Any serious discussion of America's one size fits all education system must begin with a dose of bitter reality. Government schools exist; they have since the government seized control of education in the second half of the 19th century. It's pointless to consider what 'ought to be', before we fully assess 'what is'.
For the first century of their existence, government schools had one purpose: producing educated individuals. This goal was met, more or less, until the Educrat invasion of the 1970's. After this hostile takeover, schools were retooled for a new product: students with self-esteem.
The venerable 3 R's gave way to such inane notions as outcome based education, social promotions, whole language, the 'new' math, revisionist history and bilingual education.
As a direct consequence, graduates can't read, write or compute, but they've got self-esteem out the wazoo. There's a lot of 'stuff' going on in government schools...a lot of 'stuff', but tragically, imparting knowledge to students isn't part of it.
The popular term for this tidal wave of happy idiots is 'the dumbing down of America'. The time has come for the taxpayers of this country to face up to one simple fact: this one size fits all government school scheme doesn't work.
The zealots on the left - especially here in Kalifornia - are busy indoctrinating their captive student audience with politically correct sludge about the evils of Western Civilization. The indoctrination of the young minds.......with the tenets of Mecca Mania is a prime example..... Mecca Mania isn't really a religion; it's a 'culture'. Better still, it's a Non-Western culture, one that views all things 'Western' as inherently evil. The outcome of this load of Educrap is Amerika-hating idiots with self-esteem.
Members of the Vast Right-Wing conspiracy aren't any better. In addition to supporting prayer in schools and other attempts to impose Biblically-correct bovine excrement on government schools, they are beavering away, trying to repeal those educational elements that offend their particular flavor of supernaturalism....... in this scenario, is righteous idiots with self-esteem.
All this politically-motivated tinkering with cess-school curricula is noxious in the extreme. Since I'm paying for it, I want all of this Educrap eradicated.
No matter what direction it comes from, this Educrap reeks. The only way to resolve this relentless indoctrination - no matter what the flavor - is to abolish government schools and replace them with a market-based system where the education consumer can select a school that meets their specific educational needs.
It's time for American schools to stop indoctrinating and get back to educating.
love that the conclusion was a "market-based" solution. we already have a defacto market-based solution with funding allocation. the real challenge is to fix this and focus education around real learning and stop making schools the front lines in the "culture wars".
ReplyDeletemy first thought when reading your title was "no shit!"...but i was referring to my kids being handed veggie tales pamphlets, bibles, and being told they are off for "Good Friday" when parents are told it is for "teacher conference". my kids now know all about the death and resurrection of Christ via Easter books that were read in class.
i certainly don't recall them coming home with stories of siddhartha gautama, but they get that at home. would a Christian be offended if their kids came home with the story of Buddha and were told that Friday was "teacher conference" when in fact it was really Hana Matsuri?
Yes, the liberals should stop conducting there culture wars using our children and the schools as the vehicle.
ReplyDeleteThe holiday's you refer to have been in place for schools for quite sometime. So they should change because a few do not approve?
I would love for my son to be taught about other religions. As knowledge is a never ending search.
It would not bother me in one bit should my child be taught about Buddha, or any other religion - even muslim.
School is about learning, is it not?
Before any fix of school funding can be done, at least in Ohio, performance audits off all districts need to be done.
The waste by administration & over paid/under performing teachers is incredible. Performance Audits will show shere the waste is.
Take example Bedford High School - they will tell you how great they watch the money, yet refuse to be transparent and have a performance audit done.
Why? Because then the public would be screaming should the truth about the waste in ALL districts would come out.
Should you doubt the waste, I suggest going to the State Auditor's web site - http://www.auditor.state.oh.us/Search/default.aspx
Go to the search engine there and type in school performance audits - you will be floored to see the waste.
The liberal culture war that you speak of is nowhere present in my neck of the woods. If you were the only Christian in a school that continued to ram Buddhism down your kid's throats because the majority of the community were Buddhists, I can pretty much guarantee you'd have a problem with it.
ReplyDeleteI want all religion out of public taxpayer funded schools unless and until it is presented as an academic endeavor into theology and world religion. Fact of the matter is it's not. Reading an Easter book and having "teacher conference" on Good Friday while telling the students they are getting off FOR Good Friday crosses a line in my book.
But hey. Enough of that jazz. Happy Easter AND Hana Matsuri!
Great story about your son, btw. Kids amaze us sometimes huh? I know my girls do! Have a great weekend...