An Aunt of mine recently wrote to me and reminded me that she’s a former government school teacher and that I offend her with my comments on the government schools and, especially, the teachers.
That reminds me:
- I must use smaller words and easier sentences for my readers who do teach in the schools.
- I, too, am part of the problem because I taught in a government school for 5 years. It was at the college level. I’ve since asked forgiveness from many friends and neighbors and promise never to do it again.
Actually MANY in my immediate family have been involved in compulsory government education. My mother retired after 30 years of teaching. A huge percentage of Aunts and Uncles from BOTH sides of my family tree (I’m often told that in my family tree I’m the sap) were or are teachers.
I get complaints. But I have yet to receive any arguments as to why government schools or teachers are justified. I would ask, BY WHAT STANDARD should we support the school system?
- By the test scores?
- By the amount of drugs given to students to calm them down?
- By their intensive support for safe sex (“Have sex with anything as long as you use a condom!”)
- By their expense per student versus the expense at private schools per student and versus the expense per student educated at home?
- By the past two National Spelling Bee champions? (homeschooled)
- By the National Geography champion and runner-up last year? (homeschooled)
- By Reid Barton, the first person ever to win gold medals four years running at the International Mathematical Olympiad against 500 students from over 80 countries? (homeschooled)
- By the intolerance of the public schools to traditional American beliefs? (i.e., George Washington, Christianity, chastity, non-relativist morality)
- By the social graces of many in public schools versus the social graces of those taught at home or in private schools? (You’ve heard the weak attempt to stab homeschooling: “I worry that those kids won’t be socialized properly.” RIGHT. That’s the #1 goal of homeschooling! Homeschooling parents prefer that their children have respect for their elders, can communicate with adults, understand issues in the news, and, above all else, show a genuinely happy countenance.)
- By the refusal of the public school system to allow prayer in the schools?
- By the public school system’s strong support of Halloween, Satanism, and environmentalism (all strongly related)?
- By the forced taking of dollars from me to pay for someone else’s education?
- By the public school’s use of behavioral drugs as opposed to traditional discipline?
- By the distribution of Planned Parenthood Kits for teaching “sexual activities for young homosexuals”?
BY WHAT STANDARD I still ask?
- By the National Parent Teacher Association’s President Ginny Markell’s announcement in February that her organization “would be making available a video which embraces same-sex families”?
- By the NEA’s support for abortion and their constant attack on religious groups?
- By the Head Start program that forged a parent’s signature on a consent form to cover up a wrongdoing in January when a Head Start mobile unit gave the 3-year old child 7 fillings without anesthetics in Vista, California?
- By these questions: Which gets more time in public schools: Sodomy or phonics? Lesbianism or polynomials? You know the answers, right?
- By the fact that there is more freedom for religion in Russia’s schools than in America’s?
- By the teaching of a false sense of self-esteem? Self-esteem is indoctrinated at the expense of every other subject. Homeschooled children and many privately-schooled children have learned that if you teach a kid how to read, write, and do math, the child has a lot of self-esteem. Of course, absolute morals must be taught first, but that's against the law in the public schools.
- By the DARE program which, nationwide, has brought about a vast increase in drug use everywhere it’s implemented, at a cost of $750 million each year?
- By the answer that an acquaintance of mine always gets when he asks elementary school children which would they rather save: a tree or a baby?
Conclusion
I’m told, “Why should you worry about it, you don’t have children?” Many on the Left love this kind of argument. My money is being taken against my will for a system that destroys the nation, but I should have ABSOLUTELY NO SAY IN IT. But the product of the government schools bothers me far more than the money.
Look around any school… Are the children lining the halls of public schools kind, genteel, obedient, respectful of their elders? Are their countenances full of innocence and joy? Even if we could raise test scores 50% tomorrow, we would still have disrespectful, obnoxious, soul-less, unlawful kids.
Friends visited our home last year, and I told their oldest boy that he could come back some time with his father so we could hunt some of the local copperhead snakes. The boy looked hurt and said, “You shouldn’t kill anything.” Fifty years ago, no boy would have responded that way. But the schools are accomplishing their goals.
Unlike public school teachers, I don’t blame the parents for the failure of the schools. I blame the teachers who taught the parents. The government schools are a complete and utter failure. They should be closed.
August 31, 2001
