Sunday, May 28, 2017

In response to an article about SC education ranking last in America, I offered this response:

I think it's more a reflection of disappearing/definitely-changing social mores and family values, than it is about anything really changing or failing to change in SC education pursuits and standards.

Up to about the early to mid-1970s, two-earner incomes were not the norm in most families. Dad usually went out to slay the dragons, and Mom tended the home fires and was hugely responsible for molding the children. That has all undergone tremendous change, because home values have.

There are fewer two-parent, different-sex households than before. There are single-parent home-lives ongoing. Th
ere are grandparents in the child-raising mix. One parent is dead, gone, under the influence of whatever, or jailed. The all-important home stability factor has diminished in its numbers.
Teachers today are sometimes the only people giving students hugs and support. Schools sometimes are the only meal providers. We have police officers in our school hallways, down to the elementary level. These are all signs that societal fabric is tearing at its most important point, home life.

It is NOT the responsibility of teachers to expose children of any age to: basic manners, a love of reading, basic hygiene, basic dress code standards, self-respect, and respect for other children and authority figures. These responsibilities begin at home. They used to, and they need to again.

Classrooms and schools can have computers and SmartBoards and updated software in every room, but if students arrive with dissenting resistant attitudes of me-first, zero empathy for others, and no desire to learn or cooperate, then having them at the river is useless, since they are extremely poorly prepared to drink. There are few teachers available at any salary who can make that happen.

Fix the families, fix the schools. It's that simple. And that difficult. Respect for one's self, first, then respect for adults and authority figures. The Golden Rule, along with Don't Touch and Keep Thy Hands to Thyself, solves/avoids about 95% of every day's events. Parents play such a key role in student lives, and thus school and society as well. What comes out of the home, affects us all. Throwing more money at schools ain't necessarily the problem, although teachers are under-paid and schools remain under-funded, because we don't place high value on education in America. We simply don't.

Fix the families, fix the schools.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Somewhere in the middle of WW II, Wild Bill Donovan took the OSS spy agency off and running. It was once killed, allegedly, by HST after the war, but didn't really die. It was renamed the CIA and people like Donovan and the Dulles brothers put our country on a different path from which we have been unable to stop and get off of. Tons upon tons of war material stashed in the Pacific for the pending invasion of Japan, instead was split and sent half to Korea, and half to Vietnam. The manipulations of the populations of those two countries makes for fascinating reading by our Black Ops guys who took part. JFK came along in 1961 and thoroughly upset the status quo by pursuing world peace, calling for it in our lifetime. His American University commencement address in June 1963 was one of his last efforts to turn us around. He wanted us out of Vietnam and in fact signed the orders, which were ignored by his Joint Chiefs and Defense Dept, aided by the CIA and State. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the Russians, which ticked off the establishment no end. He had us, and the world, both East and West, on a path to peaceful co-existence, using the Peace Corps as a primary tool. He sent us to explore the heavens and land on the moon. And it all ended in Dallas, the third of three cities selected that summer that he was visiting, in which to assassinate him. The same triangular field of fire was set up in all three cities. It worked in Dallas. The CIA got their way, the day after his funeral LBJ signed the document sending us to war. We haven't looked back. Ike warned us about the M. Ind. Complex, and we failed miserably to listen. War is the engine for economies, it has been argued. We will never know if peace would also work, because the powers behind Washington won't allow it. The development and use of the atomic bomb nearly ruined the cabal's plans, as using nukes would eliminate the needs for arms and that economy, and wouldn't do much for populations, either. The last 72 years have been miserable for a govt that once held so much promise. Today it is an empty shell of its origins and I doubt any of the FF would recognize it.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

How to Improve Public Education:

1. Children may start school when they are ready, not by some arbitrary age.

2. Children may progress through required material at their own pace, and not be socially promoted based upon age or size.

3. No one gets past third grade without being able to read at a third grade level. No one gets past 8th grade without being able to read at an 8th grade level.

4. Starting in middle school, abolish all varsity sports programs. Your kid has some athletic talent? Great. Go pay his/her fees for some traveling team and better training/coaching. The rest of the ENTIRE student body must participate in at least two intramural sports in each school year from 7-12. Competition, learning about winning and losing, and bein
g in decent shape are goals for all students, not a few talented ones who end up getting worshipped and receiving special treatment. No more traveling teams for any grade level and sport. No more Fri night football games to celebrate the skills of a few, or basketball, or softball, or whatever. Schools could trim hundreds of thousands off their budgets from supplies to coaching to insurance. A whole growth industry, teenage sports programs, is awaiting entrepreneurs. Schools could gain income from leasing their fields, arenas, stadiums.

5. Life skills classes for all students beginning in high school. Students will be able to handle a checking and a savings account; change oil and filter and a flat tire and an air filter; handle a washer and dryer and iron; cook more than one type of meal; first -aid proficient; type proficiently; basic computer skills.


6. All high schools would have two tracks: college, and immediate work force ready. World needs drivers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, medical aides, and so much more, too.
Reduce the requirement for four years of English and Math. 


7. Let students find their passion, and encourage them to follow it. 


8. Turn off cell phone access to all campuses, period. You know where your child is. School has a phone. Nothing else is needed. Kids absolutely refuse to put their phones away. Critical thinking skills, basic writing skills, basic conversational skills, are all missing. As long as instant gratification can be done via devices, this will not change. 


9. Black studies must be made mandatory, not optional. If we don't discuss the past, the present will remain edgy and the future will remain foggy. 


10. Teacher salaries must be at least doubled, and their education requirements raised to either a master's degree, and/or national board certification. Salary scales must reward the grueling work these certifications require. Today they do not.


Until we value education in this country, and finally give up the agricultural attendance calendar and start going year-round, we will continue to lag the entire rest of the world we once led.