Talking Point #1 (Goldberg)

110 People Who Are Screwing Up America

Bernard Goldberg



Goldberg argues that Jonathan Kozol is messing the minds of Americans by enforcing a more liberal approach be applied to the field of education. Goldberg states that Kozol's practices and beliefs in a liberal society are not only praised but placed into effect in school systems, who now turn out children who have recieved biased education.



"Yet, what be even worse, and in the end even more dnagerous, is that so many of today's schools are turning out "smart" kids with little understand of how precious their heritage is."

1.) I felt that this quote was important in conveying the vast diaster Goldberg feels that Kozol's beliefs are contributing to the edcuation system.



"He [Kozol] says teachers should talk to their students about the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, whose 'own preperation for obedient behavior...was recieved in German public schools' ---which produced 'good Germans, or good citizens, as we in the United States would say.' "

1.) This is important in that it shows an example of Kozol's thinking.

2.) This is also important in that you get to see how Kozol thinks. He obviously uses the influence of other cultures (like Cuba as well). He also feels like the effect of "good thinking" isn't that important if he uses Eichmann as a example of a "good" student.



"All the book's model lessons aim to teach little children to withstand America's state-sponsored brainwashing and to open them up to the self evident truths of feminism, enviornmentalism, and the Left's account of history."

1.) This quote is important as it states Kozol's direct ideas and goals.

2.) This quote also stuck out to me for another reason. If Kozol is so anxious to have education be solely based on Liberal fact, is he not creating the same enviornment that education is already in? He would be closing off education to any other ideas, which is what he argues already exsists! A better idea would be to integrate liberal ideas into the exsisting form of eduction but still keep it open as to get a well rounded group of ideas and not just from one source.


Overall, this wasn't my favorite article to read. When it comes to politics, my interests drain a bit. Don't get me wrong--I'm interested in the upcoming election and the canidates but when it gets down to the "boring" politics, I just can't focus on it. Therefore, when this article started quoting Sol Stern, my focus went right out the window. I had to read this part over a few times to fully grasp what they were talking about.
On a different aspect, I thought Goldberg's writing style was easy enough to follow and the section was short enough where I could keep an interest and get through the article with little to no hassle (excluding the Stern quote).