This morning, all five registered voters in my immediate family voted. My vote was definitely influenced by all the propoganda being output by the DNC, namely slogans like this: "Vote tomorrow and support President Obama's agenda. Together we can keep America moving forward." No thank you! I think he's done and spent enough.
Voting together as a family was epic, kind of like this video:
Today is also All Souls' Day, so please pray for those dear departed ones and all those who need your prayers I'll keep y'alls intentions in my prayers too.
Recently a Kappa sister e-mailed me, replying to an article I wrote for the Forum a year ago (which she asked me to send her because A) she is a teacher and B) she was also an American Studies major). She apologized for her tardiness, but really, I am just impressed she replied at all! I usually have to answer e-mails right away, lest I move on and they never, ever, ever get answered.
So, for kicks and giggles, I posted the article here:
We Don’t Need No Education
Julie Robison
Editor in Chief
If there is one consistency at Hillsdale College, it is that dedication to the cause and the search of the Good, the True and the Beautiful. Dr. Pestritto, the featured speaker at Fall Convocation, juxtaposed the college’s mission to truly educate its students with the academic philosophy of Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, our country’s 28th president, may have impacted America more domestically than any other president as an strong advocate of progressivism in the American public education system.
In true populist sentiment, Wilson wished to make education less elitist by advocating diversity of individuals, not minds, and a development of the mind for civic and practical purposes, not cultivation of true breadth of intellect. This type of “liberality” has become the standard in many schools nation-wide, resulting in less education where students no longer have to think, but answer, the pinnacle of the system’s failings coming together in the creation of the Department of Education.
Today in America, more problems loom on the horizon. The public school system currently faces the predicament of cutting teachers, even with over-full classrooms. With state and local revenue down, the national government has, naturally, stepped in to provide an over $100 billion dollar stimulus package to hire back more teachers. While this is good in theory, the problem lies in which teachers are staying on payroll. Many teachers are being cut without a proper evaluation, the jobs going to tenured or unionized teachers instead of the most effective ones.
This money was not given pro bono publico, for the public good. This administration is very transparent through their actions that they have a more vested interest in paying homage to the Unions than in the future of their country by actually educating the youth with effective and well-qualified teachers. The stimulus money represents not only a continuation of progressive education, but an expansion.
The country’s mediocre high school graduation rates hovers around 69%; only 51% of Black Americans even finish high school. These number should disturb the public and President Barack Obama, motivating him to use his leverage as president and a Black man to be a role model for youth, an example of a good education and hard work. His grassroots website, “Organizing for America,” correctly diagnosed the problem, saying “We need to stop paying lip service to public education, and start holding communities, administrators, teachers, parents and students accountable.”
The three solutions offered, however, suggest the opposite. Firstly, the administration wants the government to invest in early childhood education. If responsibility really is to fall on the communities, then the local community needs to rise to the occasion, not the national government.
Secondly, their way to “improve K-12 schooling” is to recruit new teachers and “develop innovative ways to reward teachers who doing a great job.” While a fruit basket is always a classy gift, it is not the government’s role to be rewarding teachers for doing their job. If teachers are not doing a great job, they should not be holding that job.
The final suggestion that “after graduating high school, all Americans should be prepared to attend at least one year of job training or higher education to better equip our workforce for the 21st century economy” is to say that only jobs which require a higher degree than high school can contribute to the economy. This is a fallacy. Gas station clerks, for instance, do not need one year of job training to know how to do their job and they still contribute to the economy through having a job and thus, paying taxes.
Not only is higher education not for everyone, but it is not necessary for everyone. The unintended consequence of this may have Americans thinking their college education renders them “above” certain jobs. If this becomes the case, it shouldn’t be a surprise when more American jobs go to immigrants because they’re willing to work lower-skilled and thus lower-paid jobs.
Progressive education is combated by a rise in the home-schooling and classical education movement in recent years, but even those are being attacked as not sufficient, meaning not compliant to progressive education. Obama is attempting to pass legislation which will cement his name in history as an advocate of change, but if he wanted to make a true difference in this country, he would focus on education, from which all things come. He would pull the government away from dictating in the classroom and give it back to local school boards, who have a personal relationship with the actual school, its faculty and students.
With the actual school in control, the school board and parents can have more of a say in their child’s education. Ineffective teachers will ideally be shuffled out, leading towards real learning in the classroom and focus on the child’s development. That type of change would lead towards a diversity of minds and an intellectual curiosity, propelling the nation towards real change because of the country’s citizens, not government.
Oh happy election day!
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