Posted on 03/05/2010 12:59:51 PM PST by BruceDeitrickPrice
"One word. Two different worlds...
No wonder so little genuine communication—or progress—occurs in education
I had been writing about education for more than 25 years when I finally realized the divide, the scam, the silent sophistry, call it what you will, that renders so many discussions about education close to pointless.
When most people say the word “education,” they mean something very specific, and almost everyone knows exactly what it is: reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, to be followed by history, science, literature, and the arts.
Now, if everyone in the discussion has this meaning in mind, they can make progress.
Unfortunately, the people who control the public schools and shape most of the debate have another meaning in their minds, and they know exactly what it is: social engineering, indoctrination, political correctness, and left-wing politics...."
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
By imposing government schooling on our nation’s children both the Protestant and Catholic children suffered.
Did you read my post about my Catholic education? I would expect that a Protestant Christian school would have many of the same elements but that they emphasis would be on their unique denomination’s philosophy.
It doubt that it was the King James scriptures or Protestant prayers that were included in a government school that were offensive to Catholics but what was omitted and even forbidden. In fact, what was omitted from the curriculum should have been offensive to Protestants as well!
I was not trying to stir the pot. I was merely responding to this part of the original post.
Whenever a particular group grabs hold of the reins of government, they try to preach their particular world view. This is a perfectly logical thing to do to those in charge who have access to the truth, but when those people lose control over time, then it is a bit hypocritical to claim that the very institutions they helped to create are now being used against them.
A perfect analogy today is that most loathesome of organizations the "Department of Homeland Security". It was created by a supposedly conservative Republican administration to save us from jihad. But now that it is being run by the Democrats it is being used as a tool against a mythical rise in white supremacist hate groups, which according to the Democrats includes the Tea Party movement.
Conservatives need to stop creating lame institutions that end up being used against them. Conservative protestants created the public education system for whatever good reasons they had at the time. It is now devoid of utility. At least it took decades for this to happen, and provided some use before it became entirely abysmal.
The Dept. of Homeland Security has jumped the shark in record time.
One of the biggest criticisms of the Catholic Church is their having ever cared about worldly authority. All of the pain, suffering, and utter nonsense that resulted from fights over who would be Holy Roman Emporer was completely horrid.
Why would protestants want to recreate the same errors? Why do we even want the USA to be a "Christian Nation"? I would rather it be a constitutional republic whose citizens were mostly Christian. Mostly Christian because a free market based Democracy allows people to freely come to their own conclusions, and the best conclusion being a Christian one, it would make perfect sense if most people chose to be Christian.
But the protestants (and self-loathing Catholics) of today demand to repeat the errors of history: we need to fight jihad with jihad. We need to gain control of the reins of government to make sure that it is "good government". No child left behind. A cleaner and more wholesome NEA. A HUD agency that encourages home ownership. A Small Business Administration that doesn't support minority set-asides. A Medicare program that helps seniors pay for prescriptions. A Social Security program that is more market-oriented.
We need to flush all this well-intentioned nonsense down the toilet.
I think it’s actually the other way around. Catholic schools were formed to properly catechize Catholic children who were being exposed daily to Protestant theology in public schools. When we were researching homeschooling this topic came up in numerous places.
Which is a whole different issue than the evil Protestants had this plan to de_Catholicize Catholics, and they lost control of it, and it backfired on them, and now they’re paying the price for it, so it’s all THEIR fault.
I had never heard it the way it was presented in the post to which you responded.
Few AP US History kids have read Commonsense or even understood when they have read it.
Couldn’t agree with you more, Metmom.
We need a united front and divisiveness is wasted energy among a people that agree on 80-90% of everything else. The real enemy isn’t here.
Vouchers are a first step and we’ve got Obama right where we want him on that one. It should be outreach to the urban Black community using the DC parents and kids denied a better education as a lever.
We can’t change history, so why debate it. It is a distraction and our energies are better spent electing conservatives and changing the game.
In the grammar stage, the child learns facts. He learns dates, rules, names, places. The end result is a child who knows things.
In the logic stage, the child learns how to analyze data using logic and reason. The end result is a young person who is able to have reasoned opinions.
In the rhetoric stage, the young person learns how to persuasively argue and present his well-reasoned opinions.
I don’t see why there should be an issue with the Catholics about the *Protestant* Bible being used in public schools. The Catholic Bible itself contains every book the Protestant Bible does. There is nothing that those Catholic school children would hear from the Protestant Bible that they couldn’t read in their own, if they ever read it.
I guess the argument was over the books in the Catholic Bible that are not in the Bible used by Protestants. However, I noticed the books supposedly missing from the Protestant version are in the King James version owned by my husband. I don't claim to know much about the different versions of the Bible. But, the whole disagreement over the Bible in those days may have had more to do with American-born disliking the newcomers, and vice-versa. It probably was more of a cultural clash. JMHO.
That’s exactly what should be done in the schools today.
Here’s the new formula. Skip step one entirely. No facts. Or as close to zero as the Education Establishment can manage.
Steps two and three are merged into something called Critical Thinking, where children who know nothing are encouraged to sit around discussing their opinions and feeling about all the things they don’t know anything about.
Step one is the crucial one. Foundational Knowledge. I write about this all the time. Start the facts early, don’t stop.
Bruce Price
Improve-Education.org
Why do colleges like Hillsdale refuse to take any money from the federal government, even if it is money going to the student in the form of financial aid?
Because the courts have decided that however the money gets to the school, even if it goes through private hands, if it comes from the feds then the feds call the shots.
A voucher program sounds like a great idea. I used to be all for it. But I'm quite certain that a voucher program will be debauched by current and future Democrat administrations.
Any school that receives voucher money will be controlled by the feds. This is why Catholic charities are getting out of the adoption business: government support of any kinds means they have to keep the adoption process available to gays.
If vouchers are only used to help kids go to public schools then the parents will only have bad choices to choose from. If some of the choices are private schools, then those schools we soon be debilitated by federal mandates to the point of becoming indistinguishable from their public counterparts.
I believe the best solution is a continuous process of defunding the public school system. Sending fewer kids to the public schools. Always voting against school bonds. Passing propositions that challenge the special place that education has in most government budgets. Getting rid of the Dept. of Education.
I don’t like it for the same reasons you don’t, but I cannot see getting there from here. Vouchers can be designed such that they satisfy minimum Federal standards and can be used like cash.
There’s always going to be some problem with government funding, but schools perform as day care centers, too. Parents just can’t see doing without them or going another way.
The system is dominant and will continue to decay of its own accord, but at what cost?
Vouchers, however imperfect, are a step in the right direction. We need long-term strategy, not a purist one.
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