Imagine the threat to liberty when generations of school children are taught a collectivist world view for thirteen or so years! Look no further than our current generation of leadership of both parties… While terrorists try to acquire weapons of m…

My hubby came home yesterday and told me he “went off” on one of his co-workers who has an 18 year old daughter. Co-worker is a single father who was terribly upset a couple weeks ago because his daughter told him she was going to join the marines. He wanted to shelter her from it and we advised him that she’s old enough to make her own decisions, and he needs to let her go. Now, she wants a new car, and he’s ready to co-sign on it for her. My hubby told him he shouldn’t even consider it – again, it’s tough love, but it’s the way we were brought up. She has a car – it’s just not “cool” enough.

I think as much as anything, this illustrates what you’re talking about – parents give too much and try to shelter their children from the real world to the point that they have no concept of how to live on their own.

By the time I was 15, I was working part time throughout the summer, at 16 I worked part time through school, and at 17 I was working full time. My dad did buy an old classic car for me which he fixed up, but he would NEVER co-sign a loan for me. And, frankly, I’m very glad. He taught me to stand on my own two feet – and I hope to be able to impart that to my daughters.

One thing that I’d like to see done in our educational system (and I’d like to hear your thoughts on this) is rather than having standards lowered, is to steer kids towards vocational or technical schools if that is where their aptitude lies rather than trying to make each fit into an institute of “higher learning”. Of course, parents today would probably have a problem with that as well – in my own high school years, my parents were the “steering committee”, LOL.

Adminstrators were once master teachers, who served as a support base for faculty. Now they are more like supervisors in a warehouse, at odds with the line laborers, and hoping there are no injuries or lawsuits (but doing little to prevent anything because they are paid well to just keep the minimum quota thing happening). I don’t think all administrators are bad, but I have seen many who have been so terribly brow-beaten that they either hide in their offices and hope no one disturbs them, or take out their frustration on the non-tenured teachers (because they are the only ones who can really get into any trouble these days).

About the parents: please don’t misunderstand my comment above as passing the blame on to someone else. But I have more trouble dealing with parents than with students, on average. If I reprimand or correct a student in any way, I can expect to be called in for a conference the next day. When I was in school, I wouldn’t dare complain to my parents about a teacher scolding me, giving me detention, or failing me for not doing the work. My parents would have ‘let me have it’ if I had even tried to make the teacher out to be the bad guy. It’s ironic how overprotective many people in my generation have become toward their kids (as parents). I’m sure the bad reputation our profession has acquired has something to do with this, but there has also been a breakdown in the ethics, courtesy, and accountability in members of our society that is most evident in how parents involve themselves in fighting everyday battles of their children. The lesson often learned here is that the students control the tone of the class and the quality of their work, or mom will be in the principal’s office stat to ‘fix’ the problem with the teacher. Kids are smart. They know they have a lot of leverage in this regard.

Our unions do not help much in the above scenario. In fact, if they opine at all about it, it is usually a very liberal mantra that ‘we must take into account the feelings of the child.’ I’m sorry, but I believe that to spare the rod really does spoil the child. I was ‘pre-diagnosis’ (because I’m a 70′s/80′s child) for a lot of the attention disorders, inclusion, and accomodation policies, but know I could have been labled ADD or ADHD when I was in my pre and (early teen) years. But my ‘medicine’ or ‘accomodation’ was that my parents had very high expectations of me. It was tough love. It worked. I stayed off the streets, stayed out of jail, finished school, went to college, and got a degree. I struggled— a lot. But I made it. This is harder now because of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy and other such nonsensical mumbo-jumbo. Whatever happened to survival of the fittest? Everyone deserves a chance, true, but the only way to keep EVERYONE from falling behind is to set more attainable goals for all (thus lowering the bar for kids who deserve to be challenged). Few people seem to be at all upset by this. It’s more about the self-esteem of growing young people than about setting up a system where one feels a sense of accomplishment for learning something new and advancing to the next level. A values system is being put into place by our public schools that awards mediocrity, and allows for every answer to be right. I’d like to believe that values that are instilled in a child by his parents and/or community are what produce the best results (sometimes in spite of lousy schools). But if children become dependent on their parents, then their employer, then the government… freedom ultimately gives way to socialism. Our unions support this evolution of dependency. It’s always about sticking it to ‘the man’ lest ye get stuck. Education in America (the big picture) has removed itself so far from the task of educating children, and has instead endeared itself with the business of politics. Follow the dollar signs and you will eventually find absolute power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. People in such positions of power do, or will eventually try to keep power by dumbing down and disarming their subordinates. What greater way to ensure absolute power than to steer the education of citizens down a path of ignorance and disinformation. The NEA has not convinced me that it cares about the education of our young people. It has, however, convinced me that it is on a diligent quest for absolute power. If we want our descendants to be slaves to a government or organized labor syndicate, we’re certainly on the right path. I’m all for disbanding teacher’s unions, and getting back to the three R’s: readin’ ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmentic. Heck, I’d settle for responsibilty, respect, and resourcefulness. Sorry for the long post.

School vouchers in our state were used by parents whose children were going to schools who did not meet standards . . . and my own teaching in our homeschool is not to indoctrinate – but to teach my daughters to reason and think for themselves rather than to take everything that is spoon fed to them by some governmentally sponsored peons. I know there are remarkably talented, courageous, and exceptional teachers in the profession, but I also realize that they ARE the EXCEPTION and not the rule – and it has been that way for at least the last 30 years – at least in Florida. Just yesterday there was another story that hit our local news about teachers who fail time and again to meet their own standards, but who are allowed to continue teaching despite their dismal failures.

By the way, you can actually believe in a certain that every one has to meet and still believe in individualism. It’s pretty silly to argue otherwise. Setting standards doesn’t mean that every person is forced into a round hole, regardless of whether they are a round peg, or not. In any case, the issue is not whether we have standards for education, or not (and I would argue that should be determined by the parents and teachers of the students, not bureaucrats). The issue is that when standards have been suggested as a means of improving education quality and performance, the unions have steadfastly resisted it.

It is, however, quite possible to believe in neither, which is what the unions do. A belief in individualism would lead them away from positions like continual support for social promotion, which is nothing more than a declaration that age trumps individiual intellect and maturity. As for their positions on standards, they oppose them NOT because they believe kids are individuals, but because they believe the teachers they claim to represent would be hurt by having to actually make sure kids learn little things like reading and math.

“Your essay is not worthy of a high school civics assignment.”

You know, Tom, you’re right on this one. High school civics, at least when I took it, focused entirely on the goodness of collective action and government. So Brad should really thank you for the complement.

There are glaring contradictions in your essay. Let me point out a few:

You make statements like:

“They benefit greatly from the idea that kids fit into cookie-cutter molds, and if one dares to exhibit individuality, they should be immediately muted with high doses of ritalin.”

“Their threat to our freedom is not that of newsworthy attacks on human life, but the incremental destruction of human individualism.”

Then you say:

They fight any implementation of standards or testing, because they wish to resist accountability.

You cannot have your argument both ways. You either believe in individualism or you believe in standards.

In regards to vouchers, school vouchers seem to be some type of code for fundamentalist christian home schooling. That type of education has more in common with the taliban than most people realize.

You also seem to be promoting some type of standardized educational system that only you are capable of outlining, but of course, without unions.

The problem the south has comes from a lack of investment in children, not the teacher’s union. When I say lack of investment, think of the investment that Alabama offered Mercedes and why Alabama (or Georgia) is unwilling to do the same for their children. Just like the farmer failing to water and tend his crops, the harvest has not going to be fruitful. Instead of investing in education of children, the south prefers to spend their public funds on the more expensive jailing of adults.

Your essay is not worthy of a high school civics assignment.