Read And Annotate The Attached Article. As You Read, Highlight, Or Underline Key Passages, Examples And Main Ideas; Locate And Mark Important Quotes That You May Be Able To Use In Your Essay Later; And Make Marginal Notes To Question Or Comment On The Tex

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English

Annotated Bibliography

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The War on Education — and Reason.” Time, Sept. 2015. time.com, https://time.com/4046780/kareem-abdul-jabbar-war-on-education/.

The author, Kareem is a retired American basketball player who is also famous as a best-

selling author and cultural critic. In the article “Ignorance vs Reason in the War on Education” the author Kareem argues that among all the intractable crisis America faces today none of it as serious as the unfamiliarity with issues of the world. According to the author, in many educational institutes, students disagree to study the subjects that are related to sensitive topics. This hinders their ability to reason about the issues prevailing in our society. The author also highlighted that students must be taught in a way that they think logically to form their opinions based on facts rather than social influences. Furthermore, students cannot be categorized as true learners if they would consider the outside perspective on their own.

Essay

It is undeniably true that among all the intractable crisis America faces today, none of the issue is as serious as the unfamiliarity with issues of the world. Whether motivated by isolationism, exceptionalism or sheer indifference, the US has failed significantly to equip its citizens to follow the information regarding the national and international crisis and several sensitive issues. Not only, the citizens are well equipped to follow the necessary information required to know about the crisis but they also lack in participating in the formulation and execution of foreign policy that is a vital component of self-government in a modern democracy.

This condition points out the inadequacy of the educational system at every level. In the article Ignorance vs. Reason in the War on Education, the author Kareem also discussed that in our society there is a fear that exposing students with anything that challenges the comfort zone or beliefs can infringe their rights. The author also discussed that, “Teachers are free to explain facts, like how the intestinal tract works, but not to offer ideas that might be unpopular, provocative or disturbing”. The author further argues that Americans should stop rejecting the material and evidence that contradict their perception or viewpoints regarding any issue as this is not beneficial to us as learners. The author has given several examples of students rejecting course contents and utilizing their reasoning as an example of an argument that is merely driven by emotions rather than rational reason. The author further highlighted that not only students but American politicians must demonstrate their ability to reason regarding sensitive issues while also educating themselves on the issues before making important decisions that can influence the country and people living in the country.

Long ago, there was a period when it was a general perception that sensitive issues must be left to a small team of experts and a few educational institutes. Also, sensitive issues were not considered important in routine political disclosures and therefore people were not interested in learning more about them. According to the author, political correctness on the campuses of educational institutes is extremely poisonous because subjects like liberal arts and humanities are degraded when in reality the educators’ research and teach what many conservative people believe are trivial subjects.

The author Kareem also discussed the same issue according to him educational institutes provide a perfect learning environment in which students can learn not only about traditional topics but they should be made aware of the issues that are prevailing in our society. Also, students must be taught in a way that they think logically to form their opinions based on facts rather than on social influences. Furthermore, students cannot be categorized as true learners if they will consider the outside perspective on their own.

A healthy democracy is dependent upon the knowledgeable discourse for survival however, the information presented to an individual in educational institutes can lead him or her to struggle to reach an informed decision on multiple issues. The author Kareem further added that “Embracing reason is an uphill battle for humans”. This is because people typically discards information that contradicts their beliefs and social values. Despite having a powerful tool is known as the internet and several other educational tools ever invented, many people still use these tools to confirm conclusions regarding the beliefs they have been taught in their entire life. Also, people focus more on the content on the internet that aligns with their beliefs rather than focusing on the counter-arguments as well.

The author Kareem also discussed that just going to educational institutes and attaining traditional education will not illuminate an individual’s critical thinking ability as students prefer emotional rhetoric to reasoned argumentation. He further argued that reading about several sensitive issues or global crisis can facilitate an individual in making informed decisions. Also, reading is not about what is provided in the books or on the internet but in educational institutes, reading is about the context that a teacher provides. So it is important to learn more about social issues rather than traditional education.

Although, there is no easy cure for the fundamental problem that is a lack of student’s willingness to learn and reason about sensitive issues and even no urgent online education courses or discussions in the educational institutes will make students change their perceptions. Also, it will not be easy to persuade Americans to understand the sensitivity of the problem however, students must learn the world from a broad perspective while also attaining the international sensibility regarding sensitive issues so that they may be able to reason about the socially influence beliefs that are taught to them throughout their life. The main point of the author is that students and politicians must give a chance to learn more about sensitive issues so that the perception they have regarding these issues can be changed.