The Death of "Why"?

[Wade Hudson]

NOTE: Add these factors to the forces of modernization that undermine
reflective/introspective community.
--Wade

+++++

The Death of "Why"?
The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy
Andrea Batista Schlesinger

* Winner of a 2010 Independent Publisher gold medal award in
Current Events

In this unique and insightful book Schlesinger analyzes the cultural
forces that urge us to avoid critical thinking and independent
analysis. The media reduces politics to a spectator sport,
standardized tests teach students to fill in the dots instead of
opening their minds, and even the Internet promotes habits that
discourage looking deeper. But the situation isn't hopeless.
Schlesinger profiles individuals and institutions renewing the
practice of inquiry--particularly in America's youth--at a time when
our society demands such activity from us all.

Click here [
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103489751209&s=34511&e=001xoOMLmqOtxaIGWgvqYDHQT_NDSu_RfUrQM5oxDDMrTW4R5QBBayaOnRMt10l9eIVblmHyengomaCiZPNE489_PTUtn6YkctJTqrdvemzdjtPQUnCsx_YL754QndFKqZMO2xx0ytwywCcQQM2naUKWT_JROcc9WBx8lInLqeOjMnzY1xdcR0xom1-Z6I6xz-I
] for the table of contents, a book excerpt, and more
(to review the book for classroom use, follow the link above and click
on "Professors: Request Exam Copy").

"From her start in politics as a teenager Andrea Batista Schlesinger
has asked the important questions. Now she asks her most important:
are we teaching young people to value inquiry, and if not, what hope
can we have for the future of democracy?"
-Katrina vanden Heuvel, Publisher, The Nation