August 9th, 2011
As a newly “born again” Christian, my eyes have been opened to many things. American parents, as a collective group, myself included, should be horse-whipped for settling for substandard education for so long.
Education of our young is such a fine and noble enterprise, that even our public schools carried on a good job of it for quite awhile. I, myself, learned the scientific method in the 6th grade, from Mr. Groves, at the Rosemore Junior High School in Whitehall, Ohio, in 1962. I learned to love science, and that has broadened my life considerably. The point is, I was motivated to learn by my home environment, and there was a teacher that loved his job, and was good at it. Knowledge increased.
If only our schools could be like that now. Unfortunately, the motivation from the home has dried up to a trickle, and teaching students to think is apparently against the policy of the National Education Association, the Department of Education, and their various local teachers union minions. Look at Detroit! That's where they're taking us, whether they, or you, believe that, or not.
In my opinion, all those folks are too busy teaching our children what to think, to take the time to teach them how to think. Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised at that, considering it just ocurred to me that you have to know how to do something before you can teach another to do it! The results of their policies show that there has been precious little of that going on for some time. I'm just an uneducated hick, but I do have the benefit of having been around long enough to see how things have changed.
However it's done, if our country is to survive, our schools need to be transformed into places where students learn traditional educational skills, updated to modern technology where needed, and traditional American, not Communist, values. If this does not happen, America, as the beacon of freedom to the world, will too soon be gone.
“You can lead a horse to water, and a student to knowledge, but you can't make the horse drink, or the student think.” – Unknown, but probably Will Rogers
“A well instructed people alone can permanently be a free people.” – James Madison
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens… Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?” – George Washington, Farewell Address