We call this Education?
One of my students had a homework assignment today which sort of boiled my blood. The assignment for her US Government class was to write an essay about the US Electoral College. Specifically, they were required to explain why the electoral college is not an appropriate tool for our presidential election process and why the reasons the Founding Fathers chose this process are not relevant today. Each student had to choose one alternative "choice", from a list of 5, and explain why the new method would remedy the flaws in the system and be "more democratic".
Now, I understand that there are many people in our country today who do not understand the Electoral College, and many who do understand it but do not think it is the best way to elect our president. But there were reasons that the Founding Fathers chose this system over all of the the other options, and most (all?...I don't necessarily know all of the reasons) of those reasons are just as pertinent (if not more) to today's world as they were when the Constitution was written...something about the "tyranny of the majority".
I don't really want to get into the pros and cons of the electoral college here. I will say that though I am not always an opponent of change, I do not think change for that sake of change is a good thing. I also think we should tread very lightly in our country when we discuss abolishing integral parts of our nation's Constitution. But, all this aside, doesn't this sound more like Propaganda than Education? Did I mention that this is for a US Government class? Ok, that's all.
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule,
where fifty-one percent of the people may take away
the rights of the other forty-nine. ~Thomas Jefferson
voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb
contesting the vote! ~Benjamin Franklin, 1759
3 comments:
Oh my goodness. It was hard not to shudder. Actually, I did shudder. My Dad and I were just talking about this, and about how, as our nation continues to collect people in cities, the electoral college actually becomes more imporant. More than ever, those living in rural areas are threatened by a huge majority of people living in cities who don't understand the nature and essence of rural life. It is my understanding that some of the purpose of the electoral college was to protect the country folks from the city folks, so to speak.
There is a book I've been wanting to read. I am now resolved more than ever to read it: The Importance of the Electoral College by Dr. George Grant.
Yes, and more specifically to protect small states from big ones...to maintain the federal/state balance that is at the heart of the structure of our government.
I'll have to check out the book.
This site actually had some good info under the "pros" section, not complete, but a start.
Sounds like an assignment I would have had in high school. I'm afraid that most government teachers feel that it is their right to indoctrinate their students according to their views.
Post a Comment