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Gary Houchens
Bowling Green, KY
I am a former teacher, principal, and district administrator now serving as Professor of Educational Administration in the School of Leadrship and Professional Studies at Western Kentucky University. I am Senior Fellow at the Pegasus Institute, serve on the Board of Scholars for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, and on the board of directors for EdChoice Kentucky. From 2016-2019 I was a member of the Kentucky Board of Education.
Recent Activity
Unleashing Parent Power in Education
Posted yesterday at School Leader
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The cultural contradictions of American education
My latest article for The Chalkboard Review is a reflection on Kay S. Hymowitz's essay in the Winter 2021 issue of National Affairs on "The Cultural Contradictions of American Education." Largely middle-class parents drive this contradiction when they fixate both on children’s individuality and on training students with the values,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 19, 2021 at School Leader
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Remembering Richard Elmore
Posted Feb 17, 2021 at School Leader
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AEI's Conservative Education Reform Network
The American Enterprise Institute, one of the nation's oldest and most respected non-partisan, right-of-center think tanks, recently launched a new initiative called the Conservative Education Reform Network. I am honored to be one of the founding members of this network (Update, 1/26/21: the WKU College Heights Herald wrote a feature... Continue reading
Posted Jan 23, 2021 at School Leader
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1776 Commission Report confronts challenges to America's founding principles
The 1776 Commission, established by President Trump's executive order last year to promote the teaching of "patriotic" history, issued its first (and most likely final) report earlier this week [link updated since the original has since been removed by the Biden administration]. The document is a powerful articulation of America's... Continue reading
Posted Jan 20, 2021 at School Leader
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Do school principals need university training?
The Chalkboard Review, for which I wrote previously about my journey from socialism to conservativism, has published a new essay I wrote exploring whether university training is really needed for aspiring school principals. In short, my answer is that school principals definitely need training, and ideally universities have a uniquely... Continue reading
Posted Jan 20, 2021 at School Leader
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Ridiculous. You cannot read anything in this post, or in anything else I have written, to reasonably conclude that I want "kids being taught not to think for themselves." I refer you to another post on this topic where I argue that inquiry learning is not a problem in itself, but rather in the way the questions are framed: https://schoolleader.typepad.com/school-leader/2020/09/more-misuses-of-inquiry-learning-to-propagandize-k-12-students.html
Kentucky teachers are being encouraged to use "inquiry methods" to indoctrinate students in Leftist attitudes
In my previous post I discussed inadequacies in Kentucky's education standards for social studies. These are standards that, as a former member of the Kentucky Board of Education, I supported and helped to approve. But since then I've become convinced that these standards need more work, especia...
Warren County curriculum shows why parents, community need to be more aware and involved
Yesterday the Bowling Green Daily News reported about a new curriculum being used in the Warren County Public Schools that has drawn "mixed parent reviews." The story doesn't quote any parents with specific concerns, but comments from Dr. Laura Hudson, director of instruction for the district's secondary schools, suggests they... Continue reading
Posted Dec 28, 2020 at School Leader
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Essay for Chalkboard Review describes my journey from socialism to conservatism
Chalkboard Review is a great new web-based publication dedicated to highlighting the diversity of thought among educators. I was happy for them to publish an essay in which I describe my own intellectual journey from brash young socialist teacher to conservative professor and education reformer, and the role working in... Continue reading
Posted Dec 8, 2020 at School Leader
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Beshear has been abusing executive power since day one
Update, 11/20/20: I appreciate Beechtree News for publishing the post below as an op-ed. Many Kentuckians are shocked today after Gov. Andy Beshear issued an executive order shutting down all public and private K-12 schools for the next two weeks in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases, along with... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2020 at School Leader
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1776 Unites gives educators alternatives to the 1619 Project
I was proud to make my debut publication this week with Project Forever Free, a sister platform to Education Post. My contribution was a review of the first set of lesson plans posted by 1776 Unites: Civil rights activist and community organizer Robert Woodson’s 1776 Unites organization was launched early... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2020 at School Leader
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Will Republican lawmakers squander this golden opportunity for school choice?
Earlier this week the online newspaper Kentucky Today published an opinion piece in which I argued that, after the recent blow-out election benefitting Republicans in the state legislature, the time has never been better to promote school choice: The Republican hold on Kentucky’s legislature expanded dramatically in this month’s election... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2020 at School Leader
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Is it time for "nationalist" education?
Posted Nov 9, 2020 at School Leader
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The above is truly a bizarre comment as the entire two-part review is extremely complimentary of Gatto's ideas.
Weapons of Mass Instruction, Part II
A few weeks ago I posted Part I of a two-part review of John Taylor Gatto's book, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling. In that first post, I gave an overview of Gatto's core thesis that the factory model of schooling that has do...
Mike, the combination of your two comments here makes it clear to me that there’s not really that much difference between your views and mine.
I’ve never once advocated for a “parroted and uncritical” view of American history. I encourage you to read what I’ve written over the last several months and see if you can find such a view on my part. Every time I write about this topic I say as much. See my post citing Patrick Deneen’s ideas about the critical patriot:
https://schoolleader.typepad.com/school-leader/2020/07/e-pluribus-unum-another-essential-principle-of-patriotic-american-history.html
Nor will you find me “absolving” our ancestors of any of their past sins.
I think perhaps you assume things about my position that simply aren’t true.
It sounds to me like you do actually believe in America’s Founding principles. You just believe that many of our ancestors failed pretty spectacularly to live up to those principles. And here you are correct. They did.
You are also right that the rich and powerful got the first blessings of all those principles. They did. That’s usually the consequence of being rich and powerful.
But it’s also true that a full reading of our national story is the steady and relentless expansion of those principles to be applied to more and more people. Why were we able to end slavery less than a century after the founding? Because the moral order written into our founding documents made slavery impossible in this republic, something that many of the founders precisely intended. Our progress has been messy and not linear but inevitable nonetheless, so much so that millions of people have come to this land and still do seeking the freedom and opportunity that is our national birthright. There’s still so much progress to make, but the very fact that we know what to keep striving for is because our core values have made us, as Wilfred McClay calls his beautiful new textbook on American history (review coming soon), the “Land of Hope.”
That’s what I want to restore in our teaching of American history: temporal continuity. Which means memory (of both the bad and the good) and hope that we can continue to strive to be a City on the Hill. More here:
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/08/memory-hope-restoring-teaching-american-history-gary-houchens.html
The principles and values of "patriotic" American history
Update: Portions of this post recently appeared in an essay for The Imaginative Conservative called, "What is Patriotic Education?" In a recent series of posts I've been arguing that, given widespread efforts to rewrite American history and portray our Founders and the Founding itself in the w...
Mike, thank you for taking the time to comment in depth. I especially appreciate you acknowledging my sincerity. I can tell that you are also sincere in your concern about and commitment to justice.
I have many thoughts but also would like to pose a few questions if you don’t mind? Your comment came in response to a tweet thread I posted about Robert Reilly’s book America on Trial. It sounds like you find America “guilty” in this trial, at least guilty of many sins, and perhaps believe that America was not, in fact, founded on ideals of equality and freedom for all. You also say that you nevertheless love America.
Can you say just a bit about WHY you love America, if she is not, in fact, and never has been the beacon of hope that I believe she is?
And also, what kind of political system would yield the kind of justice you think America has been systematically lacking? Are there examples that you would point to that are better alternatives?
Thanks. If the comment box is too unwieldy for this feel free to email me instead: gary.houchens@wku.edu.
The principles and values of "patriotic" American history
Update: Portions of this post recently appeared in an essay for The Imaginative Conservative called, "What is Patriotic Education?" In a recent series of posts I've been arguing that, given widespread efforts to rewrite American history and portray our Founders and the Founding itself in the w...
Two books help fight back in the war on history
Posted Sep 16, 2020 at School Leader
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See for yourself: biased Kentucky teacher training materials for social studies
Last week I wrote about teacher training materials developed for the Kentucky Department of Education to implement the state's deficient social studies standards. Those training materials reflect a deep Left-wing bias and would effectively indoctrinate students into anti-American attitudes. Of great concerns is the fact that these training materials are... Continue reading
Posted Sep 8, 2020 at School Leader
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More misuses of inquiry learning to propagandize K-12 students
Posted Sep 3, 2020 at School Leader
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I disagree. The question itself implies that income inequality is a problem and that it should be reduced. That is an ideological assumption.
Income inequality is a fact. Whether that is a problem or not is a worthy topic of inquiry. What if we framed the question in a number of ways: "Where does income inequality come from? What are its consequences? What would be the reasons for, and potential problems with, various strategies to address income inequality?"
Kentucky teachers are being encouraged to use "inquiry methods" to indoctrinate students in Leftist attitudes
In my previous post I discussed inadequacies in Kentucky's education standards for social studies. These are standards that, as a former member of the Kentucky Board of Education, I supported and helped to approve. But since then I've become convinced that these standards need more work, especia...
Different sticks, but this horse is still very much alive!
Kentucky's social studies standards need more work
Headlines from the summer of 2020 show cities burning from riots and looting, statues and the reputations of American heroes being defaced and torn down, and a ferociously intolerant ideology in full operation within the ranks of the media, academia, and politics. These events are not emerging s...
Kentucky teachers are being encouraged to use "inquiry methods" to indoctrinate students in Leftist attitudes
In my previous post I discussed inadequacies in Kentucky's education standards for social studies. These are standards that, as a former member of the Kentucky Board of Education, I supported and helped to approve. But since then I've become convinced that these standards need more work, especially making them more... Continue reading
Posted Aug 31, 2020 at School Leader
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Kentucky's social studies standards need more work
Posted Aug 27, 2020 at School Leader
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Governor Beshear needs to stop bullying school districts over COVID shutdowns
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced on Monday that because of lingering concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic he was "recommending" all schools remain closed to in-person learning until September 28. According to former Kentucky School Boards Association spokesperson and education media watcher Brad Hughes, as of 10 p.m. on Tuesday night... Continue reading
Posted Aug 12, 2020 at School Leader
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Fighting racism; rejecting critical theory
Posted Aug 8, 2020 at School Leader
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