Posted on 03/16/2011 9:29:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
Our national weeping and wailing over education spending cuts, public employee unions, and such like cause minds of a certain vintage to stop still and wonder. When were the divorce proceedings between home and classroom filed anyway? And who filed them, and why? It can be argued that the current traumas of education proceed from that divorce: further testimony to the general understanding that it's the kids who get hurt worst in divorce.
The divorce between home and public school classroom -- accomplished by the end of the '70s -- was a national calamity. To put it another way, once public education lost in great degree the robust support of the middle class, there was nowhere for things to go but downhill. And so they have slid for decades. Teachers parading around the Wisconsin capital like Jimmy Hoffa's truck drivers? It not only wouldn't have happened in ye olde days -- it didn't happen.
The middle class and the public school classroom were hand in glove in a united enterprise. The former wanted -- nay, expected -- the latter to succeed. Johnny would read. Susie would con her multiplication tables. Because the middle class expected no less. Mothers and daddies weren't putting up with a lot of bad grades and bad behaviors. Stuff like that got in the way of education, which was about -- for goodness' sake -- urgent matters like personal advancement and civic betterment. Education made for a stronger, wiser America. That is what we believed -- and why we supported teachers and principals.
You say I am generalizing. I am. Every assertion regarding the human experience is a generalization. The point is, we used to like teachers and support them. What happened?
The moral collapse of the middle class is pretty much what seems to have happened. As Whittaker Chambers noted in a different context, "History hit us like a freight train." We all, suddenly, wanted liberation instead of restraint and order and discipline -- the prerequisites of good education. Someone at the top has to pass the word down the line: Here's what we're doing today, no back talk. What we were "doing today" wasn't always, in abstract terms, the best thing to be found out there, but it made for generally fruitful outcomes. Parents supported it, passing down to children the obligations of self-discipline.
Parents, I tell you, used to like teachers. Teachers liked parents in return. There was a kind of compact between them. Back us up, the teachers said, and we'll deliver the goods. The parents nodded their heads. OK.
That was until the compact came apart and society as a whole withdrew its support from the teacher: the teacher as authority figure anyway.
The compact came apart when the kids themselves took as role models all the fun-loving, war-protesting, authority dissing "campus activists," as the papers called them. You can't have a compact that no one is willing to enforce by -- oh, scandalous word! -- discipline. Educational standards took a tumble.
Wasn't every little kiddie a potential genius best left to himself? You might have thought so, listening to the discourse of the time. The federal judiciary's embrace of busing for racial balance further disordered the relationship between parents and public schools and drove a big hunk of the middle class into private schools or home schooling.
Home schooling: There's something to which no one gave a thought 50 years ago. It happens in the 21st century that some of the nicest, most dedicated people you could ever hope to know have chosen to instruct their kids at home: unable any more to trust the public schools with getting the job done.
Yes, teachers unions are arrogant; it hurts to see teachers laid off -- that, too. And that isn't the end. The good teachers who still show up for work, compact or no compact, don't deserve the opprobrium and the turmoil in which so many are forced to operate. Lord, help 'em, they deserve better. And so -- here is the genuinely grievous part -- do the kids.
Good teachers don’t need or want a union.
Here’s another view on the Wisconsin teacher’s union crisis.
The “divorce” happened when the Educational “Establishment” foisted “Whole Word” learning vice Phonics and that TRUE POS “New Math”. Oh and the wholesale drugging(Ritalin) of ALMOST EVERY boy who had even a SPARK of maleness in him. Maybe that is why “Teachers(Educators)” are now looked at w/ such distain.
Sometimes the kids are hurt more by a bad marriage. Our kids in school are ranked 34th in the world. It would seem that our well paid teachers are too busy with social engineering to teach.
Currently 100% of public school activity is focused to increase and retain that power, and the children are used as pawns. Parents will submit or the public school will destroy their child.
The only card a parent has is to pull their kid from public school, and the bastards are workin' on that.
Public school is child abuse.
Let’s see, what happened in that time frame? Schools were used to integrate society, so neighborhood schools became a thing of the past and children were bused to far away schools. It was no longer possible for parents to take an active part in their children’s school and the teachers were no longer your neighbors. Actions of the Federal Government often have unintended consequences. This is just collateral damage.
The whole point of the John Dewey government education system was to get the kids away from the influence of their parents as early in their life as possible and for the longest time possible.
The only reason people see it as a “divorce” is because they thought their was a marriage in the first place. It was more of a kidnapping than a marriage.
When parents stopped paying directly for the children's education. First it was decided that local property taxes would pay for the school. The teachers were then beholden to the local taxpayer represented by the local school board. Always looking for more money, schools then went to the state governments, and the teachers became beholden to the state school board appointed by governors and the state legislators (only two of which represent any one parent). Finally, schools went hat in hand to Washington. Now the teachers are beholden to a Department of Education that is so far removed from the parents that the parents are no longer regarded.
1. Parents must pay for their children's education.
2. Fathers must raise their children
Absent those two requirements education will not improve.
“wholesale drugging(Ritalin) of ALMOST EVERY boy who had even a SPARK of maleness in him.”
Yep! When our son was in 1st grade a female teacher told my wife that he was too hyperactive and hard to handle. She suggested that we consider putting him on ritalin. I said no immediately to that idiocy. He was just a very energetic and curious boy that this teacher didn’t want to work with. Many teachers are like that today. They go into teaching for the right reasons but once they get addicted to the generous pay and benefits they lose sight of their original passion.
And just WHAT is their “original passion”?!
The Left and Lawyers made a public education a RIGHT, not a priviledge, like a driver’s license. That started the lawsuit lottery, which has hurt terribly. Massive social programs give older kids the impression that the government would always feed them and put a roof over their heads. When I was in school, it really never was far from my head that I had to learn and acquire skills to take care of me and my family . . . no one else would. How many minorities worry about that this day and time???
And one more thing:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
How much of America’s decline coincides with the Supreme Court’s decisions about prayer and the Bible back in the early 60’s.
“And just WHAT is their “original passion”?!”
At one time it was an honor to be able to teach kids to be literate in reading writing, math, science, history, etc. This was their path to become their best in whatever vocational field they were inclined to follow. I had many excellent teachers and I can assure you they weren’t in it for the money.
“The “divorce” happened when the Educational “Establishment” foisted “Whole Word” learning vice Phonics and that TRUE POS “New Math”. Oh and the wholesale drugging(Ritalin) of ALMOST EVERY boy who had even a SPARK of maleness in him. Maybe that is why “Teachers(Educators)” are now looked at w/ such distain.”
Well stated. It does get my back up a bit when the parents keep getting blamed. The only parents that should get blamed are the parents that home school and then blow it, and thankfully there are very few of them.
A “good” teacher would NOT teach children to think and reason godlessly. Since **all** government schools in this nation **are** godlessly secular in their worldview, this is, indeed, what government teachers do. They teach children to think godlessly!
A “good” teacher would NOT NOT NOT teach children to be comfortable with taking money from their neighbor by threat of police action to fund something their parents want for tuition-free. Since **ALL** government schools in this nation are socialist-funded, collectivist in their worldview, and run by the voting mob school boards ( comrade committees) this is exactly what government teachers do **EVERY** day!
How can the above be “good”???? Let's call it what it is: EVIL!
Oh!....And... If there are any conservative Christian teachers out there in Communist Education-Land that attempt to sneak in a little conservatism and Christianity into their classrooms, yes, they are teaching a lesson. They are teaching the students that Christians and conservatives are SNEAKY!
How can that be good?
This is a great point that needs to be repeated. It's serves as another example of government social engineering that destroyed the fabric of society.
When I was a kid my parents would drag us to the PTA meetings where they would give the schools an earful about the curriculum, test scores and bad educators. Parents were fully engaged.
Today, the PTA's, in most cases, serve as nothing but fundraisers and labor. The elites within the administration (and the teachers to some degree) have told the public to shut up and accept what they're offering. They are, after all, the experts. Who are we to be offering them advice on how we want our money spent and our children treated? I keep hoping the public will wake up one day and see that they've been separated from their freedom. When that happens, the public is going to start telling the schools "no" when they demand more money. Then everything will change. Nothing will change in the meantime. Wisconsin, I hope, is a start.
And...This is a conservative site, too! :-(
At the 100K foot level, it is hard to disagree with this thought. One can argue that the moral collapse of the middle class started with the attack on the American Family. I would then add that government programs and policies that have broken down the American Family are at fault. Certifying unions for teachers, subsidizing unwed mothers, subsidizing people who do not work, creating an atmosphere that no child should be left behind, and so forth (add to this, "It takes a village to raise a child) are all policies and programs that have hurt the American Family -- and not just those at the lower socio-economic class.
“The only parents that should get blamed are the parents that home school and then blow it, and thankfully there are very few of them.”
If you take a look at the American landscape and you do not conclude that, yes, there are an awful lot of parents out there not doing their job, then you are not being honest.
Our nation is in crisis mode and we somehow expect that this won’t be reflected in our nation’s schools? Institutions (government, the courts, the family, etc.) are falling apart, yet we somehow expect things to flourish in schools. This, to me, is incredible thinking. Yes, liberal ideology drives public education policy, but how much of this is due to the abdication of people who no longer have the time to participate in a meaningful way to provide the necessary oversight?
Your comment about the only ones who should be blamed (for their children’s failed education) would be homeschool parents that blow it...doesn’t this derive from the sense that they would have failed to be involved in the academic process of their own children? Well, what do you call it when few parents show up at school board meetings...or open school nights...or school activities? Busy Mr. and Mrs. America have found themselves pursuing the American Dream and have offered their children up on the altar of liberalism (and all its ugly manifestations: extreme environmentalism, tolerance, homosexuality, bashing America, etc.) The problem is that people have been too trusting of the intents of “public education”.
In short, we’ve let this happen. Just like America has let Obama “happen”.
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