¶ … Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, by John W. Dean: Implications for Modern American Education
The book Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, by John W. Dean (Little, Brown, 2004) has as its central theme the excessive secrecy of what Dean calls the "Bush-Cheney presidency (xi) or the "Bush and Cheney presidency" (21)since, according to Dean, Cheney, not Bush, often makes key decisions. Dean asserts that "in many ways it is a co-presidency" (11), with Bush as the front man, and Cheney, being the actual decision-maker, preferring the shadows. Both men are excessively secretive, and their secretiveness, argues Dean, threatens democracy, liberty, and public accountability, and also encourages incompetence by allowing Bush and Cheney to escape public scrutiny (185-88). Moreover, Dean portends the potentially harmful effects the Bush-Cheney presidency has had, and may continue to have, on the rights and protections of average American citizens, and on the constitutional divisions and checks and balances of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government (ix-xvii). Although the central theme of this book does not relate directly to modern American education, educators, students, and others interested in American education today can gain insight from this book about the kind of historical and other reflection; skepticism; examination of facts and inferences; and critical thinking necessary in American education today in order to protect our basic rights as citizens from the real danger of erosion posed by the Bush-Cheney presidency.
Dean's central comparison and stated reason for writing this book (ix) is to compare the excessive secrecy of the Bush-Cheney White House to that of the Nixon White House, of which he was himself a part. Dean states, in his Preface, that Bush and Cheney have created "the most secretive presidency of my lifetime" (ix), thus the book's title. Examples of that secrecy that are unusual for those in such high office are the secrecy surrounding Cheney's health and the public reassurances that Cheney has no serious heart problems, even after several heart attacks, and the secrecy about the first 41 years of Bush's life, including his problems with alcohol, National Guard service record,...
These case studies make the student's situations more clear to the reader, and can help them identify similar situations in their own classrooms, when they occur. For example, she includes many techniques teachers can use to help students that might be in chaos, from "metaphor stories" (Payne, 2005, pg. 111) to how to provide the right emotional resources to students who are unfamiliar with them (Payne, 2005, pg. 86).
Fifth, the NCLB is devoid of any meaningful consequences for failing to achieve federal objectives other than the publication of such failures in conjunction with the rights of parents to request transfers of their children to better-performing academic institutions (Darling-Hammond 2004). Critics have suggested that the most likely result of enforcement of such limited consequences for noncompliance is the overcrowding of institutions who fulfill the federal requirements to their detriment
Education In the wake of the recent globalization, education has emerged as one of the most necessary tools for the field. For globalization to be realized on a large scale, the public has to be well conversant in matters concerning education. However, this has come to pass just a mirage, owing to the poor standards of education amongst some sectors of the public. Immigrants have suffered the most, and it is
Education Both Woodson (1933) and Howard (2001) agree that the education system in the United States is inherently biased, and that it does not serve the needs or interests of the African-American community. Blacks are systematically excluded from history and the construction of pedagogy in schools. Furthermore, Woodson (1933) points out that there have been few opportunities for African-Americans to join established professions. The message has been that blacks do not
Education Richard Rodriguez and Mike Rose both write about their education. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," Mike Rose recounts his experience in Catholic school as an Italian-American from a working class family background. Because of a school error, he was placed in the vocational tract at school. The experience taught Rose a lot about the low expectations place on students, the lack of effective role models in the classroom, and
) The State of Education in Third World Countries Third World countries, by definition, include the poorest and the most underdeveloped. Most of them, therefore, are severely lacking in most development indicators including education and literacy levels. So even though, it is now universally recognized that education is the most cost-effective factor in improving the quality of life, both at the individual and at the collective level, millions of people in poor,
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