Ethical Relativism

Bloom is concerned that even American's best and brightest college students enter college believing in ethical relativism û meaning there are no moral imperatives of moral and ethical absolutes. According to S.J.D. Green, Bloom lavishly praised the stuffy, elitist, and detached academics of the past as good for democracy. He condemned the open, free-thinking, egalitarian university curriculum of the present as being bad for students, bad for society, bad for education and bad for the American democracy. Green offers this clarification: Bloom was never an admirer of American universities. He believed that even Ivy League schools such as Cornell, where he taught, never performed their duty as institutions of higher learning to educate college students well. Bloom added that in his opinion, universities had stopped even trying to educate students (28).

Bloom suggests a cure for America's mala

. . .
he was reading and studying was of little practical value, and was of interest to only a handful of academicians. Rodriguez came to the realization that his dissertation, something he viewed at times as of the greatest importance, was of even less use than the books he read and studied. He concluded that his attempt to obtain a classical education was in fact a form of social withdrawal. Realizing his mistake, Rodriguez abandoned his goal of academic distinction. He returned to America to rebuild a relationship with his parents. His goal became to build bridges and mend fences between himself, his parents, and his cultural legacy. Rodriguez' experience, while a single example, points out that a classical education is not a cure-all for the ills of society, for prejudice, for ignorance, and poverty. Paulo Freer was a political scientist and educator who believed that education was a way out for the poor. M.B. Ramos writes in Reading Today that Paulo Freire believed that literacy could help liberate oppressed people by enabling them to think critically about their lives and the problems in their society. Today, programs using Freire's approach focus on collaborative relationships between students and teachers. Curriculum
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ivy League, Mark Edmundson, Bloom Freire, Studying England, American Mind, Western Europe, Paulo Freire, Pedagogy Oppressed, Green Bloom, Rodriguez Mexican-American, american students, college students, classical education, bloom suggests, western civilization, pedagogy oppressed, edmundson adds, college education, education classics, richard rodriguez, freire's pedagogy oppressed, convergence 311 1998, closing american mind, clean slate allan, slate allan bloom,
Approximate Word count = 1866
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Ethical Relativism