(talking about an article about political rhetoric surrounding 9/11:)
Me: And my other, related problem
Steve: in other words: what problem?
Me: is that I think in general we as a class, not to mention the authors of the article, don't have a very good grip on who the audience was, whose minds this really affected, or what the speech changed, partly because our friends, our parents, our teachers didn't buy this.
Steve: this is, of course, a real issue. It's called "socioeconomic class" [which is profoundly mediated, in contemporary EuroAmerican society, by the educational establishment and symbolic capital more generally]. We touched on it in conference, and will in future classes, but I agree with you that we should probably address it more and more explicitly.
Me: That was what I meant about wondering about the peers and background of my classmates. A few people in the class, myself sort of included, seemed to know people who actually did want to 'fight for our country', but I'm just guessing that we may not have been the majority.
Steve: Probably right; I would guess that a small majority of students in this class come from the sort of class background from the typical perspective of which reacting to 9/11 with "think I'll join the Marines" is very foreign indeed.
no subject
(talking about an article about political rhetoric surrounding 9/11:)
Me: And my other, related problem
Steve: in other words: what problem?
Me: is that I think in general we as a class, not to mention the authors of the article, don't have a very good grip on who the audience was, whose minds this really affected, or what the speech changed, partly because our friends, our parents, our teachers didn't buy this.
Steve: this is, of course, a real issue. It's called "socioeconomic class" [which is profoundly mediated, in contemporary EuroAmerican society, by the educational establishment and symbolic capital more generally]. We touched on it in conference, and will in future classes, but I agree with you that we should probably address it more and more explicitly.
Me: That was what I meant about wondering about the peers and background of my classmates. A few people in the class, myself sort of included, seemed to know people who actually did want to 'fight for our country', but I'm just guessing that we may not have been the majority.
Steve: Probably right; I would guess that a small majority of students in this class come from the sort of class background from the typical perspective of which reacting to 9/11 with "think I'll join the Marines" is very foreign indeed.