Saturday, July 02, 2005

Devil’s Advocate on Education


I was reading Aaron, the Roseville Conservative’s article, “The Case for the Upcoming Special Election” ( linked via title bar) , and it occurred to me that some, if not all of the basic premise for the argument for public education is flawed. Quoting from his article:


“Every child in California has the right to a quality education. They deserve the best schools, teachers, and resources the state has to offer, and that’s why passing the education reform initiative on the November 8th special election ballot is critical.”

I realize that the article was written for California and their special election; however my thoughts are directed toward all the states. The first line, “Every child in California has the right to a quality education.”, has the word “right” placed as if this were a given truism. I do not believe that education has ever been a “right”, much less in the context of such a right being the responsibility of the State.

Parents are responsible for the rearing of children, to include educating them with the necessary basics in order to survive in the world. Our society has transformed that. It has become evident that many parents are deficient in their skills and are sadly lacking in the areas of teaching their children language and math skills, history as an integral and essential foundation for citizenship or spiritual balance. For one reason or another it became easier for the community to provide these basic building blocks we now call the public school system.

The courts have involved themselves in each aspect of this communal process and gone as far as to define the communal goals along with the necessary restrictions to insure equitable non-education for all. Language skills are to be limited because some children come from ethnically challenged environments and are therefore at a disadvantage in a competitive society. Rather than focus on building up those areas of deficiency the State must now overlook them. Math skills, while equally challenging to all students, tend to make some children feel inferior which leads to long term complexes. The State has had to dumb down the levels of acceptable achievement thereby eliminating the need for social behavior that would be deemed “mean spirited” on the part of educators. Spiritual education has all but been eradicated over the years if they in any way refer to Christianity. Children must be taught diversification, Evolution is a fact rather than a theory, the Koran is important to understand cultural differences and the State is all powerful.

The second line starts off, “They deserve the best schools, teachers and resources the state has to offer…” as the closer line for why passing the education reform is critical.
Why do they deserve the best? I would have thought that in a free market system, like the one we have here, or at least are supposed to have, the best is reserved for those who not only have excess capital to spend, they are willing to spend or invest that capital. Why would it be expected that the best teachers would wish to work for the State when they can work at a much higher rate of pay in the private sector? A more honest statement, something that would look terrible on any ballot:

“We need to provide the illusion that educating the your children is moderately important and so we will establish and provide a bare minimum level of skills by marginally adequate teachers in an environment closely akin to State run prisons in order for your children to easily become border line achievers in a highly competitive market place.”

About the only part of the entire statement that is totally accurate is that it is “critical”. No such “right” to education exists, it is an entitlement concocted and then granted by and to our evolving society. It is based on a need to have children reach a point of independent ability and to coexist in our society. If by that we are to accept the socially deficient, the brain dead and the spiritually dead then our public school system is doing a fine job and should be rewarded; if not then quite possibly a more serious examination should take place.

Our State supported public school system has been transformed into a recruitment center for the Communist Agenda, to act as a spring board for the tearing down of the American principles once firmly held by most and now vaguely remembered by an ever dwindling individually minded spirit in favor of the communal status quo. Critical, I would have to say that our educational system is in a Coma and should be permitted an honorable and timely departure from our midst. It’s time to bury the philosophy that presumes to equate such intangibles as educational needs with educational rights at the expense of individual rights, family values and spiritual integrity.

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