Liberal Education in American Political Essay

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The conservative objection to stem cell research are predicated in the rigid and unquestioning adherence to religious values that may once have represented tenable ideas, but that are patently ridiculous in the light of modern scientific understanding of human biology and genetics.

As a result, at least eight years of tremendously valuable medical research has been irretrievably lost to federal regulations that prohibited federal funding to the most important applications of stem cell research. During that time, many thousands of ailing

Americans suffered unnecessarily or died from ailments whose effective treatment are clearly capable of being advanced by stem cell research (Feldman, 2005; Mooney, 2005).

Similar applications of conservative thinking during this most recent dark era of American social thought resulted in the introduction of ludicrous notions such as

Intelligent Design motivated very transparently by the conservative approach to religious beliefs and the desire to circumvent Supreme Court decisions prohibiting the commingling of religious beliefs and public education (Feldman, 2005, Mooney, 2005;

Sagan, 1986, in Davidson, 1999).

Conceptually, the principal advantage of liberalism in education is simply that it does not preclude the consideration of alternate viewpoints, values, or strategies, because it prescribes no specific adherence to existing ideas. Conservatism, on the other hand, discourages the evolution of intellectual ideas and values and promotes rigid adherence to the status quo, even in the face of mounting objective evidence that existing perspectives are tremendously flawed and that they require reevaluation.

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Because the essential purpose of public education beyond elementary school is to teach students how to think more than it is to teach specific substantive information (Einstein, 1936, in Rooney, 2006;

Russell, 1961; Sagan, 1986, in Davidson, 1999), liberalism in education furthers the main purpose of modern education while conservatism in education achieves precisely the opposite.

In that regard, about the only potential disadvantage of the liberal approach to modern education is where it is misconstrued to suggest that there is an inherent value in criticizing any policy merely for the sake of contrarianism and without any underlying objectively valid basis for those criticisms. However, because this represents a misapplication of the liberal mindset, it is less a criticism of liberalism than it is a description of the inappropriate focus on criticism and change for their own sake rather than for any valid purpose or objective.

Conclusion:

In principal, liberalism in modern education is consistent with the most essential purposes of education: to teach students how to think critically and use their minds effectively. Conversely, conservatism in education directly undermines this critical goal and promotes the rigid acceptance of existing ideas and values. Continual evaluation and reevaluation of ideas and values is the cornerstone of social development in human societies. Therefore, the most important mission of modern educators is to facilitate rather than inhibit the development of critical thinking in students and only the liberal approach.....

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