As 2012 winds to a close, I am by the level of dystopian educational dysfunction in the United States. So I was to take a closer look at the situation, perhaps to find the root causes of the problem.
It appears that education on all levels has infiltrated and corrupted by a liberal, socialistic philosophy that derives from the public employee unions that appear to control education in the United States.
The ?old model? of education is based on industrialization ? build schools as education factories to turn out individuals who would be productive members of society by being prepared to serve as workers in the nation?s various industries. Unfortunately, as the nation moved from an agrarian economy, to an industrialized economy and now to a service economy, the nature of jobs changed. Fewer people were required to perform necessary tasks. Expert systems allowed high-school educated individuals to perform at PhD levels, substituting codified artificial intelligence for knowledge and experience. In response, academic institutions turned to study courses which contributed little or nothing to our gross domestic product. However, there was always teaching because the supply of students appeared to be linked to the birth rate. The ?new model? must be built on individualism, tailoring educational opportunities to the intellectual capabilities and skills of the child.
Unions.?
Unions embody the socialist ideal ? the collective over the individual. The very basis for rewarding seniority over merit, the status quo over innovation and creating additional jobs by subdivision without increasing productivity. An ideological embodiment of socialism that has taken root in the democrat party. Unions demand activism to obtain power over both political entities and producers of wealth.
So is it any wonder that the combinations of Unions and Education would result in a system that was managed by adults, on behalf of adults and with the primary educational goal being secondary to securing political power and a guaranteed income and benefits stream for those who adhere to the union line.
To achieve their self-serving goals, the unions must protect their membership from being evaluated on the basis of teaching competency and classroom effectiveness and the ability to turn out educated, well-rounded students with the basic skills to earn a living and the critical thinking skills to keep them from being bamboozled by self-serving others.
In addition, the unions must claim ownership of the students and the income stream which they represent. This "who owns the student" issue fuels the union?s continuing fight over the vouchers that would allow parents to place their children in better and perhaps non-union schools. And finally, the unions must insure that the students ? the next generation of voters, politicians and decision-makers ? support their philosophy. Pretty much why education is based on revisionist history, unproven teaching methods, political correctness, multiculturalism, and moral equivalency. All designed to weaken the power of the individual in favor of the collective. Moreover, to produce a functionally illiterate populace who can be manipulated into ceding their individual rights to the collective ? be it the state or the unions.
Politics.
For astute observers of the political scene, politics has become a profession rather than a calling. A profession similar to show business, where a well-spoken, good-looking individual with the ability to act ? fake sincerity and other human emotions ? and read a prepared script can do extremely well for themselves without having a shred of decency or the ability to think clearly. A genial dunderhead that goes along to get along. Many political aspirants regard their local school board as the first step in a profitable political career. Unfortunately, with the result of making decisions based on their self-interests and those of the large special interests who provide them with campaign funding and voter support. The wants and needs of the children to be educated fall by the wayside in favor of supplicating their campaign contributors.?
Special interests.
For those who are not close to the ?education business,? be advised that the process of acquiring land, building and maintaining schools is a big-money business. Business, attractive to politically-connected developers, contractors, and vendors of all shapes and sizes. All seeking to tap the never-ending spring of taxpayer money that must flow to education by legislative mandate.
One liberal billionaire Los Angeles businessman exerts so much influence on the LAUSD Board that he managed to create a school based upon his personal hobby, modern art, to assist in a large government-backed Grand Avenue revitalization project. While there is some benefit to a performing arts-oriented school, this school is located in a depressed downtown area and was approximately three times as costly as the average school. In times of shrinking enrollment and deplorable graduation performance (50%), perhaps the student population would have been better served by another type of high school based on non-college trades.
For more than a decade Broad has been trying to bring about the renaissance of Grand Avenue; in the past year, he has decided to build his own museum there, across the street from MOCA[Museum of Contemporary Art], to accommodate his collection of contemporary art. Broad listed the avenue?s attractions: Walt Disney Concert Hall, MOCA, the High School of Visual and Performing Arts, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels?nearly all buildings that he helped to create.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/06/101206fa_fact_bruck
The school is named after a politically-connected education activist who served as the head of the Los Angeles Unified School District (while simultaneously serving as a highly-paid director of a company doing business with the LAUSD). Among his first duties was to gut and then diminish the effectiveness of the LAUSD?s Office of the Inspector General who was finding multi-million dollar fraud, waste and corruption within the LAUSD system.
Bottom line: Unions + Education + Politics + Special Interests = Recipe for Disaster
In my opinion, the confluence of the above factors places our children in a subservient position to adults who control and benefit from the current educational system. Leading me to believe the only way to reform education is to break apart the system. Not reformation, because that is simply re-jiggering the parts of a broken system so that the dysfunction is hidden. What is required is revolutionary and radical transformation. Systemic change based on common-sense teaching principles and a transparent monitoring system.
Remove the unconstitutional influence of the federal government from education; no more using taxpayer funds to force states into accepting the federal education agenda which is based on political ideology rather than effectiveness.
?
- Eliminate all educational unions. There are enough commonly available legal remedies for addressing real or imagined grievances.
- Treat teaching as a full-time job like any other jobs, with no special time off for summer or special time off to prepare for classroom duties.
- Use cost-effective standardized teaching materials without political ideology or other influence.
- Teach the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, history, civics, health and critical thinking. Eliminate all of the ?fun? electives that do not directly add to a person?s marketable skillset.
- Recognize that not everyone is intellectual capable or interested in a college education. Re-implement trade courses based on modern technology.
- Teach self-reliance and entrepreneurship.
- Employ realistic grading systems and reward those students and teachers who function at high levels, rather than disadvantage achievers in favor of lower performers. No participation trophies for just showing up. Rewards, as in real life, are to achievers ? not bystanders.
- Treat teachers like any other employee by rewarding merit and punishing incompetence. They are not family members or friends ? they are employees hired to educate children.
- And the most controversial suggestion -- insist on parental involvement using legal and financial consequences for parents who allow their children to cut class, act out, etc. While this puts a burden on single parents with multiple children, this is the consequence of their lifestyle and economic decisions. Make additional assistance available to these parents based on their willingness to participate in the educational process. We know that this will result in being called racist by some community activists promoting their own self-interests as the poor or minority community may be disproportionately affected. But again, certain minorities accept single mothers with children from multiple fathers ? without demanding that fathers assume their parental duties. Including the financial and educational support of their children. (Did I not warn you that a revolution is required, and it is often these very same people who are demanding a revolutionary response to current societal norms.
Our educational system is and turning out functional illiterates swayed by celebrity rather than achievement. And it can be traced back to the corruption of the educational process by the politicians, unions and special interests. And when you think about it, serves as a metaphoric pattern for what ails the rest of the United States.
-- steve
Source: http://www.onecitizenspeaking.com/2012/12/rethinking-education-in-2013-onecitizenspeakingcom.html
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