{"title":"America’s Upside-Down Doctrine of Education: Albert Jay Nock’s Theory of What Has Gone Wrong — Or Is It Right?","authors":"S. Bartlett","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3414657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3414657","url":null,"abstract":"We often do not realize that we are making important and sometimes unjustified assumptions when these have become so habitual and natural for us to assume that we must strain even to question them. The American system of education makes such assumptions, which were questioned and criticized nearly a hundred years ago by author and educational theorist Albert Jay Nock. In this essay, we consider Nock’s theory of American education in order to bring attention to bear on our unexamined assumptions about the objectives of education and how to attain them. We shall find that certain of these assumptions stand greatly in need of the support of evidence.","PeriodicalId":106311,"journal":{"name":"PSN Educator: American (Topic)","volume":"138 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122137860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The End of Abolition & the Return of Slavery: A Mild Rebuke","authors":"D. Betti","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2958336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2958336","url":null,"abstract":"Was abolition, the motive force for the world-wide ending of slavery, only a product of two spirited ideas: fervent Christianity & Enlightenment reason? To be blunt, was abolition the product of fanatical, progressive Christianity and fanatical, progressive deism? Will abolition cease with the end of these Enlightenment-era creeds? Throughout human history, societies practiced various forms of enslavement. Then, quite suddenly, the European societies and states that arose from the culture of the Enlightenment moved to abolish those practices around the world. Their reasons were deeply enmeshed in revealed religion and deistic philosophy. Yet, postmodernism and technocratic positivism have overwhelmed the older ideologies of faded modernity. Furthermore, neither postmodernism nor positivism are opposed to slavery in itself. Postmodernism elevates the human will to such heights that it cannot help but admire the individual who can impose a self-will over others. Positivism simply demotes human freedom. With the rise of ideologies antithetical to the free will of human beings (such as positivism) and the objective value of human beings (such as postmodernity), is it any surprise we see a concomitant rise in human trafficking – the contemporary form of slave-trade? Indeed, it is the rise of postmodernism and technocratic positivism which undergird the new forms of slavery after the end of abolition.","PeriodicalId":106311,"journal":{"name":"PSN Educator: American (Topic)","volume":"36 11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125728172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Business and Labor in the American Government Textbook: A Pilot Inventory and Analysis of Coverage","authors":"G. Rainey","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2583577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2583577","url":null,"abstract":"Extensive changes have developed since the 1970s in the attributes and activities of labor unions and business organizations as political interest groups (e.g., Mizruchi, 2013; Rosenfeld, 2014). To facilitate assessment of the scope and content of the explanation devoted to these interests in American government textbooks, these developments were reviewed and summarized and an inventory of topical coverage was developed. An initial topical list was developed on the basis of experience and a priori assumptions and iteratively expanded via review of chapters and subsections on interest groups and their activities in an opportunistic sample of twelve textbooks. Explanations of specific topics and links to business and labor interests for each subtopic were tabulated, including assessment of direct or indirect reference and limited or detailed explanation, with expectations adjusted for the context of an introductory textbook. The reviews and tabulations demonstrated that while textbooks may idiosyncratically introduce various of the more than 170 potential topics identified, attention was concentrated on a few indicators of strengths and weaknesses, a few methods of political process participation, and a limited selection of high profile laws, regulations, and court cases. Process, policy, and systemic impacts were infrequently identified or explained. Explanation of labor unions tended to be brief and superficial. Explanation of the political activities of business interests was relatively more extensive and detailed, although often based on allusion and examples, and explanation of the different types of business organizations and interests was generally truncated, and holistic views of business influence were generally eschewed. Developments since the 1970s were generally ignored. Treatment of interest group theory continues to be extensively focused on the concept of pluralism, but also tends to recognize unbalanced participation and influence as an empirical reality. Salient topics for further analysis of interest group politics are discussed.","PeriodicalId":106311,"journal":{"name":"PSN Educator: American (Topic)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127130458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Federal Tax Procedure (2013 2d ed. Footnoted)","authors":"John A. Townsend","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2310960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2310960","url":null,"abstract":"Federal Tax Procedure, revised twice annually, is the book for a course on Tax Procedure taught by Adjunct Professor Townsend at the University of Houston School of Law. The book and related materials contain text discussion, relevant Code Sections, and certain cases designed to encourage students to think about the Tax Procedure process. The book is in electronic format (Adobe Acrobat pdf format) and is in two versions -- (1) a footnoted version suited for practitioners (this is the footnoted version) and (2) a nonfootnoted version, suited for teaching (available here: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2310961). Both versions are available free on Mr. Townsend's Scholarly Papers page on SSRN. The pdf versions are updated every August for use in that year's Fall class and then every January or February. The books have a companion electronic file (also Adobe Acrobat) consisting of materials such as forms, publications, selected excerpts from congressional committee reports, and limited practice forms available on Professor Townsend's Federal Tax Procedure Blog.","PeriodicalId":106311,"journal":{"name":"PSN Educator: American (Topic)","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114849406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}