Posted on 02/09/2002 6:37:33 PM PST by vannrox
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:32:30 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
DENVER
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The reason we have public schools in this country, historically, was to teach immigrants the values which make this country what it is. These days the schools teach the opposite.
Is this really a debate on wether to teach American history?
Exactly. No one can be forced to say the Pledge, which for me is adequate protection.
Teaching patriotism, however, is another story. I thought there already was a course called "civics" that taught one about the political makeup and political history of these United States -- or am I dating myself? However, the idea of "patriotism" classes being an antidote to pc anti-Americanism is misguided. First, because countervailing orthodoxies still don't produce truth, and because the sort of folks dominating the public schools would just use it for more pc, anti-American indoctrination.
Indoctrination is still indoctrination. The "right kind" of propaganda is not going to produce free men.
"Patriotism 101" is a quick fix, a lazy man's way out of dealing with the real problem of anti-American teachers, administrators, staffers, edschool profs, and textbook publishers. The problem has grown over the course of thirty-odd years, and it's going to take a lot more than forced patriotism to fight off. It is going to take an expansion of the homeschooling movement; pressure on elected officials to expand vouchers, so that every American parent can get them for his kids; an end to public school bilingual ed and so-called tolerance (pro gay) ed; the continued public humiliation, and when possible, lawsuits (for MONEY, not just demands that they cease and desist) against alleged educators who bash America and force the gay agenda, racism, and Islam on our kids; and publicity and pressure campaigns against textbook publishers, who presently see racist, feminist, and gay activists as "allies," but Christians and other right-of-center groups as "extremists." I can just see folks getting patriotism classes enacted, congratulating themselves, and saying, "We can all rest easy now, folks, the battle has been won." Just like the folks who are always congratulating themselves, whenever affirmative action is officially banned somewhere or college remediation is limited, and who then retire from battle. Meanwhile, a fortnight later, while the victors are still busy congratulating each other, "black markets" in AA and remediation are flourishing.
Someone on FR said that he has no respect for parents who send their kids to government schools. I'm teetering between lack of respect and outright contempt.
I'm sure you're correct... I was taking the article's phrasing (would have "required students" to say the pledge) at face value.
Most parts of American history are being abstracted, falsified or just left out.
This is smoke and mirrors in my opinion. Far more patriotic would be to reform the excesses of leftist educators who have removed basic issues relevent to the everyday lives of American citizens by a process of disinformation and ommission. Educators are refusing to teach basic American history, and cover topics like the constitution and bill of rights.
Want to be patriotic? dont wave more flags. Reform the "dumbing down" of education so that the aspects of what made this country great becomes the focus again.
Everything else is just smoke and mirrors being played off as education reform.
Perhaps because I'm from New York, I have a little more compassion for some parents who send their kids to government schools. (Just a little.)
Why should a parent have to pay double tuition for each of his children? That is what every parent who sends his children to private school without vouchers is forced to do: he pays once through his taxes, and again through the check he pays to the private school. Meanwhile, many gov't school families don't even pay once.
In New York, the broken-down, incompetent, corrupt gov't school system spends over $10,000 per student (over $11 billion for 1.1 million students). You can imagine the tax burden that creates. Meanwhile, there are no vouchers in New York. And so, many working-class families have nothing left, after paying tribute to Leviathan. Still, I know working-class black and Hispanic parents who must have cut deals with the Devil, to send their kids to Christian schools, because I know they can't afford the tuition. (I don't know any working-class white families well enough to tell you what they do.) Other people find out where there's a halfway decent public school, and get someone in the school district to let them use their address, in order to smuggle their kids in.
The vast majority of the public schools here are execrable, and those parents who encourage their kids to terrorize and assault classmates and teachers alike, and the administrators who refuse to arrest or expel the thugs must share the blame. But with that said, I think that the best-case scenario would be one in which you have universal vouchers paying the same amount for private schooling as the local public schools receive, there is no more edschool requirement for teachers, and because of the options and the competitive pressure vouchers and homeschooling generate, every school-seeking parent can choose between quality private and public schools.
"The Conspiracy of Ignorance: The Failure of American Public Schools (9/13/99)
A Cato Institute Book Forum featuring Martin Gross with comments by David Boaz, Executive Vice President, the Cato Institute.
New York Times bestselling author Martin Gross has exposed the waste and inefficiency inside the federal budget in previous books. In The Conspiracy of Ignorance he diagnoses the educational child abuse in our public schools."
You are missing a keay point. Schools exist as much for indoctrination as for education.
Look at the writings of Horace Mann and the other pioneers of the public school system. read the early statutes.
How is having students say a wrote statement of allegence any different than having them spew out essays with preconcieved answers conforming ot the PC agenda?
The issue isn't the rights of children. If it were, we would be talking about aboloshing public ed.
The real issue is with what ideology do we indoctrinate children?
For 40 years, we have let the left set the agenda. The results have been disastrous.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.