“We have been successful too because Americans have known that one’s status at birth was not a permanent station in life. You might not be able to control your circumstances but you could control your response to your circumstances. And your greatest ally in doing so was a quality education.
Let me ask you, though, today, when I can look at your zip code and can tell whether you are going to get a good education – can I really say that it doesn’t matter where you came from – it matters where you are going. The crisis in K-12 education is a grave threat to who we are.
My mom was a teacher – I have the greatest respect for the profession – we need great teachers – not poor or mediocre ones. We need to have high standards for our students – self-esteem comes from achievement not from lax standards and false praise. And we need to give parents greater choice – particularly poor parents whose kids – most often minorities — are trapped in failing neighborhood schools. This is the civil rights struggle of our day.
If we do anything less, we will condemn generations to joblessness, hopelessness and dependence on the government dole. To do anything less is to endanger our global economic competitiveness. To do anything less is to tear apart the fabric of who we are and cement a turn toward grievance and entitlement.”
— Condoleezza Rice 2012 RNC Speech
This teacher, from just this post cannot be classified as a communist extremist, she may be, but from this posting alone we cannot make that claim. The effects she sees are absolutely real, and are disgusting. I am sure I will disagree with this teacher on many things, but what she sees is not imaginary or communist, its real, and like Ms Rice states above, if we do not fix it, we will lock this entire nation into entitlement and mediocrity.
My comments about the teacher have everything to do with the fact that she blogs at Daily Kos and nothing to do with the content of her post.
I agree that the failures of education in this country portend ill for our future.