This little bill is the epitome of a “sleeper.” It is a very small bill. It can be easily overlooked or ignored, has a very enticing title, may be easy to pass, contains important concepts, appears to have beneficial intent, and seems to evoke little or no need for discussion. After all, legislators are not educators, but this must be what those wise educators are supporting. Who would deny that being able to interact productively with media and having the skills to critically think are very important functional skills, especially in today’s society? How can one question this? And, how many legislators want to discover that they might be held accountable or perceived as not wanting to give our children the best education, if they do not support this little “sleeper” gem?
First problem. Why is this kind of educational concept being codified into law? Who knows what it might really be? What if something better is conceived after the program is in place? What qualifications do lawmakers have to make this a legal imperative? How many details of life does the government have to define? It can only lead to conformity and control over the minds of the populace—by those who will determine the “what” and “how” of implementing this law.
If no one in Columbia has the conceptual thinking ability to be alarmed by codifying the development and formation of critical thinking, the people of South Carolina are in big trouble. This little “gem” has catastrophic potential for the future of independent, conceptual, and innovative thinking. It’s not hard to imagine how this will happen. Unfortunately it’s far too easy for legislators to pass this “little” bill, gain some good PR, and put in another boost for re-election. After all, passing laws at the rate of 200-300 each year is another accomplishment!
Two important considerations:
What will be the content of the “media” used to teach “literacy.”
Can “critical thinking” be taught in a lockstep, classroom environment?
What does “media literacy” mean to most people? Media is now the source from which we learn just about everything, including what to think, and what to think about, from print, screens, talk, entertainment, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, multiple technological devices, etc. Libraries have been renamed “media centers,” staffed by “media specialists,” to help people accept the “best” resources for learning, thinking, and living.
“Literacy” may be described as the ability to receive information from media presentations. Acquiring skills such as reading and listening, a person may discover what he or she is expected (or allowed) to learn, know, and incorporate into the content of thought. Various forms of “media” may be used to influence how people receive information and how they will think about it. Content, presentation, indoctrination, psychological control techniques, advertising, brain-washing, “helpful” commentaries to guide what to know and think about in any area, etc. may be part of the development of “critical thinking.” This approach and the time it consumes work well at eliminating organic learning, curiosity, exploration, real-life problem solving, seeking or recognizing alternate ideas or contrary perspectives—to name a few intellectual losses.
Obviously learning resources will be chosen to support the “literacy” component. Letting educators choose those resources, in addition to their application of poorly scrutinized teaching strategies, is very dangerous. Educators will impose carefully designed plans for “media literacy” and “critical thinking,” assuring that the “products” of today’s educational establishment will have little reason for any thinking that is not identical to their peers and the State’s ideas, values, and cultural and social engineering goals. Yes, education’s goal today is to produce useful products, not empowered people reaching for their own inborn potential.
Make no mistake. This program will be required in every setting, as “school choice” with all its tentacles, becomes the norm.
Who will determine what is used as the content for teaching “critical thinking” is of critical importance. The State defines and empowers teachers to teach “media literacy,” which really means turning these decisions over to teacher lobbies and powerful groups the State doesn’t control. The State will have to accept what is available. There is only one possible outcome. The very nature of a classroom environment, for many reasons, naturally creates learning and thinking characterized by “groupthink.” Students graduating from this indoctrination will be standardized through the compliant acceptance of limited information and the thought patterns implanted in their brains. It is almost impossible to have any other outcome. Children will grow up to be minions of the State. Initiative and free will be extinct.
Hence this bill has disturbing implications. It promises to give children important life skills. However, the outcome is certain to be a very homogenized, closed set of skills built on very limited and controlled information presented in a classroom. Attempting to teach “critical thinking” with strategies that are carefully crafted to mold young minds for a common outcome will result in the stifling of divergent, non-traditional or desired ideas or perspectives. There will be no independent thought or any obtainable comfort or gain from disagreeing with material or stepping outside the parameters of the thinking process presented and its desired results. There will be equity.
Common sense will be further eradicated. The minds of children will not actually be opened; they will be effectively closed. (In the late 1980s a provocative book was written entitled “THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND,” by Alan Bloom. Recommended reading for those who would like to see how well this has already been accomplished. Let us resist continuing in this direction, please.) Schools (even most home schools) will become model environments for controlling thinking and the information on which thinking skills will be built. Modern advertising, media, and peer pressure (to name just a few culprits) have already been almost completely successful in limiting the confidence, ability, and interest in using common sense to assess what is happening to us. The process that will be implemented in schools, starting at earlier and earlier ages, will ensure the “life-long” learning process, so highly touted today, will continue to afford “critical thinking” in the way the establishment determines. That is, no “critical thinking” at all.
For sure this kind of program, with the absurdity of being law and thereby more difficult to amend, repeal, alter, or allow for much diversity in application at the group or individual level, is going to be catastrophic to future generations.
Do we want our children to be “comfortable,” limited and lazy in how they understand the world around them? Or do at least some of us long for a time, now lost, where people had to rely on the innate and uncorrupted power of their own brains to face the complexities, problems, and comprehension of the world around them?
The scope of State power MUST be reined in. If not, we might as well all take our CBD, try to be happy, and enjoy the comfort of apathy and ignorance. We need courageous, independent thinkers and leaders. They will not exist if little bills like this keep slipping into law!
DOES NO ONE SEE THIS IS A BLUEPRINT FOR COMPLETE MIND CONTROL AND POPULATION CONFORMITY? WAKE UP, PEOPLE—IF YOU CAN!! You just might not like the future very much without chemical support.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute legal or professional advice. ConservaTruth assumes no liability for any actions taken based on this content. Read more.
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