Dear Friends,
It seems to me, diversity in education is a bulwark against economic and intellectual stagnation. Diversity in education is an anathema to the Elite in America however. They seek to limit children’s access to a diverse subject matter, diverse methods of learning, and instead impose doctrinal standards on our children, theirs however are in private schools. Anyone with their eyes open can see the results of this policy over the last few generations. US children falling behind in math, reading, writing, history and critical thinking. We also see the manifestation of the practice of common core type education, imposed from the top, that every child must follow, in the lowering of the work ethic. If we don’t address this growing problem it will become a crisis, one that will not only destroy the standard of living of Americans, but will usher in a World wide recession.
Today, industries in the US are able to find qualified applicants with a good work ethic, from immigrants. In other countries where the school system is an educational enterprise, instead of an indoctrination center, the level of education is exceptional. The students from these countries regularly outperform US students, in standardized tests, on most any subject. The Education department in the Federal government, (an unconstitutional apparition), makes the excuse that many in America test poorly, because they have economic disadvantages. Are we to assume that American children are on a lower economic rung than children in China? Where wages are a tenth of the US? A friend of mine says, “Excuses are like rear ends, everyone has them, and they all stink.”
The answer of the US educational elite is always to do more of what is not working. The latest incarnation is Common Core, where new math is taught, communism is glorified, and reading is reduced from mind elevating literature, like Great Expectations… to federal reserve fact sheets. Boy what interesting material for a kid to read, economic fact sheets. The government is even planning on foisting this insanity on home schooled children! The Executive branch under Obama has foisted this absurdity on every school child in the US. Inevitably lowering the education of our children even further. As it is most likely intended to.
In the 1970’s they tried new math. If you ever see the old TV show, Family Affair, Buffy and Jodie’s homework was new math. Old math apparently was seen as outmoded. The result of new math was a dramatic lowering of the arithmetic skills of American school children. Instead of elevating, as it was promised to do, the ability of US educated students was diminished to that of a third world country. Not only the economy suffered as a result, but the waste of human potential, people who could have achieved excellence but, due to the failing of our schools, achieved mediocrity instead, was a tragedy. In the end new math had to be abandoned for old math. Today, under common core we are embarking on a new, new math experiment. One that will certainly end the same way the last one did… No matter how much I want vinegar to mix with baking soda without reaction, it won’t, empirical testing proves that.
The education department within the Federal government, is unconstitutional, because the Constitution doesn’t give the Federal government the power… to concentrate all educational decisions in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, working in the dark of night, imposing their view of how every child must be taught in the US. The tenth amendment is the most overlooked in the Bill of Rights and this is as good an example as any. The education department in the Federal government should be eliminated, not only to save our children from the vicissitudes of power drunk bureaucrats, but to save their little minds from the indoctrination centers our schools have become.
To achieve diversity in education there needs to be a voucher system. One where schools don’t need to be accredited by a Federal agency, but by the parents, who freely choose to send their kids there. Instead of regulating means, the bailiwick of tyrants, regulate results. Test students who graduate from the diverse schools set up under the voucher, publish the results, and let the voucher schools compete for students in the marketplace of education, that would be created under such a system. Some will argue, “But some schools under a voucher system will give poor educations.” Which is a high form of spurious reasoning because, under their system, all of the students are getting a poor education. The real worry is that some will get exceptional educations… and we can’t have that! Only the children of the Elite should get a good education! Obama’s daughters are not in public schools, they are not subject to common core… your children are!
Education is a fundamentally important undertaking. The economy of the nation depends on it. Our children’s futures depend on it. Unconstitutional top down imposition of the means, has never worked, but it empowers the bureaucrat to be all knowing and all seeing… like Oz. The ego of the Elite is massaged when they choose the curriculum and subject matter of every student in the nation. But education is not a means to serve the bloated egos of bureaucrats, it is to prepare children to engage in the market system, become thoughtful citizens and have the tools to make critical decisions. Diversity in education, created by a voucher system, delivers that ideal. Let’s get back to educating children instead of indoctrinating them… for the sake of our children, and our own.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
