Posted on 08/23/2005 11:57:24 AM PDT by hsmomx3
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is on the East Coast meeting with housing experts to design the ideal standard house for all Americans. They are deciding what square footage, color, style, décor, appliances and landscaping should be mandated by the government.
Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it?
But few people think that it’s ludicrous that she is doing something equally as ludicrous as the fictional opening paragraph. She’s meeting with left-leaning education experts to reform K-12 public education and establish a standard curriculum.
Let me state it differently: From all of the different facts and views that can be taught in primary and secondary schools, from all of the conflicting pedagogical theories that have been developed over the last century, from all of the unique needs and values of 285 million Americans, and from all of the diverse student aspirations and IQs – from all of these variables, Governor Napolitano thinks that she can design a perfect curriculum.
What astonishing arrogance!
Most Americans would not tolerate the government deciding something as simple and relatively unimportant as the color of their house. But most Americans tolerate the government deciding something as complex and important as what their kids should learn in order to become educated adults and have productive careers in whatever field they later choose. Should they have two semesters of Algebra? Four semesters of Mandarin Chinese? One semester of great books? And what is a great book?
Governor Napolitano knows the answers.
The willingness of most Americans to defer to her or some other central authority demonstrates the fundamental problem of the government having a monopoly on K-12 education – namely, the ease by which the government inculcates Americans with conformist thinking about public education and other matters.
Most Americans actually believe that there is not a better alternative to the government being the primary deliverer of compulsory, publicly-funded K-12 education. They hold this belief in spite of holding a conflicting belief that it would not be good if the government were the primary deliverer of news, books, housing, food, transportation and clothing.
Has public education resulted in mass cognitive dissonance?
If so, I’ll add to the cognitive dissonance with these facts: Politicians don’t attend conferences to centrally plan a standard curriculum that should be taught in every university in the nation; yet American universities are the envy of the rest of the world. Hmm, could the reason be that the government doesn’t have a monopoly over higher education?
Politicians do not attend conferences to standardize higher education, but they do attend conferences to standardize the American health care system, which has something in common with the American public education system – namely, the government virtually destroyed a free market and took away free choice in health care, just as it virtually destroyed a free market and took away free choice in K-12 education.
Government control over health care began 63 years ago, when, through misguided war-time policies, the government destroyed a consumer market in health care and health insurance. As a result, over 80 percent of Americans are now dependent on either the government or their employer for their health care. They sit on the sidelines like well-trained, small-brained dogs as corporations, insurance companies, Janet Napolitano, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and faceless bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and state capitals decide what is best for them and issue over 100,000 pages of regulations and price controls for Medicare alone.
Government control over primary education began in the early 19th century, when White Anglo Saxon Protestants decided that all Americans should be taught their view of the world and that southern European immigrants should be taught in government schools instead of Catholic schools. As a result, 89 percent of Americans are now taught in government schools, where the curriculum is increasingly determined by Janet Napolitano, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and faceless bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and state capitals.
Let’s compare the situation in public education with one of the few remaining bastions of free choice in K-12 education: Catholic schools.
Politicians don’t go to conferences to decide the curriculum in parochial schools; yet somehow the schools provide a good education to millions of students. In fact, as I know from my pro bono work for the Phoenix Diocese school system, which has 12,000 students, Catholic education is highly decentralized. Cardinals, archbishops and bishops don’t go to Rome to attend conferences with the Pope to decide how many hours of algebra my kid should take at his Catholic preparatory high school.
There is another big plus to Catholic schools: Parochial kids don’t grow up to become adults who are afflicted with conformist thinking and cognitive dissonance about public education. Of course, this is a big negative to Janet Napolitano and other arrogant, power-hungry central planners on the Left and Right.
____________
An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni has published a new book, Breaking from the Herd: Political Essays for Independent Thinkers by a Maverick Columnist. Contact him at ccan2@aol.com for ordering information.
You go’t tha’t righ’t!
1 Timothy 2:11-15 - A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing-if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
Enough said.
NOT to mention her hideous spending program to tax us Arizonians for ALL-DAY Kindergarten! She's never had children, she doesn't have a clue about raising kids or educating them - it's beyond arrogance and I sure hope that the guy who challenges her next year (I believe it may be a Goldwater relation) will be sharp and exact on all the issues she has FAILED us ARIZONANS on.!
W’t i’s yo’r probl’m?
:’)
Aa-a-argh! Another Comrade Jezebel Clinton designing my life for me! Yikes!
We don't have to deal with this sh** if we eliminate public schools.
They're not my thoughts, I only happen to agree with them.
Like Martha Stewart with political pull, Yikes!!!
Catholic education does not suffer the curse of teachers unions!
The Governor from Hell. She would be right at home stylishly re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
"Most Americans would not tolerate the government deciding something as simple and relatively unimportant as the color of their house."
No matter how ludicrous it sounds, remember that Congress dictated the size of the fresh water toilet tanks of America, thanks in part to the water tank of America, Ted Kennedy.
It is why we've got to fight these monsters into the ground and hold them there 'til they quit moving. But Conservatives always run from the fight. The whining I hear from the left, that we might be in a quagmire in Iraq is being taken up by the sissies of the right. Oh, no, we're going to lose mid-term elections, let's back down so the people of American won't be mad at us.
Everytime I hear our Conservatives running into the woods, I always remember that water tank in my bathroom, and that makes me want to pick up the sword and charge on.
Honest. Her grabbing the illegal immigrant situation was a brilliant coup de theatre. Talk about Chutzpah!!!
And just a bit scary.
This was on c-span this morning. It is John Podesta et al recommending year round schooling from pre-K, bigger Pell grants, merit bonuses for some teachers at a price tag of $239 billion. This is supposed to help us compete with Asia.
Which surah of the Koran did you lift that from?
is napolitano hated in AZ? when is she up for re-election?
"We don't have to deal with this sh** if we eliminate public schools."
Dissolve the NEA and phase out public education over 5 years, move to internet based PATRIOTIC education and have local sports/arts/music programs for the kids to get involved in for social exposure
"Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in
sex. Make them superficial, destroy their ruggedness.Get control of all
means of publicity and thereby: Get the peoples' mind off their
government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books and
plays, and other trivialities. Divide the people into hostile groups by
constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance. Destroy
the peoples faith in their natural leaders by holding up the latter to
ridicule, contempt and obloquy. Always preach true democracy but seize
power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible. Encourage government
extravagance, destroy its credit, produce fear with rising prices,
inflation and general discontent. Foment unnecessary strikes in vital
industries, encourage civil disorders and foster a soft and lenient
attitude on the part of government towards such disorders. By specious
argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty,
sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness. Cause the
registration of all firearms on some pretext, with the view of
confiscating them and leaving the population defenseless." Vladimir
Ilich Lenin
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