so because the department is broken, it should be abolished? in the past, the doe has been a powerful force *for* teachers and for a standardization of curriculum in a good way, and has provided a much-needed link between primary education and universities.
Yea Ok, keep telling yourself that.
the last 20 years, yeah, it's become a bureaucracy, and no child left behind was an awful, destructive failure. however, my goal is to keep companies and religion OUT of education, and to provide a strong voice for the strengthening of teachers in society and to force -- yes FORCE -- modern secular academia into classrooms. i want standards and expectations for student performance set at a national level. i want the doe repaired, streamlined, and brought back as the powerful institution it was in the 50s and 60s.
Thats fine with me, but it's NEVER going to happen by the actions of a federal department. You need local citizens to participate. the Problem with education is parents dont think it's their job to raise their kids anymore, they think it's the governments job to baby sit them.
it CAN and HAS: the DoE of the 50s and the 60s brought about some sweeping education reforms that brought curriculum and teaching standards up to a higher and more consistent level all around. we started really failing in the 80s, under Reagan, when the wave of touchy-feely INDIVIDUALISM started to take hold, and we began to see parents feeling more obligation to their own individual needs and those of their kids than bringing them up to a higher social standard.
I also think that it's pretty stupid that you want to force whatever views onto other people, even if a local school board doesn't agree. This is the problem with socialism and your ilk, you think that whatever view you have is the one and only view and it doesnt matter what other people think. If some shitty school district in Kansas wants to teach creation, let them. their kids will be dumber because of it.
history is packed with examples of folks being too stupid to act in their long-term interests, and of the majority being easily swayed by short-term needs. i don't wish to see them be allowed to make their kids dumber, because the stupidity of their children translates into a stupider component of society, and that does me no favors.
i believe that government's job is not to codify societal "norms", but to implement long-term social values and principles -- such as education -- that are not best left up to individuals.
Then who is it left up to?
can you not read? THE GOVERNMENT, which, when not utterly corrupted by wealthy individuals and monied interests, represents the broader interests of society as a whole.
in the real world, the individual is not independent of his society, and without society.
This is so fucking stupid drinky. How does society allow us to have our rights?
what rights do you have if there is no-one else around? if you have everything, you have nothing, because your actions affect no-one, and thus the concept of "rights" is meaningless. add another person into your sphere, and suddenly your actions become constrained -- you now define what you have as "rights" and try to draw a line in the sand, be it territorial (property "rights"), survivalistic/reproductive (personal rights), and/or hierarchical (economic and genealogical "rights"). the more folks you add, the more constraints are added as their needs and goals are factored in. eventually, long-term social strategies that maximize the success of the majority emerge, and these inherently restrict your freedom to act -- their configuration depends not on any individual, but the broader consensus. THIS IS HOW HUMANS OPERATE. we are not individuals outside of our own heads. these social strategies are codified as government. you have no rights but what society grants you -- can you kill your neighbor? you claim you don't because "you are moral," but morality is no more than intellectualization of our instinctual need to conform to society and relinquish certain "rights" in order to participate. you do not stand alone, ON A PRIMAL LEVEL.
federal education may subtract from your wallet, and it may limit certain individual notions, but in the long run, it opens far more doors and gives a greater commonality among all members of this nation than it would if left wholly up to the determinations of the short-sighted reactionary individual and the completely unenlightened interests of the private sector.
It lowers the standard bar for everyone. Instead of trying to achieve we just pat our students on the back when they fail and tell them that it's ok not to know algebra when you gradute high School.
you've described exactly was individualism does -- when an individual is allowed to define his/her success, they set the bar low. when society sets the bar -- i.e.e KNOW ALGEBRA OR FOREVER WORK IN FAST FOOD -- people are forced to jump higher.
but in the long run, it opens far more doors and gives a greater commonality among all members of this nation
Back this up or get the fuck out.
are you stupid. (hint: yes.) IF SOCIETY SETS THE STANDARDS, INDIVIDUALS MUST WORK HARDER TO ACHIEVE THEM. WHEN WE ARE ALL MEASURED AGAINST THE SAME BAR, RATHER THAN ONE WE SET OURSELVES, WE SHARE A COMMON TRAIT: WE ARE ALL OPERATING UNDER THE SAME PARAMETERS FOR SUCCESS.
dur hur ron paul hurrr
Drinky, tell me why our students are getting consistently dumber even though the biog federal government is here to teach us all!
because, you clueless, inobservant fuck, the federal role has played a diminished and proscriptive (and barely that) role in setting education policy in the last 20 years! THE NATURE OF SCHOOLING HAS BECOME LEFT UP TO LOCAL FORCES DUE TO A CRIPPLED AND BUREAUCRATICALLY-STYMIED FEDERAL OFFICE -- the crippling that the Paulites want BEGAN A LONG FUCKING TIME AGO. now, money for schools are primarily decided by local taxes and levies, and guess what! people elect to KEEP THEIR MONEY rather than spend it on education! parents now control the classrooms and curriculum, and GUESS FUCKING WHAT, distinguished mentally-challenged fellow, they choose to focus ONLY on their own brats and maximize the success of their spawn at the expense of the other children! they ignore inner-city schools! they trivialize important curriculum that might challenge their mediocre spoor or offend their shallow beliefs. any long-term strategy that might require sacrifice is ejected if it compromises their kids' chances for college. the wealthy aristocrats ship their kids around not on the quality of education but on how easily they can influence teachers, staff, and the board such that their kids will succeed in spite of any merit!
OUR KIDS ARE GETTING DUMBER BECAUSE THERE ARE NO LEGITIMATE FEDERAL STANDARDS ANY MORE WHERE IT MATTERS (CURRICULUM AND TEACHER SUPPORT) -- JUST TESTING BULLSHIT AND TOUCHY-FEELY INDIVIDUALISM THAT DESTROYS FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR POOR SCHOOLS, WEAKENS TEACHERS' ABILITY TO NEGOTIATE, AND DOES NOT GIVE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM ANY LEGITIMATE POWER TO TRANSCEND LOCAL SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS. education is a fucking STRATEGY for the future, and as any good military type will tell you, strategy fails when the individual soldiers don't fall in line.
