Thinking Space
The Congress of the Congress of the United States, which shocked the world on January 6, 2021, has caused a series of reflection in the US higher education community.These multi -angle and multi -faceted reflection and its significance deserve more attention from society.
According to the US Higher Education Chronicle, after the incident, some presidents of the United States university issued a joint statement quickly to actively reflect on the problems of higher education, and believe that some university graduates participated in the riots of the Temple of the attack system, symbolizing "morality morality"Failure", and the transformation of higher education should be responsible for this failure.
The principal believes that the higher education community should have become a major balance force in the government. With the image of a reliable defender of the truth and knowledge, it opposes the corruption and manipulation of the truth; but in recent yearsFew college presidents dare to stand up and challenge the overwhelming official lies.Their silence condoned the spread of the greatest lie: With the growth of African and Western populations, the population advantage of white people is rapidly disappearing.
President pointed out that the large -scale fear caused by this lie in some American people is the root cause of riots on January 6; and racial hatred and white supremacy have brought great motivation to mobs.The principal asked himself that if the president of the university did not dare to tell the truth because he had to please certain social forces, how would they educate their students?
From this, reflection has entered another level, that is, the current higher education is guided by more utilitarian and less transcendence value, and its "true purpose" is in a vacuum state.American society has continuously guided students to pay attention to the ranking of the core after graduation, encouraging students to choose those majestic majors, so that the university is gradually around money, loses their goals and public responsibilities, no longer vigorously advocate some principles, and no longer really is really for it.The common interest service of the public.The principal specifically pointed out that they must be more persistently called on "race justice", because the purpose of the university is to cultivate leaders who guide the public.
Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, said in an interview that the university represents the search of knowledge, and the premise of this search is the common determination of the facts.He said in a separate statement that in the process of restoring order, he must rely on education to complete the urgent needs of the United States and become a civic preparedness.
The principal of the author's university pointed out in the email of all teachers and students that the school condemned violence and stood with members of those who faithfully served the country to reiterate the school's commitment to adhere to the ideal of social justice and its realization.The principal announced that higher education is a basic component of American democracy and continues to cultivate civical-mined citizenry with citizen consciousness.
In my opinion, a series of statements of the president of the United States university in January 2021 marks the university's important reorganization and positioning of its own nature and role.Judging from a political theory Francis Fukuyama in October 2020, the political tendency of leaders of the US higher education community is roughly in line with its basic definition of liberalism.
In Fukuyama's pen, the basic values of liberalism include tolerance, because classical liberalism was originally a solution proposed as a diversified society.As a result, liberalism must protect diverse, support anyone to give anyone equal rights, and is closely connected to property rights, economic growth, and modernization; and a liberal country usually does not tell how to live in themselves.What should be good in life and how a individual should pursue happiness.
However, under the score of liberalism, the reflection of the president of the United States university is more in line with the many characteristics of the reflection type "Progressives on the Left" described by Fushan.Compared to absolute individual freedom, the left -wing progressive faction pays more attention to equality, oppose racism, gender discrimination, and prejudice to homosexuality; these unfair attitudes always exist in a society that pursues traditional liberalism.
In other words, the principle of classical and religious freedom as the initial demand has not been able to accurately and in -depth actual questions such as the gender, race and sexual orientation of the current society.Therefore, universities must be committed to eliminating social injustice in this sense.
In fact, the words logic of the president of the university almost inaccurate to "unfairness", and drives white people under the fear of distorted facts as a ask for demands.EssenceThis is also their qualitative to the incident on January 6.
When many private universities in the United States have the tolerance of diversified orientation become the mainstream, and this trend is conflicting with the church background in school history and its conservative principles, the current professor group tends to be decoupled from churches that coexist for many years.To maintain the emerging principle of tolerance.
The principal's reflection on the function of college shows that the democratic freedom they understand is not an infinite expansion and abuse of the principle of individual priority, let alone accept the consciousness of narrow ethnic groups and aggressiveness.The populism, but hopes to build freedom on the citizenship after higher education and training.This group has a full consciousness of citizenship, respects procedures, focuses on the combination of rights and obligations, and respects the rights of multiple and minority groups.
Due to this ideal with strong equality, American universities have repeatedly conducted training on faculty and students on equality, anti -discrimination and tolerance, and also started to "power, privileges, differences" in curriculum settings and electives.(Power, Privilege, and Different), as the category and unified label of related courses, I hope that in addition to the process of studying universities as investment and returns, students also maintain a diverse worldview and macro pattern through some critical social science courses.And a certain moral feeling.
The author believes that the US high education community still uses "liberalism" as the background and has never given up the defending of academic freedom, but its social ideal is to pursue a "high -quality" freedom after the pursuit of contemporary elite education.
The author is an associate professor at the Department of History of Algney College, Pennsylvania
