Page 41 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 41
m. a. peters ■ conflicting narratives of the american dream
“Rusted out factories are scattered like tombstones across the landscape
of our nation. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from our
homes and redistributed all across the world.” But if the narrative is essen-
tially directly inward it is also “America closed” as against “America open”
– an attitude which is refracted in the recoil from global moral leadership
and from “leader of the free world” (Peters & Chiang, 2017).
At the domestic level Trump has also unleased “a new offensive
against academia.”9 He is not a friend of education and science as a means
of achieving the American Dream. Trump’s ascendancy is bad news for
US and world science with the disappearance of governmental science
websites such as the White House pages on climate change and the like-
ly curtailment for alternative energy science funding.10 Various publica-
tions have complained that the president’s view on science are shocking-
ly ignorant.11 At the level of schooling Trump is on record saying he may
cut the Department of Education.12 His appointment of Betsy DeVos as
Secretary of Education did little to impress teachers.13 All this indicates an
education agenda that will boost Charter schools, defend the ideology of
school choice, support the radical Christian orthodoxy to advance private
religious schools, and rethink the necessity of the Common Core. Oth-
er elements on the privatization and conservative agenda include vouch-
ers, greater teacher accountability, more student debt, and an attack on
America’s public schooling system with a commensurate downsizing of
the Department of Education. Many educators are worried about the fu-
ture of liberal arts colleges and STEM education, and the undermining
of teaching about evolution and climate change.14 CBS reports Trump
as saying: ‘As your president, I will be the biggest cheerleader for school
choice you’ve ever seen,’ promising that in his White House term ‘parents
9 See http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170113164552838. universi-
ties are already feeling the effects of Trump’s travel band on their application numbers.
Even with a new policy on travel ban placed on six countries, mostly Muslim, it seems clear
that international students in US universities will be severely curtailed. Many US universi-
ties and universities around the world have been outspoken against the discrimination of
Trump’s immigration and travel-ban policies.
10 See https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/have-politics-trumped-science/.
11 E . g. ht t ps://w w w. scient i f ic a mer ic a n .com/a r t icle/t r u mp-com ment s-on-science-a re-
shock‑ingly-ignorant/
12 https://qz.com/898530/in-just-one-week-as-president-donald-trump-has-wreaked-unpar-
alleled-havoc-on-american-education/
13 See DeVos at 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, C-Span https://ww-
w.c-span.org/video/?424394-101/betsy-devos-delivers-remarks-cpac
14 ht tps://w w w.scienti fica merica n .com/a r ticle/tr u mps-fi rst-100-d ays-science-education-
and-schools/
39
“Rusted out factories are scattered like tombstones across the landscape
of our nation. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from our
homes and redistributed all across the world.” But if the narrative is essen-
tially directly inward it is also “America closed” as against “America open”
– an attitude which is refracted in the recoil from global moral leadership
and from “leader of the free world” (Peters & Chiang, 2017).
At the domestic level Trump has also unleased “a new offensive
against academia.”9 He is not a friend of education and science as a means
of achieving the American Dream. Trump’s ascendancy is bad news for
US and world science with the disappearance of governmental science
websites such as the White House pages on climate change and the like-
ly curtailment for alternative energy science funding.10 Various publica-
tions have complained that the president’s view on science are shocking-
ly ignorant.11 At the level of schooling Trump is on record saying he may
cut the Department of Education.12 His appointment of Betsy DeVos as
Secretary of Education did little to impress teachers.13 All this indicates an
education agenda that will boost Charter schools, defend the ideology of
school choice, support the radical Christian orthodoxy to advance private
religious schools, and rethink the necessity of the Common Core. Oth-
er elements on the privatization and conservative agenda include vouch-
ers, greater teacher accountability, more student debt, and an attack on
America’s public schooling system with a commensurate downsizing of
the Department of Education. Many educators are worried about the fu-
ture of liberal arts colleges and STEM education, and the undermining
of teaching about evolution and climate change.14 CBS reports Trump
as saying: ‘As your president, I will be the biggest cheerleader for school
choice you’ve ever seen,’ promising that in his White House term ‘parents
9 See http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170113164552838. universi-
ties are already feeling the effects of Trump’s travel band on their application numbers.
Even with a new policy on travel ban placed on six countries, mostly Muslim, it seems clear
that international students in US universities will be severely curtailed. Many US universi-
ties and universities around the world have been outspoken against the discrimination of
Trump’s immigration and travel-ban policies.
10 See https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/have-politics-trumped-science/.
11 E . g. ht t ps://w w w. scient i f ic a mer ic a n .com/a r t icle/t r u mp-com ment s-on-science-a re-
shock‑ingly-ignorant/
12 https://qz.com/898530/in-just-one-week-as-president-donald-trump-has-wreaked-unpar-
alleled-havoc-on-american-education/
13 See DeVos at 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, C-Span https://ww-
w.c-span.org/video/?424394-101/betsy-devos-delivers-remarks-cpac
14 ht tps://w w w.scienti fica merica n .com/a r ticle/tr u mps-fi rst-100-d ays-science-education-
and-schools/
39
