During the past four years, we have witnessed a dramatic erosion of norms, ethics, and civility, under the reign of a president who prided himself on having no allegiance to any of those requirements of life in a democracy. Norms, ethics, and civility were cast aside as encumbrances, like nuisances.
Nancy Flanagan writes here about the role of these unspoken, assumed practices in our lives. How they are sometimes constraints, sometimes naught but prejudices that we absorbed in our families. She describes the evolution in her own thinking and explains why education is so important is raising our understanding of what is required of us to live in peace with others.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Beautifully written remembrance. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Nancy, very eloquent statement.
As I write twice a month columns published by a number of suburban & rural Mn newspapers, I hear regularly from many folks living in those communities. (I live in St Paul) Many, but not all voted for Trump. Here’s some of what I learned listening to them
Many have little if any contact with America Indian and people of color. One task educators could take on would be to reach out to colleagues in other parts of their state, and arrange zoom meetings with students from other communities. *
Many feel people living in cities look down on them. I’ve tried to highlight some great things happening in their schools, district & charter to give them recognition.
Many agree Trump is an immoral jerk (or worse). But they strongly oppose abortion and credit him for putting people on the Supreme Court who they believe will approve restrictions some state legislatures will adopt. Since I’m pro choice both before a child and after the child is born, I have not found a way to resolve this.
Many feel helpless to have a positive impact. John Merrow has written about the role of schools to help all youngsters learn “how they are intelligent” rather than “how intelligent are they” according to standardized tests. I think Merrow is 100% right.
Thoughts welcome on effective ways to move ahead. Thanks for considering this. Eager to hear your thoughts.
St. Paul-Minneapolis Bishop Hebda stated that the Minnesota Catholic Conference advised him that he had the authority to prohibit his priests from voting in the 2020 Democratic primary.
The abortion issue doesn’t exist in a vacuum (btw, it’s a fetus not a child until it’s born). The anti-abortion agenda of conservative religious is aligned with authoritarianism and discrimination against women- overt practices of the Catholic Church. Robert P. George, author of the Manhattan Declaration, described the thinking that birth control has a link to promiscuity. The USCCB gave $2,000,000 to a clinic network that exclusively promotes a birth control method that has a 25% failure rate.
A review of the color-coded map at the reproductive rights website shows which countries prevent abortion. Those who visit the site can form their own judgements about the difference between backwards nations and advanced nations. William Barr who wants religion introduced at every opportunity led the Justice Dept. when capital punishment was re-introduced for federal crimes.
Praising oneself for piety when it is in truth self-interest in maintaining
entitlement mocks God.
Linda, as a long time contributor to Planned Parenthood, I agree with you and strongly disagree with the action you described and other actions by the Catholic church on this and many other issues.
True, that last statement
Second what Roy wrote.
Trump spits on norms, ethics, and civility. They are mere encumbrances to be cast aside in his pursuit of wealth and power. Lying on a massive scale and bizarre fantasy thinking are the norm for Trump and his gang of stooges. Trump & Co. are stoking the fires of division, violence and insurrection, the overthrow of norms, ethics, civility and democracy itself.
Social civility in discourse and actions, yes! Neoliberal, corporate-led bipartisanship in politics, no.
Example- CAP’s board chair creating the BiPartisan Policy Center which takes money from John Arnold and Gates for its sessions on education policy
I think Nancy is tacitly referring to aspects of what is commonly called the “hidden curriculum.”
The problem NOW, it seems, is that, first, do we even start with an acceptable range of norms, ethics, and civility coming into the classroom from the family? And second, when students get to school, what have they seen but a sustained omission of anything resembling their development of or regard for their humanity . . . coupled with a systematic emphasis on tech, math, the sciences, etc. <–These are essential; but not all by themselves or at the expense of whole-child development.
The only assumption students can come away with is: those civil, ethical, and social norms must not be important.
I’d like to see a study of Trump voters where they were asked some serious questions about the kind of education they had growing up. What, I wonder, is the hidden curriculum now?
Here are what I think are the best snips from her article:
“They are still following community norms. It seems to me that what’s missing is a genuine education—accompanied by a widespread terror that education will change minds and hearts. . . . .Having access to a top-flight university library was key to any transformative impact on my character. . . . Calling for civil behavior before untangling the moral questions that emerged from this election is silly. We have some educating to do.“
Tolerance. Is it tolerable to tolerate the intolerant when they are attempting to deny tolerance towards and destroy, whether physically or psychologically, others?
An absolute NO!
The only thing a bully (the intolerant) understands is a far greater force against their bullying (intolerance) behavior. Playing nice with the intolerant almost always nets more intolerance.
Is intolerance real? Or is it a shield to block people from seeing the real insecurity of an individual? Does a philosophical bully really believe what he says he does at the depth he claims?
I think many people who claim absolutes are too tentative in their own faith to accept opposition to their views precisely because they either do not really hold those views or wonder deeply if they hold them. This may manifest itself as the staunch and unmoving, but it is really evidence of a house upon sand, teetering toward the rushing river of time.
We have slowly devolved into a corporatocracy. Free market capitalism is the law of the jungle, eat or be eaten Lying, cheating and polluting are great as long as you don’t get caught. Trump, looking for preemptive pardons, is a perfect example what is wrong with this country. We are selling out democracy to the 1% and corporations.
Most of the middle and working class are tired of being forgotten, and they do not want to see capitalism take priority over people. Most of the public believes in civility, ethics and a moral code. Unless we temper our hyper-capitalism, our democracy is in jeopardy and our collective future is looking grim.
retired On that, this from the Washington Post this morning:
“America’s biggest companies flourished during the pandemic, but put 100,000 out of work and rewarded investors, analysis shows
“Between April and September, one of the most tumultuous economic stretches in modern history, 45 of the 50 most valuable publicly traded U.S. companies turned a profit, a Washington Post analysis found.
“At least 27 of the 50 largest firms laid off employees this year, cutting more than 100,000 workers. Meanwhile, the top 50 firms collectively distributed more than $240 billion to shareholders during that time.” CBK
Laying off workers and pay top leaders huge salaries is obscene.
Joe Nathan Somehow, those who can afford to own stock also seem to get a “pass.”
The stock market created a clear economic distinction that seems to be made of Teflon where moral, political and even cultural responsibility are concerned. CBK
But, but, but the free market is just doing its job!
Duane “The Market” has forgotten that companion text to Wealth of Nations . . . you know, the one on Moral Sentiments. CBK
Joe-
Really?
You don’t recognize the parallel when Minnesota charter school operators/principals award themselves a 50% premium to market for their work while their credentials wouldn’t get them hired at a school with a community elected school board?
Linda, some Mn charter schools are led by licensed teachers or administrators who left district public schools to work in them. Some of the schools are in a “teacher led” model which means there is no “principal” – the school is run by a group of teachers, something like a farmer cooperative. A few are led by people with extensive experience in either on-profit or for profit world.
Fortunately Mn charter law gives the same flexibility to district schools if they are willing to have performance contracts similar to those in the charter sector.
Salaries of charters: The Mn Association of Charters does a survey every 2-3 years about salaries of teacher leaders and directors. In general, they receive about the same or less than principals in comparable district schools. A few receive more.
Joe, this is not your blog. Stop taking up so much space with multiple comments. Paul Peterson explained that we can thank you for turning the charter idea into an entrepreneurial non-union, anti-union industry. Think of how many public schools are underfunded because of competition with charter schools that cream off the students they want. Shameful.
Joe Nathan Several metaphors apply here with your arguments about the seemingly innocuous or even qualified nature of charter schools and derivatives of them.
One is: the argument hides the sickness in the forest for a few wonderful trees; or perhaps “. . . said one lemming to the other” . . . ; or a more conspicuous cliche’: “Like putting lipstick on a pig.” And then there are the horses in Animal Farm, who willingly work themselves to death in their zeal to do true good, while the utterly careless masters make hay. Oh, yes, and then there’s: A rose by any other name smells as sweet or, in this case, and in relation to a democracy, charter schools stink like rotting fish and always will, on principle; and businesses by any other name do not correlate with providing a democratic education, no matter how you hide their purpose or dress them up to look like “non profit.”
We’ve all been discussing the WHY of that last fact on this, Diane’s blog, for a very long time; and we’ve been referencing books, articles, and videos to explore and explain. So I won’t go into it here AGAIN. But I will say this: If you want a schools system where all questions are open for debate, except for SOME questions, . . . you know, like the one’s about the owners, the CEO’s, the products, the profit, etc., or a system that is sort of like sending children to a marketing meeting, networking party, or a propaganda camp, then you might want to move to China or someplace similar.
I suggest you go back to school and try to get a grip on what a democracy is all about. CBK
Dr. Ravitch,
Joe was asked a direct question. Would it be best for the narrative being constructed here that such questions not be answered?
Ground rules before discussion (1) off the table- privatization of common goods and (2) no space at the discussion table for (a) self-appointed experts who take money from Gates, Walton heirs, etc. (b) for religious schools grasping for money and (c) for anti-worker scum. The preceding are like Trump, sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.
Linda As you might guess, I’m not against religious schools or some private schools, like, for instance, Catholic schools and Montessori . . . . I haven’t closely studied how these kinds of schools survived early on but I know very few who criticize the kind of education these schools harbor.
But many have been around for a VERY long time and worked well in their earlier context . . . that was BEFORE the neo-liberal rich decided that public institutions were fare game for their lobbying tactics, intrusive capitalization, and correlate denigration of all-things-public (not to mention truly democratic). Whatever private schools do or don’t do, they need to have a sunshine policy and be under strict control . . . critical aligned curricula, secular laws, and workers’ rights, etc.
I know, back then, parents had to pay for their children’s education at these schools, however; and I was never happy with how the Catholic schools treated their secular teachers (I taught there for awhile); which apparently even now is not a settled issue for the Church and its critics . . . I do know that, presently, there are some active critics who shine a light on the basic tenets of Christianity and how the Church doesn’t measure up to them in that treatment.
I am Catholic, however, and also take the longer view where politics is concerned; so don’t put the above in a different view and assume innuendo or what I have NOT said. CBK
100% agreed.
From Nancy’s response to a commenter on her blog. And my response to hers:
“Biden seems ready to try to lead the country in a moral direction.”
I don’t see that at all considering his past political stances/history. I see it as:
“Biden seems ready to try to continue to lead the country in an immoral direction.”
The direction in which we’ve been heading since Reagan and Clinton combined to cement the neoliberal dogma in place. The same one Biden has been a part of all these years. It seems that you have been so caught up in the “norms and civility” of the political class-Democrat style, that you decry in your cogent article that you can’t see that neoliberal false ethics.
Duane, are you suggesting that Joe Biden has the same ethics as Trump?
If so, I disagree.
How ethical is it to be part of an administration that fought to extend the Iraq War even beyond the timeline imposed by the Bush administration? An administration that started four new wars in addition to the wars they continued? An administration whose drones killed over 90% civilians? An administration that assassinated U.S. citizens, including a 16 year old one?
How ethical is it to support segregationists and oppose busing and then turn around and pose as a champion of civil rights? How ethical is it to brag about signing “ever major crime bill” that has led to astronomical rates of incarceration, particularly among poor people of color? How ethical is it to lie about doing sit-ins at lunch counters and being arrested for trying to meet Nelson Mandela?
How ethical is it to yell at a bunch of esteemed civil rights leaders like they’re children? How ethical is it to say “you ain’t black” to black people who don’t vote for you (at the same time you tell people who challenge you to “go vote for someone else”)?
Speaking of lies, how ethical is it to lie about the innocent truck driver involved in your wife’s death when the accident was your wife’s fault? How ethical is it to call the man who tried to save your wife a drunk driver?
How ethical is it to grope, sniff and sexually harass women and girls while pretending to be a champion of women? How ethical is it to allow the MeToo Movement to be destroyed to protect your own “decency”?
How ethical is it to vote for bill after bill handing money and protections over to the insurance industry, the credit card industry, the fossil fuel industry, major polluters like DuPont while they bankrupt, illegally foreclose on and poison people? How ethical is it to then turn around and say we have to cut Social Security because we can’t afford it?
How ethical is it to deny people healthcare during a pandemic, stimulus payments during a financial crisis and a Green New Deal during a climate apocalypse?
How is it ethical to allow your son to take a six-figure (or more) salary job that he’s clearly not qualified for and trade off his influence and your name?
Biden has a long history of warmongering, racism/segregationism and support for greedy corporations while imposing more and more austerity on suffering Americans. All of this and much more is documented. I’ve posted dozens of links and there are many, many more out there. In fact, liberals themselves were saying all of this about Biden before he became the candidate.
Sure, Trump is trash, but we all knew that. At least Trump is honest about his trashiness and doesn’t pretend to be restoring the “soul of the nation”. Sure, Biden doesn’t tweet mean things (just ridiculous, false platitudes), but that’s the main difference between the two. Whatever unethical actions you can accuse Trump of, you can find the same with Biden. And sure, maybe Biden isn’t quite as bad (he’s only been accused by 8 women instead of twenty-something like Trump, for instance), but is Trump the bar? Is Trump the yardstick for how you measure acceptable behavior? Or should we maybe stop and reflect that if it’s unethical for Trump to do it, it’s simply unethical to do it at all?
dienne77 Twisted. CBK
CBK,
I wrote this elsewhere, but this post reflects the dangerous memes pushed by the far right in which every compromise and every statement by a Democrat through his or her long life is equated with the true corruption and neo-fascism of Trump as enabled by the Republican party.
This is what the far right has done to AOC, accusing her of hypocrisy and saying “she’s no different than Trump”. This is what the far right does to Bernie, saying “his wife and stepson benefited from his position, Bernie is just like Trump and his stepson is just like Hunter Biden.”
Neoliberalism is not about false ethics, it is about a false belief that a type of policy will work. There are individual neoliberals who are corrupt and only serve their corporate masters, and there are individual neoliberals who see it as a compromise between far right ideology and progressive policies.
Biden has made wrong votes and supported policies that turned out wrong, but one who bothered to look at the complexities understands that there were reasons, which is why it is the older African Americans who were alive and paying attention when Biden supported supposedly “racist” policies who don’t buy into the lie pushed by white folks that Biden is an unrepentant racist and always has been.
Is it hypocrisy for a white progressive to send their kid to a private school instead of enrolling them in a school that is 90% African American? Are those white progressives racist? There is a lot of selective outrage among those white progressives who were not bothered by Trump’s racism and see it as no different than Biden’s.
Duane-
We can’t be judged by what our adult children (or siblings do).
However, Trump’s kids didn’t fall far from the tree. Biden’s brother and son, Hunter, use the political position of Joe Biden for substantial personal gain at the expense of the U.S. and of people like the Ukrainians. Joe could clarify his statement that he respects his son, by limiting it to Hunter’s success in fighting addiction.
Joe Biden is in a league much higher than Donald Trump. He follows society’s norms and those of the Presidency.
I would argue that the country was never moral — not from day one.
How can anyone be moral? Humans, by virtue of their inability to see the future, are doomed to suffer the mistakes they make when they decide incorrectly. The road to humanity is pave with unintended consequences.
So we need redemption and forgiveness, whether that be a part of our religion or a part of our ethics. Not one of us will ever attain absolute moral correctness.
What is good about our country is that we are allowed to meet here and talk about it without fear of being hounded by the powerful for our thoughts. What is bad about our country is the degree to which our thoughts are guided by the irrational fear of being human.
Exactly. Not from the day the real foreigners, immigrants, stole the lands from the Native Americans.
This probably won’t be in the right place, either, but my “Exactly…” comment (below Roy’s) was in response to yours, SDP.
Duane,
We have been heading in that direction since Jimmy Carter. Why did you leave out Carter, who single handedly ruined progressivism with his embrace of the neoliberal agenda? Carter’s undermining the progressive agenda is the reason that some of the most progressive democratic senators went down to a shocking defeat in 1980.
I knew, just as you know now, that Carter was very dangerous and it was more important to defeat Carter (to save progressivism) than to defeat Reagan. I talked about Ted Kennedy as the progressive savior and I knew that if only Ted Kennedy had defeated Carter in the primary, he would have easily won the presidency against Reagan and saved progressivism.
I was wrong. Progressive saviors who win the presidency is not why this country had progressive legislation before Jimmy Carter undermined it. It was convincing the public to support progressive ideas so that non-progressive Democrats like FDR, Truman, and LBJ helped advance the progressive agenda.
Ethics: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/biden-inaugural-committee-unveils-fundraising-packages.html
I will be the first to admit however, this is the norm.
It was the norm in 1964 when LBJ was inaugurated. Many decades ago I saw someone’s invitation to one of the LBJ/Hubert Humphrey Inaugural ball, which they had saved. I asked how they (not famous, living in the middle of nowhere) got an invite, and they explained that their company donated a lot of money and a few top executives got to attend.
I’m sure it happened in the Truman and FDR era, too.
Fortunately, that had nothing to do with whether their administrations enacted progressive legislation.
Harry S. Truman didn’t go into politics because he wanted to enrich himself and his donors. LBJ didn’t go into politics because he wanted to enrich himself and his donors. Joe Biden didn’t become president because he wanted to enrich himself and his donors. They all wanted to do some good.
Can you REALLY say the same about Trump, Mitch McConnell, or any of the newly elected sycophantic right wing, Qanon embracing Republicans? One party is totally corrupt and the other may arguably have a few totally corrupt members, but is there to do some good for people other than their donors.
Also, while he was president of the US, Jimmy Carter’s brother was paid what was an extraordinary amount of money at the time to work for Libya — Billy Carter’s lack of qualifications for being Libya’s agent make Hunter Biden look like the most qualified man in history.
Billy Carter was also paid – during the Jimmy Carter presidency – to endorse various products like beer.
Compared to Billy Carter, Joe Biden’s brother is relatively tame.
(But I admit I bought into the propaganda about Billy Carter’s big paydays proving that Jimmy Carter was the most corrupt and money-hungry politician in history, and I ranted about how the most important thing for this country was to defeat Carter even if it meant that Reagan won, because I was absolutely certain that there was no difference between Carter and Reagan.)
I got woke after just a year or two of Reagan. I hope that 4 years of Trump woke you.
Had Jimmy Carter been re-elected and Reagan gone down to defeat, there still would have been many problems that the Carter Administration did not solve. But it would have been better for the progressive movement had Jimmy Carter defeated Reagan. Maybe you disagree.
Politicians raise money. That is the norm.