SF, the stories I know to be true about high schoolers and college kids saying they have to give the teachers what they want to hear is terrible, wrong, unAmerican. I know of one journalism class where the liberal English teacher told the class "Don't use FOX because it's not a legitimate news source".....No mention of any other media venue. You see,to liberals (and the Eng. teacher is a liberal) there can't be two ways of looking at anything...as you know, SF. That's not educating, that's indoctrinating. I've read through textbooks and been so saddened because our kids need the truth but at age-appropriate times. I found the history books full of racist allegations (beyond teaching the truth about slavery here, etc.), etc...No country teaches the evils of their country over the great goodness of it. NONE. But us.
I've always thought that American kids ought to get the same basic curriculum across the country so we all know our history, the constitution, etc etc.....I suppose it could work through privatization.
All I know is that throwing more and more money doesn't work in education; Parental caring and involvement and good, honest teachers are the only things that matter.
SF, the stories I know to be true about high schoolers and college kids saying they have to give the teachers what they want to hear is terrible, wrong, unAmerican. I know of one journalism class where the liberal English teacher told the class "Don't use FOX because it's not a legitimate news source".....No mention of any other media venue. You see,to liberals (and the Eng. teacher is a liberal) there can't be two ways of looking at anything...as you know, SF. That's not educating, that's indoctrinating. I've read through textbooks and been so saddened because our kids need the truth but at age-appropriate times. I found the history books full of racist allegations (beyond teaching the truth about slavery here, etc.), etc...No country teaches the evils of their country over the great goodness of it. NONE. But us.
I've always thought that American kids ought to get the same basic curriculum across the country so we all know our history, the constitution, etc etc.....I suppose it could work through privatization.
All I know is that throwing more and more money doesn't work in education; Parental caring and involvement and good, honest teachers are the only things that matter.
Ducky: Obviously, the Teachers Syndicalists don't have their goals clear, either.
Or perhaps they do. They've done an excellent job feathering their own nest and setting up a permanent rent-seeking operation. Most unfortunate, the classroom teacher reaps few benefits from this iron-lock scam. Public education is over-bureacratized, full of apple-shaped apparatchiks and clipped-hair man-haters who see it as their Gaia-given duty to see every student at every lever fully-indoctrinated into leftwing progressivism.
Have you ever read any documents that emanate from the useless offices that superintend the education system? They are so full of pseudo-intellectualism and incomprehensible academese, it is sad and laughable all at once.
Fire the bureaucrats, allow the teachers to band together as they so choose and bid on the economic opportunity to teach our children in the school buildings where they sit. The deadwood would quickly be looking for other work.
We have a lot of wonderful, energetic teachers out there, but the Bureaucratic-Government-Unions iron troika is killing them, and our students.
There is no hope of that whatsoever, SilverFiddle. Canardo is much too heavily invested in what he has seen with the Cranio-Rectal Vision he's been afflicted with all his life ever to begin even to WANT to realize there is more to the Art of Living than abiding by the dark, dreary, visions, crippling misinformed precepts, malodorous, asphyxiating atmosphere, and freedom-annihilating mentality with which he's been conditioned to feel at home.
Inspector, There is no empirical evidence to indicate that Andreas Lubitz was a Muslim.
What is interesting and disconcerting: no digital footprint for him. Very unusual for someone in his age group. Was the digital footprint scrubbed? If so, why?
The article states that the original Facebook page was taken down, but the "archive" view is still there. I suppose that authorities are attempting to "forensically preserve" the original site so that no one "hacks" it and starts posting or deleting messages.
Inspector, From what I can tell, that FB page is something that was posted just after Andreas Lubitz's name was released. In other words, not his FB page.
As a homeschooling family, I'd be happy with a tax break on curricula, books and supplies. The government schools are still getting my tax dollars and not having to sodden it on my children. It's the very least they could do.
On the state level, perhaps.....in some places. As I'm sure you know, Purcellville, Virginia is home to the Home School Legal Defense Association [of which we're members]; they've been fighting to persuade Richmond to enact this as a state tax rebate.
I don't see it ever occurring on a national level, due to the fact that we have an entrenched and un-Constitutional Department of Education. Their bureaucratic existence hinges on the tax siphon being turned on full. Without it, they cease to exist.
Cube, Many times, teachers are kept so busy by bureaucratic demands that the teachers don't have time to teach -- particularly with regard to planning and grading students' work! A deliberate move on the part of bureaucracy?
I'm so fortunate that none of that bureaucratic dictatorship affects me as a teacher of homeschool classes. I'm freed up to do what I do best. Teach!
I, of course, favor the Voucher System but, that said, all aspects of K-12 education can never be better than the interest and support that the parents are willing to give it.
Privatizing education is not the answer either SF. But with people like Bill Gates and companies like Pearson who are actually writing the teacher's exams in New York, were getting close. The obvious next step is education will be in the hand of corporatists who will cherry pick what they want students to learn (and teachers to teach). Bad enough Common Core take creativity our of education.The Scientific Method will be next.
"Cui bono?" from a "public" or "private" education is the question to ask. And "Teachers" is NOT an acceptable answer.
Isaiah Berlin, "A Letter to George Kennan"
If pushed to the extreme, this doctrine would, of course, do away with all education, since when we send children to school or influence them in other ways without obtaining their approval for what we are doing, are we not ’tampering’ with them, ’moulding’ them like pieces of clay with no purpose of their own? Our answer has to be that certainly all ’moulding’ is evil, and that if human beings at birth had the power of choice and the means of understanding the world, it would be criminal; since they have not, we temporarily enslave them, for fear that, otherwise, they will suffer worse misfortunes from nature and from men, and this ’temporary enslavement’ is a necessary evil until such time as they are able to chosose for themselves – the ’enslavement’ having as its purpose not an inculcation of obedience but its contrary, the development of power of free judgement and choice; still, evil it remains even if necessary.
The goal is not "statist indoctrination" (pathetic little pithy phrase) and you would have a hard time determining those boundaries anyway. I assume it involves anything philosophic position that clashes with the idea of American exceptionalism.
More to the point education should involve self understanding and self motivation along with instruction but that gets lost in the testing.
I think we are still waiting for the innovations of the charter school movement but they should be arriving any year. Maybe we can settle for a smaller version of the "for profit" college industry which privatization fan, Arnie Duncan" has been loath to crack down.
But when in doubt just settle it by calling it "statist". Pretty flimsy, pretty sad.
Inept commentary Ducky. You should know well by now, that I'm an opponent of rote, uncritical 'American exceptionalism. The public school system, much like our media.....fellates State power and prestige at the expense of individual soveriengty.
Let's just keep filling the unceasingly expanding money pit, right?
CI, when you think you've made your point with a puerile little phrase (and I mean little) like "statist indoctrination) you're just parroting some rote Libertarian crap.
Right now , a poster noted, you have the likes of Melinda Gates, whose claim to fame is "Microsoft Bob" and being married to Bill) establishing educational policy and I assume you feel she is qualified. Foundations see the money and little else. But we'll listen to crap like "giving poor communities choice" when anyone but the Libertarian true believers know that all the likes of Gates cares about is privatization and if using poor communities in a most cynical manner then so be it.
Privatization and the resulting profit is what matters. And you're correct, the media has pushed that crap on the suckers.
Silverfiddle, you're the one who thinks we can simply snap our fingers and privatize to resolve all these issues. Even though the private sector with social media and the creation of kids as a consumer class (screw learning) has been a major part of the issue.
Now, you can either join CI in his little Libertarian fetish or say something relevant.
It is 98% minority students, and a ranks as one of the best in the nation. I think it has since been shut down since it make the teachers union look bad, and the founder *GASP!!!* didn't have any academic credentials.
Can't have any of that thinking outside the box and making people look bad...
Yes, SilverFiddle, and the corollary is true as well.
Those who advocate remaining dependent on The Dole in whatever guise it is offered are morally and psychologically identical to that class of petty criminals who always manage to get themselves rearrested and thrown back in jail every time they get out, because they cannot handle the responsibility that comes with freedom.
The same holds true, I believe,for men who continually reenlist in the armed services. They are so used to constant supervision, they feel lost without it.
"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
~ Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
After a full century of brainwashing by Marxian-Fabian-Communist,Socialist-Progressive-Liberal-Statist brand of thinking, how could we expect to find a quorum today willing to make the necessary sacrifices to stand up for Individual Liberty and Self-Determination?
By the way I don't blame only Collectivist ideologies for what has happened. The trend toward Centralized Power and ever more confining, oppressive forms of governance stems in truth from INDUSTRIALIZATION.
If you stop to think for a moment or two of the economic and social problems fostered by that thoroughly mixed blessing, you could not help but see what I mean.
The Law of Unintended Consequences is forever at work just as The Mother of Imbeciles is always pregnant. ;-)
SF, there are amazing schools whose minority kids are thriving because the teachers care and have got the parents on board....not more money. How about Jaime Escalante here in LA? More money didn't do it....Belief in the kids did it; by teachers and admin and parents. Everybody ought to watch Freedom Writers....another true and great story of how a teacher can encourage excellence without more money....
Liberals think throwing money at everything is the key and, since they've promoted the end of self reliance and pride in oneself for having succeeded on one's one, maybe they're right today. I hope not. Kids are STILL doing well if mentored with enthusiasm and talent and love.
Z, isn't it time we realized –– and acknowledged –– that Leftists DO NOT WANT to solve social problems? It seems obvious they seek only to EXPAND and EXACERBATE social ills, because promoting perpetual degradation of the lower classes, and helpless dependence on government is the source of their POWER and their WEALTH.
I think they want to solve them but they don't believe in the human spirit like most of us do, FT. Yes, what they do seems to make things worse; no doubt about that. And they say they do it with caring and love (and we're the nasty b**tards who hate and are racists, etc. !!) but helpless dependency is not good for anybody.
For all to have something, others must be robbed to pay; and I think what conservatives want is to find ways to help without having to revert to the government, don't you? By the way....when are people like this going to learn that even the government will run out of money if people aren't working hard and creating an economy from which all benefit?
Thomas Sowell says he doesn't understand why it's 'greed' to want to keep the money you made but not greed to want to take somebody else's money. I'm with him. You probably are, too?
Z, you are far more charitable toward our political enemies –– and probably a great deal nicer –– than I. I'm sorry to have to say that, but after 15 years of bouncing around the blogosphere, I've lost the trust in the basic decency of human nature I once had before I saw, firsthand, what too many people are really like when they feel protected by the cloak of anonymity. It's been a depressing, frightening, demoralizing experience, but –– from my admittedly limited point of view –– I have come to feel it's more important than ever to stand up for what you believe is the Truth without demur or apology -- ESPECIALLY when it makes you unpopular and something of a pariah.
I know you know better than I that no one can compromise with the Devil and hope to win anything worth having, well I've taken it a step farther and decided it's too dangerous to try to work out any kind of a "deal" with those who serve the Devil –– even when they do so in all innocence as is so often the case.
So, while I would agree with you that many so-called "liberals" probably do MEAN well, they are still working in service to The Great Deceiver.
We may love these people –– and even like them ;-) –– but we dare not trust them.
After all The Road to You-Know-Where is said to be paved with Good Intentions, isn't it?
I think there are matters of degrees of Democrats, FT. I think, too, that there are Democrats stuck in lockstep and kind of dismayed at much of Obama's goings-on. I know that for a fact. I can't tell you how many people I know whose mothers are Dems but "done with Obama," how many friends are sorry they voted for him. What Republicans have to do is BETTER ARTICULATE the platform so it gives 'permission' to vote Right to some on the Left who are really not hard core leftists....it has to be HARD to buck the late night show jerks, the constant anti-Right media drum, etc etc... but there are Dems who still love America, who still believe in the Constitution, who understand high taxes are choking our economy, who are furious that Obama said Israel's more dangerous than ISIS, etc....(particularly my Jewish lib friends...FURIOUS). I say let him keep it up....let the scandals mount because not all leftists are ignoring them, and let's get some Conservatives who the media have a tad more difficulty trying to annihilate. Look at this blog alone; "Carson's stupid, Walker's stupid, Bush is stupid, etc etc."..Amazing how it's only Republicans who are supposedly stupid, huh? :-) (and those who say those things can't even hear themselves...don't even realize how unbelievably biased and unAmerican it is to deride a whole other political party, knowing half of America thinks differently than they do....but they can't discuss things with civility and decency....won't even entertain a thought Obama hasn't had)
...and believe me when I tell you, they're right! We'll drag that little Obama peckerwoods through the streets and throw them into the Tiber if he keeps disrespecting the Constitution. ;)
CI..thanks..it was GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE that is more dangerous than ISIS/terrorism...I was typing fast and furious and had just written an article for somewhere else on the Israel thing. thanks for the corrective comment. Upon hearing about his climate change remark, a lot of my Jewish lib friends finally folded and said "I wish I hadn't voted for him"
CI..thanks..it was GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE that is more dangerous than ISIS/terrorism...I was typing fast and furious and had just written an article for somewhere else on the Israel thing. thanks for the corrective comment. Upon hearing about his climate change remark, a lot of my Jewish lib friends finally folded and said "I wish I hadn't voted for him"
Z- Thank you for clarifying. Claiming that alleged climate change is more dangerous than terrorism....is an absurd statement unworthy of the Office of the President.
Why can Obama say such absurd things? ......Because he has no real curious, hard working, honest media that will nail him for ir. AOW, he can say these things, they get repeated, people hear them, and he's scott free. It's very effective.... he gets HIS message across. CI; I agree.
Why can Obama say such absurd things? ......Because he has no real curious, hard working, honest media that will nail him for ir. AOW, he can say these things, they get repeated, people hear them, and he's scott free. It's very effective.... he gets HIS message across. CI; I agree.
aw, gee, AOW.....I think Obama's right when he said Yemen is a great success in counter terrorism :-) And that ISIS is just "JV" .. I think this man needs to remember "Wishing doesn't make it true". If we weren't all at jeopardy because of what he's doing, it would be utterly laughable. Imagine the WashPost publishing THAT???
Though at the time it was stated, it had no small amount of merit. Just as Iraq was declared a success, while the foundation s sand was crumbling from within.
:"Even back then, many who knew the situation in Yemen questioned that logic. My colleague Ishaan Tharoor argued that Yemen was an example of "U.S. mission creep, not success," and that the threat posed by AQAP was still very real (after AQAP claimed to be behind the high-profile attacks in Paris this month, that point grew stronger). "Very few people who are not part of the administration consider either of those cases a success," the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman wrote."
In a testy exchange with an ABC reporter Wednesday, Obama Press Secretary Josh Earnest insisted that the United States continues to "enjoy the benefits of a sustained counterterrorism security relationship with the security infrastructure that remains in Yemen." President Obama has argued in the past that Yemen is a model for his small-footprint strategy.
From a March 26 article: "Critics say that the collapse of the Yemeni government shows the failure of that model — and that the rhetoric coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., is further proof of how detached Obama is from events in the Middle East." http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-obama-still-calls-yemen-a-success/article/2562059
Even back then, many who knew the situation in Yemen questioned that logic.
Knowing the situation in Yemen as I did, I would take a different view of the situation then. Our fight was against the Sunni AQAP, and we [with our Yemeni SOF colleagues] were doing a fair job of keeping them on the run. The present situation comes about from the Shi'a Houthi insurgency, and their opposition to the Sana'a regime is based on that regimes corrupt and unaccountable actions...like so many of our allies.
Regional successes or failures against al Qaeda does not equate into the same, regarding indigenous domestic politics.
The media of course, routinely fails to educate the audience on the issues, conflating the Yemeni civil war with the 'was on terror'.
Z, n a testy exchange with an ABC reporter Wednesday, Obama Press Secretary Josh Earnest insisted that the United States continues to "enjoy the benefits of a sustained counterterrorism security relationship with the security infrastructure that remains in Yemen."
Barack Obama faces a slew of Middle East crises that some call the worst in a generation, as new chaos from Yemen to Iraq — along with deteriorating U.S.-Israeli relations — is confounding the president’s efforts to stabilize the region and strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
The meltdown has Obama officials defending their management of a region that some call impossible to control, even as critics say U.S. policies there are partly to blame for the spreading anarchy.
[...]
For years, members of the Obama team have grappled with the chaotic aftermath of the Arab Spring. But of late they have been repeatedly caught off-guard, raising new questions about America’s ability to manage the dangerous region.
Obama officials were surprised earlier this month, for instance, when the Iraqi government joined with Iranian-backed militias to mount a sudden offensive aimed at freeing the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Nor did they foresee the swift rise of the Iranian-backed rebels who toppled Yemen’s U.S.-friendly government and disrupted a crucial U.S. counterterrorism mission against Al Qaeda there.
Both situations took dramatic new turns this week. The U.S. announced its support for a Saudi-led coalition of 10 Sunni Arab nations that began bombing the Houthis, while Egypt threatened to send ground troops — a move that could initiate the worst intra-Arab war in decades....
The 1930s again? This time in the Middle East.
I can't imagine that the conflict(s) will stay confined to the Middle East.
CI...I see your point about that. I also don't believe it's as much the media's fault as it is this administration's. If you can quickly explain as little as you did and make some sense of it, then they should be able to do better than that, shouldn't they. I'd still hesitate to call Yemen any kind of success, even four months ago.
AOW, I'm hearing Julie Roginsky and Kirsten Powers and even Juan Williams from time to time, really starting to see this administration's problems.....very fascinating to watch because I've said all along that it cannot be Republicans who finally make America stand up and see what's happening; it has to be Democrats. Very amazing situation...may it continue. Yes, reality does bite; well said, AOW!
And while I'm thrilled that Muslim countries are finally taking after ISIS, I feel like I'm French or something, seeing my own country step back and let others do the work. Still, I'm pleased that it's Arab blood being jeopardized in order for THEM to solve THEIR PROBLEM. I think it says a lot about America and I don't like what it says one bit.
:"Even back then, many who knew the situation in Yemen questioned that logic. My colleague Ishaan Tharoor argued that Yemen was an example of "U.S. mission creep, not success," and that the threat posed by AQAP was still very real (after AQAP claimed to be behind the high-profile attacks in Paris this month, that point grew stronger). "Very few people who are not part of the administration consider either of those cases a success," the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman wrote."
I am the product of a home school environment from sixth grade and onward. Entered college while still in high school, (long before AP courses were popular) and obtained a degree. Joined the officer corps of the Naval Reserve. I am just an average success story for homeschooling. Mine was accomplished by parents who had a knack for it. They kept me on track. It also helped that our home library had greater than 2,000 selections - many of them literary classics.
We read Pearl S. Buck, John Steinbeck, Louis L'amour and all of the "easy stuff" along with things like QB VII by Leon Uris, and the superb scholarship of Christian doctrine since my father was a minister.
Tammy, Homeschool families are not as subject to educational fads. As a result, homeschooling often produces people who are forever interested in learning as a lifelong commitment -- and have the ability and skills to pursue learning as well.
"Unschooling" has its place, too -- particularly for those in certain fields, such as the arts (music, painting, sculpture, videography).
"Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought."
~ Ludwig von Mises
"Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
Please let me add: Education is not merely a matter of acquiring the ability to read, write and do arithmetic, nor is it a matter of learning myriad facts, names, dates and lists of accomplishments associated with the data we call "History." It is not just a matter of learning the rudiments of higher forms of Mathematics, Biology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics or even a matter of reading works of literature deemed important and learning enough about Art and Music to make a convincing pretense of "appreciating" them.
Those things are important building blocks in the construction of an Educated Mind, but without fostering enough CURIOSITY to produce Awe, Wonder, Delight and acute Awareness of the Moral Implications and Philosophical Significance of what one has "learned," and how these many seemingly disparate factors interrelate and give Life greater meaning, and more Hope for a Better Future one cannot claim to be truly "educated." One may only claim to be informed well enough to find a small confining niche in the established structure into which he was born.
A truly "educated" person remains CURIOUS, always eager to learn MORE, because he has been made aware that there is NO LIMIT to what human beings CAN or SHOULD know.
The Frontiers of Knowledge are ever-expanding, because the best of us are always on an honest, earnest QUEST for TRUTH. We should constantly reexamine our suppositions and gently-but-firmly question "received wisdom" and established knowledge.
God, Himself, is the only absolute, and none of us is equipped to now Him as He knows us. We should accept that, and let it humble us. No only do we not know all the ANSWERS, we don't even know what QUESTIONS we need to ask.
"LIFE IS A MYSTERY to be LIVED –– NOT A PROBLEM to be SOLVED"
Did you know that Ben Carson's mother had her 2 sons reading books and doing book reports on them instead of watching TV? the kicker is she couldn't read what the kids had written because she couldn't READ. THAT is a mother who wants better for her children, then her son becomes the foremost pediatric brain surgeon in the world. Parents count. She made her boys curious and determined and they began to love to learn. Today? I wonder how much time most kids get from their parents? I don't believe in 'quality time'....TIME is what's important. What a mom or dad feels 30 minutes of quality time is really only a balm for a parent's disinterest.
Z, Some of the homeschool families with whom I work don't have a television (except as a device to play DVD's).
In fact, as I think about it, over my 40-plus years of teaching, the best students with whom I worked either did not have television in the home or had their TV viewing time severely limited. As a result, they pursued reading -- and the fine arts as well.
I think they just plain "pursue THINKING" when there's no TV on all the time....don't you? Our kids are so sucked into other things thinking for them; like leftwing teachers, video games and social media, TV, etc. And none of it's good thinking...or very little is. :-(
I put up the graphic as a sort of comic relief on my first day of Easter Break. Yes, the homeschool group for which I teach classes uses the term "Easter Break."
Anyway, fads in education have been plagues! Worse, these fads have destroyed the love of learning for many students. What worked for me and for all my classmates: traditional education (McGuffey Readers, for example). Yes, we memorized a lot of facts, but our teachers made certain that we used those facts in synthesis (essays, problem solving, etc.). In other words, we marshaled evidence to prove a thesis. We did a lot of writing!
In my view, teachers jump through a lot of hoops generated by fads.
The quality of education has declined -- even as we live in the Information Age. I am ever stunned by how ignorant the younger generation of my homeschool students can be. A few years ago, I had the disconcerting experience of encountering younger parents who had never heard of Helen Keller! Degreed parents!
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An immediate improvement would be to privatize education and treat it like a business.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, run it for profit?
DeleteYou're not making your goals clear.
Who's "profit" Ducky? You're not making your objections clear.
DeleteSF, the stories I know to be true about high schoolers and college kids saying they have to give the teachers what they want to hear is terrible, wrong, unAmerican.
DeleteI know of one journalism class where the liberal English teacher told the class "Don't use FOX because it's not a legitimate news source".....No mention of any other media venue. You see,to liberals (and the Eng. teacher is a liberal) there can't be two ways of looking at anything...as you know, SF. That's not educating, that's indoctrinating.
I've read through textbooks and been so saddened because our kids need the truth but at age-appropriate times. I found the history books full of racist allegations (beyond teaching the truth about slavery here, etc.), etc...No country teaches the evils of their country over the great goodness of it. NONE. But us.
I've always thought that American kids ought to get the same basic curriculum across the country so we all know our history, the constitution, etc etc.....I suppose it could work through privatization.
All I know is that throwing more and more money doesn't work in education; Parental caring and involvement and good, honest teachers are the only things that matter.
SF, the stories I know to be true about high schoolers and college kids saying they have to give the teachers what they want to hear is terrible, wrong, unAmerican.
DeleteI know of one journalism class where the liberal English teacher told the class "Don't use FOX because it's not a legitimate news source".....No mention of any other media venue. You see,to liberals (and the Eng. teacher is a liberal) there can't be two ways of looking at anything...as you know, SF. That's not educating, that's indoctrinating.
I've read through textbooks and been so saddened because our kids need the truth but at age-appropriate times. I found the history books full of racist allegations (beyond teaching the truth about slavery here, etc.), etc...No country teaches the evils of their country over the great goodness of it. NONE. But us.
I've always thought that American kids ought to get the same basic curriculum across the country so we all know our history, the constitution, etc etc.....I suppose it could work through privatization.
All I know is that throwing more and more money doesn't work in education; Parental caring and involvement and good, honest teachers are the only things that matter.
Ducky: Obviously, the Teachers Syndicalists don't have their goals clear, either.
DeleteOr perhaps they do. They've done an excellent job feathering their own nest and setting up a permanent rent-seeking operation. Most unfortunate, the classroom teacher reaps few benefits from this iron-lock scam. Public education is over-bureacratized, full of apple-shaped apparatchiks and clipped-hair man-haters who see it as their Gaia-given duty to see every student at every lever fully-indoctrinated into leftwing progressivism.
Have you ever read any documents that emanate from the useless offices that superintend the education system? They are so full of pseudo-intellectualism and incomprehensible academese, it is sad and laughable all at once.
Fire the bureaucrats, allow the teachers to band together as they so choose and bid on the economic opportunity to teach our children in the school buildings where they sit. The deadwood would quickly be looking for other work.
We have a lot of wonderful, energetic teachers out there, but the Bureaucratic-Government-Unions iron troika is killing them, and our students.
Pull your head out and get a clue.
There is no hope of that whatsoever, SilverFiddle. Canardo is much too heavily invested in what he has seen with the Cranio-Rectal Vision he's been afflicted with all his life ever to begin even to WANT to realize there is more to the Art of Living than abiding by the dark, dreary, visions, crippling misinformed precepts, malodorous, asphyxiating atmosphere, and freedom-annihilating mentality with which he's been conditioned to feel at home.
DeleteMore to be pitied than despised, I'd say.
o/t - Rumour or fact?
ReplyDeleteUnconfirmed as a far as I know. I do, however, have my suspicions.
DeleteThe one was certainly rumour, so no, we shouldn't "do it their way"... :(
DeleteInspector,
DeleteThere is no empirical evidence to indicate that Andreas Lubitz was a Muslim.
What is interesting and disconcerting: no digital footprint for him. Very unusual for someone in his age group. Was the digital footprint scrubbed? If so, why?
The article states that the original Facebook page was taken down, but the "archive" view is still there. I suppose that authorities are attempting to "forensically preserve" the original site so that no one "hacks" it and starts posting or deleting messages.
DeleteInspector,
DeleteFrom what I can tell, that FB page is something that was posted just after Andreas Lubitz's name was released. In other words, not his FB page.
As a homeschooling family, I'd be happy with a tax break on curricula, books and supplies. The government schools are still getting my tax dollars and not having to sodden it on my children. It's the very least they could do.
ReplyDelete"Sodden it?" What a curious expression! ever heard it before. What does it mean?
DeleteIvan
That was supposed to be 'spend'. I think my Mac is possessed.
DeleteCI,
DeleteThe tax break you mentioned seems like a reasonable step. But I don't see any hope of that happening, do you?
On the state level, perhaps.....in some places. As I'm sure you know, Purcellville, Virginia is home to the Home School Legal Defense Association [of which we're members]; they've been fighting to persuade Richmond to enact this as a state tax rebate.
DeleteI don't see it ever occurring on a national level, due to the fact that we have an entrenched and un-Constitutional Department of Education. Their bureaucratic existence hinges on the tax siphon being turned on full. Without it, they cease to exist.
HSLDA might get something enacted at the state level, but such a provision is not a sure thing with this governor in office.
DeleteAgreed. But it didn't get done with the last Governor either.
DeleteSodden - definition.
DeleteI can't imagine how tough it is for teachers to teach nowadays, but it must be a grueling experience.
ReplyDeleteCube,
DeleteMany times, teachers are kept so busy by bureaucratic demands that the teachers don't have time to teach -- particularly with regard to planning and grading students' work! A deliberate move on the part of bureaucracy?
I'm so fortunate that none of that bureaucratic dictatorship affects me as a teacher of homeschool classes. I'm freed up to do what I do best. Teach!
I, of course, favor the Voucher System but, that said, all aspects of K-12 education can never be better than the interest and support that the parents are willing to give it.
ReplyDeletePrivatizing education is not the answer either SF. But with people like Bill Gates and companies like Pearson who are actually writing the teacher's exams in New York, were getting close. The obvious next step is education will be in the hand of corporatists who will cherry pick what they want students to learn (and teachers to teach). Bad enough Common Core take creativity our of education.The Scientific Method will be next.
ReplyDelete"Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."
Delete- Joseph Stalin
"Cui bono?" from a "public" or "private" education is the question to ask. And "Teachers" is NOT an acceptable answer.
DeleteIsaiah Berlin, "A Letter to George Kennan"
If pushed to the extreme, this doctrine would, of course, do away with all education, since when we send children to school or influence them in other ways without obtaining their approval for what we are doing, are we not ’tampering’ with them, ’moulding’ them like pieces of clay with no purpose of their own? Our answer has to be that certainly all ’moulding’ is evil, and that if human beings at birth had the power of choice and the means of understanding the world, it would be criminal; since they have not, we temporarily enslave them, for fear that, otherwise, they will suffer worse misfortunes from nature and from men, and this ’temporary enslavement’ is a necessary evil until such time as they are able to chosose for themselves – the ’enslavement’ having as its purpose not an inculcation of obedience but its contrary, the development of power of free judgement and choice; still, evil it remains even if necessary.
Privatization will achieve one important goal of right wing education, profit.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWell, since the goal of left wing education is statist indoctrination, we'll have to call it a wash.
DeleteWhat a load of crap.
DeleteThe goal is not "statist indoctrination" (pathetic little pithy phrase) and you would have a hard time determining those boundaries anyway. I assume it involves anything philosophic position that clashes with the idea of American exceptionalism.
More to the point education should involve self understanding and self motivation along with instruction but that gets lost in the testing.
I think we are still waiting for the innovations of the charter school movement but they should be arriving any year.
Maybe we can settle for a smaller version of the "for profit" college industry which privatization fan, Arnie Duncan" has been loath to crack down.
But when in doubt just settle it by calling it "statist". Pretty flimsy, pretty sad.
Public education, where the State pays, and the State profits... or
DeletePrivate education, where the student pays, and the student profits...
Pick your poison boys.
Inept commentary Ducky. You should know well by now, that I'm an opponent of rote, uncritical 'American exceptionalism. The public school system, much like our media.....fellates State power and prestige at the expense of individual soveriengty.
DeleteLet's just keep filling the unceasingly expanding money pit, right?
CI: When Ducky's cornered and punch drunk, he reverts to canned leftwing insults.
DeleteSilverFiddle said, "When Ducky's cornered and punch drunk, he reverts to canned leftwing insults."
DeleteYes, and I eagerly add "WHICH SHOULD BE EXPUNGED on SIGHT.
CI, when you think you've made your point with a puerile little phrase (and I mean little) like "statist indoctrination) you're just parroting some rote Libertarian crap.
DeleteRight now , a poster noted, you have the likes of Melinda Gates, whose claim to fame is "Microsoft Bob" and being married to Bill) establishing educational policy and I assume you feel she is qualified.
Foundations see the money and little else.
But we'll listen to crap like "giving poor communities choice" when anyone but the Libertarian true believers know that all the likes of Gates cares about is privatization and if using poor communities in a most cynical manner then so be it.
Privatization and the resulting profit is what matters. And you're correct, the media has pushed that crap on the suckers.
Silverfiddle, you're the one who thinks we can simply snap our fingers and privatize to resolve all these issues. Even though the private sector with social media and the creation of kids as a consumer class (screw learning) has been a major part of the issue.
Now, you can either join CI in his little Libertarian fetish or say something relevant.
It's always amusing when someone accuses another of the same tactic they themselves rely on. Thanks Ducky......you've given me a chuckle.
DeleteBravo, CI! Excellent comeback. The duck has been using the same stale insults and weka-minded shibboleths from his moldering stockpile of leftist clichés all his adult life. I've witnessed his tiresome performance at many online venues for fifteen years.
DeleteIvan
"Privatization will achieve one important goal of right wing education, profit."
ReplyDeleteWhereas public, left wing education has "achieved" loss. Our comparative test scores with the rest of the World cannot be ignored!
Well John, I live in communist Massachusetts with a strong teachers union.
DeleteOur test scores are quite competitive with foreign nations.
And your test demographics are lilly white (over 2/3 of students). In MD, it's 2/5. Massachusetts "benefits" again through its lack of diversity...
DeleteThersites: Thank you for saving me the time, and you said it more succinctly than I would have.
DeleteObama is dumping illegals in Massachusetts, and the non-white percentage is creeping up, so we'll see where they stand ten years from now.
Ducky and other liberal defenders of the shabby progressive status quo:
ReplyDeleteRead this about American Indian Public High School.
It is 98% minority students, and a ranks as one of the best in the nation. I think it has since been shut down since it make the teachers union look bad, and the founder *GASP!!!* didn't have any academic credentials.
Can't have any of that thinking outside the box and making people look bad...
Progressives with their minority wards are like the mentally ill mother who keeps her kids helpless because she needs them to need her.
DeleteYes, SilverFiddle, and the corollary is true as well.
DeleteThose who advocate remaining dependent on The Dole in whatever guise it is offered are morally and psychologically identical to that class of petty criminals who always manage to get themselves rearrested and thrown back in jail every time they get out, because they cannot handle the responsibility that comes with freedom.
The same holds true, I believe,for men who continually reenlist in the armed services. They are so used to constant supervision, they feel lost without it.
"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
~ Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
After a full century of brainwashing by Marxian-Fabian-Communist,Socialist-Progressive-Liberal-Statist brand of thinking, how could we expect to find a quorum today willing to make the necessary sacrifices to stand up for Individual Liberty and Self-Determination?
By the way I don't blame only Collectivist ideologies for what has happened. The trend toward Centralized Power and ever more confining, oppressive forms of governance stems in truth from INDUSTRIALIZATION.
If you stop to think for a moment or two of the economic and social problems fostered by that thoroughly mixed blessing, you could not help but see what I mean.
The Law of Unintended Consequences is forever at work just as The Mother of Imbeciles is always pregnant. ;-)
SF, there are amazing schools whose minority kids are thriving because the teachers care and have got the parents on board....not more money. How about Jaime Escalante here in LA? More money didn't do it....Belief in the kids did it; by teachers and admin and parents.
ReplyDeleteEverybody ought to watch Freedom Writers....another true and great story of how a teacher can encourage excellence without more money....
Liberals think throwing money at everything is the key and, since they've promoted the end of self reliance and pride in oneself for having succeeded on one's one, maybe they're right today. I hope not. Kids are STILL doing well if mentored with enthusiasm and talent and love.
Z, isn't it time we realized –– and acknowledged –– that Leftists DO NOT WANT to solve social problems? It seems obvious they seek only to EXPAND and EXACERBATE social ills, because promoting perpetual degradation of the lower classes, and helpless dependence on government is the source of their POWER and their WEALTH.
DeleteOr don't you agree?
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DeleteI think they want to solve them but they don't believe in the human spirit like most of us do, FT. Yes, what they do seems to make things worse; no doubt about that. And they say they do it with caring and love (and we're the nasty b**tards who hate and are racists, etc. !!) but helpless dependency is not good for anybody.
DeleteFor all to have something, others must be robbed to pay; and I think what conservatives want is to find ways to help without having to revert to the government, don't you?
By the way....when are people like this going to learn that even the government will run out of money if people aren't working hard and creating an economy from which all benefit?
Thomas Sowell says he doesn't understand why it's 'greed' to want to keep the money you made but not greed to want to take somebody else's money. I'm with him. You probably are, too?
Z, you are far more charitable toward our political enemies –– and probably a great deal nicer –– than I. I'm sorry to have to say that, but after 15 years of bouncing around the blogosphere, I've lost the trust in the basic decency of human nature I once had before I saw, firsthand, what too many people are really like when they feel protected by the cloak of anonymity. It's been a depressing, frightening, demoralizing experience, but –– from my admittedly limited point of view –– I have come to feel it's more important than ever to stand up for what you believe is the Truth without demur or apology -- ESPECIALLY when it makes you unpopular and something of a pariah.
DeleteI know you know better than I that no one can compromise with the Devil and hope to win anything worth having, well I've taken it a step farther and decided it's too dangerous to try to work out any kind of a "deal" with those who serve the Devil –– even when they do so in all innocence as is so often the case.
So, while I would agree with you that many so-called "liberals" probably do MEAN well, they are still working in service to The Great Deceiver.
We may love these people –– and even like them ;-) –– but we dare not trust them.
After all The Road to You-Know-Where is said to be paved with Good Intentions, isn't it?
At least that's the way it seems to me.
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DeleteI think there are matters of degrees of Democrats, FT. I think, too, that there are Democrats stuck in lockstep and kind of dismayed at much of Obama's goings-on. I know that for a fact. I can't tell you how many people I know whose mothers are Dems but "done with Obama," how many friends are sorry they voted for him.
DeleteWhat Republicans have to do is BETTER ARTICULATE the platform so it gives 'permission' to vote Right to some on the Left who are really not hard core leftists....it has to be HARD to buck the late night show jerks, the constant anti-Right media drum, etc etc... but there are Dems who still love America, who still believe in the Constitution, who understand high taxes are choking our economy, who are furious that Obama said Israel's more dangerous than ISIS, etc....(particularly my Jewish lib friends...FURIOUS).
I say let him keep it up....let the scandals mount because not all leftists are ignoring them, and let's get some Conservatives who the media have a tad more difficulty trying to annihilate.
Look at this blog alone; "Carson's stupid, Walker's stupid, Bush is stupid, etc etc."..Amazing how it's only Republicans who are supposedly stupid, huh? :-)
(and those who say those things can't even hear themselves...don't even realize how unbelievably biased and unAmerican it is to deride a whole other political party, knowing half of America thinks differently than they do....but they can't discuss things with civility and decency....won't even entertain a thought Obama hasn't had)
"...who are furious that Obama said Israel's more dangerous than ISIS, etc...."
DeleteHuh? Could you source that please?
Well, the Obama Admin @ DHS seems to think that America's righ-wingers are more dangerous than ISIS...
Delete...and believe me when I tell you, they're right! We'll drag that little Obama peckerwoods through the streets and throw them into the Tiber if he keeps disrespecting the Constitution. ;)
DeleteCI..thanks..it was GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE that is more dangerous than ISIS/terrorism...I was typing fast and furious and had just written an article for somewhere else on the Israel thing. thanks for the corrective comment.
DeleteUpon hearing about his climate change remark, a lot of my Jewish lib friends finally folded and said "I wish I hadn't voted for him"
By the way, they're not pleased with his stance re Israel, either....
DeleteCI..thanks..it was GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE that is more dangerous than ISIS/terrorism...I was typing fast and furious and had just written an article for somewhere else on the Israel thing. thanks for the corrective comment.
DeleteUpon hearing about his climate change remark, a lot of my Jewish lib friends finally folded and said "I wish I hadn't voted for him"
Z- Thank you for clarifying. Claiming that alleged climate change is more dangerous than terrorism....is an absurd statement unworthy of the Office of the President.
DeleteWhy does Obama say such absurd things? Sheesh.
DeleteWhy can Obama say such absurd things? ......Because he has no real curious, hard working, honest media that will nail him for ir. AOW, he can say these things, they get repeated, people hear them, and he's scott free. It's very effective.... he gets HIS message across.
DeleteCI; I agree.
Why can Obama say such absurd things? ......Because he has no real curious, hard working, honest media that will nail him for ir. AOW, he can say these things, they get repeated, people hear them, and he's scott free. It's very effective.... he gets HIS message across.
DeleteCI; I agree.
Z,
DeleteYes, very effective.
What a propaganda war! And one on steroids, too.
Meanwhile, the reality...
DeleteWASHPOST: UNDER OBAMA, THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST HAS DEVOLVED INTO CHAOS AND WAR
The above article appeared on the front page of the WaPo today -- above the fold.
aw, gee, AOW.....I think Obama's right when he said Yemen is a great success in counter terrorism :-)
DeleteAnd that ISIS is just "JV" ..
I think this man needs to remember "Wishing doesn't make it true".
If we weren't all at jeopardy because of what he's doing, it would be utterly laughable.
Imagine the WashPost publishing THAT???
Meanwhile, the reality...
DeleteThough at the time it was stated, it had no small amount of merit. Just as Iraq was declared a success, while the foundation s sand was crumbling from within.
:"Even back then, many who knew the situation in Yemen questioned that logic. My colleague Ishaan Tharoor argued that Yemen was an example of "U.S. mission creep, not success," and that the threat posed by AQAP was still very real (after AQAP claimed to be behind the high-profile attacks in Paris this month, that point grew stronger). "Very few people who are not part of the administration consider either of those cases a success," the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman wrote."
DeleteIn a testy exchange with an ABC reporter Wednesday, Obama Press Secretary Josh Earnest insisted that the United States continues to "enjoy the benefits of a sustained counterterrorism security relationship with the security infrastructure that remains in Yemen." President Obama has argued in the past that Yemen is a model for his small-footprint strategy.
DeleteFrom a March 26 article: "Critics say that the collapse of the Yemeni government shows the failure of that model — and that the rhetoric coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., is further proof of how detached Obama is from events in the Middle East."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-obama-still-calls-yemen-a-success/article/2562059
Even back then, many who knew the situation in Yemen questioned that logic.
DeleteKnowing the situation in Yemen as I did, I would take a different view of the situation then. Our fight was against the Sunni AQAP, and we [with our Yemeni SOF colleagues] were doing a fair job of keeping them on the run. The present situation comes about from the Shi'a Houthi insurgency, and their opposition to the Sana'a regime is based on that regimes corrupt and unaccountable actions...like so many of our allies.
Regional successes or failures against al Qaeda does not equate into the same, regarding indigenous domestic politics.
The media of course, routinely fails to educate the audience on the issues, conflating the Yemeni civil war with the 'was on terror'.
Z,
Deleten a testy exchange with an ABC reporter Wednesday, Obama Press Secretary Josh Earnest insisted that the United States continues to "enjoy the benefits of a sustained counterterrorism security relationship with the security infrastructure that remains in Yemen."
Of course. In essence, perseveration.
I will add this -- from Obama's Mideast 'free fall':
Barack Obama faces a slew of Middle East crises that some call the worst in a generation, as new chaos from Yemen to Iraq — along with deteriorating U.S.-Israeli relations — is confounding the president’s efforts to stabilize the region and strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
The meltdown has Obama officials defending their management of a region that some call impossible to control, even as critics say U.S. policies there are partly to blame for the spreading anarchy.
[...]
For years, members of the Obama team have grappled with the chaotic aftermath of the Arab Spring. But of late they have been repeatedly caught off-guard, raising new questions about America’s ability to manage the dangerous region.
Obama officials were surprised earlier this month, for instance, when the Iraqi government joined with Iranian-backed militias to mount a sudden offensive aimed at freeing the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Nor did they foresee the swift rise of the Iranian-backed rebels who toppled Yemen’s U.S.-friendly government and disrupted a crucial U.S. counterterrorism mission against Al Qaeda there.
Both situations took dramatic new turns this week. The U.S. announced its support for a Saudi-led coalition of 10 Sunni Arab nations that began bombing the Houthis, while Egypt threatened to send ground troops — a move that could initiate the worst intra-Arab war in decades....
The 1930s again? This time in the Middle East.
I can't imagine that the conflict(s) will stay confined to the Middle East.
Z,
DeleteImagine the WashPost publishing THAT???
We may be seeing a paradigm shift. Reality bites!
CI...I see your point about that. I also don't believe it's as much the media's fault as it is this administration's. If you can quickly explain as little as you did and make some sense of it, then they should be able to do better than that, shouldn't they.
DeleteI'd still hesitate to call Yemen any kind of success, even four months ago.
AOW, I'm hearing Julie Roginsky and Kirsten Powers and even Juan Williams from time to time, really starting to see this administration's problems.....very fascinating to watch because I've said all along that it cannot be Republicans who finally make America stand up and see what's happening; it has to be Democrats. Very amazing situation...may it continue. Yes, reality does bite; well said, AOW!
And while I'm thrilled that Muslim countries are finally taking after ISIS, I feel like I'm French or something, seeing my own country step back and let others do the work. Still, I'm pleased that it's Arab blood being jeopardized in order for THEM to solve THEIR PROBLEM.
I think it says a lot about America and I don't like what it says one bit.
:"Even back then, many who knew the situation in Yemen questioned that logic. My colleague Ishaan Tharoor argued that Yemen was an example of "U.S. mission creep, not success," and that the threat posed by AQAP was still very real (after AQAP claimed to be behind the high-profile attacks in Paris this month, that point grew stronger). "Very few people who are not part of the administration consider either of those cases a success," the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman wrote."
DeleteI am the product of a home school environment from sixth grade and onward. Entered college while still in high school, (long before AP courses were popular) and obtained a degree. Joined the officer corps of the Naval Reserve. I am just an average success story for homeschooling. Mine was accomplished by parents who had a knack for it. They kept me on track. It also helped that our home library had greater than 2,000 selections - many of them literary classics.
ReplyDeleteWe read Pearl S. Buck, John Steinbeck, Louis L'amour and all of the "easy stuff" along with things like QB VII by Leon Uris, and the superb scholarship of Christian doctrine since my father was a minister.
Tammy Swofford
Tammy,
DeleteHomeschool families are not as subject to educational fads. As a result, homeschooling often produces people who are forever interested in learning as a lifelong commitment -- and have the ability and skills to pursue learning as well.
"Unschooling" has its place, too -- particularly for those in certain fields, such as the arts (music, painting, sculpture, videography).
"Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought."
ReplyDelete~ Ludwig von Mises
"Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
Please let me add: Education is not merely a matter of acquiring the ability to read, write and do arithmetic, nor is it a matter of learning myriad facts, names, dates and lists of accomplishments associated with the data we call "History." It is not just a matter of learning the rudiments of higher forms of Mathematics, Biology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics or even a matter of reading works of literature deemed important and learning enough about Art and Music to make a convincing pretense of "appreciating" them.
Those things are important building blocks in the construction of an Educated Mind, but without fostering enough CURIOSITY to produce Awe, Wonder, Delight and acute Awareness of the Moral Implications and Philosophical Significance of what one has "learned," and how these many seemingly disparate factors interrelate and give Life greater meaning, and more Hope for a Better Future one cannot claim to be truly "educated." One may only claim to be informed well enough to find a small confining niche in the established structure into which he was born.
A truly "educated" person remains CURIOUS, always eager to learn MORE, because he has been made aware that there is NO LIMIT to what human beings CAN or SHOULD know.
The Frontiers of Knowledge are ever-expanding, because the best of us are always on an honest, earnest QUEST for TRUTH. We should constantly reexamine our suppositions and gently-but-firmly question "received wisdom" and established knowledge.
God, Himself, is the only absolute, and none of us is equipped to now Him as He knows us. We should accept that, and let it humble us. No only do we not know all the ANSWERS, we don't even know what QUESTIONS we need to ask.
"LIFE IS A MYSTERY to be LIVED –– NOT A PROBLEM to be SOLVED"
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DeleteDid you know that Ben Carson's mother had her 2 sons reading books and doing book reports on them instead of watching TV? the kicker is she couldn't read what the kids had written because she couldn't READ. THAT is a mother who wants better for her children, then her son becomes the foremost pediatric brain surgeon in the world.
DeleteParents count. She made her boys curious and determined and they began to love to learn.
Today? I wonder how much time most kids get from their parents? I don't believe in 'quality time'....TIME is what's important. What a mom or dad feels 30 minutes of quality time is really only a balm for a parent's disinterest.
Sounds as if you're a disciple of John Dewey, Freethinke.
DeleteWhodathunkit.
Z,
DeleteSome of the homeschool families with whom I work don't have a television (except as a device to play DVD's).
In fact, as I think about it, over my 40-plus years of teaching, the best students with whom I worked either did not have television in the home or had their TV viewing time severely limited. As a result, they pursued reading -- and the fine arts as well.
I think they just plain "pursue THINKING" when there's no TV on all the time....don't you?
DeleteOur kids are so sucked into other things thinking for them; like leftwing teachers, video games and social media, TV, etc.
And none of it's good thinking...or very little is. :-(
Quite the discussion going on here!
ReplyDeleteI put up the graphic as a sort of comic relief on my first day of Easter Break. Yes, the homeschool group for which I teach classes uses the term "Easter Break."
Anyway, fads in education have been plagues! Worse, these fads have destroyed the love of learning for many students. What worked for me and for all my classmates: traditional education (McGuffey Readers, for example). Yes, we memorized a lot of facts, but our teachers made certain that we used those facts in synthesis (essays, problem solving, etc.). In other words, we marshaled evidence to prove a thesis. We did a lot of writing!
In my view, teachers jump through a lot of hoops generated by fads.
The quality of education has declined -- even as we live in the Information Age. I am ever stunned by how ignorant the younger generation of my homeschool students can be. A few years ago, I had the disconcerting experience of encountering younger parents who had never heard of Helen Keller! Degreed parents!
That cartoon is hysterically funny, even if it does cut a little too close to the bone.
ReplyDelete