some of these issues in my last post but not all of them.
There are many issues today, some go to the way we educate our children and
what is expected of the schools and some goes to how education is funded.
Let's start with how our children are educated.
First of all, you have the self-esteem crap that is so pervasive in the
schools. This shows up in how grades are administered, what constitutes
failure and the like. In one district, the grade was changed, I believe,
from F to E; but who were they kidding? The children still know what it
means. You could get 50% and still pass. What a load of garbage. That's
mediocrity and is not acceptable in my opinion. Whatever happened to
striving to do one's best? It went by the wayside when the touchy feely
folks got a hold of education.
Along with the self esteem crap, you have teachers, some of whom are good,
who get burnt out because they can't control the little darlings because you
can't discipline them anymore or you might be facing the angry wrath of a
parent who is otherwise uninvolved in their child's life. There are parents
who are very involved and who make sacrifices to do that. These parents are
to be commended for they have a tough job and are putting their children
first and setting their priorities. If only other parents could emulate
these parents, the world would be a better place.
You have the fact that subjects are not taught as they should be. History
is but one example of this. There are some who say that one does not have
to know the facts. They just need to think historically or some such
nonsense. How can you understand history if you know nothing about the
facts? You can't and the educrats don't see the problem with their logic or
lack thereof.
As far as discipline you have what I would call liberals who absolutely
abhor anything which might even be remotely violent such as a swat across
the butt; and I'm not even talking about hitting. These pambyies don't even
like yelling as it might be too violent for them. Well, here we go with the
bubble wrapping of our children. We want to protect them from everything so
that they are ill-equipped to deal with the world when they become adults.
And we wonder why they can't handle rejection. Take a look and you will see
why this is. They've never been taught how to deal with rejection at an
early age because they have been protected from it. When everyone makes the
team andyou don't keep score because someone might not feel good about
themselves, then you have a problem. Whatever happened to doing better the
next time? It too went by the wayside along with respect and responsibility
which are not taught by some parents let alone the schools. Don't even get
me started on the subject of helicopter parents as that is a subject for
another day and would further lengthen this post.
Unions are also part of the problem as it is difficult to remove an
incompetent teacher. The administration must jump through an insane amount
of hoops in order to do this. There are also other work rules which must be
followed or the administration could end up having a grievance filed against
them. I work in a facility which has a union and I see this all of the time
with the schedule. The paraprofessional staff does not realize that the
supervisor has other duties over and above the scheduling of the
paraprofessional staff. However, due to the need for heavy documentation of
everything that is done, this can take more time than it should; and the
union and its work rules are the reason for it. Unions, in my opinion, have
largely outlived their usefulness and are relics of a day gone by. There
needs to be a different model but that won't happen anytime soon
unfortunately, especially with the current administration in power in
Washington.
Funding is another issue which must be dealt with and I don't know how to
deal with this one as I don't want my tax dollars going down some black
holes in this state; and there are some districts in this state that I do
consider black holes. That's why the property tax is still used. Yet over
70% of the property tax can be tied to the schools who keep going to the
voters again and again until they get what they want; and that is squeeze
more money out of the taxpayers whom they consider a piggy bank. There was
a recent referendum which I voted for but would not have had I known about
the superintendant's contract. There is another referendum which I did not
vote for but which passed because there were too many gullible people who
voted for it.
Well, I don't know what the answer is totally but teachers do need to be
accountable for what children learn. Parents need to be accountable for
making sure their children are ready to learn which means being properly
fed, clothed and disciplined. The school cannot and should not be expected
to fulfill these rolls. The schools are being asked to babysit many of
these children as parents go off in their own little worlds and go to work
and serve on all of the boards they think they need to serve on and all of
the rest. The schools are expected to feed these children breakfast, lunch
and then keep them entertained after school. It wasn't like that when I was
growing up and I think I am better for it.
Where did we go wrong? We went wrong in a number of places. There are too
many work rules thanks to the unions. There is too much touchy feely self
esteem crap thanks to the administrators and there is a funding crisis
brought on by the fact that taxpayers don't want to see their hard-earned
money go down what they view as black holes of under-performing districts.
I haven't even touched the removal of prayer from the schools and the fact
that someone is always looking for something to be offended about.
There needs to be choice. Parents need to have a choice of where they send
their children; whether that choice is public or private schools, they need
to be able to send their children to the school which will do the best job
of educating their children according to their values. Liberals
traditionally oppose this as they know that people will migrate away from
the public schools which they helped change for the worse. I've heard one
city's system referred to as a jobs program for the union rather than
someplace where children are educated. That's a pretty sad statement.
Will we solve these issues overnight? No we won't but if we don't do
something to regain control from the special interests, we will pay for it
with the loss of tomorrow's leaders today; and I for one don't like the
thought of that.
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