Revised Summary - Himmelfarb

The essay "The New Advocacy and the Old" by Gertrude Himmelfarb focuses on the autobiographical content of curriculum. She first acknowledges this in history, explaining the role of postmodernism and the slogan "everything is political" turning into "everything is personal." She argues that the “I” approach taken by educators is narcissistic, using the classroom as a form of confessional, as opposed to taking an objective stance. She states that "the replacement of the "I" ...for the traditionally impersonal voice of the scholar...is congenial to the postmodernist sensibility" (87). Himmelfarb says it's another way of holding a student hostage to the educator’s agenda.