Common Core: A Straw House for Straw Men

The Imaginative Conservative ^ | Timothy Gordon and Stephen Jonathan Rummelsburg

[don-o]

Mr. Stephen Klugewicz and Mr. Kevin Brady surprised us in their Imaginative Conservative article last week by affixing the epithet “straw men” to arguments against the Common Core’s increasingly centralized approach to education. Precisely speaking, arguments for or against the Common Core doubtless employ at least a few straw men, as most every polemic does. Natural bias notwithstanding, one remains confident in christening the Common Core a straw house—insufficient shelter for the young, as against the seasons of life.

Mr. Klugewicz and Mr. Brady fail to connect the roundly conceded educative catastrophe in America with the newest and most aggressive attack on educative subsidiarity—that pole star of conservative bona fides. Of course the catastrophe antedates the new Common Core push, by many generations. But selfsame reasoning belies each: a rejection of local curricular rule.

As to the ostensible shock and handwringing over education’s failure, one wonders: how is it surprising (or unrelated) that a thing which contradicted its first principle turned out badly? “Localness,” after all, is the very principle by which one teaches, an epistemic movement from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Conversely, a citizen educated by bureaucratic dicta emanating from a nerve center 3,000 miles away, will surely, on account of the anti-subsidiarian administration of his education, misunderstand the central principle of civics: subsidiarity. As importantly, he will also look past and fail to grasp the central principle of quality control: subsidiarity. Neither of these constitutes a “negligible” moment in the edification of any student.

[don-o]

ping

[don-o]

Large snip to encourage reading of the whole thing.

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Thirdly, Common Core represents a woeful exposition of C.S. Lewis’s doctrine of inverted “first and second things.” First things are permanent and enduring. They are the good, the true, the beautiful, the virtues, and the other appurtenances of the soul. Second things are temporary: expedience, money, goods, services, trades, grades, college- and career- readiness, and virtually all other desiderata of modern public education. The doctrine is an exercise in the exposition of the ills of consequentialism. C.S. Lewis explained that “when you put first things first and second things second, you get both first and second things; if you put second things first, you will lose both first and second things.”

[Izzy Dunne]

subsidiarity - the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level.

[savagesusie]

Love it-—that Catholic term “Subsidiarity”! God entrusted parents with the child and with that Duty to educate and shape their OWN children. Children start learning before birth. All interaction between mother and father is embedded in the young child. It is essential to Worldview and how the child sees males and females. Schools NEVER should undermine the ideology of the parents (unless they are evil).

The Catholic Church has always had this connection with Natural Law Theory and Reason, because of the brilliance of St. Thomas Aquinas. Classical Education is the only “true” education which teaches a person an understanding of “Good and Evil” and “how” to seek Truth.

Wisdom is being able to discern between Good and Evil. If people can’t discern between the two (and Common Core flips Good and Evil and promotes Vice) then we will dissolve into chaos with no civil society.

One note: “Would an orthodox Catholic school teach otherwise than that the doctrines of the Catholic Church are correct?”

It used to really “teach” , but adopted the public school curricula and “Sex Ed (oxymoron) in 1970 with the infiltration of the Catholic Church. Today’s so-called “Catholics” are some of the most ignorant people I have ever met....true-—a lot were products of public schools, but what does that tell you of the priorities of the parents. Education is the primary responsibility of the parents always and “Sex Ed” is the responsibility of parents only—never a “group” thing, which strips sex of dignity and intimacy and privacy and sexualizes the child, stripping the awe and mystery in childhood, which is necessary for giving dignity to the opposite sex.

Subsidiarity is the fundamental idea of real freedom. Without it—there is no freedom, we become slaves of the State.

ALL Catholic Schools need to return to pre-1930s curricula—Solid Classical Curricula and the Catholic Canon which is never wishy-washy about using yours or other’s body as a “means” to an “end”. Can’t do it. Truth is Truth and Good is Good.

Natural Law is just Common Sense/reason/cause and effect (Design in Nature by God). (It turned into “science” in the 19th century. Natural Philosophers, like Newton, became “scientists” in the 1800s.

[don-o]

Thank you! Until all politicians come to actual grips with these matters, all they are doing is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[riri]

Eventually leftists always go a step too far.

They become a joke and they are revealed for what they are.

I have friends from Poland who immigrated here after the wall came down. They told stories of how every year they were forced to participate in "Blanket Drives" for the poor American children freezing to death on the street of cold, heartless, capitalist America. They said, "we knew it was a joke, a lie but we had no choice but to participate. So, here we were not a pot to piss in, giving up our own blankets (that we needed) for a farce, a sham.

They all detested the government despite every attempt to brainwash them. Ofcourse the average American has a mind like a baby, so that is a problem we have to overcome".

[savagesusie]

It is well worth the Read. Thanks for posting!!!

[savagesusie]

Yes-—it is just the repetition of history......human beings have SUCH a hard time getting off that wheel of history, because seeking Truth takes effort, time and is extremely hard. People are naturally lazy, if NOT taught “Virtue”. (All Classical Thinkers knew this). Virtue is learned in early childhood and habituated and modeled (and “schools” destroy Virtue deliberately, by creating “group thinkers” (emotion-based) and habituating dependency).

Our Founders got it! They understood Natural Law Theory/Reason/God and subsidiarity, and true freedom.

Those ideas/ideologies are being erased by the programming (emotional training to embrace Vice) in the public schools.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I value all you comments on subsidiarity. My husband asked me if I could explain the origin and development of that idea in philosophy, and I had to admit that I could not. I had actually read a good article on it fairly recently, and (my poor brain) I couldn't remember either the name of the author, nor the name of the website (it was on a web page.)

I repeat, my poor brain!

Could you help me out here? Who were he principal guys in authentic (!!!) Catholic social thought who zeroed in on the difference between "civil society" and the STATE, and who undelined the moral requirement of subsidiarity?

[savagesusie]

Oh my!!!! I could write a book (and am)......

All philosophy of Western Civilization started with the Greek Masters. Sophocles (in play Antigone) came up with the idea that there is a “higher power” than a King’s. (Rule of Law idea). “Justice” was defined by Socrates...and he created the methodology for “getting to the truth” as close as humanly possible. (Socratic Method). Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics pretty much solidified “Good and Evil” and ideas about Natural Virtue—and how they are learned and habituated, which created the Stoic philosophy and great people like Cicero. Stoicism was the “bridge” to Christianity. It wasn’t much of a stretch.

Natural Law Theory going back to at least Sophocles was solidified by the Aristotelian, St. Thomas Aquinas around 1245. St. Augustine was a Platonist so the idea of immortal soul and eternal life and Socratic Method to understand the Reality was very much a “Catholic” thing. A lot of people rejected the “paganism” of the Catholic Church-—but Reason and Faith could never contradict itself because Reason and Faith are both God’s gift to man. (St. Thomas Aquinas).

St. Thomas had a great understanding of both Platonic and Aristotelian thought and understood (and agreed with) that notion that God’s Design in Nature is obvious and God could be recognized without Scripture if people were perceptive. But St. Thomas stated that the Common Sense which could be gathered by Nature takes so much time/study and most people have to work to just exist and have no time for seeking truth—so Revelation was necessary (kind of like the Bible is the ‘short cut’ to Happiness and Truth for people—God’s gift again to man).

Subsidiarity is just that idea of Natural Law (and Christianity) which states that man was designed with Free Will and Agency and is UNIQUE, with that teleological end to be Responsible for their own life and actions. Local control—at the lowest possible level—is always the wisest because they will care/private property idea extends to owning one’s own mind and thoughts.

Without freedom, man can not reach that teleological end that God designed them for—they can not reach their unique potential.

Laws of Nature was really codified by Aristotle and the teleological ends was studied intensely by him and written about extensively. He is the father of Logic-—which comes from his syllogisms to analyze nature.

But Freedom only works with people of Virtue so, as all Western Civ scholars knew since Socrates-—”The only purpose of education is to teach “Virtue””.
Without Virtue, people become slaves to their vices/flesh and destroy their offspring.

That is why the Cultural Marxists knew to target Virtue (Christian Ethics) which will collapse culture-—by destroying the greatest ideas in the history of the World in the minds of children—to inculcate “instant gratification” and “white noise” so that children will not be inclined to do the “searching” and work needed to understand Virtue/Reality and Freedom and true happiness.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks for all this.

Now (consulting my poor brain) it seems to me there was a 19th century Jesuit who did a lot of writing about Civil Society vs the State and how every social grouping has its proper rights and responsibilities which are not to be absorbed or encroached on by the "biggers" or by the State. This was influential in the understanding of "subsidiarity" as the proper settling of tasks on the shoulders of the smaller or more local units which can handle them.

As I remember, this guy's writing were influential with Leo XIII.

But I can't fer-the-life-of-me remember his name.

Nor can I guarantee it was a 19th century Jesuit... 8o}

Any names pop into your mind?

[savagesusie]

Pope Leo III was a true Neo-Thomist!!!! : ) His brother, who was a Jesuit, taught Thomism in Universities.

Thomist Theology was rare until this effort of the two brothers to reignite it in seminaries and universities—Pope Leo III brought it back into vogue during his papacy, with the help of his brother, whom he elevated to Cardinal.

Thomist Theology was jettisoned by Vatican II (grrrrrrrrrrr). Why? The Science and Reason behind the Truth (Revelation) is devastating to the opposition. And with the “rise” of Socialism and Marxism, Thomistic “views” had to go and be subverted. Cardinal Newman was one of the famous Anglicans who left for Catholicism during the papacy of Pope Leo III.

Pope Leo III (a solid Thomist): “People differ in capacity, skill, health, strength; and unequal fortune is a necessary result of unequal condition. Such inequality is far from being disadvantageous either to individuals or to the community.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Pecci

[Mrs. Don-o]

Fascinating! I have so much to learn, savagesusie. Thank you for turning me on to the Pecci’s!

[savagesusie]

I am a Thomist at heart. I love St. Thomas Aquinas and G.K.Chesterton.

“Reason and Faith”.....I took a class in that at one time. It was my favorite all time philosophy class and I love philosophy. The intersection of Religion and Reason actually culminated with the “Summa” in a way never accomplished again (according to many and Chesterton).

With Postmodernism (Chesterton stated), the Wisdom of Western Civilization ended and it was the beginning of the total destruction of the best ideas (Truth) in the history of man which started with the skepticism of the modernists.

[don-o]

I could write a book (and am)......

Let us know when it's done.

[savagesusie]

LOL. That any book I write doesn’t go into the trash heap of obscurity? Well, it has happened to millions : ) ...If not, everyone will know.