I’d be surprised if they assign anything written by George Orwell below graduate school level classes in social justice theory today, on the notion that his brand of calling out authoritarian collectivism for what it is, is a dangerous notion which cannot be entrusted to the easily malleable. They must be "protected" from such ideas until their indoctrination has firmly taken hold. In fact, I’m fairly certain that most (but certainly not all) of the educational establishment would have no problem with public burnings of Orwell's books. The ones that object would be largely confined to STEM areas of studies, and it is well known that their opinions in matters of properly inculcating the correct values into students don’t really count.iratollah wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2020 4:51 pm Good link, thanks for sharing. Lord of the Flies was indeed more meaningful when I re-read it at an older age.
I first read Orwell's 'Animal Farm' in 5th grade and got teased for reading a kiddie book. It became part of my kid's mandatory reading list when they were in 5th or 6th grade. I don't think schools are assigning this one.
My very liberal, democrat, true social justice activist, humanities professor father would be rolling in his grave (if we hadn’t cremated him) if he saw what passes for a "liberal" education today. OTH, his generation of liberal teachers/professors had bled in places like Iwo Jima and Normandy, and they actually understood and cherished the general values of liberty they had fought for .... whether or not they were right or wrong in the end about ideas of big gov’t and free versus managed economies.
The vast majority of today's teachers/academics have never had to put their health and lives on the line to protect the values of liberty, and so they are perfectly comfortable suppressing books that warn children against giving it up too easily, and are instead teaching them to put their faith in their "superiors" to guide them along the "correct" path. And of course, only they get to decide who does the guiding. It’s a devilishly clever system, isn’t it?
I’m sure that, somewhere, there are little dust devils of my dad's ashes, whirling furiously at what has become.