Yesterday's local newspaper featured a front page story entitled, "12 year old plans to be President".
According to the article:
"When Bobby Washington was 10, his mother found him asleep in his room with a 1,008-page autobiography of former President Bill Clinton on his chest.
Bobby, now 12, has policy positions on the environment and the war. He's pushing for battery-operated cars, and he wants the war in Iraq to end."
This story should send a signal to Conservatives that the hoped for end to liberalism by selective breeding, is not so near. By selective breeding, I mean abortion. See, most Liberals are pro-abortion, and most Conservatives are pro-life, so it stands to reason that eventually, Liberals will more or less breed themselves into a minority.
Or, more accurately, UN-breed.
Obviously, even if Liberals stopped procreating, there are still negative Liberal influences out there that will turn our children into mind numbed robots of Liberalism.
We still, unfortunately, have public schools.
And now, we see why Liberals hate the idea of school choice so much, don't we?
34 comments:
We still, unfortunately, have public schools.
And don't forget the Bible and churches - that's what's "turned" many of us into accursed liberals! So, get rid of public schools and churches and the Bible, and you may begin to make a dent in the advance of liberalism.
Better yet, get rid of thinking altogether. Automatons are much easier to manage. Or perhaps cross-breeding with sheep?
At the end there it sounds like you're saying education shouldn't be available to everyone. If public schools are a bad concept then that leaves the options of private schools or no schools. Private schools means you have to have rich parents and no schools means a fairly speedy descent into third-world status.
So why is it that only kids with rich parents deserve to be educated? Or are you advocating universal home-schooling?
The libeal influence on children is everywhere the poor kids are forced to go by government regulation.
That is also why the idea of vouchers is an offense to the liberal mind set since it allows parents a choice for their kids and a way of rescuing them from liberal influence!
Liam, there is nothing wrong with public schools if they teach students to think, rather than teach the students what they want them to think.
In this country, students in our public schools are being indoctrinated in Liberal ideology, often given lower grades if they dare to have an opinion that the teachers and administrators don't agree with.
Conservatives believe parents should be offered a choice of which schools they want to send their students. That is the controversy you've no doubt heard about, regarding school vouchers. These are vouchers the government gives to families that will help pay for that expensive private education. It is a use of tax dollars that most Conservatives think is justifiable. To take the right to decide where your student goes to school is downright Socialistic.
Liberals fight to take that choice away from the parents, because they know, if students are taught to think for themselves rather than what to think, they would likely not agree with Liberal ideology.
Great Post Mark,
That picture of that baby's shirt is a tear jerker.
Gotta love that picture! That speaks volumes.
The most dangerous place in the world? The womb. Get out of there alive and your odds go of a long life go up dramatically.
Dan is still looking for common ground, peace, love and harmony I see...
Promoting Abortion, Sexual Perversion, State Sponsored Theft and Thought Control through Political Correctness in Jesus' Holy Name...
This is the first time I've seen him openly promote Bestiality, however...
Dan, I would never advocate getting rid of the Public Schools. (My son is going to need employees when he is grown...)
But give them a little more time and and power and the Liberals themselves will eliminate churches and the Bible. (The ACLU and the Court System are off to a good start already on that project.)
Mark, don't worry...
When that kid grows up and gets a job, not only will he turn Conservative real-quick-like, he will loudly chastise our and our parents' generations for not stemming the tide of Liberalism before he became saddled with a 70% Tax rate for the rest of his life.
LOLOLOL! This post doesn't make much sense at all. But ...
Re, "Conservatives believe parents should be offered a choice of which schools they want to send their students."
Parents have that choice. Go right on ahead.
Re, "To take the right to decide where your student goes to school is downright Socialistic."
I'd take that "s" lowercase, but otherwise that is exactly right. For the common good -- for the COMMON good, not for the whims of the rich OR the sheep who follow them. What you call "socialistic" is democracy availing itself of the treasure of the government (we, the people), and the power, exercised through the election process, the courts and the rare liberal executive, to use it for the common good -- the COMMON good.
You for damn sure will not find ME apologizing for THAT.
My apologies. That statement should have read, "To take the right to decide where your student goes to school AWAY is downright Socialistic."
Yes, we have school choice, although many parents can't afford private schools, so their choices are extremely limited.
That is why I can't understand why Liberals are so against school vouchers. Don't they believe even poor families have a right to send their kids to fancy high dollar tuition schools?
I guess not if those same schools fail to teach students how to be a good Liberal.
ER kinda has a point.
We DO have the right to send our kids to school wherever we want...
What the opponents of School Vouchers object to is the concept of anyone being able to opt out of funding the Public School System, even if they do not use it.
While keeping kids in the indoctrination centers is very important to the Left, what REALLY drives them bananas is the idea of people keeping more of their own money, and deciding for themselves how that money will be spent.
So go ahead and send your kids to private school... But you may as well forget about getting out of paying your fair share into the Public Education System...
It's for the COMMON good, you greedy, selfish, right-wing heels!
Right, ER?
It was a sorry, sorry day in America when "We The People" figured out that we could vote ourselves YOUR stuff...
ER, I want you to do a little research.
Find a Public School Teacher who believes that the money that "We The People" are spending in the Public School where they teach is being spent correctly.
Then, think about the success rate per student of Public Schools, and ask yourself if you would be satisfied with that same success rate per trip out of your pickup.
Common good, my FOOT.
Re, "But you may as well forget about getting out of paying your fair share into the Public Education System ..."
Exactly. That is precisely correct.
In this country, you have to pay extra to withdraw from the common. Damn straight.
Just like: You want to withdraw from our common defense, and defend yourself? Cool. But you still have to contribute to the common defense.
Because this country is not a business. It is not an option. Your're stuck with it until you overthrow it -- or vote it out. Good luck with that.
Thanks for the well wishes ER. We'll keep fighting the good fight. It'll get easier down the line, however. Libs tend to procreate less than do conservatives. Eventually, between not breedin' and killing the unborn, the libs will indeed become a smaller group.
Oh, and Dan,
It is your misinterpretation of the Bible that makes you liberal. Not anything the Bible actually teaches. Just thought I'd clear that up. You're welcome.
I don't mind paying, ER.
But I demand quality.
We have the best Common Defense in the World (once again, NO thanks to Democrats and Liberals...) (Shut up, Dan...) and our School Systems are constantly slipping.
"Your STUCK with it and YER GONNA LIKE IT!!" Says you.
Well, I DON'T like it, and I will use the power of my vote to take control of it from the people who are ruining it.
And for the record, ER, nobody has proposed a single solitary thing that would let anyone out of funding the Educational System.
If "We The People" are spending $7200.00 per year of each other's money on each student, and for a $2000.00 voucher, someone is willing to take their child out of the system and pay for a better quality private education, then it looks like a wise and fiscally responsible decision to let them.
You can say that the Government is not a business all you want to, ER, but that is no reason not to run it like one.
If you skip around handing out free money and stuff, you are eventually going to run out NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE GETTING YOUR SUPPLY, because there is no way to keep up with the demand that doing that creates.
No matter who you are.
Common sense for the Common good.
Much of the reason Conservatives back school vouchers and/or school choice is they simply want a better quality education than the education being offered by public schools. From Laura Ingraham's best selling book, "Power To The People":
"The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) studied the academic strengths of 15-year-olds in all it's member countries, and the results are not flattering for American schools. In science, Mathemataics and "problem solving", the United States is below average, while in reading, we are just about average. In all four of these categories, we rank below all English speaking countries--and fifteeen countries, including Canada, France, and Japan, rank above the U.S. In all four categories.
In both reading and math, high school seniors did worse in 2005 than in 1992, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)exams--with scores showing a steady decline over those 13 years. (This was despite the fact that the NEAP started making accomodations for learning disabled students in 1998.)
The teaqchers unions guard against andy efforts to enforce quality standards on teachers. The unions and the politicians fight to the death against school choice, which would allow you, the parents, to choose where to send your children to school. Politicians...assure us that the answer is spending even more of our money on the schools (which usually pays for more bureaucracy)."
Even if the quality of education in public schools were superior, unless students are taught HOW to think instead of WHAT to think, Conservatives run the risk of their children being brainwashed by well meaning Liberal teachers.
Dan says, "So, get rid of public schools and churches and the Bible, and you may begin to make a dent in the advance of liberalism.
Better yet, get rid of thinking altogether. Automatons are much easier to manage. Or perhaps cross-breeding with sheep?"
With those two paragraphs, Dan has succinctly outlined the socialists agenda in America. (Except subsitute the word "Liberalism" in his comments with the word, Conservatism" or "religion")He has it down pat. Perhaps Dan could be our first Commissar?
Actually I am not advocating the abolishment of public schools. I am advocating the improvement of them, starting with the abolishment of teachers unions.
And I want all people, poor included to have an affordable choice as to which schools they want their children to attend. My own son has had to put up with Gorebull warming hysterics fromh is science teacher in public school! GAD!
If I was offered a school voucher to put him into a school that teaches common sense instead of hysterical Liberal doctrine, I would grab it!
Tugboat Captain is exactly right. We pray for public schools whether we use them or not. I no longer have children in any public school but we are still taxed for them, and we're retired!
Parents who really care about their children and can't afford a private school are homeschooling more and more and the liberal agenda in our schools is the reason why. Liberals would love nothing more than to make homeschooling illegal because they can't get their hands on our little darlings to indoctrinate them with their liberal crap when we homeschool.
One of my best friends was a teacher in the local public school. She quit when her son was four in order to homeschool him. She said there was no way she was going to let him be subjected to the lies they are teaching in the public school system. I say good for her!
Gayle said:
Liberals would love nothing more than to make homeschooling illegal because they can't get their hands on our little darlings to indoctrinate them
Huh!
Many of my so-called "liberal" friends have started homeschooling for a similar (but opposite) reason - there is too much conservative indoctrination that takes place in the public schools, they say. Interesting, huh?
I sorta doubt they'd support making homeschooling illegal, since they homeschool and all.
And Miss Gayle, I DO care about my children and I AM concerned about the "indoctrination" that might occur while they're in public schools (tending to teach them more "neo-conservative" values that we disagree with), but we see value in our children being there nonetheless.
We can teach them our values at home, as well as how to reason and stand up for their values wherever they are and they're doing okay. So, don't mistake that some send their children to public schools as evidence that their parents don't "really care" about them.
Hi Mark,
Good post again. And yes, the picture speaks volumes.
Blessings
BTW, were you satisfied with the outcome of Saturday's game?
I'm hoping the tigers take the sooners down!
1. The biggest influence on textbook publishers is the Texas state board of education. Texas has the largest education system in the US. No publisher will produce a textbook that won't meet the requirements of the state of Texas.
2. No matter how much the fields of science, math, or english have advanced, the school year still is about the same length as in 1970.
3. The cost of education materials have exploded since the 80's. Today any student that doesn't learn to use Windows and the internet is a second class student. Other learning equipment for science and technical courses are even more expensive.
4. Teachers are extraordinary people, called to inspire children. No teacher goes into the field intending to indoctrinate with either lib or con perspective, but whatever people believe they teach. I had teachers who were conservative and others that were liberal. Amazingly when I was in school I didn't care.
Our education system has big problems, amazingly indoctrination isn't one of them. The larger problem is that private schools aren't subject to the same tests as public schools. Beyond word of mouth there's really no way to tell with a lot of private schools whether they're worth the tuition or not. And testing is just the first of the exceptions that private schools have that make me question them as wise methods of education.
Dan, you might want to be careful about announcing that the schools in your area are teaching Conservative values...
You'll cause a stampede of people moving to your community just to put their kids in school there...
Oh, and everyone who believes that Hillary and the other Libs would outlaw Homeschooling are obviously mistaken about that, because Dan knows a couple of Libs who wouldn't...
Tigers? Sooners? Bah! GO GATORS!!
It's the quality of education, and the predominately NEA sanctioned Libearlly biased lesswon plans that are causing the slide in SAT scores and the ever increasing percentages of drop outs in American schools.
Do a little research and you'll find the students with the highest SAT scores in this country are home schooled and educated in private schools.
Or check the winners of the National Spelling Bee in the last few years. Almost all are home schooled. Coincidence? I think not.
Mark said:
Do a little research and you'll find the students with the highest SAT scores in this country are home schooled and educated in private schools.
Hmmm, imagine that! You have a 1 on 1 (or 1 on 2-5) teaching ratio and you can have excellect results in education. Without a doubt, homeschooling can give children a good bit of learnin'.
If my ONLY concern were getting my child the most instruction possible, I'd probably homeschool, too. But I'm not concerned only about my child, but the community in which I live, the nation in which I live. Additionally, there are educational experiences in public education (experiencing a diverse population such as you have in the real world) that I can't replicate in homeschooling.
But I think you're on to something there, Mark, about reducing the class size having a positive impact upon a child's education.
As to Tug's comment "Dan knows a couple of Libs who wouldn't...", all you have to do is google "homeschool liberal" to see the reality that there is a large crowd of homeschoolers out there that aren't from the Religious Right. I'd say about 1/2 of my so-called "liberal" friends have or have considered home-schooling.
You can look here, if you'd like, for more evidence:
http://technomom.com/hs/ganaturalhs.shtml
I wonder what the divide is, amongst homeschoolers (Left vs Right)? I suspect there's a majority of so-called conservative homeschoolers, but I'd suspect that it's a small majority.
To follow up on Ben's excellent points, I'd offer the following for consideration:
In the 1940s and 1950s - which some consider a "golden period" of public education - we were graduating 40-50% of the population. Today, we are attempting to educate everyone.
There is a HUGE difference between trying to educate everyone and trying to educate half of everyone.
Educating everyone requires more than twice of what it costs to educate half of everyone because you add the most difficult cases - children with insufficient support from home, homeless children (a situation that has increased greatly since the 1950s, when it was nearly a non-reality), the learning and otherwise disabled children, etc.
Without a doubt, if you take only those children whose parents are most supportive, who have the benefit of a good home, enough food and support, then yes, you will have an easier time educating those children.
But I'd rather work within the reality of what we have and work for improvements in these more difficult circumstance (and there IS plenty of room for improvement), than give up and say, "Let the worst-off take care of themselves."
But, there is always the Scrooge solution: Are there no poorhouses? No prisons?
I found some statistics related to homeschooling. From www.chec.org, comes this:
"The average homeschool 8th grade student performs four grade levels above the national average (Rudner study). One in four homeschool students (24.5%) are enrolled one or more grades above age level. Students who have been home schooled their entire lives have the highest scholastic achievement. In every subject and at every grade level of the ITBS and TAP batteries, homeschool students scored significantly higher than their counterparts in public and private schools."
It has little to do with Teacher/student ratios, and everything to do with better quality education. Homeschool teachers teach actual reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history instead of politically correect revisionist history, global warming as science, evolution as fact, and teaching their students that feeling good about themselves is more important than learning facts.
America is suffering because of political correctness in education. There is a reason why America's students are lagging far behind the rest of the world in education. Schools are indoctrinating students in Liberal ideology. Liberal ideology has no basis in reality, only in feelings.
Homeschooling is the antidote for this indoctrination.
It has little to do with Teacher/student ratios, and everything to do with better quality education.
Any studies to back that up or is it just your hunch?
You are welcome to your hunch, of course, but we ought to acknowledge it as such.
Studies show that the number one predictor of student success is parental involvement - regardless of where they are schooled.
So, of course, there is a high correlation of student success with homeschoolers who, by their very nature, have caretakers who are involved.
Studies (as well as common sense) also show that lower student/teacher ratios DO, in fact, improve the education process.
You can read the studies on class size here or here, for starters.
I'm fine with those who choose to homeschool, it has something to recommend it. But it's not a replacement for public schools.
It was in public schools, for instance, that I learned about the difference between backing arguments based upon my hunches and actual studies and information.
Homeschooling is no cure-all. Parental and adult involvement in children's lives should be what we're shooting for, IF we're concerned about our nation's children. But finding "cures" for that is more tricky.
What of, for instance, the ~1 million homeless children in the US, Mark? Shall their mother teach them at the shelter or abandoned car in which they live at 9pm after she gets home from her two jobs?
Or, even those children who DO have a home, but who have a single parent who is working during the day? That'd add another 12 million school-aged children, according to the Census Bureau.
Shall they find time somehow (whilst pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps) to homeschool their children? That's roughly 1/3 of the nation's children, by the way.
What of those children who have at least one parent away in Iraq fighting terrorists (at less than $20,000/year or whatever it is they make)? Shall those temporarily single parents find time to homeschool, too?
I'm just not too sure that, even in the best of circumstances, homeschooling is any antidote to our educational needs.
That picture of that baby's shirt is a tear jerker.
That made me tear up.
"Hmmm, imagine that! You have a 1 on 1 (or 1 on 2-5) teaching ratio and you can have excellect results in education."
Doesn't matter. All kids are born with the 1 on 1 dynamic. It's called their parents. With parental involvement, as Dan suggests, scores improve.
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