Mis Education and Zero Tolerance

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11 February 2014 Mis/Education and Zero Tolerance Summary In his article “Mis/Education and Zero Tolerance: Disposable Youth and the Politics of Domestic Militarization,” by Henry A. Giroux states that ‘the citizenship of America is being emptied of any social and political content,’ and also recognizing that it is being slowly and steadily being corrupted. People of a community are not just a tax base. Giroux writes that ‘Substantive citizenship also recognized that, for democracy to work, individuals must feel a connection to each other.’ when people are connected they have the opportunity to explore their own ideas, share opinions, question the established system for change and help themselves and others. The author goes on to say that the ethos of neoliberalism in partnership with the open free market places this social citizenship in jeopardy. People themselves have become their own threat to this needed connection of community. Due to the strategic efforts to privatize government entities have further weakened the core of democracy. Social programs that aid in learning to become affective and positive citizens of a community are limited. Due to the closure and the militarizing of public spaces has diversity in the community limited, locale and grouped. Loosing this vital tool of building citizenship within a community is jeopardized. The free market has forever changed the concepts of democracy. Although democracy is not perfect, the opportunities for an individual to dream and become are still available. With the ongoing privatization of government programs and the values of neoliberalism in society ‘democracy is reduced to a metaphor for the alleged free market’ this is what Jacques Derrida refers to as “the promise of democracy to come”. The author goes on to say that neoliberalism and corporate culture has stifled the dreams and created a

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