Monday, February 24, 2014

The War Against the Imagination

I've just published a new article entitled "The War Against the Imagination:  How to Teach in a System Designed to Fail" (7,200 words), which pulls the curtain back on a quiet war waging on campuses all across the United States.  I’ve been teaching English composition at California State University Long Beach for over ten years, and have never seen more hostility directed towards the field of education than now.  Unfortunately, most of that hostility comes from within.  What with the implementation of new stringent "Common Core" requirements at the high school level, and the flight from teaching art and literature occurring at many American universities, this is not only a bad day for students—it’s a bad day for the imagination as well.  My new article analyzes this hostile takeover of the American educational system by the “Standardistos,” i.e., bureaucrats more interested in forcing students to follow meaningless rules than in actually exercising their minds.  I explore various ways to stimulate the students’ imaginations in a system specifically designed to do the exact opposite. 

The piece was published by investigative journalist Jon Rappoport on his excellent website, nomorefakenews.com.  Rappoport has this to say about the article:  

"I had to print this article because it’s so important to the future of what we call education, and because it’s so important to the future of freedom and human consciousness.  I would like to see Guffey's article spread far and wide.  I would like to see educators and artists and parents and students and psychologists and everybody and anybody read it thoroughly and ingest it and deal with it--and recognize themselves in it.  I certainly saw myself in it.  I saw in it the great struggle being waged, on both conscious and subconscious levels, as this civilization tries to come to terms with, understand, accept, deny what imagination really and profoundly means."
If you would like to read the entirety of "The War Against the Imagination," click HERE.

2019 UPDATE:  DUE TO JON RAPPOPORT'S WEBSITE BEING TAKEN DOWN, YOU CAN NOW FIND "THE WAR AGAINST THE IMAGINATION" BY CLICKING HERE. 

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