|
Paul Nerge ERA Countryside Real Estate
ADVERTISE
on Join Eatonville.com in making this your comprehensive community web site.
©1999,
AmeriCAM. Entire content of web site is protected by applicable
copyright law. Reproduction in any form is strictly prohibited. Website designed by AmeriCAM www.americam.com 206.325.5516.
|
Education does not mean just going to school. "Educators" have been handing out diplomas as though they were free tickets to a baseball game. Students and parents have been accepting these Certificates of Attendance as though they somehow conferred proof of adult knowledge or wisdom. Their true worth, however, is that they have resulted in keeping the kids off the streets---most of the time. Education in the U.S. has degenerated into a socialistic sham. Educational policy is directed from Washington, DC as though it were just another bureaucratic program, not a vital part of the long range continuation of our republic. Democracy depends for its life on how well its citizens can think! The greatest number possible is none too many for a democracy. Education, in our society, is essential for good government for it is in the citizens in whom final political authority rests, and from whom its leaders are chosen. To the extent that the best education is achieved, will the best society be achieved. Continued failure in education endangers our status as a nation. Part of the cause of our educational mediocrity can be traced to laws that require the young to attend school until they reach the age of sixteen. The result is that children who are delinquent or disturbed become by law the charge of the schools. When this happens standards naturally deteriorate. The obvious answer to this problem is to insist that disturbed or delinquent children do not belong in regular classrooms. They deserve attention, but in no case should this provide an excuse for these children to jeopardize the education of the majority. It is not incumbent upon schools to eliminate tragedy from American life. The school has its own purposes. These purposes presuppose co-operation for their accomplishment, and when it is absent no teacher can compensate for the lack, and education cannot proceed. In many schools the problem of keeping order has become so great that teaching has become almost impossible. So where do we go from here? There are essentially two basic failures in our system: failure to educate our citizens adequately as human beings, and failure to train a sufficient number of specialists to maintain our complex society. Lack of specialists threatens our existence as a scientific-industrial society. Continued failure in general education endangers our status as a nation. In the area of what should be done, there are three broad needs that are so obvious they can hardly be overlooked. First, as a society we need to awaken to the importance of education. We pay lip service to the idea but emasculate the practice. The kinds of courses parents seem to want for their kids are courses they can pass---period. We encourage mediocre achievement as an indication of social adjustment. "Student activity" means everything except the acquisition of knowledge. Learning how to think is, in the minds of many parents, less important than learning how to be popular or how to "get along". College is a place for beer, sex and football rallies. Time enough for getting ahead as soon as the fun and games of college are over. Ours may be the only nation in the world where "intellectual" is a derogatory term. For years, colleges have wasted time and educational talent teaching remedial courses in reading and math that should have been taught in high school. We use the term "egghead" as a term of contempt for any intellectual whose conversational scope exceeds that of the sports page or the comics, and select some bonehead as our sentimental hero. We pay teachers less that day laborers and harass them with regulations that would cause a police state to cheer. Secondly, our schools need to clarify their purpose. They do not adequately know what they are doing or why they are doing it. The one unforgivable sin in education is lack of intellectual design. Schools and educators wallow about in indecision and formlessness. Almost by definition, education should involve a clear concept of intellectual priorities. To overcome our first basic failure, our obligation should be to educate our citizens as persons. At a minimum this should include kindergarten through high school and even beyond. The following are not the subjects of an academic curriculum, they are the subjects of education. They include story, poetry and language; science, mathematics and philosophy; history, economics and law. Their source is not, as some believe, in men who are as different from one another as different species of animals. Their source is common; they are the achievements of man as man, and therefore would be considered a basic education. To awaken a student to his potentialities in these directions requires that he be inducted into the heritage of civilized man. Without this he remains ignorant, unable to build on the past because he does not know what has already been done. For education to aim at less than the transmission of this priceless heritage is to cheat our children. A free man can only be free to think for himself if he has the knowledge his civilization has so laboriously assembled. The third need of American education is that it achieve higher standards of excellence. The nature of education is not secret. Most educators know that it must be unfolded in a logical and orderly manner. Lack of clarity is not the result of ignorance, it is the result of failure to put first things first. Where standards are observed they are often set intentionally low so that most will pass. As a consequence it is not impossible to find high school students who are nearly illiterate. Few things have done more to corrupt standards than the use of the word "give". Neither teachers nor schools can give students what matters most. Education is not a consumer product; it must be achieved. To "give" a child a sense of achievement when in fact he has achieved nothing of worth, is to become involved in a psychological con game which prostitutes the proper ends of education. The true corollary of graduating students who have not achieved the level their diplomas assert is that the schools become perpetrators of falsehood. Finally, can we really make it happen? The answer to that question is an unqualified yes! The first requirement is to take education out of the hands of the bureaucrats, from the president on down, and out of the coercion of the unions who deliver the teachers and educators right back into the hands of the bureaucrats. State legislators must cooperate by changing laws to give teachers and school staff protection from frivolous law suits and over-zealous lawyers, including the area of harassment. This is necessary for the prime requirement of maintaining order and discipline in the classroom and on the school busses, as well as to remove suspicion from normal interaction among staff. Students, desirous of an education, will appreciate regaining an educational atmosphere in their academic institutions. Charge educators to develop curriculums to encompass, in an orderly fashion, the objectives of the described basic education. Insist on keeping political influence entirely out of the educational process. Stop experimenting in individual schools and districts with socialistic-driven agendas. What needs to be done is known; release the educators and let them do it! Comments to Fergie. Reply: Fergie, I am a EHS Senior who decided to check out Eatonville's website today and found your letter/essay on the education system. Exactly how long have you been out of the system? Apperantly to long because several of the points you brought up are absolutely moot and completly with out validity. I feel that EHS has done an excellent job educating me and preparing me for college and the future beyond that. They offer two A.P. classes, one in English and one in American History, both of which I have taken. They also offer many dual enrollment classes, several of which I have taken or am taking. The staff is supportive, friendly, and always willing to help you out or just lend an ear. I have been very active in leadership and feel that things are slowly changing for the better in our school. More and more students are going to four year institution and graduating. We are turning out some very bright students at EHS with many of them winning honors and scholorships or going to prestigious schools when they graduate. Sure there are the boneheads of the school but you will be hard pressed to find a school without those. There was also a note at the bottom of your essay that mentioned not voting for school levies. I don't know if this was you who wrote this or not, but if it was, I am very dissappointed. Our school will not get any better without these levies and I do not appreciate going to a substanderd school because of your unwillingness to accept public schools. I would much rather have a school that is well maintained and safe than a school that is falling to pieces with the hope that future students might have the opportunity to go to a private school on a federal charter. I am not mad, just dissappointed that someone would write such a biased paper and call it educated. Sincerely, Lee Eatonville.Com web site for you and the community. The web site features current events, school news, sports schedules, local business advertisement and coupons, and stories about people doing their best to make Eatonville a beautiful place to visit and live. Check back often. New stories will appear every day. This is your chance to be heard and tell others what you think. Submit articles of interest about the community, your families, friends, and heroes. Advertise in the Classifieds. You can remove your ad the day the item is sold. Community Businesses: Promote your business on Eatonville.Com. We'll design advertisements for you. Update your ads on a daily basis. Announce sales, specials, and publish coupons. Look to Eatonville.Com for current sales and coupon offerings. To advertise on Eatonville.Com and "Talk of the Town" (A highlights newsletter placed in local restaurants) Call 1-800-451-3827 |
