It's the education, stupid.

[unixronin]

"Federal meddling in education has been an abject failure, so the Democrats' plan is to keep doing more of the same."

Same old story.  If some of something makes a problem worse than doing nothing at all, try using even more.  It's got to work sooner or later, if you just use enough.  ...Right?

Unfortunately, this is a case when we're between the devil and the deep blue sea.  One side wants to smother actual teaching under layer after layer after layer of bureaucracy and "facilitators", "coordinators", and "empowerers".  The other side wants to "permit" (read: require¹) prayer in school and allow schools to teach that the Biblical account of creation is literally true and evolution is "just a theory".  Who, if anyone, speaks for the vast mass of us left stuck in the middle between the two opposing camps of zealots?

Can we PLEASE get the political agendas out of our schools and get back to, you know, actually focusing on teaching useful knowledge and preparing kids for the real world?

[1]  Because when prayer in schools is "permitted", the zealots-to-the-right will expect it of everyone — for their own good, you know — and look suspiciously at anyone who doesn't wish to take part, because the only reason you wouldn't join in public [Christian] prayer is if you're a Godless Commewnist or something worse, like, say,a zealot to-the-left.  (Or, say, Jewish, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or Hindi, or Baha'i, or Zoroastrian, or agnostic, or atheist.  Or maybe you just think communing with your chosen deity is something private between you and your deity, not a public ritual so that everyone else can see you're right-thinking and upstanding and Just Like Them².)  I had the misfortune to be sent³ to a school where there was a mandatory⁴ morning assembly every day with hymns and prayers and sermons and ... crap on a flaming diesel-powered crutch, is this a SCHOOL or a CHURCH?  There was exactly one teacher who tried to break the mold and get some kind of a secular lesson about life and the world into morning assemblies.  They let him get away with it exactly twice in six years.

[2]  Because there is this about zealots of every stripe:  It's not good enough for them that they should be allowed to live as they wish.  YOU must live as they wish too.  They have no concept of "live and let live."  There is One True Way, and it is THEIR way.

[3]  My parents were quite convinced that they knew better than me which school I'd want to go to.  They were quite certain I'd be happiest at the boys-only traditional English grammar school founded in 1558 and don't you ever dare for one second of your life forget it.  I wanted to go to the nice modern Nobel School.  But what did I know about it?

[4]  There was precisely one person in the entire school of 2,000-plus who had permission to sit out the religious parts of the morning assembly.  He was either a Jehovah's Witness or a seventh-day adventist (I don't remember at this point).  One guy who believes in a slightly different version of the same basic faith gets to skip it.  But you don't believe in any of that, you think it's all a bunch of complete and utter tommyrot?  Oh, you have to sit through the lot.  Yeah, that makes perfect sense...

Comments

[skellington.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that the Republicans have really pushed federal meddling in schools too. No Child Left Behind is a republican plan.

(I don't know enough to say if it was a good or bad idea, but it certainly wasn't getting the Feds out of local schooling.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that the Republicans have really pushed federal meddling in schools too. No Child Left Behind is a republican plan

I know. And from what I've seen of it, it appears to have been an unmitigated disaster. Schools that weren't in any trouble academically are more or less unaffected by it, except for having to waste time and money getting the testing done; schools that were below par are frequently just teaching to the test because passing the standardized testing, by whatever means necessary, has become their highest priority.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

No Child Left Untested has mixed results. On the one hand, school that already adequately educate students in the basic academics have been left unaffected. On the other hand, schools that have been consistently failing to educate students to any acceptable minimum, are now forced to, at least, enable their students to pass the tests. On the gripping hand, the paperwork overhead is sucking school resources and teacher time that would otherwise be going to student contact time. On balance, a conditional fail. There are many inner city schools and rural schools where the students have benefited. So the deep blue and deep red are affected positively together.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

You need to understand what a zealot is, someone who can't change their mind, and won't change the subject.

This would only matter if schools taught students what they needed to be successful. They don't. They teach what is needed for us to be a good employee. That is by design. At this point, it is just not worth caring about. I supplement my children's education with what I think is important, and encourage all other parents to do likewise. The schools have gotten far too busy being everyone's mommy and daddy to care if my children actually know more that what they are being taught.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

You need to understand what a zealot is, someone who can't change their mind, and won't change the subject.

I like that definition.

[novel-tharkun.livejournal.com]

"Can we PLEASE get the political agendas out of our schools and get back to, you know, actually focusing on teaching useful knowledge and preparing kids for the real world?

I'm sorry, but isn't the real world largely based on arguing idiotic policy & political concepts without sufficient information to make the argument worthwhile? Obviously this entire problem should be directly debated in the schools as a combined lesson in debate, logic, government, unintended consequences, and the limits of the law in changing behavior. (The last is a stretch, but comes directly from your thoughts on the two major party lines on education vs. the various histories around them.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Obviously this entire problem should be directly debated in the schools as a combined lesson in debate, logic, government, unintended consequences, and the limits of the law in changing behavior.

I agree entirely. One of the things covered in civics class should be how the government is supposed to work, contrasted with how it is actually operating, and whether the latter fulfills the former.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Who, if anyone, speaks for the vast mass of us left stuck in the middle between the two opposing camps of zealots?

Why, all the people we've managed to get elected to Congress, of course!