GUEST POST from Don: Public Schools

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Is this what you want for YOUR kids?  Warning!  This article may be controversial (I don’t think so, unless wanting the best for our kids is “controversial”) …but read it to the end anyway.

Can’t we just admit it?  Public schools have FAILED.  

“When people show you who they are, believe them.”

According to Phil Whitmer, “By the 1840s educational reformers pushed for the goal of establishing a free public education system open to children of all genders and social classes. Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, Harry Barnard and others proposed the concept of schooling freed of religious bias*. The purpose of public education was to train students to become skilled workers while teaching them the traditional core academic disciplines.”  (* Because most schools at that time were funded by religious organizations, not by secular organizations.  They weren’t denigrating religion, but seeking a secular way.)  You would not know present day public schools were related to those imagined by Thomas Jefferson based on the outcomes and absolute weirdness of them.  I believe Jefferson would never have penned his ideas if he thought they would go this far afield.

Where to start?  There are so MANY issues.  Narrowing it to just a few feels cheap, but then, this isn’t a book.  Maybe we could begin with one question which illustrates how DEEP the problem is:  “When was it decided that 180 days equals a year of learning?”  Time = education?  I don’t think so.  If that were the case then a 16 year old girl, who had learned absolutely nothing in the last year, would be educationally a year ahead of where she was at 15.  (Yeah!  Not so much.)  Actually learning is what education is about, not just spending days in a classroom.  SO, if X is the amount of material a child should learn in 180 days, but he learns X in 100 days…can he go home?  Answer: “No.“ Why?  Because a child must be in school for the school to get public money (taxes) to operate.  Wait!  So 180 days is the rule because it benefits the school, not the child!!!  And WE are paying for THAT!  Argh!  In the June 5, 2019 edition of “Education Re imagined” Ulcca Joshi Hansen concludes his article, “Imagine what would be possible if the focus of our educational system was on learning, rather than the number of days in the school year.”

OK.  Maybe you did not understand my point.  To illustrate… let’s say you hire a contractor to build your house.  His price includes the pay for all the workers and he estimates it will take 4 months to complete the job.  However, everything works incredibly smoothly (for once) and they finish the job in 3 months.  You think you can get the keys to the house and move in since they have finished, but the contractor says, “No.  You get the keys at the end of the time contract (4 months)…my workers have to stay in the house every day until then.”  So, for the next month his workers all show up, play cards, drink beer, and soil the new carpet, but get paid…  all because TIME is more important than PRODUCT.  That would be insane, right?  YES.  

Fact #1:  What are kids being taught in public school?  More than 20% of 19 year olds who attended public school in America are illiterate.  (This is absolutely the truth.)  You cannot blame this on COVID.  This was the case before and still is.  Count the kids in your neighborhood; statistically every 5th child will be unable to read, write, or do math at a THIRD GRADE level after attending public schools.  They can’t get jobs.  Some cannot even sign their own names.  One teen we know flunked Algebra I, they put him in Algebra II the next semester…why??  (His parents asked that he be required to repeat and the school “knew better”… he dropped out before the end of the school year.)

Fact #2:  What are kids being taught in public school?  Kids are likely to know more about gender identities by 5th grade, than they will know about 5th grade math.  Some schools have taken urinals out of the bathrooms…is this a learning issue???  Ask yourselves, “Is that what I want for my kids?

Fact #3:  What are kids being taught in public school?  More kids by grade 5 are likely to believe in “white supremacy” than believe that every person in America has incredible opportunity.  There is no other country in the world where blacks (actually EVERY race) have greater access to personal wealth…think that one through.  The median wealth per adult (of any race) in the continent of Africa is less than $5k), whereas for blacks in the United States it is over $24k. In fact, the median wealth of blacks in America is at least DOUBLE that of the median black in any other country where more than 5% of the population is black.  Larry Elder stated on August 20, 2014 in comments on CNN: “If black America were a country, it’d be the 15th wealthiest nation in the world.”  There are more opportunities in America than they teach…that’s why millions cross the border illegally to get here.  Do you want kids looking for opportunities or merely complaining that others have more?  So, I grew up dirt poor, yet that never defined who I could be.  As an adult I became a part-owner and grew a small business.  Neither the past nor the advantages others have are issues which matter for YOUR future.  Can improvements be made?  Answer: Yup!  EVERYWHERE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!

Fact #4:  What are kids being taught in public school?  Some schools in California openly lie to the parents about the gender choices of their own kids.  Schools in Pennsylvania are showing pictures to students that cannot be broadcast on over-the-air TV, and they think that is OK.  Name the public school in America which will allow a parent to set an appointment to observe a class.  The lessons are not shared online either.  In essence, parents are locked out and are not included in the schooling process.  This happens no where else.  Your kids’ doctor doesn’t do that.  Your kids’ social club doesn’t do that.  Even your church does not do that.  Its time to educate for the future instead of pushing agendas which hold all of us back.

Fact #5:  Public schools receive an average of $16,855 per student per year.  That’s a hefty amount to not teach 20% of the students.  Schools get every penny even when they fail.  In Boston there are 23 schools this year which have no student proficient in math (backward perfection??).  Boston will move them all to the next grade anyway (even if a parent objects).  Some students take advantage of education. For others school is merely an expensive babysitter.  

Is every school like this?  More than you would imagine.  You would hope it was not true for the school your kids attend…but I know several teachers, administrators, and school board members…and their stories would curl the hair on your toes.  It is happening almost everywhere.  “When people show you who they are, believe them.”

Conclusion:  The Public School experiment has FAILED

– – – –

Will Bat Man and Robin escape?  Tune in next week.  Same Bat time, same Bat channel!

Copyright 2023 Donald Whelpley

MORE OF DON’S GREAT GUEST POSTS:

~ 5-Star Reviews ~ Fractions Matter! ~ Small Spoons ~ Dumpster ~ Weird Forgiveness III Weird Forgiveness II ~ Weird Forgiveness I ~ Classified Documents ~
~ Future You Needs A Friend ~ Feeling Understood ~ Starting The New Year Right ~ Awe! Aah! Ooh! ~ Christmas As A Poor (Rich) Child ~ Bigger Problems ~ Blessing ~
~ Climate Change – 2 ~ Medical Science Too Far? ~ Gravity and Light ~ Travel Fun ~ Fascinating People: Gloria Hartman Doughty ~ Sadly Magic Words ~ Mulberries ~
~ Climate Change? ~ SPURIOUS UBIQUITOUS NOISE ~ TEW ~ Credit Card Debt ~ Insect Oddities ~ DATA ~ Cities Got Name? ~ The Bible Does Not Say That! ~ Too Old?? ~
~ Be My Guest ~ IN-CRE-MEN-TAL-ISM ~ Bad Friends & Broken Tools ~ Pools Are For The Birds?? ~ Animals Hindering Your Financial Freedom ~ The Chicken ~
~ Finding The Exit ~ Allegheny Blackberries ~ Romantic Sunset At The Beach ~ Fun Facts About Carpenter Ants ~ Bad Habits ~ Doing Faith Wrong ~ Quirky! ~
~ Ten-Foot Trestle ~ Settling Estates ~ Living In High Horse Country ~  The Dying Generation ~