Watching teachers lead young children by the hand to demonstrate on the streets of Wisconsin, educating them on the finer art of union bargaining methodology, it becomes abundantly clear that great voids exist in the educational continuum. The void becomes even more obvious when the Oval office, and possibly the Democratic Party, meddle with the State leadership by championing Union actions such as shutting down schools.
As we set out on our paths through life, we come to recognize that students graduating from High School, University or College, are lacking some necessary tools and percepts critical to all endeavors, personal or business, which academia could have provided. Union tactics are not among them.
Evidently, too many voters during the last Presidential elections forgot that a community organizer gains power and influence by making chimerical promises to susceptible listeners. He assures them that government controlled economic activity will lead to redistribution of wealth, . . . “You’re being oppressed so that you can’t get what’s yours, . . . I’ll get it for you through government.”
The community organizer Does Not imbue the community with personal motivation, or any sense of individual purpose. The Community organizer is incapable of distinguishing the difference between controlling the game and its players, from the enforcement of laws that shape how honestly the game is played, particularly by its biggest players. He also confuses Wall Street and Banking, with the business and corporate sectors of the Nation’s economic engines.
Although we are social beings, our greatest learning and our deepest satisfaction come from within and these are energized through accomplishment. The good and the bad of all our experiences, big and small, are positive as long as they are ours, . . . ours without blame, or deflection, or passing the buck.
Those who would stifle such energy are hypocritical, self-serving charlatans. This type of leadership does not honestly promote challenging of the mind, or invigorating the spirit, or animating innovation, or even hard work, but instead seeks to covertly suppress them.
America holds a unique body of work that rests at its foundation, produced by an exceptional group of men, but it may be less commonly known in its classrooms than the sayings of Confucius. I refer to the ample documentation such as The Federalist Papers, and the letters and speeches provided for future generations by the sages who were principally responsible for the Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, the Founding Fathers.
I don’t infer that these men were the epitome of wisdom, since they were human after all, nevertheless they were wise enough to create the foundation for an environment the world admires and wishes to emigrate to, 222 years after the first adoption and ratification of its framework.
When John Adams wrote, “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom,” he did not mean that the country’s youth should be instructed in ideology. As individual freedom remains a most aspired-to circumstance in any society, the thinking of those who produced its best configuration, should, as has been proposed by many for two centuries, become very common knowledge and should be intrinsically incorporated into the fabric of the educational system.
As teachers march out of the schools of Wisconsin, we are reminded of what has been gravely omitted from their place of work.
James Raider writes The Pacific Gate Post
In CA there’s been a move afoot for schoolchildren to NOT ever bring home their schoolbooks.
(Supposedly, they’d lose them.)
The fact is, too often, parents look inside these books and learn that their child is being propagandized rather than taught.
Like take, for example, lead-revisionist, Marxist historian, the late Howard Zinn.
His ”history” books are used in many American classrooms at many grade levels.
But, for example, a perusal of his, People’s History of America, by any real historian or serious lover of History brings out lie after lie, misrepresentation after misrepresentation.
And, add to that, the book is not even packed with facts from history!
It is scanty in that area.
It is more packed with a liberal, leftist philosophy, backed up, where possible, with an anecdotal tale from the past.
Whenever one or another of Zinn’s more egregious misuses of the past were brought to light, all Zinn did was bring out a new edition, completely pretending his past lies were non-existent and including trickier new ones in their places.
Find out the EXACT name and edition of books your child is not being allowed to show you.
Then get them and read them, and deprogram out of your child all of the leftist lies in them.
While you’re at it, get some real classical history books that are fact-filled.
Those books let us deduce all of the lessons from history so we don’t have to keep repeating them.
They don’t just tell us what to think.
Last year Wisconsin public high school students’ ACT composite scores ranked the 3rd highest in the nation. Wisconsin’s public school teachers must be doing something right.
http://www.ohe.state.mn.us/mPg.cfm?pageID=1439
@Greg:
. . . It is not clear what you’re arguing by this. Are you supporting the act of teachers leading children to “agitate” with them in the streets? Wonderful.
Regardless, this isn’t about Wisconsin. ………..
This is about the state of an educational system which has not evolved for 600 years.
This is about a system controlled by union leadership uninterested in the quality of teachers, or the quality of the education provided to our youth.
This is about understanding what is meant by “freedom,” which includes freedom of thought, and what it means to lose it.
@Greg: So, are Your Kids going to School there or in Minnesota or Iowa? I went to School in Montana but fared better that the average score listed. Were They doing something right?
@James Raider, #3:
My error. I posted #2 in the wrong thread. The comment was intended for “I would not want them teaching my kids”. It’s off topic here.
@Greg:
It remains that “Wisconsin’s public school teachers must be doing something right,” is NOT an argument for anything related to the state of education in Wisconsin or anywhere else.
@James Raider, #6:
The fact that ACT scores for Wisconsin public school students ranked 3rd in the nation might be. The average Wisconsin teacher’s pay falls somewhere in the middle when averages of pay for all 50 states are ranked. Some might argue that Wisconsin is getting good value for dollars spent.
Where is Zac with those stats on the dropout rate of WI public education students. I seem to remember a 47% drop out rate. Could they have high scores because the lower half is not there. Funny thing about statistics, dig deep enough and you will find something to support your cause, even though you know it to be a lie. Lies and deception are part of the Socialist creed, the end justifies any means, lying and deception are just tools.
Great article JR, you hit on great points.
@Skookum:
Here ya go:
@ Aye…Pssst…Milwaukee…and I don’t think that anyone can blame the Brewries.
What should be of concern is the other States that are/have accepting/accepted Stimulus Funding that will run out and they will be in the same position as Wisconsin in short order. There were Stim Funds given to States for Education. When that source of “Free Money” runs dry, other States will face Budget Reconciliation issues as well.
re: #9:
That’s 10-year-old data.
Wisconsin’s overall high school graduation rate is presently one of the highest in the nation.
http://www.fox21online.com/news/wi-high-school-graduation-rates-hit-90
Every day the Milwaukee teachers are are away from their jobs costs the Wisconsin taxpayers 3 million dollars.
…and this is just so pathetically sad:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/206439.php
@ Greg…is that like the proposed 10 Year Budget that will not fly? Stats were furnished by Aye for the “At Risk” Group that allegedly receives the same course of instruction and funding per the District School Boards. Are We looking at a re-visitation to Brown vs the Board of Education here for those Districts that are predominantly African/American?
The School Boards and NOT the Governor or Legislature MUST hold the bag on that.
Sorry that I couldn’t be here to give greg a hard time, I was at the military museum; learning. You should try it some day Greg.
@Old Trooper2: #11
“When that source of “Free Money” runs dry, other States will face Budget Reconciliation issues as well.”
This underlines how self-servingly ineffective Obama’s stim money really has been, regardless what his lies have claimed. While it is definitely a redistribution of wealth, it is not a jump-start to real wealth creation.
As far as his shovel ready placations of the ignorantly educated members in his support network, you don’t build bridges and roads when your Nation’s taxpayers are tightening the belt to weather this economic storm.
@Old Trooper2:
Take a look at some of the results of funding teachers with $868 Billion + in Taxpayer stimulus funds for two years.
Other people’s money always eventually runs out.
Yup, Maggie Thatcher was right:
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
Some states didn’t take the stimulus funds because they were similar to the Clinton increases of police officers. When the funding ran out, some were laid off. The expenses for training were wasted. The stimulus for increasing the number of teachers increased the amount of union dues for the teachers’ union who supported Obama.
Graduation rates mean nothing any more. The school hands out a piece of paper. We have students here in Colorado completing High School in 3 years and completing a year of college during their senior year. as many as 85 % of the graduates attend college. There is an annual exam that identifies the weaknesses of each student and provides a grade level rating in critical subjects. The effectiveness of teachers can be assessed by the success of the students. Of course, the union is trying to eliminate the test because it is unfair to teachers.
Teachers bussed in from Green Bay. Its a natural. ” Green Bay Slackers “
Indoctrination isn’t as much as a problem as mistakes and time. One guy went through a history textbook and found 1,000 mistakes. Also the names of the creators of the text books might not have actually done any work. It’s common to have textbooks written by ghost writers and have names slapped on textbooks to make them look creditable. Also teachers may limit studies due to time. No matter what American history class I took, the teacher never got past WW II with most never getting past the Civil War.
@Aye:
Hey guys, they had this up on drudge, fresh numbers:
In spite of more than doubling per pupil expenditures from 1998 to 2008, the scores remained the same, no improvement. I can hardly wait to see what the $669.6 million from the feds accomplished.