Are Our Children Actually Learning Anything in School Today?

With all the political correctness, secular progressive propaganda and outright craziness going on in schools today, I wonder if kids are actually learning anything at all. In my world, you went to school, learned a skill (as I did in my vocational high school), and got a job. Higher education came much later for me. I was expected to work out of high school. I can’t imagine how I would’ve supported myself if I had to endure the kind of dopeyness I read about today – starting in our elementary schools all the way through college.

A new policy in Chicago will require sex education in every grade, including kindergarten. Fortunately, parents can opt out of this program, but, one would think, with one of the highest drop-out rates in the nation, Chicago would be a little bit more interested in the basics or is reading, writing and arithmetic a thing of the past?

A mother of a fifth grader in Corpus Christie, TX, objected to a test question following the viewing of a film entitled, “Remembering September 11th,” which read, “Why might the United States be a target for terrorism?” The “correct” answer was “Decisions we made in the United States have had negative effects on people elsewhere.” The other options were “Other people just don’t like Americans,” “Terrorists hate everyone” and “None of the above.” When did it become okay to teach our children that we caused the atrocities of 9/11? Why wasn’t the correct answer, “Because Islamic terrorists hate freedom and everything else the U.S.represents.”

In Houston, an elementary school held an assembly entitled, “A Dream Come True – Living in the present by remembering the past and looking forward to the future.” The lyrics of the first song, “Feels Like Change”:

The rest of the program, with the exception of a couple of songs focused on Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., was a lovefest for the President Obama. Talk about indoctrination and propaganda. (After the program was put on and after reviewing the lyrics, the principal agreed that some of the songs were “overly political” and shouldn’t have been included.)

Recently, a Florida teenager, along with two others, forcibly disarmed a fellow student who allegedly pointed a loaded gun and threatened to shoot another pupil on a school bus. Instead of praising these heroes, they were suspended for three days. Now it’s up to them to fight to remove this suspension from their records.

In McAllen, Texas (what the hell is going on down there?), a teenager now has to sue her school because she was punished for not reciting the Mexican national anthem and pledge of allegiance (to Mexico) as part of her intermediate Spanish class.

And now we come to Massachusetts. Earlier this year, the Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education released an 11-page document ordering the state’s K-12 public schools to permit “transgender” boys and girls to use the opposite sex’s locker rooms, bathrooms and changing facilities as long as they “claim to identify with that gender.” Neither a doctor’s note nor parental permission for a child to “switch sexes” is needed. If a boy says he’s a girl, as far as the schools are concerned, he’s a girl.

A friend of mine went through sex-reassignment and was required to go through years of psychotherapy, hormone therapy and living as a person of the opposite sex for an entire year before his surgery was approved.

How does a kid, somewhere between the ages of 5-17, get to make that decision without medical supervision or parental knowledge? This is absolute insanity. Some schools include kindergarten through 8th grade, which means, that boys as old as 14 could share toilet facilities with girls as young as five and vice versa. If a boy who “identifies” himself as a girl doesn’t want to use a urinal in a boys’ bathroom, then he should use a stall. And what about a girl? How does a girl who “identifies” herself as a boy use a boys’ bathroom any differently than a girls’ bathroom. Does anyone really want to think about a 14-year old girl using the same changing facilities and showering with 14-year old boys?

According to the guidelines, if a female student is uncomfortable and objects to a boy’s presence when she’s in the bathroom, the rules say, the complaint “is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student.”

Finally, Ryan Rotela, a Florida Atlantic University student, is accusing an instructor and local Democratic party leader of suspending him for refusing to stomp on a piece of paper with the word “Jesus” written on it. This “exercise” was part of an intercultural communications class (whatever that means) and was supposed to encourage discourse. Could you imagine if a student was told to stomp on the name “Mohammed” or even “Obama”? Fortunately, Ryan has received an apology but the instructor has been put on administrative leave for “safety reasons” whatever that means.

My grandfather, who was educated in a one room schoolhouse in rural NC between 1905 and 1917, received a better education than 99% of the children in public school today. He often praised the school teacher who alone taught 40 children in grades from 1 to 12 at the same time.

My grandfather learned to read, write and cipher, giving him the essential skills that would enable him to one day open his own business. From school, church and home he learned to have great pride in his country. He worked on the family farm after school. When he completed his schooling he went to work at the local general store, living in the attic above the store until he saved enough money to move to a local town where he worked a few more years until he saved enough to open his own store.

The focus of that one room school house was education, not social engineering. The teacher insisted on discipline and would paddle the students if they misbehaved. No doubt if they misbehaved in class, the punishment they would receive at home would be worse than anything the teacher would deliver.

In the 1980’s my grandfather would comment as to how much better an education the worst students in his school received than the students graduating from public school at the time. He said every student could read, write and do elementary math. It was an expectation of the parents and the teacher.

Poverty was not an excuse. He and his classmates were the sons and daughters of sharecroppers and tenant farmers. They had no plumbing at home and no electricity. They grew their own food and wore hand me down clothing. No computers, no televisions, no iPhones, no automobiles, no video games. No education bureaucracy filled with PhD’s to oversee the teacher. Just good fundamental family values and old fashioned rote instruction.

The day will come when we return to this type of basic education. Once our society and economy collapse, the survivors will have to rebuild from scratch.

“I’d love to see a poll on where FReepers with children send them to school.”

Both of my kids go to California public schools in the Bay Area and I can say without a doubt that both are receiving a superior education. I know a lot of people on this site like to make grand pronouncements about the state of education, especially in my state, but such is not the case for me.

All my kid’s schools have been proudly American and pushed academic excellence in science, math, reading, history - the whole 9 yards. My oldest is conversant in American History and the Constitution and understands our Greek Western roots up through the Enlightenment. She’s read Shakespeare and Steinbeck and can put both of them in their proper historical context. The science and math are beyond what I learned.

And my kids have not turned liberal or gay or both. I think kids are smarter than we give them credit for. My oldest is already a proud conservative and sees right through all the crap. I’m not saying that there are no problems in California schools, just that my kid’s education in it has been great.

Most of them are not able to home school either from a financial or ability standpoint.

I hear this so often, that one needs financial ability to homeschool. Sure wish I knew what it meant. I homeschooled mine on an income under $12k/year, and the results were superb.

In my opinion it is usually a matter of priorities. The money's there and the parents have other ways they'd rather spend it.

$12K a year and you managed to live and home school kids too? You need be highly commended.

$12K a year does not pay my real estate tax, food and utilities so I don’t know how you managed all that unless you live on a farm or have a huge nest egg. On the ability side, I don’t have the teaching talent. Tried volunteer teaching at an adult ed school and had little success teaching math to individuals who wanted to learn.

I don’t do my own dentistry either.

There are places in America where property taxes are extremely low. (We just don’t like to advertise it!)

It also helps to have no debt, no plastic, no mortgage, no car loans; and no frills like cable tv, fancy phones, etc.

No life insurance, no health insurance, and the legal minimum for auto insurance.

Plus, when your income is low enough, you don’t have to pay income tax! :D

I live pretty well on low income. In fact, I could make money under the table if I needed to, but I don’t need more.

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