Okay folks, if you have not seen the photo yet, it is everywhere. Yes, yes, it is true. The POTUS needs TOTUS to stay on message when talking to 11 year olds. Those on the defense point out that the press was there too, well sure it was, he wouldn’t go into a PUBLIC school if there wasn’t a PR Opportunity to be had. And Clifton at Another Black Conservative is right on the money as usual. Big O has no substance, he is a product of a machine in a way we have not seen since the bad old robber baron days. At any rate I want to comment on one part of the story. For other commentary please read any of the fine sources at the bottom of the post, or many others that are out there.
What I want to focus on is the State’s Rights issue here, as well as the quality education that our kiddos deserve. It really is easy to understand and see things for what they are when you understand what the broader goal for the left is. They always say it is for the children, but clearly it is not. If money was the solution to why we are ‘sucking hind teat’ among the nations of the world for education, don't you think by now that we would have fixed it? Money is NOT THE ISSUE and MORE will not fix it. The issue IS the federal standards. I come from a long line of teachers. Two grandparents, an Aunt, and Uncle, 5 Cousins, and more, all teachers. From IL, TN, MO, and TX, they all sing the same tune.
This started when I was a youngster. We all did the achievement tests, I do not remember when I was in Elementary School spending time learning the test, but by the time several administrations policies had taken their toll and High School rolled around, we were spending weeks specifically practicing for the test. Well, I gotta ask the obvious question, are we training kids to take tests or to THINK? Obviously we are training them to put little black dots in little circles on paper…push the button KOKO get a bannaner…
Here is the reality of all the crappy federal regulations that have happened starting in the Sixties. Step 1. The IRS takes money out of the hands of producers that could be spent locally and sends it to Washington. Step 2. The Fed sets an arbitrary performance standard for curriculum across this nation from Maine to Hawaii, and Alaska to Key West. Encompassing all the flavors of the rainbow and cultures that we possess. Step 3. States are set to compete for the dollars by meeting these standards. Step 4. Individual school districts, beholden to the Federal and States for the dollars removed from individuals and businesses in their districts, must compete amongst themselves for the dollars apportioned to the states. Step 5. Through entitlement programs, and the general moral decay of our society, along with the rampant PC and lack of discipline applied to our children, parents do not parent, and children are increasingly apathetic towards learning. Step 6. Teachers, needing their careers, and under pressure from their administration for results, begin to teach little Johnny and Little Susie how to answer test questions, similar to monkeys in some sociology experiment, instead of how to use their BRAINS. Step 7: as performance standards outstrip the children’s actual ability to remember and regurgitate infonuggets schools resort to really ridiculous ways of propping up their scores in a downward spiral of ignorance. Throw in laughable standards for a teaching certificate, Teachers unions, and Smarmy politicians and voila, a McDollar Menu Education on a Filet Mignon budget.
We do not let teachers teach, and we do not provide a basis for our children’s future, because we have turned teaching into a race for federal hog slop. And it goes without saying that Obama’s plan will hasten the further degeneration of the actual quality of children’s education further. Why? Because we should not try to teach all the kids in this nation the same thing on the same day at the same hour. That is what makes things meaningless. Even making the State’s Rights argument doesn’t go far enough. I feel strongly, and logic supports me, that curriculum should be decided on a district by district level. I would settle for State by State, but even in Missouri there are wide cultural variances regarding not only what, but how kids should be taught. One size never ever fits all, and in this case, most lose out.
Some of the greatest minds in history were self educated, or educated in one room schoolhouses. We do not need 20 million dollar high schools with laboratories rivaling that of pharmaceutical research companies, and gymnasiums that look like something from ESPN. We need to teach the three R’s , Readin, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmatic. I have done posts previously that demonstrate from the local level that our schools are horrible, the local one here averages something like 20 hours a week of potential instructional time to Jr. High kids. What they are learning in 7th grade I learned in 5th, what I learned in 5th my parents learned in 4th. I was taught Phonics and Greek and Latin root words and taught to look at context. When I see a word I have not encountered I can make a reasonable guess at how it is pronounced and probably its’ general meaning. Children today are taught words by rote memorization and “sight words” nonsense hogwash garbage. We still teach math all wrong to kids, my grandparents can do as much math in their heads as I can do with a calculator and forget giving me a pencil it is a waste of time. When I was a kid in Texas we learned Texas history, and when I moved to Missouri, we learned Missouri history. When I got to High School I learned World History, up to the Vietnam War. Guess what, forty years since Vietnam, and kids learn up to the Vietnam War. The color of the houses of the natives to the Indian Subcontinent are not as relevant to our kids as what happened since Vietnam, yet, that is part of the curriculum. And yellow, if you are wondering, all the houses were yellow, and they all disappeared and no one knows why. Riveting isn’t it?
If we focused on teaching people how to THINK and then Inspired them to do so and gave them direction we would be way better off than trying to cram useless facts into their head without giving them any context. This is how the Ignorance is spread folks. This is why kids worship Che. This is why we are losing. If we win the battle on Healthcare, and that is a big IF, then we will have to win Immigration on our terms to turn the tide. Then, in order to actually win, Education reform is the battlefield we will win it on, and it will take two generations, or we are pretty much shot as far as I see it. Local People, teaching their Kids, at the Local level, lessons that are relevant to them. Let’s teach our kids to Read. To Learn. To Question, and to THINK.
Photo h/t Left Coast Rebel
via: Another Black Conservative
Via: Gateway Pundit
Via: The Reihl World View
-KOOK
