Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
My son has signed up for Advanced Placement US Government and Politics. He has to choose from one of the following three books:
The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria
Hardball by Chris Matthews
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
Right off the bat it's got my knickers in a twist. Of the three authors I've got two "journalists" with their heads so far up the President's backside it isn't funny. The latter was suspended from Mount Holyoke College for a year for claiming to be a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne in Viet Nam when he never left the classroom in West Point.
I haven't met this teacher but already she's suspect in her choices.
Now, my wife lovingly refers to me as "The First in Line to be Hung." Should I get in line on this issue and volunteer to take the hangman's noose or keep quiet and just help him choose the lesser of the two? (And I say "two" because Hardball is definitely out!)
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Comments:
Jan '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I don't know how you should advise your son ... but any "advanced placement" history course that considers Chris Matthews as an authority is probably not worth worrying about.
If Chris Matthews is advanced placement ... God, I'm afraid of who they use in normal placement. Ed Schultz? A fourth grader? (But I repeat myself.)
May '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
It's not history, it's government. Matthews was successful staffer on Capitol Hill. He knows how the place works. But so do a lot of conservatives.
That's what got my ire up. It shows that the teacher comes from a leftist perspective. If I were the teacher I would demand that the kids read two books, one from each side.
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
KC Mulville: I don't know how you should advise your son ... but any "advanced placement" history course that considers Chris Matthews as an authority is probably not worth worrying about.
If Chris Matthews is advanced placement ... God, I'm afraid of who they use in normal placement. Ed Schultz? A fourth grader? (But I repeat myself.) · 2 minutes ago
Seriously. I'd be more upset about the quality of two of those books than about the liberalism in them.
May '12
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I have to agree with most of the postings here. The Ellis work is solid despite the embarrassing resume enhancement that came out with its publication. I also agree with your limits as Matthews is just a joke really. Zakaria would provide a decent foil for lively dinner table conversation. Depending upon where your son's views stand , I find it easier to debate and explain alternatives than just validate a thesis. Also, if this is your oldest child get used to such reading lists. They will get progessively worse (pun intended) as he matriculates. At least with AP, he can avoid some of it AND will likely get more substance than at the university level, as the curriculum is MUCH more demanding and regulated in AP. He may even have to read our Constitution! (the horror!!!!) Have fun!
Jun '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
The Ellis book is fine. The Zakaria might be worth choosing just because it is a relatively intelligent liberal argument that's worth grappling with.
Chris Matthews reminds me a bit of my dad: a patriotic JFK Democrat who came completely undraveled by Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Oct '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Fight, man! Don't accept the premise!
You'll be teaching him the most important lesson of "US Government and Politics."
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
dittoheadadt: Fight, man! Don't accept the premise!
You'll be teaching him the most important lesson of "US Government and Politics." · 2 minutes ago
I agree. After my siblings and I left Lutheran school for public school, my dad got *much* more involved in oversight of our curriculum and such. He never hesitated to get my back when I fought something ridiculous in the classroom and he explained to teachers that they were not to subvert our family values. I loved how involved he was and it made me feel very loved and cared for. And he taught me how to effectively debate and stand up for myself, too.
May '12
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Parents who do not carefully examine what is being taught at the schools they send their children are fools.
At best, the schools and the parents are in accord. But that has nothing to do with the parents who don't look into what is being taught.
Schools can be innocuous. Again, nothing to do with the parents if they didn't do their homework.
Or schools can be inimical to what the parents believe (a very good reason to be careful about sending your children to a religious school that is not in line with your faith without a close examination of what they teach). In which case, how much hope of success can parents hold of passing on their beliefs and values to their children?
So even without those three books, caution is best.
Oh yes, parents who hold beliefs that are not mainstream (say, Creationism) do have the right to try and find schools where their beliefs are respected.
Crosby Stills & Nash have something to say about this. Not as much as they'd like, or exactly what they intended, but yes, they do have a point.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 5:12pmJun '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
AUDad & I had the policy of reading assigned books to be ready for questions. It worked well. We asked AUSon what he thought of the assignment and went from there. He learned to think for himself and we relaxed.
On a side note, Founding Brothers is a good book. We all listened to it on a road trip. We then had to scare up a few more biographies because we wanted more.
Sep '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
EJHill,
The question to ask is: do you want to win the battle or the war? You need to come up armed with ten times the material that the teacher has, and make sure to reference comparable courses at the University and College level (start with Hillsdale, for example) to support your case. Then, make sure that both the teacher and the principal know about it, but do it in such a manner that your son isn't singled out for reprisals.
If you really want to put a stick in someone's eye, he or you should write a protest letter and have it published somewhere prominent on the web (The Claremont Institute would be a nice touch) and to really go nuclear, a letter of agreement with your stance from a prominent academic in the field would be like handing your local priest a personal letter from Pope Benedict XVI addressed to you and sealed in wax.
Basically, you can wage the battle in any way you see fit, but I kind of like Operation Hulk Smash.
Jan '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Founding Brothers was very good.
Aug '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Depending how important it is for your son to get above a certain grade in this course, I would be wary about picking a book that is obviously stupid and tearing it apart, especially if you cite obviously conservative references in doing so.
Teachers have funny ideas as to what constitutes acceptable reference material, and you are graded down heavily if they consider your references unacceptable.
They will say, for example, that your sources can't be biased in any direction (like total lack of bias is humanly possible to begin with!). But they won't be bothered by students who cite Grist and Mother Jones, while citing National Review is beyond the pale. (Not that the teachers' own biases are entirely predictable. I had a history teacher who nixed Scientific American and National Geographic as acceptable sources, too.)
"Founding Brothers" sounds OK. But if all three books were awful, you could consider humbly offering to read something "extra-hard" instead, like the Federalist Papers, or a scholarly biography of a founding figure. Don't give an ideological reason for your request. Just pour on the sugar and say you have a consuming historical interest. Some teachers will let you.
May '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
Second in Line has already read the collective works of Ann Coulter and has his eye on a career in the USMC. I'm not particularly worried about him.
It's the idea that two of the three books are by media "personalities."
Aug '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I would've picked the shortest, easiest one to satire, in sarcasm so dry not even the teacher realized I was actually making fun of it. But, I'm lazy. My guess is Hardball would be the easiest.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 6:05pmMay '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
The Man and I read Founding Brothers many moons ago and really liked it.
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
EJ,
While not worthy of an AP course, you can at least take solace in the fact that each of these works are better than their authors.
"Founding Brothers", as many others have noted here, is a fine work that transcends Professor Ellis's personal shortcomings.
"The Future of Freedom" hails from a time when Fareed Zakaria was a much more substantive thinker, not the poet laureate of the finger-to-the-wind class. It's actually a very thoughtful (though far from flawless) meditation on the tension between liberalism (as classically defined) and democracy. I enjoyed it very much.
As for "Hardball", I think 10 cents is exactly right. The book is very insightful about the inside game of modern politics and it reflects the stage of Chris Matthews' career that preceded what I can only assume was a severe bout of mercury poisoning.
The instructor could do a lot better, but at least it's not Howard Zinn (you'll want to watch your son's college syllabi for that one).
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 8:39pmSep '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
EJHill
Second in Line has already read the collective works of Ann Coulter and has his eye on a career in the USMC. I'm not particularly worried about him.
It's the idea that two of the three books are by media "personalities." · 43 minutes ago
You may want to drop a parchment edition of the Federalist Papers on their desks with a thud and ask what gives.
May '11
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
10 cents: I actually read "Hardball" it did not seem that bad. It came out in 1999. At that time Chris Matthews was a critic of the Clintons and I felt he was an honest broker. Fast forward to 2012 to be charitable he has evolved. For me to think about reading a Chris Matthews book now is unimaginable.
Does anyone else remember a more reasonable Chris Matthews?
Did anyone else read "Hardball"?
Does anyone have any idea why he turned loathsome? · 10 hours ago
Edited 10 hours ago
I thought I was the only member that read Hardball. I don't remember too much about the book except for a few stories about Muskie,Tip O'Neal and LBJ. It was a fairly benign book. I used to like his show when he used to actually challenge his liberal guests. Now he's off the rails and bat liberal crazy.
May '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
A case could be made that Hardball is a real look at politics. But so is Ed Rollins' Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics.
I don't know if the teacher is an ideologue or just starstruck because she's seen two of the three on TV.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 6:57pmAug '10
Re: Need Help or Should I Really Live Up to My Reputation?
I read The Future of Freedom. It wasn't terrible.