Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Men And Women Sexual Harassment - 1,847 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Undermining Political Correctness When we talk of John Taylor Gatto's Dumbening Us Down and David Mamet's play Oleanna, it cannot escape our attention that the both writings subject has to do with concept of political correctness being institutionalized on academic level. The conclusion, to which John Gatto takes us to with the mean journalistic analysis, can also be found in David Mamet's play, although he does it not quite as directly as Gatto. George Orwell's concept of big brother controlling peoples personal lives is being implemented in modern American society to a large degree. Yet there are many concerned individuals and organizations that raise its voice against what they consider to be a governmental violation of our civil rights and freedoms. John Gatto and David Mamet are such individuals, although they both have taken a more specific approach they show us the dangers of left-wing dogmatism as part of educational system. Let us to analyze the works of both authors briefly, so we can find some common ground about their argument.

John Gatto has worked for 26 years as teacher, it enabled him to summarize his observations about changes to educational process in American schools, since the introduction of political correctness as set of ideas that suppose to turn society in some sort of multicultural and genderless utopia. I began to realize that the bells and confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think, and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior (Gatto, p. 12) Gatto goes great length explaining that infliction of many behavioral rules on children will ultimately result in lowering of our educational standards. He clearly shows that so called Outcome - Based Education is nothing but another best intention that is doomed to failure as it downplays the importance of freedom as main idea behind how children are suppose to reflect on what theyre being taught. Gatto compares grading children at school to a process of grading vegetables at open market. What is the most dangerous about this new trend is that children are getting accustomed to the thought that they cant trust anyone when it comes to evaluating them, but some remote authority. Curiosity and unconventialism are not encouraged, there is a set of standard answers to every question and students have to just memorize them, in order to be graded.

While formally allowing more freedom, as an integral part of academic research, politically correct watchdogs think that there are questions, which in their opinion, should not be addressed at all such as: What is justice? What is beauty? What is man? What is right and what is wrong... ? Such questions might result in getting controversial answers, but this is exactly what getting an education is all about the greater truth comes out of argument.

Acclaimed teacher thinks that it is a mistake only to formally proclaim higher values in our schools, while undermining them on practical level. Children are taught that all that matters in this life is making oneself comfortable by securing oneself an easy job with good pay and making career. Then, of course, some of the smartest kids realize that if this is all they have to strive for, why not making easy money on drug trafficking, for example? The absurdity... is clear if we ask ourselves what is gained by perceiving education as a way to enhance even further the runaway consumption that threatens the earth, air, and water of our planet. Should we continue to teach people that they can buy happiness in face of tidal wave of evidence that they cannot? (Gatto, p. 56) Gatto looks back at what schools used to be back in thirties, this of course shows him as conservative: Only a few lifetimes ago things were very different in the United States.

Originality and variety were common currency; our freedom from regimentation made us the miracle of the world; social-class boundaries were relatively easy to cross; our citizenry was marvelously confident, inventive and able to do much for themselves independently, and to think for themselves (Gatto, p. 61). Yet, hes not in favor of adopting schooling practices they way they used to be seventy years ago. Gatto only states that those civil freedoms that made our country great, need to be actively practiced and in order to do this, we need to know what they stand for. But how one is suppose to be aware of these principles if the way hes being taught in school largely undermine our way of life? When there is surveillance, thought police, banned topics to discuss in schools, how far are we from having the same policies deployed in adult society? Will it be beneficial for us in the long run?

When peoples safety gets to be more important to them than their freedom, we can talk of American society turning into something different from what it used to be even twenty years ago. In my opinion, Gatto's book is brilliant; it deals with great many important issues, related to the concept of school education. One might like or dislike his opinions, yet we face the fact of our educational standards are now being dropped to the lowest point ever. Its up to us whether we do anything to fix the situation or just called it natural process and forget about it. Yet, in my opinion, Gatto gets little to far while suggesting what new approaches need to be adopted in order to guarantee the maintenance of educational standards in our schools. After all, we live in multicultural society and we can't just disregard the fact the classical school education, the way it used to be 50 years ago, was designed to fit the White people's vision of it.

David Mamet's Oleanna is about what can happen when the deployment of sexual harassment prevention policy is being brought to its logical conclusion. One of many great aspects of political correctness is emphasizing that men and women are basically genderless. In theory, any man or women can be charged with sexual harassment if him or her simply looks at representative of opposite sex. That of course cannot result in normal relations between men and women, especially when one of them is teacher and other is his student. In Oleanna student Carol comes to her teacher, Professor John, complaining about her own stupidity as reason for her continuous failing.

John tries to comfort Carol, telling her that she is not stupid, rather too emotional. He assures her that she can pass his course: JOHN: I'll make you a deal. You stay here. We " ll start the whole course over. I'm going to say it was not you, it was I who was not paying attention. We " ll start the whole course over.

Your grade is an "A" Your final grade is an "A" (Mamet, p. 1102). Professor tells her that she can come to his office and hed help her with her studies. JOHN: And you don't have to fight with me. I'm not the subject.

I don't want to fix you. I would like to tell you what I think, because that is my job, conventional as it is, and flawed as I may be (Mamet, p. 1104). While saying this, John makes a move towards Carol, which is interpreted by her as sexual harassment. In the next act, John finds out that Carol has filed a complaint against him. This, of course, doesnt make any sense to him, as making passes at Carol was the last thing on his mind. He tries to convince her to take down the charges, but now Carol feels her sudden power over poor Professor, so she begins to make demands that he changes his views on education process.

John rejects her demands as something that is none of her business, yet he wants to reason with her: You have an agenda, we have an agenda. I am not interested in your feelings or your motivation, but your actions (Mamet, p. 1112) while talking to her on the street, he grabs her by the hand, which causes Carol to cry for help. In the third act John losses his job over alleged sexual harassment crime. He now realizes that things went too far and hes ready to make an amends, but than Carol tells him that shes about to start pursuing criminal charges against him for rape attempt. She offers him to ban certain books from college library, that she doesnt like. In return she said she might consider leaving him alone.

Yet Professor loses his nerve when Carol tells him that he shouldnt be calling his own wife baby, as this is being sexist in her perverted mind. He knocks her down and gives her a good beating. Of course, its not too hard to imagine whats going to happen to Professor after that Both Gatto's and Mamet's books point out to the simple fact that political correctness cannot influence educational process if its to be effective. Politics and education need to be separated from each other just the way church and state are separated for the sake of our common good in American society.

The idea of education stands for gaining actual knowledge. But now we see that students are encouraged to spend more time on thinking how to make world better place instead of performing their primary function - studying. It doesnt come as a surprise that According to recent surveys, it is possible to obtain bachelors degree, without taking history course in 30 % of American colleges. In 38 % of all colleges it is not necessary to study English literature, in order to get a degree. In my opinion, the ideas of school and college education need to be restored in its classical form. I share Gatto's and Mamet's concerns over the fact that our places of learning became overly politicized.

This matter needs to be brought up to public attention, as being too important to ignore. Political correctness and thought police come as something totally unnatural for the way of American life. The racial and sexual harassment issues are like a rush the more one scratches it, the more it itches... Bibliography: Gatto, John Taylor. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. New Society Publishers.

New York. 1992. Kagan, Donald. What Is A Liberal Education? Eugene McDermott Lecture, 2001.

Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of America's Educational Underclass. New York: Penguin, 1989. 4. Steele, Shelby.

Content of Our Character: Recoloring of Campus Life. Harper Perennial, Copyright 1990. Mamet, David. "Oleanna. " American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary. Ed. Stephen Watt and Gary A.

Richardson. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1995. p. 1090 - 1113. O'Neill, Robert M. "Protecting Free Speech When the Issue is Sexual Harassment. " Chronicle of Higher Education 13 Sept. 1996: B 3 - 4.


Free research essays on topics related to: sexual harassment, political correctness, men and women, educational standards, david mamet

Research essay sample on Men And Women Sexual Harassment

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com