Six Roads to Dysfunctional Schools

Right Side News ^ | 4/21/2011 | Staff

[RockinRight]

7. EDUCATION AND KIDS WITH AN ATTITUDE THAT LEARNING IS FOR “WHITE FOLKS” OR “GRINGOS”

8. NO FATHER IN THE HOME

9. STUPID PARENTS HAVE STUPID KIDS

[RockinRight]

One thing I heard a few months ago, from SWEDEN of all places, was that apparently, each family gets a voucher of XXXX and can choose any school, anywhere they wish with it, no forced attendance by district.

On one hand I like the idea.

On the other hand, it would probably end up infecting every school in the country with just enough bad kids to screw all of them up, due to parents thinking the problem with their kids is the schools, and not THEMSELVES and the way they’ve raised them.

Sweden values education more than we do, and I think too many parents in the US take no time at all teaching their kids, or even teaching them to WANT to learn, instead, throwing them at school and expecting their teachers to handle it all.

[wintertime]

CONCLUSIONS
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The problem with U.S. education is that it is PUBLIC!

“Public” by definition means that it is socialist-funded, godless, collectivist managed, and run by the voting mob. How on earth can that be successful?

[wintertime]

That’s the easiest, cheapest way to improve public education.
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When is Bruce going to give it up? He persists in his quixotic quest to reform the unreformable.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to fix schools that are fundamentally, to their very core, socialist-funded, collectivist-managed, godless, and owned by the voting mob.

Solution: Begin the process of getting government out of the education business from pre-K to graduate school!

[FLAMING DEATH]

I’ve taught 7th grade for 17 years, and every Friday we play a review game in class on that day. The game is usually based on whatever sport is in season (right now, it’s baseball) and win-loss records are kept on the wall for all to see.

Rote memorization earns your team points. The more you can memorize, the better you help your team. They have to know what they’ve been taught. Everything’s fair game, from stuff that I taught the previous day, to stuff that I taught in August.

Of course, they also learn a good lesson about the dynamics of working in a group, i.e., that working in a group pretty much sucks, because there’s always knuckle-heads that everyone else has to drag along. I never attempt group work for any serious assignment, because I know that the work I would get would only reflect the abilities of the best student in the group. The others would just have that kid do their part for them.

I’ve seen kids who had no motivation to do anything decide that they weren’t going to be the object of scorn and ridicule from their classmates any more and actually learn the information.

Not only that, when they pick new teams, the lazy kids get to experience the humiliation of being passed over for the hard workers.

By the end of the year, they realize the reason that they know all that they know is because they had to COMPETE, and that, if they let up, someone else will move ahead of them.

That’s possibly the best lesson they can learn, anyway.

[p. henry]

I don't know if these are the primary problems with public education, but I know that there are problems. My daughters went to one of the most highly rated public high schools in our state. They took many seminar and AP courses, and therefore their friends were among the best and brightest at the school. They and their friends have since gone on to attend some of our most selective colleges and graduate schools.

While they were still in high school, I took a number of them on a long weekend trip to a beachhouse to which we have access. Much to their disbelief, frustration and even some anger, with my not recently educated, 50 something, degrading memory, I beat the pants off them in any game we played that weekend that involved a knowledge of facts, be it Jeapordy or Trivial Pursuit or anything else.

Think about that: my memory is clearly not what it was, and I have not attended school for almost 40 years, but I still had a better grasp of history, politics, science, literature, sports, etc. than the very best of daughters' generation.

The lesson here is that our schools are failing not just the dropouts but also those who succeed.

[loveliberty2]

John Adams observed, way back in the early days of the nation, that finding a citizen who could not read and write was "as rare as a comet." Sadly, today, many adults who were imprisoned in the public schools of America until they were 16 years of age cannot read.

Even Edmund Burke, in his "Speech on Conciliation . . . ." before the British Parliament in 1775, made the following observation about education in America and its effect on their ability to understand liberty, as well as their ability to stave off threats to their liberty, or, as he put it, "snuff the approach of tyrany in every tainted breeze.":

"me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies, which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to the congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavour to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition very particularly in a letter on your table. He states, that all the people in his government are lawyers, or smatterers in law; and that in Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of your capital penal constitutions. The smartness of debate will say, that this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly the rights of legislature, their obligations to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honourable and learned friend on the floor, who condescends to mark what I say for animadversion, will disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, that when great honours and great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to the service of the state, it is a formidable adversary to government. If the spirit be not tamed and broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. Abeunt studia in mores. This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other countries,the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze."

Perhaps the kind of "educated electorate" America's Founders envisioned would understand that the consequence of deficits and debt is slavery, oppression, and tyranny. Perhaps such an electorate would recognize tyranny masked as a promise to "redistribute the wealth" of others who have earned it to cronies, union big wigs, and assorted other voting blocks in order to assure power for the person making such promises.

[redpoll]

I’ve been teaching nine years. I’m using your ideas. Thank you.

[wintertime]

Perhaps the kind of “educated electorate” America's Founders envisioned........
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When the Founders envisioned education they likely had their **own** educations in mind: homeschooling, private tutoring as needed, one room schools organized by parents, and dame schools in the homes of neighbors.

For the older children they likely expected apprenticeships in the early teens, and home based academies that prepared the brightest ( who could afford it) for entrance into college, again, as young teens.

Our Founding Fathers would be **appalled** to see our nation's children attending compulsory, socialist-modeled, collectivist managed, godless, prison-like, and voter mob owned government schooling. Children who attend these schools learn to be comfortable with:

voter mob compulsion.
socialism
collectivist control of their lives, deaths, and even their thoughts,
godlessness
prison-like social institutions

[loveliberty2]

In another post, I mentioned Zacharias Montgomery and the analysis he did of what he then called the "anti-parental" public schools.

His stand against such government-controlled schooling was based on his analysis of the movement in America to the Year 1886, and he documented much of his reasoning with facts from government reports.

Those of you participating in this thread may be interested in reading his lengthy treatise online and perhaps referring others to it.

Here are the details:

"Poison drops in the federal Senate: the school question from a parental and non-sectarian stand-point: an epitome of the educational views of Zach. Montgomery on account of which views a stubborn but fruitless effort was made in the United States Senate to prevent his confirmation as Assistant Attorney General (1886)"

Author: Montgomery, Zachariah
Subject: Education -- United States; Education and state
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : Gibson Bros., printers
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: AXU-5456
Digitizing sponsor: MSN
Book contributor: OISE - University of Toronto
Collection: toronto

Here

His reasoning on the consequences for a people or a nation of such a system of education was sound. Sadly, those who opposed his position treated him badly and ignored his warnings--just as they ignore citizens today who do the same.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Scary. Even at a good school, the nonsense creeps in.

Word shape puzzles??? OMG.

Please show the original article to the principal.

[BenKenobi]

Funny you mention the FCAT, I work for the organization that makes them. :)

[DB]

I take issue with #3.

There is simply too much to know these days.

Knowing how to find the information you need and how to apply it is critical. Being able to educate yourself on the current task at hand, solve the problem and move on is how you make progress overall.

[BobL]

Thanks for posting this. Those six items are the most concise summary of today’s education that I’ve ever seen. You have read through Thomas Sowell’s books to get those six items in your head...but he hits them all. My kids never spent a day in public school...and none of these items are new to me, but to see it all right there is amazing. This is going home page.

(a day late Wintertime, but I know you’ll like this posting)

[wintertime]

Government schooling was the first whack at the foundations of the family.

Government schooling absolved the **father** of his responsibility before God to educate his children.

[wintertime]

For example, the fourth grade FCAT (our state’s assessment test) includes some algebra and geometry problems.
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My bet is there are one or two questions involving algebra and geometry.

If the children had a sound mastery of 4th grade arithmetic their scores on these standardized tests would be outstanding, even if they did get the one or two algebra and geometry questions wrong.

[wintertime]

By the end of the year, they realize the reason that they know all that they know is because they had to COMPETE, and that, if they let up, someone else will move ahead of them.

That’s possibly the best lesson they can learn, anyway.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In every adult work and social environment in which I have been involved pleasant cooperation, reliability, dependability, and especially **competency** were the qualities that were valued. While there may have been competition with outside business competitors, competition within the group was NOT helpful in any manner.

While I agree with you that your methods are likely effective in helping children learn in the typical classroom environment, but, fundamentally, is it natural or normal for children to be segregated from the larger society, in prison-like buildings, and confined for large parts of the day to socialization with children all of the same age?

Would an adult willingly place himself in a situation where he would be “humiliated” and subjected to “scorn”? If an adult would find it very difficult to cope with this type of social abuse, why on earth would we think it is good for children? Perhaps it is the environment itself that is responsible for the lack of motivation.

Much of the “socialization” learned in our prison-like government government schools is prison-gang survival and coping strategies. These dysfunctional habits must be **unlearned** and replaced with healthy interpersonal skills if success is to be achieved in the workplace, family, and larger society. Thankfully, humans are highly adaptable. Most make the transition. Sadly, some do not.

If our Founding Fathers were to walk through a typical government school they would be horrified at how we treat children. When they spoke of education they likely had their own educations in mind. That would include:

**homeschool with tutoring as needed from relatives, friends, and some paid tutors.
** very small dame schools in the homes of neighbors
** very small one room schools organized by parents that included children of all ages
** Apprenticeships for older children, and home-based academies to prepare the brightest ( who could afford it) for entrance into college as **young** teens.

[wintertime]

Those six items are the most concise summary of today’s education that I’ve ever seen.
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Ah! But....The problem is that people wrongly believe that if they could just fix those 6 problems that government schools would be fixed.

Government schools can’t be fixed because ( by definition) government schools **are**, to their core, socialist-funded, collectivist-managed, voter mob-owned, compulsory, prison-like, and godless.

[BobL]

“Government schools can’t be fixed because ( by definition) government schools **are**, to their core, socialist-funded, collectivist-managed, voter mob-owned, compulsory, prison-like, and godless.”

Good point - I haven’t looked at it that way. Of course the first step is getting parents up to speed...so these 6 items at least let them know what to look out for. I was having a talk with a co-worker just yesterday, and she was bringing up some of these.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

b4l8r