2 posts tagged “change”
Welcome to sunny California, world renowned for its tall palm trees, beautiful beaches, wineries, movie studios and one the worst Elementary, middle, and high school systems on the face of planet earth. The reason: playing politics and weird experimentation with the children has overridden any care for the education of them.
Every one of us who lives here (particularly those of us with children) have heard stories of large numbers of people graduating who cannot read or pass simple exit exams on what they were supposed to have learned and on and on. I remember on story I heard years ago where the children in one area were failing a pretty standard high school exit exam miserably so the proposed solution………..make the test easier?
A quick story to help you understand my disgust:
After I graduated high school I left for military service and went to travel the world. I came back on leave to visit my old high school and the coaches and teachers who I had built a bond with. I arrived at the school to find that all of the teachers I had considered (and still consider) to have been the good teachers had left the school. There were no coaches as the school which had n illustrious sports history had eliminated all sports.
The weirdest part about walking the campus was that while I was wandering the campus confused many if not most of the students seemed to be wandering the campus looking just as confused as I was. This was midday in the middle of the school year. I heard different bells ring and saw some of the kids going to classrooms. In the classrooms there were small pockets of teenagers who seemed to be doing there own thing while some person in front 9I assume to be a teacher) lectured.
I finally asked one of the students what was going on. The answer was ridiculous. The school was an experiment to see if children learn better in an environment where they have no books, no mandatory class attendance, no homework, no sports, and very few tests. I asked if this was working and in the words of one kid, “It was cool at first, but this really sucks. I want to transfer.”
As a side note, I have a relative who graduated from the same high school, who has a diploma that looks just like mine, who could not read or write any better than the average kindergartener until as an adult his wife taught him.
This brings me to my point. In Alameda California there is a controversial proposal creating a huge disruption among the parents. The proposal is to add curriculum about sexual orientation and gender identification to the curriculum.
So let me get this straight: the school systems in California can’t get reading, writing, English, math and science right, but now they are qualified to teach my child sexuality. That ought to turn out well. I told you that little story a above to set the stage for one key point I think is being missed. I PAY TAXES AND SEND MY CHILDREN TO SCHOOL TO LEARN TO READ, WRITE, GET EDUCATED, AND PREPARED FOR COLLEGE IF YOU CANNOT DO THAT RIGHT YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS TRYING TO ADD A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF OF ANY KIND.
All over California strange experiments have been done for years with our children and all kinds of weird ideas have been voiced al because our school systems and our teacher’s unions want to use our children as political ping pong balls instead of just doing what we (I) pay them to do. STOP EXPERIMENTING WITH OUR CHILDREN AND JUST TEACH THEM ENGLISH, MATH, SCIENCE, AND SO ON.
There is this ongoing list of things that they always want to add that clearly are politically motivated and that would be a discussion if we already had reasonable results. The California school system is the laughing stock of the whole planet. HOW DARE YOU TELL ME YOU ARE BETTER QUALIFIED TO DO MY JOB AS A PARENT WHEN YOU ARE FAILING AT YOUR JOBS AS TEACHERS?
The entire reasoning for this addition to the curriculum has been defined as an attempt to stop bullying through a gained understanding of sexual orientation and gender identification.
Another short story, my son was new to one of California’s illustrious public schools and was stabbed in the forehead with metal scissors by an angry 9 year old. As far as I or anyone know my son is not homosexual or transgender and was only guilty of being the new kid having an encounter with what turned out to be the class bully. The school investigated and discovered several such incidents with this bully and other children that had gone unnoticed until now.
I was obviously concerned and spoke to the principal whose response was that they had spoken to the parents of the child. SPOKEN TO THE PARENTS, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? I suggested possibly separating the child from the other children for a while to undergo some kind of counseling until such a time it was safe for the rest of the children and then reintroducing the child to the school as I thought that was the least that should be done in light of all of the children that have been wandering into schools and killing everyone.
I tell this story to illustrate that the school system has no clue about what to do about bullies. Those of us who experienced bullies in elementary, middle and high school (or possibly were the bullies) have a pretty good idea that lack of information and understanding was not the problem. Usually the problems are far deeper than education about one group or other would solve. I am also quite sure that information about sexual orientation and gender identification would not have saved any of the children from this bully because as far as anyone can tell at this age, none of the children were bullied for this reason. The problem with bullying lies in the inability of the schools to properly deal with the bullies until after the bullets (or scissors) are flying and the bloody bodies of our children are being carried away.
All this to say to our governments, including school boards and our teachers: I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT ANYTHING BUT HOW WE ARE IMPROVING MATH, SCIENCE, ENGLISH ETC. UNTIL YOU GET THOSE SUBJECTS RIGHT. I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE BAD PARENTS OUT THERE THAT ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB, BUT DON’T NEGLECT YOURS TO DO OURS. SPEND ALL THAT POLITICAL ENERGY TRYING TO REFORM THE AGENCIES THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HOLDING THE PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE TO DOING THEIR JOB AND STICK TO YOURS!
All this talk of “flip-flopping” and supporting evidence from everywhere; can we trust either of these people? What is going on? It’s like there is a flip-flop fever going around.
The camps of both major party’s hopefuls for president have been ramping up the rhetoric about the other candidate’s “flip-flops” and inconsistencies. When one follows the facts, the truth is that both candidates have had major flip-flops over the past year. Flip-flops big enough to make one wonder; “Who the heck are these people and what do they stand for?”
The truth of the matter is that June and July historically are the months when candidates retool their message and their stands to move a little closer to the center and away from the extreme ends of their party’s ideals to appeal to larger voting segments.
What makes it different this year? I think there are two things that are different.
I think with Senator Obama, his voting record shows him to be almost as far to the left as one can be, while his rhetoric, campaigning, and speeches make him appear to be very close to the middle and as “The Candidate of Change.” There a already many huge question marks about who he really is to begin with without him changing the message again.
For Senator McCain, he already has done more and more to alienate the far right within his party over the past eight or nine years and who he really is also warrants a huge question mark from his would be supporters. Many of the things he stands for and represents already is a hard sell to people in the middle or on the right at any level. Keep in mind that he represents the same party as the largely unpopular current president which makes his candidacy a hard sell as it is. He has somehow got to get the support of the right and the middle at the same time when both are skeptical to begin with and he is even going so far as to try to draw from the right betting on the fallout from the Democratic primaries. For those who are not already set on a candidate or a party (voting for a candidate simply because of party affiliation at this point in history with all that could happen over the next four years is not only stupid but grossly negligent) his message seems to be all over the map and makes him even less understandable to us.
The other reason I think this is such a big deal this year is the fact that there are more mediums that will verify what they are saying and more people who are apt to research such things.
How many of us have heard something stated by one of the candidates and then by the next day heard and read a firestorm of contradictions stated by the same person as noted on “factcheck.org” or other such organizations.
What I am saying is that the microscope has grown more powerful for this year’s elections and the candidates are under much more focused scrutiny. I suspect that if previous candidates had been under the same level of scrutiny as the current candidates history would be vastly different.
Are the candidates “flip-flopping” and still undefined? Absolutely! Are these candidates distancing themselves from their own past stands and voting records? Absolutely? When I look at both of their past stands and voting records, this is not really a bad thing if we are talking about a true change of heart.
The problem is, will this newly retooled and refined candidate show up in the Whitehouse if elected president or is it all for votes? I for one sure do like the candidates’ campaign faces a lot better than what the facts show.
