Notes from AACTE, or American Absurdities

I was at AACTE conference over the last weekend. One of the most intriguing general sessions was a critic of neo-liberal approach to education. The term is confusing, because it refers to free-market approaches, and such thinkers as Milton Friedman , the author of voucher proposal. In American political culture, that would be called conservative, but because we deal with a world-wide phenomena, it is referred to as neo-liberalism. So, it was a crowd of liberals bashing neo-liberalism, if that makes any sense. All presenters were equally frightened of the horrors market would cause in education.

At the very end, I raised my hand and asked the panel, why there are no neo-liberals among them; why not invite someone who represents the opposing point of view? The panelists were literally at loss to respond, because it might not even occur to them that such a thing is possible. That is deeply disturbing to me. Whatever one’s political beliefs, why not engage the opponent? AACTE represents an entire profession, so how can it be so mindlessly partisan? Why through all the chips on a particular wing of one political party? Is it a surprise no one is taking AACTE and the whole profession seriously in the Congress? We complain that no one is listening to us, but does it occur to anyone that this might be because we are not saying much of substance? Instead of developing balanced, thoughtful positions, the profession seems to relish its old-school liberal roots over the practicalities of the 21 century educational policy. Hence the paucity of new ideas coming from within our profession. We are good at criticizing everything, but not that good at finding any solutions.

Once again, I found myself at a very awkward place, not quite fitting in natural political divisions of this country. My social beliefs are very liberal; all my friends are liberal, and I share the liberals concern for justice and multiculturalism. However, it is very difficult for me to imagine that direct government intervention through taxation will solve any of the issues the liberals are worried about. I have a deep suspicion of unions and other monopolies. So, does it make me a conservative? I have a lot of criticism toward the voucher initiatives; they are not working and are not going to work. But is more of the same an answer to public education’s persistent problems? Not really; we do need to move towards more market-like self-regulating mechanisms.

I find composition of both main American parties absurd and unprincipled. What do religious conservatives have in common with free-market libertarians? What do prolife activists have in common with the right-to-bear-arms crowd? Why do they all cling to the unholy alliance called the Republican Party? Similarly, what do gay rights activists have in common with old-school trade unions? Why environmentalists go along with pro-choice movement? What do urban poor gain from alliance with Hollywood? The Democratic Party is just an absurd a collection of people who have very little in common. Both parties are defined in opposition to each other, and this is the whole reason for their existence.

Logically, if you are against government intervention in board rooms, you should also be against such intervention in people’s bedrooms. If you are for preserving the traditional cultural norms, you should also be for preserving traditional natural environment. If you’re against business monopolies, you should probably be against worker’s monopolies.

Public intellectuals who try to remain rational and coherent in their beliefs have a hard time fitting in. What was heartening to see is that Diane Ravitch received a standing ovation at AACTE, even though she admitted being surprised by it. She does not fit into one camp or another, mainly because her own core beliefs are consistent and independent of political parties. Not all is lost, and perhaps we can get from under the spell of traditional American politics; that is where real possibilities of progress are. And this is not limited to teacher education.