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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30692
Time for public schools to throw in the towel?
Posted: January 27, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Dr. Laura Schlessinger
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
I've been collecting clips about schools and teachers around the country
for the last year, and I have to tell you that I genuinely fear for the
republic. I say that because, for us "old folks" who were actually taught
American History in school, a thriving democracy depends upon universal
education – an education that prepares the citizens of a nation to govern
themselves through their elected representatives. (Of course, it was the
presumption of the framers of the Constitution that if one attended school,
one could be counted on to emerge educated!)
Is it really because they don't care that so many Americans don't vote? Or
is it because they can't read the ballot? We tend to blame lackluster
politicians or negative campaigning for low turnout at the polls. But what
if the real reason is that most of our citizens are not sufficiently
educated about the basic concepts of democracy to understand the issues –
even those that directly impact their self interest? And what if that
ignorance is compounded by illiteracy?
Last fall, the Center for Civic Information at the Manhattan Institute
published the report of a telephone survey of over 1,000 fourth- and
eighth-grade teachers. Among the not so surprising findings was that only
about 25 percent of those surveyed said they most cared about whether a
student got the right answers. More of them most cared that students tried
hard or used a creative approach.
That absurd state of affairs has come about because this generation of
teachers, and probably a few generations before, have themselves been
raised to believe there are no right answers, anyway. So what difference
does it make?
For example, our public-school children hear that the Founding Fathers are
not to be revered. They were greedy, patriarchal oppressors who were in it
for the money and the power. America is not a noble experiment in freedom
and equality. That was the cover story, as we stole the land from the
indigenous people. America wasn't recently attacked by terrorists. America
is the terrorist!
Furthermore, there are no such things as great books, since all the books
we were misguided enough to think of as great, were written by those same
old white male misogynists from the evil empire of Western culture. What's
just as great is any diary written by any woman, slave or Native American
and recently discovered in someone's trunk. And woe to anyone who disagrees.
Of course, none of it matters anyway, because language itself is fatally
tainted, and words don't mean anything. They only mean what my
idiosyncratic point of view believes they mean. Just ask the
deconstructionists.
Those deconstructionists have been very busy, because they didn't stop with
the English language. They have also pretty successfully deconstructed
family, religion, values, ethics and morality as well. We all know that, if
there can be no right answers, there obviously is no right and wrong. No
one's behavior can be judged because the most heinous acts can be excused
on the basis of what the perpetrator may have suffered at the hands of his
parents, the police, the inequitable society. Yada, yada, yada.
This leads inevitably to "understanding" that immigrant children shouldn't
be penalized in school because English is not their first language. And
what's so great about patriarchal, oppressive, English anyway? Embrace over
100 languages in the classroom (as we do in the Los Angeles School
District) so that no one learns anything – least of all the immigrant
children who are one day going to grow up as Americans and not even
understand what that means, let alone what it requires of them or entitles
them to.
God is dead (although the Wiccan goddess still has a fighting chance, I
guess) – traditional morality is destructive; excellence is discredited and
devalued; grades are antiquated. Discipline is discriminatory because
there's no such thing as bad behavior, just children with "special needs."
No wonder teachers are trying to find ways to make their work meaningful,
since accomplishment and achievement can no longer be benchmarks of
success. After all, the unaccomplished and underachievers in the class are
likely to feel bad. Worse, their parents might sue for cruel and unusual
punishment.
For a few years now, I've been urging parents to send their kids to private
religious schools and/or homeschool them. I truly see no other options for
raising and educating children to be morally fit, well informed,
appreciative Americans and contributing members of society.
A shortage of teachers, a kaleidoscope of standards, endemic failure,
annual budget shortfalls, states taking over local school districts and
guns in the classroom are unavoidable signs of public-school collapse. I
think Oregon may have the right idea. They are looking to shorten the
school year by 15 days. How long before it's clear to them and to us, that
we should simply close them altogether?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30692
Time for public schools to throw in the towel?
Posted: January 27, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Dr. Laura Schlessinger
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
I've been collecting clips about schools and teachers around the country
for the last year, and I have to tell you that I genuinely fear for the
republic. I say that because, for us "old folks" who were actually taught
American History in school, a thriving democracy depends upon universal
education – an education that prepares the citizens of a nation to govern
themselves through their elected representatives. (Of course, it was the
presumption of the framers of the Constitution that if one attended school,
one could be counted on to emerge educated!)
Is it really because they don't care that so many Americans don't vote? Or
is it because they can't read the ballot? We tend to blame lackluster
politicians or negative campaigning for low turnout at the polls. But what
if the real reason is that most of our citizens are not sufficiently
educated about the basic concepts of democracy to understand the issues –
even those that directly impact their self interest? And what if that
ignorance is compounded by illiteracy?
Last fall, the Center for Civic Information at the Manhattan Institute
published the report of a telephone survey of over 1,000 fourth- and
eighth-grade teachers. Among the not so surprising findings was that only
about 25 percent of those surveyed said they most cared about whether a
student got the right answers. More of them most cared that students tried
hard or used a creative approach.
That absurd state of affairs has come about because this generation of
teachers, and probably a few generations before, have themselves been
raised to believe there are no right answers, anyway. So what difference
does it make?
For example, our public-school children hear that the Founding Fathers are
not to be revered. They were greedy, patriarchal oppressors who were in it
for the money and the power. America is not a noble experiment in freedom
and equality. That was the cover story, as we stole the land from the
indigenous people. America wasn't recently attacked by terrorists. America
is the terrorist!
Furthermore, there are no such things as great books, since all the books
we were misguided enough to think of as great, were written by those same
old white male misogynists from the evil empire of Western culture. What's
just as great is any diary written by any woman, slave or Native American
and recently discovered in someone's trunk. And woe to anyone who disagrees.
Of course, none of it matters anyway, because language itself is fatally
tainted, and words don't mean anything. They only mean what my
idiosyncratic point of view believes they mean. Just ask the
deconstructionists.
Those deconstructionists have been very busy, because they didn't stop with
the English language. They have also pretty successfully deconstructed
family, religion, values, ethics and morality as well. We all know that, if
there can be no right answers, there obviously is no right and wrong. No
one's behavior can be judged because the most heinous acts can be excused
on the basis of what the perpetrator may have suffered at the hands of his
parents, the police, the inequitable society. Yada, yada, yada.
This leads inevitably to "understanding" that immigrant children shouldn't
be penalized in school because English is not their first language. And
what's so great about patriarchal, oppressive, English anyway? Embrace over
100 languages in the classroom (as we do in the Los Angeles School
District) so that no one learns anything – least of all the immigrant
children who are one day going to grow up as Americans and not even
understand what that means, let alone what it requires of them or entitles
them to.
God is dead (although the Wiccan goddess still has a fighting chance, I
guess) – traditional morality is destructive; excellence is discredited and
devalued; grades are antiquated. Discipline is discriminatory because
there's no such thing as bad behavior, just children with "special needs."
No wonder teachers are trying to find ways to make their work meaningful,
since accomplishment and achievement can no longer be benchmarks of
success. After all, the unaccomplished and underachievers in the class are
likely to feel bad. Worse, their parents might sue for cruel and unusual
punishment.
For a few years now, I've been urging parents to send their kids to private
religious schools and/or homeschool them. I truly see no other options for
raising and educating children to be morally fit, well informed,
appreciative Americans and contributing members of society.
A shortage of teachers, a kaleidoscope of standards, endemic failure,
annual budget shortfalls, states taking over local school districts and
guns in the classroom are unavoidable signs of public-school collapse. I
think Oregon may have the right idea. They are looking to shorten the
school year by 15 days. How long before it's clear to them and to us, that
we should simply close them altogether?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]