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Introduction: Historical Consciousness and Cultural Continuity
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15872 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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1 / 1989 |
335 Words |
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Editor
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The theme of the following series of articles touches the essential foundation upon which many decisions for a society must be made. For it is only with a clear understanding of what "culture" is and how historical consciousness breathes life into culture that we can begin to address such matters as the purpose of education, the function of literature in society, and the role and duties of leadership.
The discussion of cultural continuity and historical consciousness has recently wrested itself from the armchairs of academic discussion and bounded into the headlines and editorials of popular newspapers and magazines. Accusations have been made in universities throughout the United States that the curricula of higher education have been elitist and biased in favor of Caucasian male intellectuals. Counterattacks have been launched by those who claim that to democratize intellectual accomplishment is to reduce it to a common denominator and that the demands of special interest groups to apply a type of affirmative action in the intellectual sphere is absurd. At the same time, in regard to primary education, many have raised the warning cry that a lack of instruction in basic history is contributing to the creation of a generation of youth who will live without an appreciation for its cultural inheritance. Meanwhile, educators in elementary schools cower at the prospect of implying values in their courses and, ignoring the Judeo-Christian foundation of this country, have made a desperate public relations effort for what they claim to be a value-neutral curriculum.
The authors of the articles in this series will probe beneath the frenzy of this current debate to discuss what it is that we mean by the concept of culture, what makes a
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