It undermines the family's role in educating children. The responsibility becomes de facto the state's. And the next time someone suggests academic performance is tied to spending, show them this, two dramatic graphs by Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute showing massive increases in spending (adjusted for inflation) and in the number of teachers over the years--class sizes have gradually shrunk--and no increase in academic performance. The President is simply a mouthpiece for the pro-tax-and-spend NEA on this issue.
And that's understandable. The Left is in epistemological denial over what Thomas Jefferson knew to be the case. Did he refer to the typical student as "rubbish"? Yep. The truth is deeply inegalitarian. The Left's religion is equality. I say religion because it is not only the worship of the unseen but, more dramatic, it's the belief in what we all know to be fundamentally untrue: people are unequal.
It's all about IQ and the family. The latter was conclusively shown by the James S. Coleman Study that libs have conveniently forgot.
One can receive a decent education at the crappiest of schools. It's all about personal volition.
When I suggest to my children and wife--who is employed as a teacher--to educate the children once they hit the junior high school, they treat the proposal as unworthy of consideration. Only a socially maladjusted crank would consider removal of his children from the state's pedagogical embrace. Yet, this is the time when performance declines, esp. nationally. And if your town has a middle school? Forget about it--academic standards tank. And high school is largely a waste of time. The bright students who are a bit nerdy, shy, and non-athletic pay a big cost in a lack of popularity. It's truly no exaggeration to say people go to college to learn what they should have in high school.
People are coming to appreciate it, recently for example, that dramatic piece in The Weekly Standard. Philip Longman's Empty Cradle. And there's Mark Steyn's America Along.
And that's understandable. The Left is in epistemological denial over what Thomas Jefferson knew to be the case. Did he refer to the typical student as "rubbish"? Yep. The truth is deeply inegalitarian. The Left's religion is equality. I say religion because it is not only the worship of the unseen but, more dramatic, it's the belief in what we all know to be fundamentally untrue: people are unequal.
It's all about IQ and the family. The latter was conclusively shown by the James S. Coleman Study that libs have conveniently forgot.
One can receive a decent education at the crappiest of schools. It's all about personal volition.
When I suggest to my children and wife--who is employed as a teacher--to educate the children once they hit the junior high school, they treat the proposal as unworthy of consideration. Only a socially maladjusted crank would consider removal of his children from the state's pedagogical embrace. Yet, this is the time when performance declines, esp. nationally. And if your town has a middle school? Forget about it--academic standards tank. And high school is largely a waste of time. The bright students who are a bit nerdy, shy, and non-athletic pay a big cost in a lack of popularity. It's truly no exaggeration to say people go to college to learn what they should have in high school.
I don't think we fully appreciate the societal costs of seemingly endless "schooling." One is the restriction of the baby-making window of women. After the five-year party at an education-free zone, entrance into and a foothold gained in the job market, what age is one? Thirty-four or -five? Ultimately, it all comes down to demographics. College-educated white women barely have a child apiece. By about 38 their biological clocks are going all Marisa Tomei. (Remember My Cousin Vinny?) White women with advanced degrees average less than a child. If you don't believe me, come on over and I can point out the graph in _The Bell Curve_ that is frightening to me.No more than 20 percent of 18-year-olds can cope with college-level material, a fact documented by Charles Murray in his 2008 book Real Education. ~ John Derbyshire
People are coming to appreciate it, recently for example, that dramatic piece in The Weekly Standard. Philip Longman's Empty Cradle. And there's Mark Steyn's America Along.
I'm an athletic nerd, so it worked out for me, except for the girls. I never could figure them out.
Leave a comment