James Drogan

Re Conversations with Dave

Dave brings to my attention this article on Senator McCain's remarks at the New School. 

My reaction?

The Age of the Decline of Civility aka When in Doubt, Shout.

The New School experience does not bode well for the emerging generation of leaders. There are, of course, or at any rate I would expect there to be, exceptions to my conclusion. I don't mean to tar all with the same brush. I wonder whether, in the comfort of Starbucks or the local pub and outside the all-seeing eye of the camera and all-hearing ear of the recorder, the students treat one another as callously. I can imagine them drinking alone were that the case.

I don't know whether I would agree that students are"...being trained in self-deception and the substitution of ideology for facts and testable theory."

I would agree, however, that students are "...ill-prepared to deal with the world As It Is." [sic]

However, McCain at the New School represents one of those significant and contemporary teaching moments that ought to be explored in the classrooms of America.