[Lady Eileen]

No More Gore Anymore : I have not insulted any hardworking ,thoughful, respcetful person here. I have not insulted any teacher here either, unless they are in the NEA. Then I say they get what they deserve for being a part of a union that is railroading the education system of America, abusing the children in their care , and for the rape of the taxpayer.

I think many of NMGAM points are valid. I also understand much of NMGAM anger ...the government school system requiring the state to coercively extract money from taxpayers, including many who don't have children. Shame on them.

[CyberCowboy777]

His concerns are real and his anger valid.

He has just become upset, vague and anecdotal.

I say stop worrying about the teachers, CRUSH the system. Then the 20% to 90% of teachers that are bad will be out of work.

[ReagansShinyHair]

"I think many of NMGAM points are valid. I also understand much of NMGAM anger ...the government school system requiring the state to coercively extract money from taxpayers, including many who don't have children."

I don't have children. I pay for schools, to, but I wouldn't send kids through them even if I did. You have me confused with someone else. I do not support public education, I am doing something to fight against it. I do support a rational discourse with people who can support their arguments instead of relying on personal feeling and experience.

[CyberCowboy777]

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effor of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favor of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes men to seek a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position... It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown mean and women. Among children it is very common, and grows naturally out of the period of make-believe and fancy. It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education... The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young. Education should not aim at passive awareness of dead facts, but at an activity directed towards the world that our effords are to create.

- Bertrand Russell