Commonplace Book #245

The existence of millions of fellow citizens who believe in “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories strongly suggests that our schools aren’t producing enough science-savvy and tough minded realists. What seems most necessary right now is an enhanced education in what might be called critical empiricism: what facts are, how science works, what ‘”truth” means, and how to detect lies. We need to encourage teachers to engage with their students on these issues in everything they teach, from biology and physics to history and English. This is probably more urgent than teaching about diversity, or identity, or even critical race theory (a good subject for a college course). We should, of course, provide our schools with textbooks that tell the truth about slavery, about the failure of Reconstruction and the long history of racial discrimination, about anti-immigrant nativism, and about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II–but also about the remarkable persistence of democratic institutions in the United States for two and a half centuries. Teachers need to tell the truth, all of it, and teach it in a way that also teaches truth-telling.”

Michael Walzer, The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” As An Adjective, 27-28.

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