Un-Teaching Personal Responsibility(americanconsequences.com) |
Un-Teaching Personal Responsibility(americanconsequences.com) |
i.e., no one actually thinks that actions ought not have consequences. Arne Duncan et al weren't trying to 'un-teach discipline' or whatever, they were trying to address secondary problems around discipline.
I love Google's ngram viewer for context here. Use of the phrase "personal responsibility" _skyrocketed_ around the late 80s[1], more or less matching the rise of the right-wing "bootstraps" narrative.
During the period covered in the ngram viewer (late 80s to 2000), the number of people in American prisons more than doubled[2]. In fact, it continued to rise precipitously until--you guessed it--circa 2008, where it finally plateaued (after more than tripling since 1988).
So, I dunno, maybe this is my bleeding heart talking, but if "unteaching personal responsibility" means "putting fewer people in prison," sign me up for the next lesson.
1: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22personal+re...
2: https://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Tre...