Our 'Education' System

[don]

I agree Timm,a whack every now and then dosen't hurt.It actually improves the situation.I'm not saying to beat the kid black and blue but a spanking every once in awhile is good. This getting reported to social services for hitting your kid is baloney. That's why when the kids grow up they shoot the parents because they always got away with stuff without a whack.When I was a kid we were afraid to talk back to an adult and we respected them. Today these kids have no fear because a lot of the parents give in to them.Also I don't believe in this "Time Out" bullshit.It dosen't work.Give them a whack once in awhile when they misbehave to show them who's boss.I have spoken.

[hammerdrill376]

Unfortunately alot of the "all we are saying is give peace a chance" types equate spanking a child with beating a child.....MAJOR difference in the two. And alot of those people write the laws now and looks like after Nov. 4th we will have even more of that type of people in office. Parents..who give a damn...are having more and more of their parental rights taken away because after alll.....government knows best...yeah right.  To me it dosent't take a rocket scientist to figure out that old fashioned dicipline and respect needs to be returned to the classroom. Problem is in so many cases it isn't being taught at home.

[b.driscoll]

It seems to me that from what has changed in our schools is a tremendous lack of discipline and respect.Kids today have very little fear of any authority figure because they threaten a law suit.  Political correctness has really dumbed down our kids to the point where you are NOT allowed to fail. Parents are more interested in being a childs friend instead of a parent.  Teachers unions are always crying for more money and getting it as thE U.S. SPENDS MORE MONEY ON EDUCATION THAN ANYONE ELSE. I have to agree that  the current political situation the way it looks now that our EDUCATION SYSTEM will not be improving any time soon!

[buddha]

Dr. Benjamin Spock, who was the originator of the "it's never OK to hit a child" mindset came out about 10 years ago and, basically, said Ooops, I f#@ked up. Not many people paid any attention, though.
I hate to be one of those who says "back in my day" blah, blah, blah, but the truth is that the teachers used to be directed to teach to the smartest kids in the class and let the rest strive to keep up. That accounted for people having to repeat grades because pressure was applied to keep pace with the leaders. The system has devolved to the point of teaching to the class dummy and the rest, including the best and brightest, have to sit on their hands and wait for Gomer to learn how to spell cat. Now the question of school funding depends on the "success" rate of the students which means "no child left behind". Everybody passes every grade, even the class a$$hole. If not the funding gets cut. The smartest kids have to sit and look out the window and tap their fingers on the desk and get labeled as ADHD and get Ritalin stuffed down their throats.

[Stu]

Start tracing our public school failures back to 1980 with the establishment of the Department of Education.  Education standards should be established at a local level, not in Washington by a bunch of politically correct bureaucrats who are more concerned with making sure there are ethnically appropriate kids' names in math story problems than actually teaching content.  Add to that teachers unions who protect incompetent teachers through tenure programs.  As I understand it, there are literally scores of NYC teachers who are no longer allowed to teach in schools, but because of the unions, they can't be fired so they sit back and collect paychecks for teaching nothing.  Add to that instances such as in California where the teachers' union leaders recently gave a million dollars of union money to defeat the efforts to define marriage again as between a man and a woman (not trying to stir anything up there; you can do whatever you want in CA).  You can easily see how the focus has turned away from the real job of educating kids.  We already spend more than most industrialized countries on education dollars / student, so more money isn't the problem.  We need competition in schools.  Instute school vouchers where you can take your school tax dollars and send your kids to whatever school you want, public or private, and you'll see things start changing.  Sorry for the rant.  This kind of stuff just drives me nuts.

[NWTRNR]

If you haven't seen this video clip yet -- check it out. It's a fascinating overview of how things are changing here in the US and around the world. Very sobering.

[Brkeatr]

Wow....that's amazing info...

[hammerdrill376]

Man that is a sobering video. You know, I don't know why, maybe this particular election has me more sensitized than normal but I have really been giving alot of thought to what we teach our kids. I don't just mean what they are taught at school but at home. How many of  us have really..I mean really sat down with our families and had a serious talk about freedom and the price that has been paid for us to be able to do the things we can do in this country. Can we really appreciate the fact that the signers of the Declaration of Independance put their very lives on the line and risked hanging? They were husbands, fathers and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to explain and convince their familes of what they felt they had to do. I have really been doing some soul searching myself. I tried to remember when I talked to my daughter about the preamble to the Constitution and what that truly means...I could not remember one time ever really talking to her about it and it makes me damn ashamed of myself. So many of us have been so busy making livings, worrying about sports scores, etc., that we have forgotten the most important things in life..our children. I know in a real sense I did. Hillary tried to convince it that "It takes a village" I disagree..It takes Moms and Dads doing their God given job! BEING Moms and Dads. Our country is in some serious dire straits and while we would like to blame the politicains the real truth is the fault of alot of the nations problems lay at the feet of the guys we look at in the mirror every day. When are we ever going to "get it"? Apparently people in other countries are and we should not despise them for it. After all they learned from old school America and then "we" laid it aside.