Republican platform opposes American foundation of intellectual criticism
Now, Republicans have officially launched the War on Thinking.
The platform of the Republican Party of Texas includes the following language: “Knowledge-Based Education — We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills, critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education ... which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
In short, the Texas GOP is worried that teaching kids to think for themselves will result in the destabilizing of society.
So, add thinking to the list of problems Republicans think is destroying the nation — birth control, universal health care, business regulation, gay marriage, Islamic law, single mothers and liberals among them.
America was founded by men and women who questioned what they had been taught. Large numbers of the colonists were Protestants who felt there was a better way of worship than the centralized hierarchies of the Catholic and Anglican churches. The American Revolution was fought by men who believed that theirs was a land where men could be equal.
We are a country of rebels, always adapting, always growing. That spirit of rebellion is an essential quality of Americans, enshrined in the Constitution.
Now Texas Republicans want to take that away.
They know that all of their policies are justified on the flimsiest of grounds. They know that any examination of their principles would reveal their hypocrisy. They know that education is the key to their downfall. That is why they must crush curiosity.
Texas is infamous among educational professionals for its power to edit the content of textbooks. Republicans have turned this into an indoctrination process as well, particularly in the realms of history and social studies. The Texas State Board of Education, composed mostly of conservatives appointed by the governor, has launched a radical agenda designed to wipe any liberal thought from the past learned by students.
Thomas Jefferson, a great Enlightenment thinker as well as founding father and president, was nearly removed from textbooks due to his “liberal” views. Students are required to learn about the rise of the modern Republican Party in the 1980s and ‘90s, including participation by the Moral Majority and National Rifle Association, but not discussion of progressives from the early 20th century.
Conservatives decry universities as liberal bastions. Republicans have slashed education budgets to the bone and pushed for “school choice” that would allow them to stop funding the common child.
The only weapon we have against these tactics is knowledge. That’s why the Republicans want to destroy access to it.
