Posted on 12/09/2004 6:49:31 PM PST by mysonsfuture
On Hannity and Combs, Sean responded to the liberals keeping the declaration of independence out of the schools, by calling for parents to take thier kids out of government schools. Home school bump.
What about thinking outside that box - to the family as a viable unit. The home, not as just a place to crash and watch TV - but maybe a viable economic (in its full definition) unit?
A place where multiple generations live, work, eat, learn, have fun together.
That used to be the norm.
Because the family is a "system," too. It has its own dynamic, structure etc. and more moving parts than an Italian sports car.
Interestingly, what you described wasn't a nuclear family, which is a relatively new phenom and probably destined to fail, but an extended, multigenerational family that is probably the future. You also described an agrarian lifestyle/culture, which may or may not be obsoleted in the U.S.
Please don't think I believe kids in the public school system are inherently bad or that parents of public schoolers are less caring. My mother taught 45 years in the public school, my sister is now in her 30th year teaching public school, and I am a product of the public system. But observing the changes from the late 60s when I was in high school and the things that went on then and comparing them to what goes on now, it is simply observable that moral requirement have been lost, the law has attacked the teachers so much that they are demoralized, and many students who go to public school obviously have not been diciplined at home and they exert such an effect on the classroom management that the well behaved students are sacrificed at their expense, thus resulting in a dumbing down effect of public school students as Senator Patrick Moyinihan said. The take over by the NEA has resulted in the institutional destruction of many symbolic icons and a rewriting of many textbooks. Mel and Norma Gabler, from Longview Texas were instrumental in the 1970s and 80s revealing the rewriting of history. Marlin Maddoux who ran a radio show out of Dallas that ultimately went world wide recognized this and was sounding the alarm in the 1970s. Samuel Blummenfeld wrote an expose on this subject in the book, "NEA, A Trojan Horse in American Education".
Can't tell whether you agree with me or are making excuses for the decayed system. It is broken. There is not the political will to fix it. So the downward spire will continue until parent rise up and demand they be fixed. The homeschool answer is the beginning of that demand. Each school get about 5000 dollars per student per year. With 2 million students being home schooled that is a lot of money that is not sent to the local school. Home school parents are just sucking it up and paying double. They pay taxes at the federal level and they pay taxes at the local level and then they provide the material at their own expense to educate their own kids. That 2 million is going to swell as there is not a clarion call to fix it among those who are just now looking at the problem which I looked at in the 70s. When I was a kid, there were no shootings or knifings or dope in the school. If you misbehaved in class you got your hide tanned by the teacher with your parents approval and that misbehavior was not repeated. Now to contemplate corporal punishment gets a school, the administrator, the teacher a lawsuit. So they do a little calculation and figure,..let them all misbehave, let the handfull of bad eggs ruin the education of the entire class, because I am not going to get a court judgement against me and ruin my life and that of my family. So the anarchy reins. It is only going to get worse until parent hit the NEA and local politicians, state and federal politician with the notion that it is not going to be tolerated. So you correctly see that the "core mission" becomes a faint and pale end to the system. The answer, injecting a moral absolute at school and at home and returning to the days of Thou Shalt Not.... and teaching reading, writing, and math to classrooms. In todays politically correct, multicultural, elitist standard setters, this is not on the horizon. So some begin to withdraw their kid, then more, then more, then there becomes a voice so loud that it can no longer be ignored. In the meantime we are finishing our 3rd generation of students dumbed down to these lows.
I agree with you on some points, but not others. The only person I agree with 100% of the time is the bartender when he tells me it's time to go home...
Surprisingly, I also agree that the trend toward home schooling being a wake-up call. This is is something I hadn't thought of before, but it's a significant point.
God bless your mother and your sister. Please remember both of them and their hard work when you fault the public schools.
To be perfectly honest, I'm sick and tired of home schooling parents who consistenly berate the public school system, without taking into consideration that not all public school systems are the same.
I have seen it happen consistently, the homeschoolers scream bloody murder when anyone even hints that their children are isolated and unable to interact with others. I know for a fact that isn't true, homeschoolled kids are just as involved as those that aren't.
Unfortunately for me, with a child in public school, I don't receive the same consideration from many homeschoollers. Lazy is about the nicest thing I have been called by those that feel anyone who doesn't home school is a bad parent.
Maybe where you are - not where I am.
However, there is one thing I don't agree with you on...the downward spiral isn't total. There are school disticts -- typically in very wealthy areas -- where test score, academdics, etc are on the rise. Of course, these are isolated pockets that have:
A)the money
B)a population not shy about exerting influence
C)the political will
Where the school systems are failing is largely in the poor and middle class neighborhoods.
I think you have a lot to say. It is just a bit tough reading it.
They don't call it the PUBLIC FOOL SYSTEM for nothing.
Well, yes, in a manner of speaking...
I am more of an informal classical educator...if THAT makes any sense!
Hmmm...this might be my new mantra. ; )
Thanks.
So you are saying the Constitution is not the fruit of someone's labor ( like our early settlers and early militia)- which is protected by the fruits of the veteran's labor?
Innumerable people's labor, spanning centuries, went into the composition of the Constitution. Many people, including veterans, receive varying fruits of the labor of sustaining and defending the Constitution.
Are you saying that the first amendment, for example, is not a right given to you and protected for you by a soldier's fruits of labor?
The soldier doesn't give me any rights. Ideally he protects them, for which labor he receives both monetary and non-monetary rewards.
Again the mere fact that you are here speaking freely in an open forum, and if you are American- shows that you enjoy the fruits of many people's labor.
Yes.
Every right you have in this country is protected by the labor of our military- and they do not make a whole lot of money doing it.
Agreed.
It is a labor of love for most- and I intend to pay back into the system that many of them have died to protect and provide to us. The ability for all citizens to get a decent education, no matter how much money they have, is a huge part of what America stands for.
Yes, and it doesn't require compulsory education laws or taxation to provide a decent education to almost everyone.
"Yes, and it doesn't require compulsory education laws or taxation to provide a decent education to almost everyone."
that you think education can somehow be free.
Well that is interesting....
Free from government coercion. We don't need taxation to fund it.
And how do we offer a decent education to ALL of our citizens without tax monies? Should it be a voluntary/honor system?
Interesting. Didn't NYC open a homosexual-only public school a few years ago? And didn't it close down?
Where I live, the local shool board receives approximately $7,500 per student per year. The best parochial school in our area (which has a .5% drop out rate) costs right at $6,000 per year for high school and $4,500 for K-8. If you didn't gravitate from publik skool, the math be simple.
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