Name calling and demonizing people are not usually at all effective in attempting to influence people and advocate for political action or change. I do have to confess though, that I have been guilty on occasions of being strident and even militant in my attacks on certain extreme so-called conservatives and Republicans. I have not had k…
Name calling and demonizing people are not usually at all effective in attempting to influence people and advocate for political action or change. I do have to confess though, that I have been guilty on occasions of being strident and even militant in my attacks on certain extreme so-called conservatives and Republicans. I have not had kind words for the libertarians and others on the right who are doing their level best to privatize schooling or government services and agencies.
Nevertheless, placing blame indiscriminately without considering all relevant factors is not wise or responsible. It is bad policy to privatize schooling for the general public. But it must be recognized that the opportunities for exploiting the situation have been created by the massive failures in the arena of public schooling, as I have reiterated a million times. The American people are well aware of the failures, even if they do not talk about it.
Koch revealed his ignorance when he said that “…we condemn compulsory education laws.” “Compulsory education” is an oxymoron if ever there were one. ONCE AGAIN, I REPEAT, EDUCATION CANNOT BE FORCED. This must be the starting point for that part of this discussion. Ignorance about the middle class is not merely the result of ending civics classes by Bill Bennett. That is an inaccurate, meaningless, and tired old excuse. Civics classes were ended because most students (well over 50%) left those classes with a highly truncated and inadequate understanding of anything in that curriculum. Why is that so hard to admit?
A personal example illustrates my point and my extreme dissatisfaction. Livid does not begin to describe my rage right now, in fact. My great grandson did not say a single word until well after his third birthday, which was terribly worrisome because kids usually start talking much earlier. But with the help and advice of a speech therapist paid for through a government program (probably within Medicaid) he has become very talkative and appears to be developing normally. He is clearly very bright, spirited, dynamic, and loving. I have filled in several times as a babysitter for him and his little sister when both parents were working or otherwise occupied and I see them almost daily, since I live within walking distance from them. He is now six and in first grade in a school, also within easy walking distance from where they live in a small apartment.
The reason I am enraged is because a full century after Dewey first proposed significant changes in school practices and policies, followed by thousands of others with progressive and workable ideas for making schools much more safe and hospitable, my beautiful great grandson is being abused and punished for being a vivacious, energetic, and highly social normal child. I will call him Justin here for the sake of anonymity. He has a tendency to talk when the teacher expects silence. He is being treated as a bad kid in class and his parents are being pressured to force him to submit to misanthropic expectations and conditions through threats, browbeating, and punishments. I cannot protect him and neither can they because laws give people who are obsessed with their own importance and with false notions about learning, education, discipline, human behavior, and truth nearly unlimited power over healthy, happy children and their parents.
The teacher MUST have complete control. The other students MUST NOT be distracted. The lesson and the plan for the hour or day MUST be presented on schedule. FOR SIX YEAR-OLD FIRST GRADERS! BULL$HIT!!! What does that teacher need to say to a class of twenty or more kids that is more important than what my grandson has to say in that classroom? She is a teacher, not a prison guard.
I’m going to give you your lesson for today. Kids need to express themselves; they need to feel respected and cared for; they need to move, breathe deeply, exercise, communicate, and learn in an organic manner in a hospitable environment. The teacher will have plenty of opportunity to convey her message in several hours each day in 180 days in the year. Who the hell is kidding whom?????
Yes, I know, pastor. Kids also must learn self-control, social etiquette, respect for adults and their peers. They need to listen to instructions at times and to focus on tasks which allow them to develop skills. A busy boss someday will not have any patience for backtalk. But despite the never-ending stream of platitudes such as those,
“…about half of all American adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy. Only 39 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government, leaving our nation vulnerable to racist white nationalists and fascists wanting to transform the democratic experiment our Founders began with our American republic.”
That is from yesterday’s Daily Take. It has been ever thus. I repeat again, who is kidding whom?
Formal schooling, instruction, or “education” are not the only things which contribute to and determine the future of a child or their adulthood. There are innumerable moments, events, and occasions which have meaning and consequences in the life of a child. A child remembers and is affected by hurts, humiliations, and punishments, and those things most often do not result in a more positive attitude or a more productive life.
Furthermore, in a class of six year-old kids, if more than a very few are able to concentrate, comprehend, process, appreciate fully and recall anything which the teacher says at any given moment, that is indeed a rare occasion. That is an argument for training and repetition if you are naïve enough to believe that a teacher frequently offers truly educational and significant data, information, or advice. But teachers should not overestimate their abilities or the power of their admonitions and insights.
If the issue were that Justin is significantly different from his classmates, or at least from the other boys, we might ask for special treatment or some kind of special arrangement. Every kid is an individual and is therefore different, and Justin may in fact benefit from an approach based on his particular characteristics, disabilities, or problems. However, the issue is that he is a six year-old boy who has enough good sense to know that much of what passes for instruction or learning material is not suited to his mode of learning or of little meaning or interest, or is too slow-moving and abstract to hold his attention. If he is easily distracted or inclined to distract others, one should ask why that should be a problem or why in all fairness it should not be the school’s problem, rather than his problem. He did not ask to go there.
Wednesday, Thom spoke about having been trained as a hypnotist and having trained others. He spoke about how groups can be hypnotized by using techniques and patterns and methods for focusing thinking and directing attention. What do you think a teacher is doing when he repeats a message about “paying attention”, following instructions, following orders, proper behavior and discipline, doing exercises and assignments on time, etc., etc., ad infinitum? I prefer the terms indoctrination or brainwashing, but all that inane garbage is most certainly a form of mass hypnosis, and does not contribute in the least to authentic education or to learning “critical thinking, autonomy, or living free in a democracy.
A rating of “AAA+” for our schools? My foot (or a different part of my anatomy which I am getting tired of sitting on right now). Anyone who is in such denial should check in for rehabilitation and deprogramming. Anyone who is unwilling to speak up loudly and often in defense of innocent children who are being prodded and pushed and silenced in the name of education, in a school where education and intellectual pursuits are as rare as hen’s teeth, should hang their head in shame. There are more books, papers, and articles decrying the destruction of the spirit and the dignity of school children than there are on how to get rich quickly, and there is certainly no shortage of those.
You cannot complain about the economic royalists, rampant deregulation, and privatization if you adamantly defend dysfunctional schools which mass produce indifference and ignorance and forced attendance. A new generation is being undermined today and every day because no one will demand democracy in schools. The billionaires love the school boosters who support that capitalistic indoctrination.
Name calling and demonizing people are not usually at all effective in attempting to influence people and advocate for political action or change. I do have to confess though, that I have been guilty on occasions of being strident and even militant in my attacks on certain extreme so-called conservatives and Republicans. I have not had kind words for the libertarians and others on the right who are doing their level best to privatize schooling or government services and agencies.
Nevertheless, placing blame indiscriminately without considering all relevant factors is not wise or responsible. It is bad policy to privatize schooling for the general public. But it must be recognized that the opportunities for exploiting the situation have been created by the massive failures in the arena of public schooling, as I have reiterated a million times. The American people are well aware of the failures, even if they do not talk about it.
Koch revealed his ignorance when he said that “…we condemn compulsory education laws.” “Compulsory education” is an oxymoron if ever there were one. ONCE AGAIN, I REPEAT, EDUCATION CANNOT BE FORCED. This must be the starting point for that part of this discussion. Ignorance about the middle class is not merely the result of ending civics classes by Bill Bennett. That is an inaccurate, meaningless, and tired old excuse. Civics classes were ended because most students (well over 50%) left those classes with a highly truncated and inadequate understanding of anything in that curriculum. Why is that so hard to admit?
A personal example illustrates my point and my extreme dissatisfaction. Livid does not begin to describe my rage right now, in fact. My great grandson did not say a single word until well after his third birthday, which was terribly worrisome because kids usually start talking much earlier. But with the help and advice of a speech therapist paid for through a government program (probably within Medicaid) he has become very talkative and appears to be developing normally. He is clearly very bright, spirited, dynamic, and loving. I have filled in several times as a babysitter for him and his little sister when both parents were working or otherwise occupied and I see them almost daily, since I live within walking distance from them. He is now six and in first grade in a school, also within easy walking distance from where they live in a small apartment.
The reason I am enraged is because a full century after Dewey first proposed significant changes in school practices and policies, followed by thousands of others with progressive and workable ideas for making schools much more safe and hospitable, my beautiful great grandson is being abused and punished for being a vivacious, energetic, and highly social normal child. I will call him Justin here for the sake of anonymity. He has a tendency to talk when the teacher expects silence. He is being treated as a bad kid in class and his parents are being pressured to force him to submit to misanthropic expectations and conditions through threats, browbeating, and punishments. I cannot protect him and neither can they because laws give people who are obsessed with their own importance and with false notions about learning, education, discipline, human behavior, and truth nearly unlimited power over healthy, happy children and their parents.
The teacher MUST have complete control. The other students MUST NOT be distracted. The lesson and the plan for the hour or day MUST be presented on schedule. FOR SIX YEAR-OLD FIRST GRADERS! BULL$HIT!!! What does that teacher need to say to a class of twenty or more kids that is more important than what my grandson has to say in that classroom? She is a teacher, not a prison guard.
I’m going to give you your lesson for today. Kids need to express themselves; they need to feel respected and cared for; they need to move, breathe deeply, exercise, communicate, and learn in an organic manner in a hospitable environment. The teacher will have plenty of opportunity to convey her message in several hours each day in 180 days in the year. Who the hell is kidding whom?????
Yes, I know, pastor. Kids also must learn self-control, social etiquette, respect for adults and their peers. They need to listen to instructions at times and to focus on tasks which allow them to develop skills. A busy boss someday will not have any patience for backtalk. But despite the never-ending stream of platitudes such as those,
“…about half of all American adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy. Only 39 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government, leaving our nation vulnerable to racist white nationalists and fascists wanting to transform the democratic experiment our Founders began with our American republic.”
That is from yesterday’s Daily Take. It has been ever thus. I repeat again, who is kidding whom?
Formal schooling, instruction, or “education” are not the only things which contribute to and determine the future of a child or their adulthood. There are innumerable moments, events, and occasions which have meaning and consequences in the life of a child. A child remembers and is affected by hurts, humiliations, and punishments, and those things most often do not result in a more positive attitude or a more productive life.
Furthermore, in a class of six year-old kids, if more than a very few are able to concentrate, comprehend, process, appreciate fully and recall anything which the teacher says at any given moment, that is indeed a rare occasion. That is an argument for training and repetition if you are naïve enough to believe that a teacher frequently offers truly educational and significant data, information, or advice. But teachers should not overestimate their abilities or the power of their admonitions and insights.
If the issue were that Justin is significantly different from his classmates, or at least from the other boys, we might ask for special treatment or some kind of special arrangement. Every kid is an individual and is therefore different, and Justin may in fact benefit from an approach based on his particular characteristics, disabilities, or problems. However, the issue is that he is a six year-old boy who has enough good sense to know that much of what passes for instruction or learning material is not suited to his mode of learning or of little meaning or interest, or is too slow-moving and abstract to hold his attention. If he is easily distracted or inclined to distract others, one should ask why that should be a problem or why in all fairness it should not be the school’s problem, rather than his problem. He did not ask to go there.
Wednesday, Thom spoke about having been trained as a hypnotist and having trained others. He spoke about how groups can be hypnotized by using techniques and patterns and methods for focusing thinking and directing attention. What do you think a teacher is doing when he repeats a message about “paying attention”, following instructions, following orders, proper behavior and discipline, doing exercises and assignments on time, etc., etc., ad infinitum? I prefer the terms indoctrination or brainwashing, but all that inane garbage is most certainly a form of mass hypnosis, and does not contribute in the least to authentic education or to learning “critical thinking, autonomy, or living free in a democracy.
A rating of “AAA+” for our schools? My foot (or a different part of my anatomy which I am getting tired of sitting on right now). Anyone who is in such denial should check in for rehabilitation and deprogramming. Anyone who is unwilling to speak up loudly and often in defense of innocent children who are being prodded and pushed and silenced in the name of education, in a school where education and intellectual pursuits are as rare as hen’s teeth, should hang their head in shame. There are more books, papers, and articles decrying the destruction of the spirit and the dignity of school children than there are on how to get rich quickly, and there is certainly no shortage of those.
You cannot complain about the economic royalists, rampant deregulation, and privatization if you adamantly defend dysfunctional schools which mass produce indifference and ignorance and forced attendance. A new generation is being undermined today and every day because no one will demand democracy in schools. The billionaires love the school boosters who support that capitalistic indoctrination.