What is so sad about this letter is the fact that we are not educating children to the best of our nation’s abilities. And now we will be led by an ignorant despot who cares only for himself. Teachers are not being paid a fair salary and as a result, we have a lack of qualified teachers in many of our public schools. I cry for my great grandsons and worry for their future.
Some states do have decent pay for teachers as in my state and county. And it is in states where the public education is poorest and more home schooling is rampant that Trump won more votes.
My brother volunteered to pay for private school tuition for his grandchildren, so they would not be indoctrinated. Our mother, five aunts, one uncle, and our grandmother were all public school teachers, as was I. How could he think something so ridiculous?! I had no time to indoctrinate anyone; I was too busy trying to cover school board required curriculum. As I taught 6 and 7 year olds, I preached: 1) Keep your hands and feet to yourself. 2) Treat others the way you want them to treat you. 3) Raise your hand if you want to speak. 4) Put your name on your paper. I had NO time for anything else. That was the experience of most other teachers I knew.
The Republicans refuse to adequately fund public education, then bellow that schools are deficient and parents should have “choices” to send their kids to private schools, which don’t have the standards that public schools do. I grew up with kids who went to segregation academies. Talk about indoctrinated.
Jenn, I agree! I'm a retired elementary school teacher. I taught mostly 4th, 5th, and 6th grades- all subjects. No assistant like the younger grades.
It got to the point toward the end of my career that I hardly had time to say, "Good morning" to the students, much less talk about anything but the subjects I had to try to teach.
I miss the children. They kept me young. I have become OLD from the stress of the last eight years.
Thank you Pam and all the teachers out there for your dedication and commitment to our students, community and future. I was a Special Education Consultant for 15 years and I always felt bad for the teachers. The School Administration not so much but the teachers always had a place in my heart. 💜
Pam, yes, school boards, often filled with people who know nothing about education, particularly public education do make all kinds of demands, then don't provide the resources to make that happen. They do not encourage critical thinking because those students may actually think critically about the things they are being expected to do and the intended outcome. I taught K-12 gifted support students and loved that my students challenged me on things I presented. It would always start a conversation that often had them or me changing our minds. That's the way education should be. How sad that those in power think little white children should never feel uncomfortable while children of color, LGBTQ+, and immigrant children are made to feel uncomfortable a lot of the time. Good, caring teachers can help all children learn to work together and to value each others' talents and contributions. Parents who are homeschooling mainly reinforce their own values in their own bubbles. If we love our children as much as parents say they do, then we need leadership that actually cares about our children and wants programs to help them learn as much as possible so they and we will be able to meet the challenges of the future, and our Education Department is a way to help to make that happen. We must remember that Trump cares nothing for our children, heck, he didn't really care about his own kids until he could use them for his own purposes, and they are now well-used and totally on board.
Ruth, what an excellent description of what our education system SHOULD be. I retired two years early because I couldn't accept the mandates from principals, and superintendents to "teach the test."-- The End of Grade tests that were supposed to evaluate how much students had grown in critical thing skills in math and reading. I was hired to teach science and social studies to fourth graders my last year of teaching. I won an $1800 grant for science equipment. Was i encouraged to use this equipment? No. I was admonished for not spending enough time reviewing what had been taught that day in math and reading, because, the students were only tested on those two subjects for the End-of-grade tests. I couldn't stand to see what was happening to student's curiosity, creativity, individualism, and excitement for learning. There was NO excitement, especially for me. We had to teach to the middle- leaving out time for the challenges of under-and over-achievers.
Don't get me started on how much of my OWN money I spent over the 28 years that I taught.
With Trump's promise of doing away with the Department of Education, we can say goodbye to anything but Christian Nationalists' views on what and how children should learn. That is SO scary.
I could write on and on, but I'll stop. I need another cup of coffee.😒
Pam, I acknowledge that I was lucky, No one in our district could imagine what Gifted Support should look like, so I got to develop my own curriculum. I loved doing it although it took many many extra hours. It was worth it. Our district also was and still is obsessed with the end of year tests which, as you describe cover only reading and math and are not worthy of the time it takes for the students to take the tests. Those tests are designed to make rich white kids look smarter than they actually are and students of color and resource-disadvantaged students look pathetic, uneducable. It is disgusting and should be seen as unamerican, but alas, the guys in charge just love testing even though I bet most of them hated it when they had to do it. We need to demand better and invite parents to come into our schools to learn what a good education could look like, showing them quality materials, teaching techniques parents can use at home to enhance what the schools are already doing, and more. Maybe if parents were in on the project there wouldn't be so many whining for vouchers to put their kids somewhere else, schools that pretend they are better than any others, and their kids are better too. Of course, those schools don't require their kids to take the state tests because, well, they are above it all. OK, that's nonsense of course. I do understand why you had to retire. I retired when the 15th administration change was about to take place in my district. I taught 26 years. So much change is not good for school districts and not for the communities they are supposed to be serving. I do volunteer tutor in my old school and am enjoying it, but find it sad that so many students have nearly given up on learning by 6th grade.
When I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a teacher. But life had other plans for me. I truly admired most of my sons' teachers. I have friends that taught school. Two taught special needs children. Now that I am older, I wonder if I could have handled a classroom full of adolescents. I appreciate and thank all of the teachers who have dedicated their careers to their students.
The whole anti-public education movement is astroturfed by the billionaires behind the Heritage Foundation, ie the Kochs, ALEC etc, who don't give a flying hail mary about their eternal souls. Since Nixon's retool of the race baiting Southern Strategy, they've been weaponizing Christianity and (White) Family Values, to weaken our government so they can rape the land and reap their profits with no gov't interference. Amway Heiress DeVos wasn't chosen for her "piety," she was chosen because she is a ruthless billionaire from swing state Michigan who wanted to get her hands on public education so she could grow richer & more powerful through her private charter school ventures, perhaps inspired by the way her brother Eric Prince grows fat on the Defense Budget through privatization of military services (ie Blackwater.) I lived near Grand Rapids, in the town of Holland, a town with a Dutch Reform Church on every corner, and a vibe as creepy as Stepford. (that's the Church of White S. Africa, beloved by the Afrikanners)
Patrice, you are quite right. Billionaires have no interest in public education, their kids all go to private schools. They live in a world of privilege.
Thank you, thank you, JennSH, I taught Special Ed. I have said this before, I considered it a good day when I got through my lesson plans! I love it, my day was spent saying “what are you supposed to be doing right now?” Or my other favorite, “where are you supposed to be”. My rules were the same as yours. How does one indoctrinate a student while teaching a curriculum approved by the very red state I taught in? The children were tested to death, tests that the private schools did not have to take. Schools were given grades, based on those tests. If a school failed two years in a row, they were taken over by the state.
At the age of 60, I left the classroom to become a Staffing and Program Specialist.
I watched and could do nothing, as IDEA was dismantled. The classroom I taught in no longer exists. Students with Special Needs are put in regular classes. That would be fine, if the supports for the students were in place. However, only the most severe students are in self contained classrooms. Special Ed teachers “push in” to serve their students for 45 minutes each day. The discrepancy formula for SLD students has been taken out of IDEA. Thus, most students are labeled SLD. The old standard was the child had an average or above average IQ. On a Standard Score that is 85-112. That no longer applies, thus my daughter has had students with IQs well below average with little or no support. IEP’s are written, but almost impossible to follow because of the case loads of the Special Ed teachers.
If you want to learn why the public schools are failing, take some time and volunteer. I can assure you, it’s not the over worked and underpaid teachers. You will be able to observe firsthand, the crap teachers put up with on a daily bases. It would be great if parents would parent. As a child, the last thing I wanted was a teacher to call my parent. There were consequences.
I won’t begin to discuss, the difference in per pupil spending in different states
I've always wondered about the system of funding schools from the local, extremely local, tax base. Recipe for mirroring and perpetuating inequality, no? Maybe it's different now. I think in Los Angeles it's a giant tax pool, doled out based on need. But what I noticed was that the elementary school where I raised my kids, in Topanga, had an incredible "TPA" that managed to raise around $200,000 a year to pay for a full time science teacher, aids at least part time for Every classroom, enhanced PE and arts programs (supported by massive parent volunteer hours), etc. This was a small school in a community of about 10,000 people, which had to draw families from down the mountain to have enough students (and funding) to stay strong, and a little bit diverse.
How can this even come CLOSE to happening in less privileged places? Our TPA donated some of the funds to a sister school in such a neighborhood in LA, and paid for a day each year where they hosted a grade from that school, including paying for the bus(s). I am not at all rich, but I've always found a way to live in beautiful places, usually surrounded by wealth. But I actually felt bad about this, and also about how few non-white kids my own kids grew up with. But both my sons had respiratory problems from infancy on, and when my husband got a job in LA, we both said "we have to find a place in Topanga." It's the only place in the whole huge county with persistently clean air.
As long as there's no fire. sigh. Sorry. Rambling on. Time to go to sleep and think about today's Letter - about the samsara of Time.
Jenn, thank you for your commitment. I bet you taught your students a lot more than those things you mentioned. I bet they also learned that at least some adults care about them, that learning can be fun, and that we can choose to be good people no matter what others want us to be.
Take action to prevent the House and Senate from voting against our interests: Release the House Ethics Committee Gaetz Investigation Report.
Committee on Ethics
1015 Longworth House Office Building (LHOB), Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-7103 - Fax: 202-225-7392
Subject: Chop Wood, Carry Water 11/14 - by Jessica Craven release Gaetz ethics com. Report
Let’s take Rogan's List ’s suggestion and call Democratic members of the House Ethics Committee to urge them to ensure the public sees whatever damning information they have found about Matt Gaetz before any confirmation vote, whether by reading the report into the Congressional Record or leaking it to the press. We can reach them here:
Rep. Susan Wild (PA, Ranking Member) - 202-225-6411
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA) - 202-225-2095
Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX) - 202-225-4831
Rep. Glenn Ivey (MD) - 202-225-8699
Rep. Deborah Ross (NC) - 202-225-3032
A possible script:
I’m calling the Congressmember in his/her capacity as member of the House Ethics Committee. I want him/her to ensure that the public sees whatever damning information the committee has found about Matt Gaetz before any confirmation vote. Either read the report into the Congressional Record or leak it to the press. This is information Americans—and Senators preparing to vote—must have. Thanks.
Note that Susiie Wild was defeated for re-election. Having the report see the light of day, somehow, could be her parting shot. (For the historically-minded, I know that it should be a Parthian shot, but that doesn’t fit.).
Thank you lin. We need more action comments like yours. I noticed that our founders warned against rise of kings, nobles and priests - exqctly what we are facing in so called evangelical Christians.
Not to mention the libertarian tech bros, who would charge a monthly subscription fee for air, if they could just figure out a way to privatize the atmosphere.
Trump is the center ring circus. Reagan writ large and writ vulgar.
The real show is behind the scenes. Usually. Leonard Leo the plutocrats' useful man funneling money through a myriad of not for profits and LLCs to innumerable anti democratic initiatives. Over 40% of the funding for Project 2025 comes from Leo affiliated entities.
When Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed, movement conservatism with the religious right, Dime a Dozen newly minted conservative lawyer, Leo saw a lucrative niche as a court capture operative and piety influencer. Hypocritically, Leo and his fellow Catholics on the high court could advance because of the progress in civil rights protections and the liberalizing of American society - which they are bent on using the courts to overturn.
A striking example of "I've got mine", don't you think? Most won't remember, but the candidacy of JFK raised a HUUUUGE uproar among the illiberal illiterates over fear of a "catlik" in the WH, with allegiance to the Pope.
Thanks for your reply. Lately I'm thinking that maybe, the worst nominees trump select the better. They would do such a bad job that even the most ignorant of the mega crowd will feel the consequences of their vote and think twice next time...🫰
Please rethink the 'bring on the hurt and inspire better behavior' trope.
This 'punishment for your own good' notion is counterproductive. Often people respond to hurt by doing worse. As in electing fascists in response to defeat in WW1 and electing Republicans in response to losing jobs to NAFTA. Currently this specious notion is asserted by Jill Stein and other Trump enabling faux left wingers. Entirely ignoring the irreparable harm to our most vulnerable neighbors, threatened democracy, and fragile planet.
Trump won by a small majority. The devastation of the GOP agenda will be born by the majority of Americans who voted for Harris and others who were not eligible to vote.
Thank you for this concisely shared history of how our American public education system evolved post WWII - to both fight for and attempt to destroy integration - and showing the power that too many poorly educated people can have to remain separated from the “other”. Just one more reason why our justice battle deepens as history continues to repeat itself.
At our 40th High School reunion, we met our German exchange student who had become a teacher in Finland. I was fascinated by his description of the way all classes of people attended the same schools and grades were not inflicted on students in the early years (the standardized test comes after you graduate from high school and want to enter into higher education).
Michael Moore's deceptively named, "Where to Invade Next," covering education memorable to me in France, Finland, Italy, Iceland, etc was released the next year.
I'd suggest looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_to_Invade_Next to get a much better idea of how much useful background information is in the film with a regrettable title (in my view, not bringing attention to the better education systems).
You'll enjoy it. My favorite part is when Moore goes to one of the best restaurants in a small town in France. It is the cafeteria at the elementary school, where lunch is regarded as a class. The students have an hour to eat and are served on china with metal flatware. The lunch is three courses and the food is all scratch-made and locally sourced. There are pitchers of water on the table and the students are taught proper table manners. The best part is when Moore shows the French schoolkids photos of American school lunches. Their reactions are hysterical.
For decades I've said the 'evolution' of the Republican party is that Nixon was obliged to say 'I am not a crook'. Under Reagan the GOP stance was 'You're not a crook? More for me.' Of course, under Trump it's evolved to 'If you're not a crook then you're a loser.'
From my perspective, 5 minutes after the education acts were passed, we were targeted. We had school prayers, book bans, unionization (1st teacher strike in Pa) and represented the majority of school districts (except Philly and Pgh) in "desegregation"/busing cases. We were forced to close neighborhood schools and bus virtually every elementary student, sold part of a district to the Amish, who had 13 year old girls teach in one room schoolhouses, had to provide for parochial students under Lemon v Kurtzman, etc. We never granted amnesty to nontenured teachers and fired all of them. We had 5 seperate bargaining units in one district, including the Republican Teamsters. The first time I did collective bargaining, they sized me for concrete overshoes. Board members are not always ehical and we had numerous internal political problems.
As a result, I don't think there is any majic to local control. I am a big fan of IDEA, which is anethema to MAGAts. IEPs should be a right for ALL students.
Exactly. Because of lack of education - lack of civic knowledge - lack of knowing how government CAN work FOR them. And "He" would like to dumb down all states. So "he" can "take care of you". Because you don't know enough to take care of yourself.
Penny, Reagan's Secretary of Education hit the nail on the head. We are now a "Nation at Risk" more than ever. "The educational ( and All- my words) foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."
Talk about mediocrity! With all of Trump's cabinet nominees ( appointees) who are not EVEN mediocre, we are in for a "dumbing down" of everything we held in esteem, and the negation of every effort we have made to be the best we can all be.
My favorite quote now is "Who says crime doesn't pay." Think about how the children are seeing what "justice" means. It means nothing since Trump and his cronies-in-crime were elevated to the highest positions in the land.
I am desperately trying to find a silver lining. My eyes are tired from squinting so much.
how? fearmongering. ( A handful of people can be turned against each other by suggesting that "those two" will turn against you and take away what is yours if you don't follow the dear leader's prescriptions. Once the virus of distrust is planted, it takes over. )
I agree with you about our education system and the description of the elected oneS.
There are many excellent teachers working hard everyday under difficult conditions with little support. Without the respect for their work and without the basic supplies they need and without parental support....their job has become much more difficult.
There are students who go home to an empty house where one or both parents are working hard to just pay the bills. Some students are involved in sports and are not able to be home until even later. Some youth work after school to save for further education following High School. They have to find rides home afterwards.
Our priorities must be evaluated over and over again for the lifetime wellbeing of our children and youth who will hopefully be equipped to find good jobs with a salary that will support them and their families (Kamala spoke of this as she campaigned...was anyone listening?)
Regarding our recently elected persons in leadership positions....do they truly reflect America..."the land of the "free" and the home of the "brave"?????
I have children and grandchildren and they deserve better!!!! I am seriously looking to move to another country with them ... for the safety and freedom and opportunities my family deserves !!!
My daughter, who is a Pastor will not leave. She is committed to those whom she has chosen to care for. I have not spoken to my elder daughter or to her husband who have three wonderful young scholars . Bryan, her husband is the supervisor of a nature preserve.
There are also many other dear souls who do not have the ability to leave even if they wanted. It makes me so angry that a small group of criminals could take over the highest, most powerful offices of our nation.
We, the people...and I HOPE this means the majority, must find a way to stop this insanity!!!!
The 'silver lining' is having the Republican agenda and 'accomplishments' out in the open. And all the push back against it. Trump won by a small majority. The silver lining is the opportunity to be part of and expand the large opposition.
I am right there with you. Should I get called for jury duty again, this time I will raise my hand and my response to be excused will be “Your Honor, until you clean up this corrupt judiciary system, I’m not going to engage in this process”. I’m sure once I say that, any defense attorney will be “no thanks” 😉
I think the silver lining will appear soon, as we are a nation of both dependents and consumers. The dependents need all of the entitlements that the Democrats put in place when they acted like Democrats, such as Social Security and Medicare, and the consumers want cheap everything, from food to electronics. If Trump deports the illegals who pick the crops and work the meat and poultry plants, the price of groceries will go through the roof, and if he puts his touted tariffs in place, so will the price of everything else.
Once that happens, the mob that so recently put Trump back in office will remember why they voted for Biden in 2020. Not because they saw the light, but because they felt the heat.
This has resulted in people in the House not understanding that they have no vote in the Senate's confirmation process. Or Senators not knowing the 3 equal parts of the Federal Government. Or... 🤦🏽🤦🏼♀️🤦🏻♂️
"Let us not forget that tRump loves the uneducated, for who else would vote for him."
It is a very long list of graduates of the very best schools. Think about it.
The GOP coalition cuts across every demographic. The common thread is not lack of educational credentials. The common thread is what Hannah Arendt termed the 'banality of evil' - a blinkered self interest which gives no thought to the individual and communal (and we now can add planetary) devastation people do by 'just doing their job.'
It is a long list of graduates from the very best schools, but only because they know they can manipulate the poorly educated, as well, to get what they want. They are still too few to be the majority, but enough to be the minions who knowingly spread misinformation.
People who don't follow ANY news voted for Trump by +19 points. (Source either. Simon Rosenburg's or Robert Hubbel"s Substack.) People who follow a lot of news swung towards Harris, but only by +6 points.
Michigan is home to Betsy DeVos and her incessant work to wrest the locus of civic power away from secularly educated citizens and seat it firmly with white-christian-determined, entitlement values. She is of the Planter-Class mindset. All for me, none for thee.
Yes, how can we forget the Palestinian Diaspora curling team that swept the ice in front of Trump because easing the path to the presidency for the person whose leg Bibi most wants to hump in all the world would really show those Zionists in the Biden administration?
She also has a home in TN, the better to “help” TN’s governor rabid to shove vouchers down our throats. It was defeated last session; he’s now reintroduced vouchers after working against those legislators who opposed them in the 2024 election.
Michigan is also home to Hillsdale College. Per Wiki: In 2021, Hillsdale K–12 released a Civics "1776 Curriculum."[37] In 2022, Hillsdale had schools following its K–12 liberal arts curriculum across 19 states and Barney Charter Schools in 9 states.
There is a strain of grievance in this country toward education—and teachers in particular—among people who could benefit from better education. When I was younger I saw it in my parents and attributed it to their having grown up during the Depression, when teachers were relatively secure on the public payroll while others were struggling. But more likely that grudge was always there and probably exacerbated by the Depression. In a country where all men are created equal, disparities in education and wealth strain the premise. But since we value wealth above education, resentment toward wealth tends to slide downhill toward education.
Carol, you are right about the states with the poorest-paid teachers are the biggest Trump supporters. If one does not learn to think critically or even to listen to what they are up against, they will support the "reality TV" guy who offered nothing positive the first time around, so will give him a second chance to wreck our democracy. Nice going red states and the reds in the swing states, the counties and districts that care least for positive honest education, who care least about their children and the world they are leaving to those children.
But education is also on the parents, not just the schools. My own parents instilled in me a love of reading and passed many an hour reading to and with me as a child until by around the age of 6 or 7 I struck out on my own. The problem is there is a societal dynamic now, in which the social context to be accepted demands the consumption of media. If your child does not have the latest device or is not up with the latest pop-cultural fad they will be outcast. I appreciate that it has been thus for decades now, since the advent of mass pop culture. But it is now by degrees worse. Growing up in the 60s and 70s I was bullied and mocked for not knowing who certain athletes and pop-stars were. I was able to summon the courage to simply live with being isolated and somehow survived it. But in today's atmosphere, I can only imagine how tough it is to limit social media without creating a major social trauma for one's child. As an added note, having been involved in education my entire life, you are right about teachers' salaries, but the worst place for that is the university system, where coaches and presidents and administrators are paid excessive salaries, and adjuncts less than minimum wage (if you calculate their time hourly) with no benefits.
The Catholic School Graduates, no, I'm not Catholic, that I have encountered, have have always seemed to have solid Academic Foundations... These Schools also spend less per Student... If these things are true, maybe we should find out why...
I've wondered about this, also. Many years ago, I asked a professor why this was the case. One reason he mentioned was that Catholic schools can choose their students. They did not, at least at that time, allow students with disabilities and/or behavioral problems. I went to a Catholic elementary school (K-8th) and that was the case. We had no students with disabilities and if someone had behavioral problems that often disrupted the class, they would be expelled. This happened to one student who was in my class. He was sent to "military school."
Chump is uneducated, why he likes the “uneducated.” And why they like him. People used to say that the educated look down on the uneducated. Well, not anymore. Now the educated are disparaged by the most haughty ignorance.
Orange Jesus needs the "uneducated" in order to maintain his Orange Hitler dream. Retarded inbred underage sex offenders, trailer park, beer drinking Fox News addicts with pick up trucks and Trump flags keep that Orange base rock solid.
Exactly. AND they do not have to hire credentialed teachers. I taught in the Catholic schools because I needed a job. One year I had 47 students, the next year 55 sixth graders. I was not credentialed at the time. I went on to get my masters and became a PUBLIC school administrator. (I'm not Catholic)
Our children were given a choice and chose Catholic schools for grades 1-12 (with one year where one couldn't get in due to no openings). We gladly paid the tuition for our children (and helped others when a parent died, for example, with anonymous donations they were told was part of an insurance plan).
We never asked for, or wanted the taxpayers to pay for our choices, but always willingly paid taxes to support public schools.
In the spirit of my great grandmother (born during Grant's administration), and all the other previous generations of our family, my answer to childless people that don't want to pay for other people's children is that, if you received an education, you owe an education.
That was the least they owed, the other reasons are the benefits you receive from a universally educated and healthy society.
Where did you get the idea from the post and comments that "childless people don't want to pay for other people's children''? That is not my experience in California, PA or New England. The "childless people" I know all believe in the societal value of a good public education and believe it has to be paid for in taxes. The ones whining about public education are themselves the recipients of a poor one.
I agree, education is an essential part of social infrastructure, a way to partially level educational opportunity, which is the foundation for society and its institutions of every stripe, in short "the foundation of the world".
As a "childless cat lady" I have always voted for public school measures (being the child of a teacher and a self-taught historian/Army trained meteorologist I knew the value of education) and was taught to love reading by both parents. Any child that has knocked on my door selling things for school is guaranteed a purchase from me.
I'm a childfree 63-year-old woman and a lifelong progressive. My black husband and I always vote to support education in all ways.
My dad passed away when I was three. My mom raised four kids on her own after that. She sacrificed and sent us to Catholic schools (I grew up Catholic). She and my dad were firm believers in education. They read to us, both of them read voraciously, and encouraged our reading.
I was fortunate to receive an excellent, college-prep education. I obtained a full-ride engineering scholarship and was a metallurgical engineer at 21. I had a wonderful career. It was all due to my education and my wonderful parents.
Not for long, vouchers are the thing. Starve the public schools. Pretty soon, everything that Benjamin Franklin began for the betterment of his new country will be for the coffers of the rich. Is there a reason why the junk bond crook, Michael Milken, after prison, went into educational innovation??? Pardoned by chump, he is back on the prowl, greedy as ever.
Soon Texas will have the voucher program Governor Abbott bought with his newly installed legislators. They will not help poor students but add to already enrolled students' tuition subsidy.
Like any other private school, Catholic schools can expel disruptive students. The goal was to teach, not to babysit or be correction officers. I went to Catholic school grades 1-9 then, (because my parents could no longer afford the tuition) went to public school grades 10-12. I immediately noticed a big difference in the quality of education. The teachers were good, but the 'discipline' of the private school wasn't there.
The policy on accepting students with disabilities was the same for all schools (private and public) at that time. Disabled children went to separate schools.
Moving often in the military meant I went to high school without knowing the previous histories of my classmates. I was impressed by how socially responsible and accomplished they were in later life (from our 40th reunion, the first time I saw many of them in 40 years since I went into the military and kept on moving).
When I asked what made them seem so special to me, I learned they had a disabled student in their classes all through the lower grades. I think they all learned so much more from that experience. It may not always be possible, but I do think it can be at least a bit better than shunting all of them off to just special classes where they only see other disabled children (unless those classes are exceptionally well run).
That said, I'm often surprised to find that interesting people I have met that seem capable of much more seemingly rewarding jobs at first glance, find their rewards in lifelong dedicated care of disabled family members or friends.
"The policy on accepting students with disabilities was the same for all schools (private and public) at that time. Disabled children went to separate schools."
So are you saying that the Catholic diocese provided schools for children with disabilities?
I wonder why the law sides with “students” who “often disrupt the class.” Blindly insisting that they remain (and inevitably continue disrupting) is what stirs antiwoke anger. Has anyone proposed a better way to handle this?
(I graduated in 1970; back then the disrupters got paddled. Not saying that was best. My rural school was poor and I self educated to a large degree. I don’t recall the classes finishing any textbook in the school year. Sometimes not even half. Algebra II was dropped before I got to that grade level.)
This isn't always true. I was raised in Catholic Schools and have worked in a Catholic school for 19 years. My Grade School and High School took everyone. I do not know of a single Catholic Grade School that only takes certain students in my town.
The Catholic High School where I work is the largest private school in the State. Why? Because we welcome EVERYONE. We welcome all religions, learning ability, students from a wide range of economic and societal backgrounds. We have a robust program of financial aid administered out of house. Our academic programs are fitted from traditional students to AP students. All ranges of student receive millions in college scholarships.
This is the same blueprint of the other Catholic High Schools in my town.
I personally know young people who would not have had their particular learning needs addressed in a public education system. The public schools admit they can't address all tyles of learners. Catholic Schools in partnership with the Public Schools can provide education for everyone.
The most important thing is the education and care for our children in the United States.
So are you saying that the schools within the diocese had schools for special education students and/or disruptive behavioral problems? Did they have schools for children with physical disabilities? If so, I'm guessing that they either receive funding from the federal government or charge higher tuition to the family with a disabled child or the tuition is higher for all students.
You are wanting a one size fits all answer. How would I know all the ins and outs of funding? It is a really complex matter.
Here is my bottom line so clearly stated before.
The most important thing is the education and care for our children in the United States.
Let's work for solutions, get out of the us/them corners, release any experiences good or bad we had as children be the adults in the room and simply take care of the children.
This is it exactly, and this says it all. A voucher system should require that schools that take vouchers accept any student, just as public schools do.
I"m not sure I'd lay this one on the inclusion of disabled kids in schools, though i know from a friend whose career was build around support services, this has been a challenge the entire time.
I had a girl with osteoporosis imperfecta in my class. She was in a wheelchair. My school was built in the early 1900s so no ADA accommodations. We bumped her chair up and down steps and included her in our activities.
Bad behavior was probably a bigger issue but to a degree it was tolerated in very narrow bounds. But there really were not many. Once Sister gave you The Look you settled down. And remember, parents expected lots more then too.
Product of Catholic schools 52 1st grade kids 1 nun, if you didn’t learn to read you were held back. I did fine my siblings struggled. Corporal punishment was employed often. I am certain the nuns were not qualified teachers.
My children went to public schools - loved it and flourished.
I strongly oppose vouchers. Strong accredited public schools are the backbone of our country.
As it stands today Public Schools cannot meet the needs of every kind of student. Public Schools have become zip code funded, subjected to politicized School Boards whose members are not educators and ravaged by the exodus of educated professionals who are treated like dirt as they try and teach.
I sense a lot of fear of the "other" kind of schools. There is a private school system in 2 States that are designed to meet the needs of profoundly visually impaired preschoolers. In previous times these kids would have been hidden in homes or tucked away in institutions. The sad thing is so many kids are not getting what they need because of tuition.
Remember that the Schools for the Blind scattered all across the Country were among the first "other" schools designed to meet the needs of a specific population.
Why is there such a resistance to more than one type of school system? While the adults are dickering around with this issue children are actually suffering.
Choose their students, public schools take what comes in the door. And I have seen some who were “home schooled” and then brought to public school. It ain’t pretty, mostly. There are exceptions but rarely.
I also saw " home schooled" turn to public schools as "focus of concern" for inclusion in special education. What education needs is some real problem solvers not the so called "quick fix" what ever is popular solutions . People who teach are NOT in it for the $$$$$$ & shame on the orange fascist & others who blame & shame teachers.
I had to deal with plenty of parents who used the special education law as a cudgel. Now it looks like they want to dictate to private schools and have tax money pay. That had already started before I retired.
I don’t have data or analysis. I just had to deal with students who had no remote clue, and one who didn’t know how to sit in a desk. If anyone has analyzed the data, feel free to chime in. BTW, one very bright student wanted to be put on homebound (like seriously ill students were) because her dad said he was a Renaissance man and she needed to be home. Believe me, public schools take what comes in the door, and deals with them, and their parents. Private schools charge a mint to deal with them. Soon taxpayers will.
Thanks for this. I've some passing acquaintance with educators (and teachers) who do the daily struggles. Their ability to carry on is epic.
And I used to follow the threads of the classic American Grift as applied to education (DeVos being a bog-standard example). I gave up long ago flogging that peril to anyone who would listen (because, as with my anti-fascism rants, no one, not even the people who were really smart and tuned in and resourceful and dedicated to the struggle at large) seemed to care.
Ready to learn skills use to be taught in Kindergarten . Now head start & early childhood education are teaching the ready to learn skills which are more focused on adult directed activities rather than child directed-- like how to sit next to someone, how to stand in line, how to follow directions, share, etc. Kindergarten has been termed "boot camp". Until about the 4th grade , development skills can vary widely. Without acknowledging that, many kids who are not developmentally ready for certain skills become discouraged learners in kindergarten. Also learning skill varies & big box schools teach to language skills & if you are more of a visual learner , hope for a teacher that can adapt to your needs. Teaching is not for those who want an "easy job" with summers off.
I briefly experimented with homeschooling and found it nigh impossible to find secular homeschooling materials. They all seemed to really emphasize Christian overtones, even to the point of anti-evolution and Flat Earth nonsense. Ultimately I put my kids in public school, and was an active room mom supporter for their teachers while insisting on keeping up with a "project" of their choice every summer. We played educational games at home. When they had lackluster teachers, they were still held accountable for learning the material; as a result, both learned how to self teach and learn from other sources, something they still do now in their thriving 20s.
There is a ton of data in Wisconsin. You can look it up. Ever since ACT 10 when the then governor pitted the parents against the teachers. You can find a wealth of information about vouchers and how they are paid for etc.
My mom sent me to a Catholic Boarding school when I was in my teens because I had become somewhat of a feral child after my parents separated. While I'm not religious in the least, I'll say one thing for the Presentation Brothers, they scared me into the best grades of my school career; straight A student for two years. The only time I came even close was in university where paying your own way instills its own brand of discipline.
Do Catholic schools have any problems with parents who think & act as if their child is "entitled" ? In public schools one encounters parents who do not have their child's education or education as an important value and/ or are not engaged in their learning. Also if you discipline their child, they take issue or become litigious. Starving public education will increase problems & costs in others parts of society. The % of inmates in prison that can not or have low reading abilities . Guess that is good for the profit prisons.
I so agree! We have a whole generation of parents who have coddled and helicoptered their kids in all aspects. They raise kids who are unable to function or adult when they go off to university or out on their own.
Carole, Yes of course they have those parents. They are the ones with money who think they—and their child—is entitled. But usually they are also members of the parish that runs the school so they might not want to be too obnoxious. If a parish school they will eventually go up against the pastor who may or may not cater to them.
When I was a freshman in high school the Catholic schools invited one public school math team to participate in their annual math competition. Our math team coach told us they wanted to see how their math program compared to the local public school math program.
At the time the Catholic school system had about a dozen schools that sent a team to the completion. We were asked sometime during the week before the competition if we could participate in the competition on Saturday. So basically, our team went into the competition with zero preparation.
Our team took home EVERY 1st place trophy and a couple of the 2nd place trophies where more than one of teams participated in an event.
As far as scientific studies go, this competition meant very little, but it doesn't give one confidence that the Catholic school system at the time was academically adept.
My high school had a math team called "Knights of the Log Table". Solid group of 10-12 kids, both genders. For one competition, there was some other school event (for once, not the debate team; or marching band I can't remember what it was) and they needed one more person to go. My trombone playing buddy drafted me.
I am spatially dyslexic (undiagnosed, but it sure explains a lot of my difficulties in comprehension of numbers and formulae) and I advised that I would be next to no help. His reply "as long as we can compete, you're good with whatever you can do." The final problem of the day was a complex problem that included a very basic algebraic formula imbedded in the middle of it. All the Knights (including about 1/3 girls, I must add) were struggling with it. I looked at it and (since I had two years to understand the concepts of basic Algebra) was able to solve that one part of one problem. Helped us win the competition.
@ Apache. When I was a school lawyer, Catholic schools were inferior, used uncredentialed teachers and their scores were low. Most are no longer in operation.
In some archdioceses, massive judgments for child, sexual abuse
That is unfortunate... The Catholic Church does have issues with Abuse... So do Public Schools... I was is talking about Student Outcomes for some of the Catholic School Graduates I know... One Woman that I know, went on to Graduate Summa Magni Laude from Berkeley, and another a Phd from another Top-Ranked School... Other People that I know, have observed how easy Public Schools were when they transferred to them... Like all things, it varies on the Parish, and the Public School... Each Person is different... The Important Thing is that K-12 Education is failing, and now we have DJT 2.0 ...
Their teachers most likely are not unionized, so teachers benefits and perks are different. In addition, these schools do not enroll children with disabilities. I will add that quality of public education is also linked to who gets a seat at local school boards, from academics to costs. Take, as an example, contractual terms and expectations around teachers sabbatical programs between 2 public schools and between one public and one private school. It can be revealing. I 100% support public schools but we can’t ignore the various shades of quality amongst them and that there is so much that money alone can do.
It’s not true to say categorically Catholic schools don’t enroll students with disabilities. It depends on the nature and severity of the disability and whether they can offer a good education to that student.
Our children's teachers often took lower pay rather than try to teach in under funded public schools with too many discipline problems thrown in. We still carefully (with our children's input) chose which Catholic schools to attend.
One of their favorite math teachers was actually Jewish and an inspiration that led to a Phi Betta Kappa PhD. Both the teachers and many of their students like our children are great human beings, and inspirational to us parents.
My favorite decal on our offspring's computer says "Is he rich, or does he just have money."
Absolutely not true in my town. The Catholic School system where I work is competitive in salary, benefits and is doing a better job of educating students. They accept all students.
I administered the benefit plans for my diocese (been retired 10 years). Our health insurance was to the public schools what a Mercedes is to a Hyundai, and it was mostly paid by the employer. I did a “total compensation” statement for every teacher in the system. Though their pay was somewhat lower, they had benefits greater than the public school teachers, who paid more for theirs.
Well, one big reason is they didn’t have to pay teachers, usually sisters—they paid the orders something. Catholic schools were a response to anti-immigration and -Catholic sentiment especially prevalent in the early 20th century. I’m a product of Catholic elementary school; we were expected to behave, Mass every day at that time; classes were rigorous (diagramming sentences comes to mind); expectations were high; and parents supported the discipline and rigor. I am blessed.
As a military brat, I attended lots of different schools over the course of my earlier education years - DoD, public, and Catholic. Catholic was by far the most rigorous! I remember diagramming sentences 😊! Reading and learning to write (not the mechanics of penmanship, although penmanship was a subject time was devoted to) but learning to structure sentences and paragraphs, organization, grammar, logical thought, etc. My love of reading and writing were inspired early on and remain with me 60 years later. I am thankful.
As to mainstreaming the disabled into public schools…I have mixed feelings about it for a couple of different reasons. First, I like that able bodied students are afforded the opportunity to get to know students who are “different” and may gain insight into empathy and appreciation for every individual’s contribution and humanity. On the other hand, public schools are not always equipped with the resources to best serve special needs students. The support staff used in the classroom are often not trained or credentialed.
"First, I like that able bodied students are afforded the opportunity to get to know students who are “different” and may gain insight into empathy and appreciation for every individual’s contribution and humanity. " Thanks for this. WE have not heard enough like it.
My parents always stressed that everyone in the community has a societal responsibility to educate its children and I totally agree. People, as in family and friends, have called me a “socialist” because of it. HORRORS! The trick is to find an equitable way of funding public schools. In Pennsylvania, it’s with property taxes so if you live in the right zip code, the school system is great! But the inner city and rural schools struggle and have to do without many of the necessary resources and tools that modern schools need to provide a competitive education. I don’t have the answer but I certainly hope the people we elect do and I plan to keep them accountable!
Good idea, Apache. I recall that those kind of studies were done about 20-30 yr ago. I am both a graduate of Catholic schools and a former math & science teacher in both Catholic and public schools, as well as a long-time educational reformer. I can't remember the exact conclusions so I won't throw out ideas. But I remember being impressed and not surprised by the findings.
Maybe, because the kids in Catholic School were scared $hitless of the nuns and paid attention. I grew up in a small rural/bedroom district community. For some reasons i don't recall why other than my mother said the President of the local school board was Catholic. Us Public school kids heard stories about the nuns on the bus back and forth to school. We were scared of the nuns. That said Catholic schools spent less per student maybe, because they don't have to fund special education programs or other programs.
When I was in second grade my family moved from Alaska —where I went to catholic school—to Seattle, where I had to go to public school because the local catholic school was full. But the public school curriculum was 2 years behind what we were doing in the catholic school. When I showed the public school teacher what I was reading—when I should have been paying attention in class—she informed me that I didn’t know how to read that yet and took my book away.
The Catholic religion is all about money and hiding perverted priests. I became a bastard when the Bishops granted my father (also a pervert) an annulment from my mother, so he could marry again in the Catholic Church. Its bullshit
Enjoyed your story,Steve. My mother also read to us kids regularly, i couldn't wait to be able to read myself, even pretending to read though i didnt have the remotest, my kids followed in that wake. But then, through to now, only a minority of people enjoy reading per se. Social media actually provide a mix of engagements, both visual, but lots of readable. In fact ebooks are a mainstay for me as well. I also keep in touch with friends and relatives. We may not like the rise of extremism via the internet, but all kinds of boats have risen thus. Including Heather Richardson.
Before I could actually read, I would (according to family memory) memorize the little books read to me by my brothers, then proudly recite them to prove "I can read!" often holding them upside down thus exposing my trick. I wanted to be like everyone else in my family of readers.
Frank, we lived about 5 blocks from the Public Library. I would ride my bike up there about 2-3 times a week, checking out my allotted 5 books at a time. I'd read them and bring them back. Their summer reading program always included a free ticket to our local minor league baseball team. They limited me to 3 tickets; each ticket was earned by reading 10 books.
I grew up in the library, and at the YMCA, which was slightly closer to my house.
The game afoot is making the selfishness of the white-christian, Planter-Class mentality again the norm and driver of all policy. They loved education when the dollars were entitled to them and theirs. The moment it ventured to be shared for the strengthening of the entire nation, they revealed their true Un-Americanism. They are always, always, always, Slave-owning-mentality people. They do not want to share. They do not see the benefit of a level playing field. In fact they know the level playing field will just reveal their ineptitude. That has to be hidden at all costs.
Technology is a gift and a curse at the same time. I am seeing cell phones used for "baby sitting" and toddlers that now how to operate them better and faster than I do
You are right, Steve. It is on the parents. However, so many have turned parental responsibilities over to the schools. Sometimes, it is from necessity because parents are working 2 jobs to make ends meet or a single parent trying to hold the family unit together. I attended public school. All of my children attended Lutheran elementary and public high school. We live in a very small town. They received a good foundation and so did I. And, I do think it was the home atmosphere that was responsible for our education as much as the schools. Unfortunately, parenting is one occupation that requires no training or qualifications. There is some education available to teach parenting skills, but it is very limited. Perhaps our nation needs to concentrate on support systems for the parents as well as the children?
We also have standardized testing which is anathema to many teachers. It teaches test taking, not critical thinking nor does it speak to an individual student's strengths and weaknesses. The wing nuts have tried to take over school board to push their brand of Christianity and ignore any students who are not just like them. This is why people must pay attention and vote in local elections. Right not Salem's board is more progressive, but it has and has had some real putzes on the board. Board members in St. Helen's probably wish they weren't board members...big scandal over a couple teachers caught in sexually inappropriate behavior.
Public schools, like any place where adults gather, have as much sexual drama as any other place. I could write a book. Thanks for the reminder. BTW, being a board member for a religiously supported non-profit, was a shock to this ex-civil servant. Three-ring circus.
I really like the cut of your jib JD…actually, I have no idea what that means but I’ve traced the thread of your comments and find myself agreeing with you on everything you point out. Nice. And yeah I’m pretty sure that a jib is sail. John Taylor Gatto wrote “Dumbing Us Down” in the’80s, check it out. And 70 years ago, I was that kid who couldn’t sit still in that chair.
I know that the "jib" is a sail on a boat. I looked it up, because I have always heard it as a compliment, and assumed that the reference was that someone was "shipshape", meaning all together. What I learned was this:
"The phrase originated in the mid-18th century with sailing navies. Before the national flag was visible, the shape of a warship's jib could indicate its nationality. For example, French jibs were shorter on the luff than English jibs. The phrase originally meant that a person was recognized by the shape of their nose."
Now, I have no clue what shape JD's nose is. I do know that they often both post astute commentary and do not suffer fools gladly.
Here's another one you can look up...Hoisted on my/your own petard. I've used it now and again so I looked it up. I thought it was another sailing ship reference. Nope. It is Shakespeare and it is a "small bomb" which includes a fart. There was a sailing ship named the HMS Petard. No joke. Hoist on my own petard happens to me almost every day. Or perhaps the hebrews have a better way of describing my conundrums (another word). They say "Man Plans and God Laughs". The military calls it Fubar. Another one: "Don't piss into the wind or uphill.
Probs were not kids not sitting still, more like lying on floor and crawling around. Squirming in chair sort of normal. I still do it and was called out by another board member at that circus. Yep, we’ve been down that same road. So many kids are carrying heavy baggage of others as they try to cope with the basics of academics. Sometimes I wonder what the “Lincolns” did to focus. Maybe their distractions and burdens were not so existential. Maybe just the next meal. Big mystery.
Sooooo much drama! It was insane, worse than the most pandering of telenovellas.
We (the students) had a betting pool in my rural school about which teachers would hook up by the end of the year. In my four years there, I watch *minimum* four marriages get destroyed by affairs within the school. Others I'm sure managed to cover up their infidelity or somehow work it out with their spouse. Our superintendent was fired over it, but other teachers got *maybe* a slap on the wrist.
Also had a male teacher who would sit all the girls up front and shunt all the boys to the back. He liked to loom. All the upperclassmen warned us to wear high collar shirts, crew necks at least. Baggy sweatshirts were stored in lockers for this class *specifically* and still the school didn't do anything about it. He's still teaching there, far as I know. He'd also refuse to teach anything that went against his religious beliefs, so in our *science class* we never learned *anything* more than surface level about evolution theory.
Wow, sadly, such is not rare. I stayed away from the Geometry teacher because he pawed the teen girls. Hurt me later, but Lordy, leech’s all over. Parental oversight is good, but too many think they are helicopters, censors, or experts on everything. I called one parent I knew a “professional mother.” It was not a compliment. I also spent one weekend with the school psychologist talking with a science teacher who was breaking up with a history teacher and was suicidal. Both married to others. Lordy, brings back memories.
What are you saying here with the reference to his looming and certain kinds of shirts? Was the guy trying to look down the girls shirts for a glimpse at a boob?
The problem was not that they were there, but that the school administration did not act immediately and put them on paid leave immediately. The one guy had to be long retired, so his story was not clear to me. The other was and is pleading not guilty. Now the super and principal are on paid leave and I think the school board chair resigned. I could write a book too because of what I witnessed where I worked.
Yep, gist for some best sellers. I went to work at high school where two teachers shacked up in the Life Skills apt that was there to teach the handicapped. The kids were not the only challenges.
This 'Dumbing Down' of the Electorate is what has given us DJT 2.0... I've been told that many Teachers have to Work more than 1-Job to make Ends meet... Same as many 1st Responders... The Tragedy of this is that the Attainment of U.S. Kids comes in last in Reading, Math, & Science among 1st-World Nations: "Ironically, despite the United States having the best-surveyed education system on the globe, U.S students consistently score lower in math and science than students from many other countries. According to a Business Insider report in 2018, the U.S. ranked 38th in math scores and 24th in science." Indeed, some Improvements can be made...
We have produce world class science in the US but we don't seem to impart much appreciation of the scientific method to those who do not aim to be science professionals. I think most people are left with the impression that science is a very specialized class of technical information, but the engine of science is a trained way of thinking, and just like playing baseball, you don't have to be a pro to participate. Learning how to derive reliable information from evidence and logic is useful in any walk of life.
And, yeah, my son-in-law is currently working as first responder, and the pay is low considering the hours, expertise, and risk. Were you shipwrecked on a desert island, would you rather discover you were joined by a shipmate who had been a first responder or a hedge fund manager?
What People don't realize is that the U.S. has over 1-Million Foreign Students conducting much basic Research... If DJT throws them out... Guess What?... Even now many are forced to leave when they complete their Studies...
One thing that I love about Kamala Harris is that her mother came here from India to pursue her goals as a scientist and she did not go quietly when a white man was given a position promised to her.
Canada benefits from a lot of brilliant from from the rest of the world that we benefit from while they are in our universities, but then are denied post graduate opportunities here. If we're lucky, they only go to Canada or other countries friendly to us. If we aren't lucky, we get repeats of counter-productive expulsions like that which ended up with Qian Xuesen, "...the father of China's missile and space programme..." being deported.
Yet, the first responders, nurses, and fire fighters I have known are MAGAts. They adore a man who is a crook, incompetent, and lewd. Hard workers admiring a lazy lout. Keep that pecking order going, just find somebody (or group) and peck them into submission.
Inexplicable...shouldn't they be the very people who would despise a lazy, lewd, incompetent, compulsive liar??? He isn't a person they would want on the same team as they had to work on, I'm sure. There are so many levels of "I just don't get it" going on in my head here.
JD, it boggles my mind. Far too many cops/firefighters/paramedics are MAGAts. I think that, at least in Copland, so many have authoritarian personality traits. Same holds true for the military, I suspect.
You brought a chuckle. I remember one ninth grader who loved to trip kids on the stairs. His goal was to be a cop. I hoped that he was an exception. I hate to paint with a wide brush but one school had many military retirees and their kids. The kids were often rebellious and wouldn’t conform for what looked like opposition to daddy. The more pressure the worse they did. Drove military parents crazy. They would ground for a whole semester, rather than an appropriate time. The kids saw no hope and gave up. Big stick, no clue. I learned that affluent parents had as many foibles as poor ones. Learned a lot of “what not to do.”
I think that Professor Richardson eloquently discussed the problems with the plans outlined in Project 2025 for the Department of education and education itself. As a former teacher, who has taught in public and private schools in the US and an international schools, I would not decry the teachers just yet. Most that I know are doing a yeoman's job of educating their students under increasingly difficult circumstances especially since covid when the right wing parents got to look into the classroom.
Another part of the P2025 plan is that after dismantling the Dept. of Education they would put Regular education stat gathering and services under the Dept. of Labor and then Special Education services under Health and Human Services, but then get rid of HHS and turn it into the Dept. of Life. So, who knows what that is going to look like? I can see it being that children who are already the most vulnerable, will be brainwashed about anti-abortion policies and their responsibility to procreate. By putting regular education under the Dept. of Labor at the same time that they discourage people from going to university, and encourage child labor is I suppose, to make up for the labor lost by deporting or putting into concentration camps millions of undocumented and other "immigrants."
Instead of educating children to be better future citizens, there will be mass incarceration of the ones whose background or physical appearance does not appeal to the incoming leadership and their loyal minority following.
Andrea Pitzer is an expert on concentration camps and has studied various 20th century authoritarian regimes. This is from Andra Watkins Substack How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life. https://substack.com/home/post/p-151702504
So you do have to think what can you do to protect your grandson's future. There are other countries with good education systems, if ours is destroyed, which will not happen overnight. As I understand it, they want to have things firmly in place in these 2 years before the mid-term elections in 2026. It will be important to have organizing capabilities so that one can get information out there and get information that is not co-opted, so I have been recommending that our Democratic governors who are gathering together, start their own Social media platform. It should be located outside of the US so that Musk cannot have it shut down as it competes with his big disinformation machine X. We should all support such an endeavor. Perhaps then Substack can split and its democratic accounts go to this platform while others go to another.
Young women are particularly in danger. They will particularly need protection. Your grandson's are going to need to make up for any shortcomings in their education by learning from you and your children. That is what parents always do to make up gaps. And, you will be getting active in their local schools, running for school board on sane policies, and staving off right wing policies and actions as best you can, as well as finding ways around them.
"Instead of educating children to be better future citizens, there will be mass incarceration of the ones whose background or physical appearance does not appeal to the incoming leadership and their loyal minority following. Andrea Pitzer is an expert on concentration camps and has studied various 20th century authoritarian regimes."
Years ago, we met Kiku Hughes aunt. Kiku's graphic novel "Displacement," brought tears to my eyes thinking of what her innocent mother, aunt, and grandparents went through by spending years in the Japanese American displacement camps during WWII. The treatment was not as torturous and deadly as the concentration/extermination camps Andrea Pritzer describes in "This is How We Survive This Mess," but are a darker chapter in our history than any I would ever want repeated.
[Edited to correct error pointed out by Linda Weide]
Migrants innately know of the horrors of these “detainment” camps. A neighbor who is Mexican told me that undocumented immigrants in Florida are already returning to their countries and shortages of garlic, onions and potatoes are beginning to be felt. We’re in trouble….
Ruth, Regrettably, while I imagine there are exceptions, I’m hard-pressed to think of a district where the quality of education, replete with differential salaries, isn’t inextricably linked to zip code, by design. I also understand, over time, the level of inequity has stayed the same or has gotten worse. This is not just a matter of demonizing disproportionality, but an issue, woefully unacknowledged, of democratic survival.
At one time "wealth" was considered a suspect criterion under the 14th Amenment, so some states tried to compensate poorer districts. Eventually it was struck down.
When I represened districts in Pa, state reimbursement was made on a reciprical of school tax revenue. Districts had independent taxing power.
In some places, taxpayers vote against good schools.
Daniel, You’re right about blocs of taxpayers voting against tax increases to fund education. Given the myriad of reasons, nothing will change without open discussion and dialogue covering benefits and pitfalls of raising taxes.
Stuff like Chapter I (Title I) funding for disabvantaged kids, IDEA, etc. But what I mean is direct state paynments to equalize costs for salaries, facilities and equipment.
As a result of "rustification" and the demise of the manufacturing sector, we lost more than half of our ad valorum tax base at the same time we were targeted for litigation for school strikes, busing, school closures.....
We went fro being "wealthy" to "impoverished" in a couple of years. We had a great assistant superintendant in one district who was able to get foundation grants to supplement Chaper 1 -- part of a "schools without falure" program.
This country is currently suffering under the tyranny of a minority. When it comes to public education, it’s worth remembering that the American public education system was once the envy of the Western world, admired and emulated by many. A strong public education system not only fostered individual opportunity but also provided businesses with skilled, capable employees essential for their success.
You have every reason to despair for the children of your children. trump is sloshing around the idea of installing Tiffany "Justice," the co-founder of Moms for Liberty as Secretary of Education....
Teachers for decades and decades have been the villains and victims of a substandard education system. Children aren’t keeping up, blame the teachers. Children are failing, blame the teachers. Children are falling behind in standardized tests, blame the teachers. Taxes are too high, blame the school system. This is true regardless of which party is in control at the state or federal level.
Former Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, instituted a tax cap of 2% on increases to real estate taxes for schools. After allowing for all other expenses, there was little to no money for increases for teacher’s salaries.
What happened to parent/teacher conferences and meet the teacher nights? What about summer school because a child failed a grade or course? I’m long out of the public school system, do any of these still exist?
While individuals are crying about the lack of religion in schools these days, I was in second grade in 1962/3. I clearly remember every Wednesday afternoon at 2:00, Catholic children were released for Religious Instruction. So in essence, my school day ended an hour early on Wednesdays. The school system didn’t want anything new taught after students were dismissed for Religious Instruction.
I’ll leave everyone with this. Segregation was not a Southern state’s issue, it was in the North as well. If anyone is interested, look up US vs City of Yonkers, NY and the Yonkers Public School System.
Ruth: I agree with you completely. It is tragic. I fear not for my self or my son . I fear about my two young granddaughters and their possible progeny. I actually hope they do not choose to have children. ( I would never voice it to them.)
Yes, teachers are under paid across the board but there is not a more dedicated, intelligent,
caring group of people who care for humanity over themselves. Support our teachers, your children's teachers, support your public school even if that means sending a note of thanks or buying a book at the book fair
Douglas county Colorado, one of the wealthiest in the country, just elected Lauren Boebert. CORRECTION: we just got Lauren Boebert. We did NOT elect her, she lost in this county, to the DCCC's astonishment.
She managed to get her GED on the fourth attempt. The local joke is she'll be appointed head of D of Ed.
The woman who turned Douglas county blue (it's part of Boebert CD4 but the rest is eastern plains ignorant Colorado full of priests) is waiting to announce she'll run again in two years in case the joke is true. She did an astounding job, winning the vote in Douglas county which hasn't been done for over a decade.
Colorado ranks somewhere around d 40th for teacher pay. Douglas county helps bring that number down, because of the grossly corrupt county commissioners, all republicans.
I feel you, I am so worried for the future of my great granddaughter and great grandson! They are so filled with curiosity and wonder for the world around them. They love books and learning. My great grandson is in Head Start what will happen to that?
Right! I have been thinking (especially since last Tuesday) that priorities for winning the Long Game should be: educate, and stop banning books!!! I don't know how we are to make this happen, but happen it must.
It is time for all of us to step up to ensure a good education for all the kids pre-k to 12 in all schools. We need to go back to it being a community’s responsibility. Teachers can’t do it alone, parents, students and the rest of the community need to step up and support good education. There should not be book banning, there should not be acceptance of teachers being harassed or bullied for trying to maintain order in the classroom. Teachers and librarians should be backed. They are trying to do their jobs well, we need to support them.
The far right/evangelical party has a vested interest in NOT educating our children to think creatively or critically. They can’t be controlled and are dangerous!
We vividly, and nauseously, remember Newt Gingrich’s early 2000’s cable news tour, advocating against squandering family treasure on post High School education. And Newt was a college History Tracher in the 1970’s.
And then came Schmucker Carlson’s years challenging funds and time “squandered” on College.
College or no college we have to do a better job of teaching kids to spot a phony. Because of the Great Depression (yet another disaster with Republican fingerprints on it) neither of my parents had a college education, but they were curious and thought about stuff and they read a lot of non-fiction. They would have spotted Trump as one right away, as they had spotted Joe McCarthy. When the denouement of Joseph Welch's examination of McCarthy was announced, my mother, who was listing to the radio said to me in a very serious way "This is a very important day". I had not the slightest clue who McCarthy was, but I still remember it was somehow important.
Anyway, media has delivered more than it's share of crap l during my lifetime and lately I been getting phone calls telling me I have won millions of dollars I can claim if I just call a 900 number. Crap detection isn't necessarily "rocket science". It's a questioning habit of mind.
Agreed 100%. I'm finding that my college-educated parents are *far* more likely to fall for online scams, grifters, and malicious actors than my siblings and I, who didn't attend college, but grew up with and around technology.
I keep going back to how I was taught to research and assess information in school for papers: where is the info coming from, who is giving the info out, what is their agenda?
My parents went to libraries to read published books for research; they didn't question the validity or trustworthiness of their sources. It was a given. So now they give that wholehearted trust to whomever they agree with - there is no individual responsibility to evaluate the information. They just accept it.
I encounter many with college degrees that embrace Trump hook, line, and sinker. That said some colleges actively promote critical thinking. I attended one and my daughter attended one and both were excellent. Alas, both have gone out of business. Encouraging thought rather than just downloading data is hard to scale industrially and more labor intensive for instructors. After receiving her BA, my daughter took additional undergraduate classes at an admired state university to qualify for a specialty. She was taught by PhD candidates via Powerpoint. When she asked about the function of a muscle, she was told (quote), "Don't worry about what it does, just remember it for the test".
The latter is training, and there is a societal need for training, but it is not education. Education prepares you to appreciate and navigate reality. It includes the arts and the sciences and observant lived experience, and school is only part of it, but a very important part. Government of the people, by the people, for the people is as wise as the electorate.
You are both denigrating our educational system somewhat in your remarks. This denigration is, in my opinion, part of the problem we now face. I was educated in public schools through high school and attended a public university after that. I think I received an excellent all around education through our federally and state-supported systems. My education was at the very least good enough to help me spot a conman, grifter and sexual predator pretty easily. Are the homeschooled kids able to say the same? And why did college-educated voters do better on voting this election than non-college educated voters? Putting education down is not a a solution to the situation we find ourselves in.
I am not denigrating public education at all. I am denigrating technology and the intuitive gap it left between those who grew up with it and those who didn't, *regardless* of their education level.
I was also publicly educated, K-12, and through my bachelor's degree. I went to a local community college, a rural public high-school, and a rural public K-5. My father attended the same elementary, middle, and high-school as me (though obviously generations apart) and went to a state university for his degree. He is well educated, well learned, and smarter than I will ever be when it comes to math and mechanics. The education system didn't fail him; he fails himself, now, regardless of his education, because he refuses to learn to evaluate his sources.
He was not *taught* this, though. His schooling did not require it (why would it with only vetted and printed sources available?), so it would have been something he would have needed to pick up later in life. Maybe that means I failed to steward him properly into the world of the internet, but what did 10 year old me know of needing to teach my father?
The point you missed was though we are both educated, by the *same school system* no less, my father grew up without technology. He is predisposed to believe that which is put in front of him *first*, especially is he agrees with the bias. This is not a failing of the school system which could *not* have accounted for the prominence of technology 40+ years ago, this is a byproduct of the generation who had technology thrust upon them and only barely understood it even as it changed, rapidly, in their hesitant hands. Their approach to research has not changed even though the methods of research have, which is patently Not Good.
Education, 40+ years later, accounts for technology. High schools and colleges, even middle schools, teach students how to evaluate sources for bias, subjective statistics, and underlying agendas. Whether or not people *use* that schooling is up to them, they just have a head start when compared to my father, who was never told it was something he *should* do.
As for homeschooling, that brings in a whole host of different problems and standards outside the purview of my original comment. If they're homeschooled for religious reasons then their insular and bubbled faith most likely won't survive contact with the greater world - which would mean most would continue to live where the least amount dissonance is, hence rejecting any kind of fact check. They are also probably greatly restricted in their internet usage and the number of "sites" their parent-teachers find "credible". This would lead to larger issues of confirmation bias, pigeon holing, and the lack on intrinsic, instinctive knowledge of how to evaluate sources.
To even try to comparably compare education at a public level to home schooling is denigrating, especially in this socio-political climate. People who are homeschooled are *not* getting the same kind of education as their public schooled counterparts.
As to why college educated folks supposedly "did better" (which phrasing is disingenuous) in this election than their non-college counterparts, I again go back to the soft skills that college requires of you: research and evaluation. Even so, there were *plenty* of college educated people who still voted from Trump; my father, once again, being a prime example. This was because, even though they were *educated*, they were not *informed* and if they were not informed, that means they *chose* not to be. Again, not a education failing, but a personal one.
So we've established it's not schools which are failing, but the students who fail to exercise their lessons or who were blindsided by technology which their schooling *couldn't* have prepared them for. Therfore, I go back to denigrating the intuitive gap that technology had left in older, *educated* generations and the lack of interest in younger generations.
Public school is the only thing that separated me from my MAGA family's beliefs by encouraging my curiosity, love of rhetoric and philosophy, and nuturing my ability to think about the "why's" instead of only the "what's". The only denigrate feelings I have for public schools is for those teachers who cannot separate their personal beliefs from their education charters and damage their students' learning because of it.
The christofascist fake christians have no concept of the teachings of Jesus. Wealth and Power gospel is blasphamy in the Bible.........Christofascists need the .001 % LGBQ and Gay population to instill fear, hate and control over the millions of cult followers.
Us Christians who study the Bible, and many other ancient people/documents/artifacts/geology, etc. generally come to the conclusion that the Old Testament was replaced by the New Testament with the first coming of our savior Jesus Christ. His coming is prophesied in the Old Testament, but our primary edict, as followers of Christ, is to love our neighbors as ourselves, forgive those who transgress against us, the greatest of these is love, the meek shall inherit the earth, judge not lest you be judged, etc. Not exactly evidenced by the words and deeds of T***p, or his supporters. The Bible is a written document by humans about a part of ancient religious history, good and bad. However, as a guide on how to become a Christ like human being, it also contains a great deal of wise and powerful wisdom for us to strive towards.
Well, what they really want is critical thinking that backs putting their version of Christianity back into the schools, and pre sexual diversity norms, and likely sex ed which attacks abortion, sex outside of ordained marriage. And don't forget creationism. Kinda how I heard it as a kid in the 50s without the rancour since sexual diversity wasn't a hot topic if at all. I do remember my mother joking that "abortions" were disguised as D&Cs to clear the uterus for "health reasons". Mind you this was in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, just east of Maine. In those days, also mind you, we were going through an unsustainable baby boom.
What I have a hard time with too is the pervasive sense that the "pre sexual diversity norms" were the *only* norms in the world. They were in fact only norms in the Western Christian world - plenty of other cultures had cited more genders or different orientations and still do.
This self centeredness in the USA is mind boggling. The USA isn't the only country in the world and it certainly isn't the "moral center" of the world either. People have been deluded into thinking this for a long time without ever opening their eyes to the fact that the world is *so much bigger* than the USA.
American exceptionalism, being the world's economic superpower, by far, and top of the pack militarily, has aided with that sentiment. Sexual norms traditionally were probably taken more rigidly than you suggest. eg Most of the world eg still treats homosexuality as criminal or severely forbidden.
Extreme narcissism is probably humanity's most tragic flaw, whether manifest in individuals or the dominant posture of a society. Pushed to extremes it fits the description of evil; "master race", "holy war", etc. Humane education teaches empathy and proscribes hubris. In one form or another, that's a pretty ancient idea, but it takes a lot more energy and discipline than riding cheap thrills and entropy all the way down.
We just went through an election which roundly turfed our PC incumbent party under Higgs, largely his own doing I think, the party is pretty split and lately demoralized. A young Liberal premier is the new premier with a commanding majority. I haven't followed Can politics as much as i should, so if you have a good channel or site to recommend, post me. My email is fwloomer@gmail.com It looks as if Polineuve is polled to take over at the next federal election. It looks as if Trudeau has expended his political capital. I'm not sure how radical P. really is, but generally i don't vote conservative, i'm a generic centre-left kind of voter. I do follow American politics, kind of like an ongoing drama, never know how it's going to turn out! Ive signed into HCR now for 3 years holy smokes!
Looks like Jefferson predicted our future, as education has been devalued in this country over the decades, for more than a generation. But what I never realized until reading Dr. Heather over these past years was how narrow the history lessons were, since elementary school.
"Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against [the evils of “kings, nobles and priests”], and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.”"
JustRaven, like you I also ‘never realized until reading’ Heather’s detailed history ‘how narrow the history lessons were’. I have to add that I was a very poor student at the time …. squirmed around until gym. It was a highly rated NYC very enlightened private school. However, it is now checking all the boxes and more. Not easy to grow, expand, push against old traditions & habits is it particularly long held habits of thinking: oh I’ve ever been an active political person. Now I feel like ‘a weapon’. That weapon is looking for daily actions to take. Actions that wipe away apathy.
The more I read from the Founders, beyond the Declaration and Constitution and all the other establishing documents, the more and more I realize that the "Founders" they Republicans have in their minds are grotesque perversions of the actual people who we can see in their writings.
This is the main failure of the education system: Who were the first *European* settlers of the USA and why did they come here? What is the foundation of America?
Putting aside the Spanish and French reasons for coming to America, the English reason for sending the first people in ships over here was NOT because they were fleeing religious persecution. They landed at what would become Jamestown in Virginia, several years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Colony in Massetchutcess. These first people were here to accomplish one thing. To find out what natural resources were easy to harvest and transport by ship back to England, to make money for the owners of the companies who sent them. That the Pilgrims were the first “Americans”, who founded the country “by the will of God” is not true. But it’s what I was taught in a public school in the 1960s.
It wasn’t until my first road trip to Virginia in 1984 that I found out the reason I hadn’t learned the truth about our founding mothers and fathers. It was because, like the saying goes, history is always told by the side that won the war. The north won the civil war, and changed the national narrative to support the “truth” that it was the religiously persecuted Pilgrims who were the first settlers of America. Believe me, if it was that easy to discover just one huge lie about our history, which the Virginians proudly tell everyone visiting the state, even the low educated among us can do the same. I am still unsettled about this one fact that has been intentionally obscured and continue to wonder how many others there are.
Exactly! This is 100% what I meant! I had this argument with my parents; they're both staunch supports in the "fleeing religious persecution to found a Protestant nation" myth that is espoused in schools. Forgetting the fact that there were *many* schools of protestants in the original colonies as well as agnostic, atheists, Jews, and Catholics.
When I told them basically what you had typed out, they said I was indoctrinated by a democratic schooling system. When I said that I agreed with the Founders on the separation of church and state and didn't believe in a theocratic government (which is why I'd never vote Republican again), they said I was a heretic. That I was being taught lies. When I asked them where they learned their facts, however, they just said "everyone knows that's the truth". (???)
God only factored in to the founding of the US as He was convenient. People came here for money, to escape a theocracy, and to try to rise above their social station. The USA was an opportunistic capitalist venture at its heart with justification of "persecution" at its fore. As it was with any kind of Imperialism.
American exceptionalism needs to die out. We are a country like any other prone to the same mistakes and flaws; we are no more "morally superior" than any other country in the world.
Reading the end of this newsletter reminded me that fully one-third of the adults in this country don't ever read books for pleasure and that the vast majority of those who vote for Republican candidates are so-called "low-information" voters. Is it any wonder the Republicans hate public education? The better educated Americans are, the fewer will vote Republican.
Having already traded away their souls, without lies what would Republican leaders have left to sell? And what if a lot more people just weren't buying?
The problem, as I see it, is that lies can be made so much more attractive. The truth is sometimes uncomfortable. Who wants to admit that the man they have revered for eight years is nothing more than a demented criminal who pretends to fellate a microphone stand in public?
Indeed, cult mentality can be applied perfectly. To see and accept his faults and failings would be to see and accept their own - their unconscious minds probably rail against cognitive dissonance without them realizing.
Right-wingers don't handle cognitive dissonance well. Remember George W. Bush once said, "I don't do 'nuance'". They are also much more prone to disinformation than we lefties. Numerous studies have proven both statements I just made.
It's the movement's leaders who "hate" public education because it mitigates against their program of indoctrinating people to accept their position on the social ladder no matter what it is.
Growing up in a mixed-party household, both of my parents were keen on education. My dad was a Democrat and my mom a Republican. They purchased their home in a neighborhood that had the best.schools in the city and lived there for almost 50 years before they passed away.
My parents home was in a separate school district from Omaha and had about 10000 students. The school system was totally segregated, except for one black family, a few Hispanic families and an Indian family.
It wasn't until we went to college that we finally interacted with people from other countries, cultures and races. This is the part of education that was mostly free, but it taught us kids so much.
I also lived your pre-college experience. I went to school in the almost totally white DC suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, in the 1960s. My community was not racist, it's just that almost everyone living there was some kind of government worker whose job was literacy-based. In the 1960s around DC, that meant white people. My high school, Walter Johnson (the only high school in the country named after a baseball player at the time), had some Asian students, but no Hispanics or blacks until my senior year, when one black student enrolled.
It wasn't until I got to Bard College in 1970 that I began to experience the diversity that is such a fantastic aspect of our society.
An excellent piece on public education. The attack on it ALSO stems from the fact that the National Education Association is the largest union in the United States. Breaking unions has been on top of the conservative agenda since Reagan.
This is not just about elementary and high school. Early intervention for infants and toddlers (IDEA Part C) are essential services to minimize impact of developmental interruptions such as premature birth, complex medical conditions, disabilities, exposure to substances, family dysfunction, and abuse or neglect.
Funds funneled to states from the DOE support early intervention programs that promote optimal conditions for brain development thereby optimizing capacity to learn as well as prevent socio-emotional disabilities. DOE funds spent on infants and toddlers at risk can change far later outcomes in school performance, employment, as well as preventing delinquency, among other things.
When children are not ready to learn, when their educational system is eroded, how can they learn about their government and responsibilities as active citizens?
Yes! I helped set up IDEA Part H in Michigan in the early 90's. Crucial program for so many children, families and communities. At the time I was not thinking about the impact on democracy. But then, that was before Fox "News."
The game changer. Public education can’t compete with entertainment news. I watched brilliant family of my bff in the late 90’s become right wing nuts, Great schools, great kids, parent Fox addict. Trash TV on 24-7. Three of four brilliant kids (now middle aged and very affluent) rabid chump lovers. Damn depressing.
My sister and her family benefited from this, from what I understand. My niece had some fairly pervasive speech issues in her pre-kindergarten class that was caught. Now both her parents have been educated on how to help her at home and she has check-ins with the speech pathologist at her school regularly. As her speaking has improved, so has her temperament, now that people understand her better.
So glad your niece and family were able to get early intervention! In Michigan we call it "Early On." I am a nurse, in awe of all the excellent therapists and teachers in our system. It's quite a gut punch to see trump blithley announce he plans to eliminate the U.S. Dept. of Education, after all the good it does for Americans.
Great point about early childhood intervention programs if they are cut. That would contribute to a vicious downward spiral of child abuse and neglect. Parents are more likely to act out against a child with behavioral issues.
They've always been pro-life where it's easy and low impact.
They want children to live, but do not care for their quality of life. In fact, if one of the children they "saved" through their polices eventually ends up convicted of murder, they'd call for the death penalty. So, by then saving that one life, didn't they then condemn at least two to death? Where's their pro-life agendas then?
They don't like those kinds of philosophical debate, though. Much better to just say "save the children" as it's a objectively sound statement.
Bumpersticker politics. It has to be that simple. If it takes more than two sentences seems the voting public isn’t interested. No level of nuance at all.
When Thomas Jefferson envisioned the University of Virginia in 1818, he set out with some guiding principles in his Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia. He stressed ideals bound by honor and duty, of enlightenment, and the greater good.
These included:
- To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.
- To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts in writing.
- To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.
- To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.
- And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.
He went on to prescribe various branches of higher education, such as government and civics, agriculture, mathematics, manufacturing, the arts, and more. In summing up, Jefferson advocated that education should advance “the prosperity, the power, and the happiness of a nation.”
Shame he also declared that the ownership (and propagation) of dark-skinned people was the highest, best (ie most lucrative) enterprise that landowners could partake.
Also a shame that he an Madison did away with the original intention of the VP - it was supposed to be the majority winner's running opponent. It was a check for a bipartisan system that failed *really* early.
Just as white people in the former slave holding states have never come to terms with the end of their dominant lifestyle and the elimination of their segregationist societal structure, so too religious zealots demand their dogma be promoted by schools. The war against public education that accepts all, encourages critical thinking, tolerates diversity and challenges every student to reach beyond their grasp has taken on many strategies. Vouchers, charters, christian theology as the core of curriculum, bathroom inanity (including hysteria about menstrual products being accessible), not to mention idiocy like the business about kids being gender-converted, are all part an parcel of the persistent effort to fund private and parochial schools at the expense of public schools which would be the landing space of all those derided and rejected by the dominant white, Christian power structure. Make no mistake about it. The goal is to starve public education as it was envisioned in a free, democratic society, in favor or private/parochial education for the acceptable and privileged.
Well said and to the point. I taught for 35 years, and there is no doubt in my mind that the goal is privatization of public schools. The take down of Randy Weingarten , head of the teacher's union is a good example.
Not to mention that Trump wants to end wait times for mergers and acquisitions. So, they privatize everything, and then the highest bidder (hmmm maybe Musk?) buys up everything, merges it into one, and now he's got the USA under his thumb.
This rhetoric about privatization is, in my mind, really just a way to give legitimacy to a kleptocracy headed by those who can't claim the presidency by issue of birth place.
I too worry a lot about my grandchildren, especially the younger ones, and their world will be like. I wish that somehow we had been able to make civics a required class for all students. If more people understood how their government worked at all levels, I think they would make better choices of who they want to lead them. That will not be happening any time soon, but states can do it. We are going to have to rely more on our states to make life bearable under this regime. Funny how the Republicans have been the ones calling for states' rights, and now they want their ideas to be the right ones for everyone, and we are wanting our states to be more powerful....
Hi, Susan - The problem is only partly the lack of sufficient social studies and civics classes. The other part is that today's students, if my 8th graders are any example, are simply disinterested in the world around them. I work as hard as I can to get them interested, but I just wind up feeling like Sisyphus.
As for Republican hypocrisy over states rights, remember, these are the people who want to track pregnancies and criminalize abortion, but who yelled "My body, my choice", when told to wear a mask during Covid.
I was on the “smart” track in high school. I got off-track one semester and took a required history course with kids I’d never met or seen in my 2000-student school. On the first test, “There was one 100% and all the rest were Fs,” said the teacher. I knew who the 100% was and was scared the other students would be mad (at me). But they loved it! They laughed and laughed. They didn’t care about school.
This was in the late 1950s.
There are lots of good classes where kids are given the opportunity to learn a lot. But there are a lot of people (many of whom turn out to be among our best citizens) who fight school.
I taught in a small rural school near Salem. I think people do not realize the importance of teachers to many students. This week I read a thread in which one of my ex-colleagues(biology, now recently retired) posted about how she still loved her students. I really enjoyed reading all the comments acknowledging how they enjoyed her class and how she helped them in numerous ways. Many schools in the state are now looking to do something about cell phones during class time. We will see how this works.
Michele, my Mom taught for about 5-6 years at Crater High School (rural community outside of Medford). She started teaching in her 50's, and one of her first assignments was to teach "Package Nine" (also known as "last chance English" for seniors who needed to pass that year of English to graduate). Most of the students were "behavior problems", some had to work outside of school, and others were just coasting. She taught them how to read Middle English and the agreement was that when they could read Chaucer in its original form, she would teach them how to swear.
She died some 30 years after she left teaching (I think she made it 4 or 5 years). She had a steady stream of kids come to the house and thank her until she moved to the coast. We had 3 of her kids come to her small memorial service.
Interesting thing to call it. I love the plan of teaching them Middle English. We had an English teacher do this, but it was college prep English. I did smile about Chaucer. Our senior English lit teacher told us he could not teach The Miller's Tale. Of course, there was a run over to the public library to check it out. Brava to your mom. She is an excellent example of the kind of teachers I am talking about.
The longer I teach my 7th and 8th graders, the more I reflect on my own junior high school experience. I realize that I remember virtually nothing of the curriculum in any of the subjects I took, but I also realize that is normal because the adolescent brain is only half there in middle school. What I did get out of it was the development of essential habits, such as being on time, having what I needed to do the assignment, and trying my best.
I taught at one middle school in South L.A. for 15-1/2 years and actually ran into a number of my former students out and about when they were in their early twenties and working in restaurants or museums or supervising after-school programs. They all remembered me vividly and fondly, but not for what I taught. They remembered that I was kind and that they felt safe in my class and classroom.
I never thought you were attacking schools or teachers. And yes, blaming the schools and teachers is a favorite tactic of politicians, along with other crackpot ideas like merit pay. I actually wrote an op-ed about that which appeared in the L.A. Times more than twenty years ago. It's linked below.
Today's students reflect today's commercially dominated culture. We no participate little in the creation of our culture. It is manufactured by corporations.
I largely agree with you, but I think the process was accelerated by the internet and social media. Today's young people have demonstrably shorter attention spans if my middle school students are anything to go by, and their interpersonal social skills have also deteriorated.
The struggle, however, has gone on for decades. Remember a movie called "Network", or was that before your time?
"Network" was well within my time, alas. I recall when the Internet was monochrome text only, and was (mostly) a polite, self regulating space. I thought its inherently decentralized architecture made it inherently democratic. It is that, as this 'forum" (to use the outdated term) is proof of that, but I did not foresee how easily corporate America was able to dominate the medium or how the tool could be used to divide as well as connect the public.
Other animals clearly think, and often I think we underestimate them, but I think our species is capable of exceptionally complex and long-chain thinking. I think we prosper best and most sustainably when we practice long-chain and multi-dimensional thinking. And like reading or music, even with exceptional aptitude, I think that takes training from somewhere or other for competence. Seems to me our culture as a whole would be wise to further encourage and support that. Not just let for-profit run everything. I'm not anti-profit, I'm against for-profit, love-of-money, usurping everything else that matters.
I took Civics many decades ago. It was made difficult and hard to understand. I can’t believe that any of my schoolmates learned a thing about how government works. I know I didn’t. And I got an A.
Blaming current education is nothing more than a game. To know about how government works, one needs to be a lifelong learner. And evidently that’s asking too much of many.
I taught government with no textbooks, no tests and quizzes, and lots of library work. We had to give finals, so I had a create your own final from a list of possibilities to which I assigned points. If students came up with an idea, that was OK too. I sat down with each student to plan what they would do and the funny thing is that many of them chose over a 100 points worth. In the three years or so that I taught that class I had the same student fail twice..no help at home, but all the rest of them passed the required class.
Actually, just the basics and the opportunities for influence (the earlier the better) would do the trick.Then it doesn’t get into opinions and fights.
True. I got the Disney version. The actual truth is more useful and likely more interesting. Forewarned is forearmed. How, despite fierce and entrenched resistance did women get to vote? How did anyone overcome the perils of invested interest politics?
I noticed in multiple encounters in the 1980 a repeated phrase of "I'm a realist, not an idealist". It seemed to be a phony excuse for cynicism. Reality COMBINING the real with the ideal is how we improve anything. The US Constitution is an attempt to combine a set of ideals with a grasp of practical necessities. Creativity, be it in the arts or sciences, involves freedom of thought, integrated with a practical scheme to make it so, whatever the product may be. Menus, channels, sites, are a great resource, but if we only choose from other's menu's we are hobbling our own liberty, wisdom, and potential. Worse, without practiced experience with which to trial-run them though our own minds, we may fail to grasp the character of unwise choices.
I disagree. I think you can teach basic civics and government in a way kids could get it and make use of it. Again, at all levels—local government is probably the easiest to understand, because you see the results every day, so it’s relevant. Of course there are always people that aren’t intetested, but I’m always surprised at the number who are but don’t understand the basics. Not everyone has to be a political junkie, like those of us on here!
Quite true, but you do need to make an effort to keep up with what's real or self-government is not going to work. And lies should be regarded as shameful, when not evil. Evil lies are stories about innocent Haitians eating people's pets, and all the worse when influential liars keep repeating the lie, even when it's proven to be false. That's how Nazi Germany happened. A lot of great evils arise out of vicious lies. It is my impression that we have become gradually more and more tolerant of serious lying and liars since after Nixon was exposed. Joe McCarthy told dirty lies, but even (at least some) Republicans got sick of it. Republicans in the Senate were ready to convict Nixon when he resigned. "Decency" is not just a nicety. Too many societies learned that the hard way. It's a prerequisite for a meaningfully free society.
Learning to spot lies and liars, and also how to win without cheating, may be the most foundational civics lesson of all.
I don't understand it, but I know a society as large and complicated as our can only be sustained with a hell of a lot of physical and service infrastructure. I know that without advance planning and contingency plans, a lot more could go off the rails. How is it that we, ostensibly the richest and technically medically advanced civilization in the world had the worst per capita COVID death rate? A million here, a few hundred thousand there and pretty soon you're talking an appalling death toll. Have we learned anything?
For some reason your comment is cut off so I can’t see the whole thing (Substack has been doing this lately, which is incredibly annoying), but I just wanted to answer your question about the U.S. per capita death rate during the COVID pandemic: it happened because trump threw out Obama’s playbook for pandemic planning, and so it was egregiously mismanaged.
It was a required class when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s in rural NC. What we did not learn was the atrocities about slavery and our state being a huge part of it.
Thomasville, Piedmont area. We used to go to Linville Falls. Daddy liked mountains and hated the beach. Weird, had a b-I-l whose family was from Hickory. Was Lenore a furniture hub like Thomasville was…
Marlene, I was in school in Georgia during those years. Civics was a required course in 8th grade, and covered everything from the federal government down to who paves the local roads and what those roads were made of.
Yes it was. We had Broyhill, Bernhardt, and Hammary furniture factories. The owners always put money into public education for city kids. The ones in rural Caldwell County did not get that benefit, unfortunately. They did that because their own children went to school with us. Broyhill and Bernhardt furniture still exist and have brought manufacturing back to the town instead of outsourcing to China. Thomasville is still kicking, right?
Beyond just civics, there should be a required ethics class and maybe something about philosophical theory - how to debate, how to circle a problem, how to be uncomfortable in your thoughts but think through your emotion for a clear argument.
People ride that 90 second high of pure emotion in any reaction and continue to chose it over anything rational.
There's not been much emphasis on it, I don't think, with Common Core so prominent.
The ethics and philosophy classes I took in college, technically while dual enrolled. They had profound impact on the rest of my high-school career though, and I felt more people could benefit from them.
You're right though. Soft skilled classes aren't required in K-12 education, they're electives at best, I just feel if we're throwing wishes and desires out there, then this would be one of mine for high schools.
My daughter loved the art and photography classes she took. Miss “logical” Me took art classes and they took me out of my comfort zone (taking notes, tests, sitting quietly). Best thing I ever did.
The bedrock of the MAGA movement is the proliferation of ignorance. This has been achieved by cutting public school funding, forcing schools to teach a curriculum based on whitewashed history, and using a deluge of disinformation to overwhelm the voting public and make their ridiculous claims about schools brainwashing children and performing sex change surgeries seem plausible. This is how America got itself into its current predicament.
This is not new.. Isaac Asimov said 44 years ago, not coincidently when Reagan was first elected President, “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
It is indeed. Asimov’s scifi writing was very prescient, and he had a particular gift for envisioning the effect of technology on society. As awful as another four years of Trump will be, I am optimistic that the Constitution will survive intact. But the underlying societal divide will continue. I hope for some level of buyers remorse will help rebalance things at the midterms.
I have been a bit perplexed about the attack on the Dept of Education. Thank you for putting it into perspective. Now, it all makes sense. I’m more scared than ever.
They don't have to (think above a first-grade level), since their chosen leader is in that same class, and they don't want to trump him... (pun intended)
Last year I was in the Dokumentationszentrum in Munich, Germany, last year, which gives a history of Munich's Nazi past. I had been in several before that, in Nuremberg, etc. What struck me about the one in Munich is that it emphasized how the National Socialists attacked the education system throughout Germany (it also emphasized the Nazi assault against the LGBTQ community). It was a significant step in the indoctrination of the people of Germany towards totalitarianism.
Having spent a career in the US in education and having taught at two different universities, I think I can fairly state that the inequalities in education are stunning. But something has gone terribly wrong. By the time I graduated high school - in a middle class suburb in Portland Oregon, I had had an impressive amount of history (and could place generally everything from Mesopotamia to the Second World War chronologically - hell, we had a unit on the Renaissance in the fourth grade!) and had read six Shakespeare plays as a part of the regular curriculum, with a load of other American and world literature (just by way of example - I took Shakespeare as an elective so had read about 10 plays by the time I graduated in '81).
Anyone who knows Oregon knows it can be something of an educational backwater. So that standard level of education in a "provincial" setting speaks a great deal to how far we have slipped. It served Trump to have people with no understanding of the twentieth century, with the rise and fall of Athenian democracy or Roman republicanism, with no clue about Caesarism. But at a certain point this is not on the schools but on us. My parents instilled a love of reading in me with a hefty dose of help from youth reading programs and book clubs in our schools, starting from age 6 in the first grade. In the fifth grade we had access to classic novels in the form of graphic comic books designed to attract young people to great literature (I was partial to Jules Vernes myself).
In addition, my media time was limited - my parents only allowed so much television and were careful about what I was allowed to watch. I'm old enough to recall when we thought we should hold hearings because media was not living up to its promise but feeding us absurd trash - the Beverly Hillbillies came in for particular attack if memory serves. Since then we have all sent up the white flag and just surrendered. We are not free, but slaves to our screens and devices. This is not surprising. Even when growing up, I had siblings and teachers (yes, teachers) who mocked me as a reader, probably intimidated by a 15 year old who preferred Shakespeare to football and had to constantly apologize for creating a rich inner-life.
Alas, can we survive half philistine and cruel and half reasonably educated and compassionate? I'm afeared that we are finding out in real time. Neil Postman's prophecy in Amusing Ourselves to Death, written in 1982, is coming to pass before our eyes. Attack on education is a fundamental step towards the pulling down of a pillar of democracy.
Steve, I grew up in Medford, and graduated 5 years before you did. Our close proximity to the Shakespearean Festival gave us a fabulous opportunity each winter to take an English class called "Stage Two". We got to see four plays put on during (what was at the time) the winter season. We read each of the four plays, and then went to see them. Amazing experience.
Jefferson was a very perceptive man in many ways. We must as citizens care for each other regardless of race or class, one way is to support education. If you use some private education, for example music lessons, debate clubs, or Black history, be as generous as you can to help others also find learning. If 60% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck, as Bernie Sanders said yesterday, then the other 40% must help support them. We are obligated to help each other, known or unknown.
Heather leaves out one fact in the Reagan era when anti-secular whites saw public ed as a danger.
She leaves out how the Powell memo of 1971 had already gone to war with humanities of any kind at any level of education. The far-right foundations that organized and coordinated then all attacked novels, memoirs, histories, and all the other arts which so allowed license to the personal. With this license, they felt, instructors and students had ammunition for the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, and similar energies for women, gays, La Raza, and Native American causes.
Kill the humanities -- which these foundations had already successfully done before Reagan won in 1980 -- and profs in higher ed would become careerist careful and specialist neutered in the few tenure track positions remaining after ALEC had mega reduced state funding everywhere.
Students in higher ed would revert to shelter in the silo safety of group identity (and trigger warnings, and vulnerability to bank-enriching but otherwise crushing student loan debt).
In K-12, all would feel similar budgetary cuts, and the emphasis shift to intimidation to the conceits of the billionaires' new deluge of standardized testing: abstracted categories, group think, the unit-by-unit linear, and totally neutered language in the tests as well as in all packaged corporate textbooks.
Yes to everything else Heather well cites. But a big miss to leave out the Powell memo, and those new clusters of far-right foundations serving not just the dehumanization, but more so, too, all the dark money swamping everything. Even before the offshoring of the tens of millions of jobs, the financialization and commodification of all life, and near totally far-right tilt of the U.S. judiciary.
Not to be too Picky... The Human History of the American Continents started when the Indigenous walked here over 30,000 Years ago... The Mayan Temples in Central America predate the European Settlements...
Don't forget the use of the Handheld 'Zombie Devices'.... They fragment the Attention-Span, and allow the introduction of mis-information which crowds out the Good...
The trouble with our living dead, however, comes from those who model behavior for them. And too many teachers, journalists, pundits, and public officials just never reference any reading that's long.
Too many schools have just totally stopped assigning any full novels, memoirs, or histories.
Those handheld devices, they cost money -- a lot of money. And in a vulgar society, the cost of things ups the fashion threshold of those willing to pay the cost. Plus the cost for privately-owned vehicles (look at the highways, most contain only one occupant).
A vulgar society promotes money, quantifying life, so in life itself there's just a lot of lonely, lonely people (a long-ago song said look at them). And now with guys (in many countries) a lot of incels (the "involuntary celibate").
That’s what we have, a vulgar society. Thank you for that. I was so hoping for better, or at least aspirations for better. I saw Fox as the first significant step backward, then greedy bastards, reality tv, and so many institutions leaned or caved. Political, social, religious, and here we are. Vulgar, greedy, and proudly ignorant…
I remember a time before Fox and Survivor when I had so much hope for our media. Seems like an eternity ago. I blame Andy Cohen and Mark Burnett, for starters, but before them, Rupert introduced the possibility of big bucks for trash.
Attached below is a link to the Powell Memo (‘’Attack On American Free Enterprise System’’) to which you refer in your comment. It may be helpful to those who are not familiar with it.
The Memo was submitted to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, at its request, on August 23, 1971, one decade before Reagan assumed office. It is an ominous piece of writing.
She's mentioned the Powell memo quite often in other posts. But it does seem like another dog catching the car example doesn't it? The US Chamber of Commerce et al supported all of the points you mentioned, and now we have a workforce that struggles to compete which ultimately hurts the bottom line.
What is so sad about this letter is the fact that we are not educating children to the best of our nation’s abilities. And now we will be led by an ignorant despot who cares only for himself. Teachers are not being paid a fair salary and as a result, we have a lack of qualified teachers in many of our public schools. I cry for my great grandsons and worry for their future.
Some states do have decent pay for teachers as in my state and county. And it is in states where the public education is poorest and more home schooling is rampant that Trump won more votes.
My brother volunteered to pay for private school tuition for his grandchildren, so they would not be indoctrinated. Our mother, five aunts, one uncle, and our grandmother were all public school teachers, as was I. How could he think something so ridiculous?! I had no time to indoctrinate anyone; I was too busy trying to cover school board required curriculum. As I taught 6 and 7 year olds, I preached: 1) Keep your hands and feet to yourself. 2) Treat others the way you want them to treat you. 3) Raise your hand if you want to speak. 4) Put your name on your paper. I had NO time for anything else. That was the experience of most other teachers I knew.
The Republicans refuse to adequately fund public education, then bellow that schools are deficient and parents should have “choices” to send their kids to private schools, which don’t have the standards that public schools do. I grew up with kids who went to segregation academies. Talk about indoctrinated.
Jenn, I agree! I'm a retired elementary school teacher. I taught mostly 4th, 5th, and 6th grades- all subjects. No assistant like the younger grades.
It got to the point toward the end of my career that I hardly had time to say, "Good morning" to the students, much less talk about anything but the subjects I had to try to teach.
I miss the children. They kept me young. I have become OLD from the stress of the last eight years.
Thank you Pam and all the teachers out there for your dedication and commitment to our students, community and future. I was a Special Education Consultant for 15 years and I always felt bad for the teachers. The School Administration not so much but the teachers always had a place in my heart. 💜
Pam, yes, school boards, often filled with people who know nothing about education, particularly public education do make all kinds of demands, then don't provide the resources to make that happen. They do not encourage critical thinking because those students may actually think critically about the things they are being expected to do and the intended outcome. I taught K-12 gifted support students and loved that my students challenged me on things I presented. It would always start a conversation that often had them or me changing our minds. That's the way education should be. How sad that those in power think little white children should never feel uncomfortable while children of color, LGBTQ+, and immigrant children are made to feel uncomfortable a lot of the time. Good, caring teachers can help all children learn to work together and to value each others' talents and contributions. Parents who are homeschooling mainly reinforce their own values in their own bubbles. If we love our children as much as parents say they do, then we need leadership that actually cares about our children and wants programs to help them learn as much as possible so they and we will be able to meet the challenges of the future, and our Education Department is a way to help to make that happen. We must remember that Trump cares nothing for our children, heck, he didn't really care about his own kids until he could use them for his own purposes, and they are now well-used and totally on board.
Ruth, what an excellent description of what our education system SHOULD be. I retired two years early because I couldn't accept the mandates from principals, and superintendents to "teach the test."-- The End of Grade tests that were supposed to evaluate how much students had grown in critical thing skills in math and reading. I was hired to teach science and social studies to fourth graders my last year of teaching. I won an $1800 grant for science equipment. Was i encouraged to use this equipment? No. I was admonished for not spending enough time reviewing what had been taught that day in math and reading, because, the students were only tested on those two subjects for the End-of-grade tests. I couldn't stand to see what was happening to student's curiosity, creativity, individualism, and excitement for learning. There was NO excitement, especially for me. We had to teach to the middle- leaving out time for the challenges of under-and over-achievers.
Don't get me started on how much of my OWN money I spent over the 28 years that I taught.
With Trump's promise of doing away with the Department of Education, we can say goodbye to anything but Christian Nationalists' views on what and how children should learn. That is SO scary.
I could write on and on, but I'll stop. I need another cup of coffee.😒
Pam, I acknowledge that I was lucky, No one in our district could imagine what Gifted Support should look like, so I got to develop my own curriculum. I loved doing it although it took many many extra hours. It was worth it. Our district also was and still is obsessed with the end of year tests which, as you describe cover only reading and math and are not worthy of the time it takes for the students to take the tests. Those tests are designed to make rich white kids look smarter than they actually are and students of color and resource-disadvantaged students look pathetic, uneducable. It is disgusting and should be seen as unamerican, but alas, the guys in charge just love testing even though I bet most of them hated it when they had to do it. We need to demand better and invite parents to come into our schools to learn what a good education could look like, showing them quality materials, teaching techniques parents can use at home to enhance what the schools are already doing, and more. Maybe if parents were in on the project there wouldn't be so many whining for vouchers to put their kids somewhere else, schools that pretend they are better than any others, and their kids are better too. Of course, those schools don't require their kids to take the state tests because, well, they are above it all. OK, that's nonsense of course. I do understand why you had to retire. I retired when the 15th administration change was about to take place in my district. I taught 26 years. So much change is not good for school districts and not for the communities they are supposed to be serving. I do volunteer tutor in my old school and am enjoying it, but find it sad that so many students have nearly given up on learning by 6th grade.
His family never saw the inside of a public school at any level.
Let's uncover the eeeeevil seeekrit agenda you were brainwashing your students with:
1. Respect others' bodily autonomy.
2. Don't privilege your own advantage above all.
3. Don't silence others.
4. Own your actions.
Of COURSE you had to be stopped at all costs!
That is the Republican way: starve education and all government services fir funds, then proclaim their inadequacy.
When I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a teacher. But life had other plans for me. I truly admired most of my sons' teachers. I have friends that taught school. Two taught special needs children. Now that I am older, I wonder if I could have handled a classroom full of adolescents. I appreciate and thank all of the teachers who have dedicated their careers to their students.
I couldn't even hand 5 and 6 year olds. They walked all over me lol!
The whole anti-public education movement is astroturfed by the billionaires behind the Heritage Foundation, ie the Kochs, ALEC etc, who don't give a flying hail mary about their eternal souls. Since Nixon's retool of the race baiting Southern Strategy, they've been weaponizing Christianity and (White) Family Values, to weaken our government so they can rape the land and reap their profits with no gov't interference. Amway Heiress DeVos wasn't chosen for her "piety," she was chosen because she is a ruthless billionaire from swing state Michigan who wanted to get her hands on public education so she could grow richer & more powerful through her private charter school ventures, perhaps inspired by the way her brother Eric Prince grows fat on the Defense Budget through privatization of military services (ie Blackwater.) I lived near Grand Rapids, in the town of Holland, a town with a Dutch Reform Church on every corner, and a vibe as creepy as Stepford. (that's the Church of White S. Africa, beloved by the Afrikanners)
Patrice, you are quite right. Billionaires have no interest in public education, their kids all go to private schools. They live in a world of privilege.
Thank you, thank you, JennSH, I taught Special Ed. I have said this before, I considered it a good day when I got through my lesson plans! I love it, my day was spent saying “what are you supposed to be doing right now?” Or my other favorite, “where are you supposed to be”. My rules were the same as yours. How does one indoctrinate a student while teaching a curriculum approved by the very red state I taught in? The children were tested to death, tests that the private schools did not have to take. Schools were given grades, based on those tests. If a school failed two years in a row, they were taken over by the state.
At the age of 60, I left the classroom to become a Staffing and Program Specialist.
I watched and could do nothing, as IDEA was dismantled. The classroom I taught in no longer exists. Students with Special Needs are put in regular classes. That would be fine, if the supports for the students were in place. However, only the most severe students are in self contained classrooms. Special Ed teachers “push in” to serve their students for 45 minutes each day. The discrepancy formula for SLD students has been taken out of IDEA. Thus, most students are labeled SLD. The old standard was the child had an average or above average IQ. On a Standard Score that is 85-112. That no longer applies, thus my daughter has had students with IQs well below average with little or no support. IEP’s are written, but almost impossible to follow because of the case loads of the Special Ed teachers.
If you want to learn why the public schools are failing, take some time and volunteer. I can assure you, it’s not the over worked and underpaid teachers. You will be able to observe firsthand, the crap teachers put up with on a daily bases. It would be great if parents would parent. As a child, the last thing I wanted was a teacher to call my parent. There were consequences.
I won’t begin to discuss, the difference in per pupil spending in different states
I've always wondered about the system of funding schools from the local, extremely local, tax base. Recipe for mirroring and perpetuating inequality, no? Maybe it's different now. I think in Los Angeles it's a giant tax pool, doled out based on need. But what I noticed was that the elementary school where I raised my kids, in Topanga, had an incredible "TPA" that managed to raise around $200,000 a year to pay for a full time science teacher, aids at least part time for Every classroom, enhanced PE and arts programs (supported by massive parent volunteer hours), etc. This was a small school in a community of about 10,000 people, which had to draw families from down the mountain to have enough students (and funding) to stay strong, and a little bit diverse.
How can this even come CLOSE to happening in less privileged places? Our TPA donated some of the funds to a sister school in such a neighborhood in LA, and paid for a day each year where they hosted a grade from that school, including paying for the bus(s). I am not at all rich, but I've always found a way to live in beautiful places, usually surrounded by wealth. But I actually felt bad about this, and also about how few non-white kids my own kids grew up with. But both my sons had respiratory problems from infancy on, and when my husband got a job in LA, we both said "we have to find a place in Topanga." It's the only place in the whole huge county with persistently clean air.
As long as there's no fire. sigh. Sorry. Rambling on. Time to go to sleep and think about today's Letter - about the samsara of Time.
Jenn, thank you for your commitment. I bet you taught your students a lot more than those things you mentioned. I bet they also learned that at least some adults care about them, that learning can be fun, and that we can choose to be good people no matter what others want us to be.
Again....voting against their own interests!!!!
Take action to prevent the House and Senate from voting against our interests: Release the House Ethics Committee Gaetz Investigation Report.
Committee on Ethics
1015 Longworth House Office Building (LHOB), Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-7103 - Fax: 202-225-7392
Subject: Chop Wood, Carry Water 11/14 - by Jessica Craven release Gaetz ethics com. Report
Let’s take Rogan's List ’s suggestion and call Democratic members of the House Ethics Committee to urge them to ensure the public sees whatever damning information they have found about Matt Gaetz before any confirmation vote, whether by reading the report into the Congressional Record or leaking it to the press. We can reach them here:
Rep. Susan Wild (PA, Ranking Member) - 202-225-6411
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA) - 202-225-2095
Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX) - 202-225-4831
Rep. Glenn Ivey (MD) - 202-225-8699
Rep. Deborah Ross (NC) - 202-225-3032
A possible script:
I’m calling the Congressmember in his/her capacity as member of the House Ethics Committee. I want him/her to ensure that the public sees whatever damning information the committee has found about Matt Gaetz before any confirmation vote. Either read the report into the Congressional Record or leak it to the press. This is information Americans—and Senators preparing to vote—must have. Thanks.
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/chop-wood-carry-water-1114-cb4
GOP Members
Republicans
Chairman Michael Guest, Mississippi
Phone:
(202) 225-5031
Fax:
(202) 225-5797
David P. Joyce, Ohio
John H. Rutherford, Florida
Andrew R. Garbarino, New York
Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota
Thanks lin. We should do that for any nominee coming from the most corrupt and unethical president elected ever.
Note that Susiie Wild was defeated for re-election. Having the report see the light of day, somehow, could be her parting shot. (For the historically-minded, I know that it should be a Parthian shot, but that doesn’t fit.).
Thank you lin. We need more action comments like yours. I noticed that our founders warned against rise of kings, nobles and priests - exqctly what we are facing in so called evangelical Christians.
Not to mention the libertarian tech bros, who would charge a monthly subscription fee for air, if they could just figure out a way to privatize the atmosphere.
Folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger on right wing government. (Somewhere there is one about privatizing air.)
Ballad of Accounting
https://youtu.be/MY3kYU5CYmk?si=GvLcnjbhwBD2qK5j
Not Going to Give It Back
https://youtu.be/XYqD65ofSv4?si=qPCvIJbcBSAHubJn
The Grocer
https://youtu.be/g62fJPEa804?si=6lzT5FK2CHYJyXGC
Trump is the center ring circus. Reagan writ large and writ vulgar.
The real show is behind the scenes. Usually. Leonard Leo the plutocrats' useful man funneling money through a myriad of not for profits and LLCs to innumerable anti democratic initiatives. Over 40% of the funding for Project 2025 comes from Leo affiliated entities.
When Reagan jumped in bed with Ralph Reed, movement conservatism with the religious right, Dime a Dozen newly minted conservative lawyer, Leo saw a lucrative niche as a court capture operative and piety influencer. Hypocritically, Leo and his fellow Catholics on the high court could advance because of the progress in civil rights protections and the liberalizing of American society - which they are bent on using the courts to overturn.
A striking example of "I've got mine", don't you think? Most won't remember, but the candidacy of JFK raised a HUUUUGE uproar among the illiberal illiterates over fear of a "catlik" in the WH, with allegiance to the Pope.
"Must have"? I'm sure you meant a *right* to have!
Fear and hate trumps (to use the term) their own interests.
Ricardo, Yes. ‘They know not what they do’. Apathy & ignorance are diaper t’s diet. His gutter cabinet choices are in line with his ignorance.
I really like Lin’s suggestion for taking action. If I don’t, I’m simple mindedly joining the apathy vapor cloud crowd!
Thanks for your reply. Lately I'm thinking that maybe, the worst nominees trump select the better. They would do such a bad job that even the most ignorant of the mega crowd will feel the consequences of their vote and think twice next time...🫰
Please rethink the 'bring on the hurt and inspire better behavior' trope.
This 'punishment for your own good' notion is counterproductive. Often people respond to hurt by doing worse. As in electing fascists in response to defeat in WW1 and electing Republicans in response to losing jobs to NAFTA. Currently this specious notion is asserted by Jill Stein and other Trump enabling faux left wingers. Entirely ignoring the irreparable harm to our most vulnerable neighbors, threatened democracy, and fragile planet.
Trump won by a small majority. The devastation of the GOP agenda will be born by the majority of Americans who voted for Harris and others who were not eligible to vote.
And it won’t work. Too many do not care/are unconscious to consequences
"I didn't think the leopards would eat my face....."
Precisely why Republicans (since Reagan) so want to destroy public schools.
Thank you for this concisely shared history of how our American public education system evolved post WWII - to both fight for and attempt to destroy integration - and showing the power that too many poorly educated people can have to remain separated from the “other”. Just one more reason why our justice battle deepens as history continues to repeat itself.
At our 40th High School reunion, we met our German exchange student who had become a teacher in Finland. I was fascinated by his description of the way all classes of people attended the same schools and grades were not inflicted on students in the early years (the standardized test comes after you graduate from high school and want to enter into higher education).
Michael Moore's deceptively named, "Where to Invade Next," covering education memorable to me in France, Finland, Italy, Iceland, etc was released the next year.
I'd suggest looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_to_Invade_Next to get a much better idea of how much useful background information is in the film with a regrettable title (in my view, not bringing attention to the better education systems).
Interesting!
Thanks, Jim. I'll look into that.
You'll enjoy it. My favorite part is when Moore goes to one of the best restaurants in a small town in France. It is the cafeteria at the elementary school, where lunch is regarded as a class. The students have an hour to eat and are served on china with metal flatware. The lunch is three courses and the food is all scratch-made and locally sourced. There are pitchers of water on the table and the students are taught proper table manners. The best part is when Moore shows the French schoolkids photos of American school lunches. Their reactions are hysterical.
Since Nixon. Once upon a time I represented targetd districts. Busing wars. White flight.
For decades I've said the 'evolution' of the Republican party is that Nixon was obliged to say 'I am not a crook'. Under Reagan the GOP stance was 'You're not a crook? More for me.' Of course, under Trump it's evolved to 'If you're not a crook then you're a loser.'
From my perspective, 5 minutes after the education acts were passed, we were targeted. We had school prayers, book bans, unionization (1st teacher strike in Pa) and represented the majority of school districts (except Philly and Pgh) in "desegregation"/busing cases. We were forced to close neighborhood schools and bus virtually every elementary student, sold part of a district to the Amish, who had 13 year old girls teach in one room schoolhouses, had to provide for parochial students under Lemon v Kurtzman, etc. We never granted amnesty to nontenured teachers and fired all of them. We had 5 seperate bargaining units in one district, including the Republican Teamsters. The first time I did collective bargaining, they sized me for concrete overshoes. Board members are not always ehical and we had numerous internal political problems.
As a result, I don't think there is any majic to local control. I am a big fan of IDEA, which is anethema to MAGAts. IEPs should be a right for ALL students.
Unionization was bad???
Exactly. Because of lack of education - lack of civic knowledge - lack of knowing how government CAN work FOR them. And "He" would like to dumb down all states. So "he" can "take care of you". Because you don't know enough to take care of yourself.
Penny, Reagan's Secretary of Education hit the nail on the head. We are now a "Nation at Risk" more than ever. "The educational ( and All- my words) foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."
Talk about mediocrity! With all of Trump's cabinet nominees ( appointees) who are not EVEN mediocre, we are in for a "dumbing down" of everything we held in esteem, and the negation of every effort we have made to be the best we can all be.
My favorite quote now is "Who says crime doesn't pay." Think about how the children are seeing what "justice" means. It means nothing since Trump and his cronies-in-crime were elevated to the highest positions in the land.
I am desperately trying to find a silver lining. My eyes are tired from squinting so much.
Dumbing down, we are already dumb, how else could a moron get elected.
how? fearmongering. ( A handful of people can be turned against each other by suggesting that "those two" will turn against you and take away what is yours if you don't follow the dear leader's prescriptions. Once the virus of distrust is planted, it takes over. )
Harvey Kravetz,
I agree with you about our education system and the description of the elected oneS.
There are many excellent teachers working hard everyday under difficult conditions with little support. Without the respect for their work and without the basic supplies they need and without parental support....their job has become much more difficult.
There are students who go home to an empty house where one or both parents are working hard to just pay the bills. Some students are involved in sports and are not able to be home until even later. Some youth work after school to save for further education following High School. They have to find rides home afterwards.
Our priorities must be evaluated over and over again for the lifetime wellbeing of our children and youth who will hopefully be equipped to find good jobs with a salary that will support them and their families (Kamala spoke of this as she campaigned...was anyone listening?)
Regarding our recently elected persons in leadership positions....do they truly reflect America..."the land of the "free" and the home of the "brave"?????
I have children and grandchildren and they deserve better!!!! I am seriously looking to move to another country with them ... for the safety and freedom and opportunities my family deserves !!!
My daughter, who is a Pastor will not leave. She is committed to those whom she has chosen to care for. I have not spoken to my elder daughter or to her husband who have three wonderful young scholars . Bryan, her husband is the supervisor of a nature preserve.
There are also many other dear souls who do not have the ability to leave even if they wanted. It makes me so angry that a small group of criminals could take over the highest, most powerful offices of our nation.
We, the people...and I HOPE this means the majority, must find a way to stop this insanity!!!!
Well, Phantom campaign ads played a part to keep Dem turnout down. Timothy Snyder today explains ads targeted to individual groups, pretending to be for Kamala Harris, but adding a poison pill tailored to the recipient to get them to sit out this election. Washington Post reporters broke the story. https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-phantom-campaign?r=m52qv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
The 'silver lining' is having the Republican agenda and 'accomplishments' out in the open. And all the push back against it. Trump won by a small majority. The silver lining is the opportunity to be part of and expand the large opposition.
I am right there with you. Should I get called for jury duty again, this time I will raise my hand and my response to be excused will be “Your Honor, until you clean up this corrupt judiciary system, I’m not going to engage in this process”. I’m sure once I say that, any defense attorney will be “no thanks” 😉
I think the silver lining will appear soon, as we are a nation of both dependents and consumers. The dependents need all of the entitlements that the Democrats put in place when they acted like Democrats, such as Social Security and Medicare, and the consumers want cheap everything, from food to electronics. If Trump deports the illegals who pick the crops and work the meat and poultry plants, the price of groceries will go through the roof, and if he puts his touted tariffs in place, so will the price of everything else.
Once that happens, the mob that so recently put Trump back in office will remember why they voted for Biden in 2020. Not because they saw the light, but because they felt the heat.
Educated citizens VOTE! Thank you, Heather!
This has resulted in people in the House not understanding that they have no vote in the Senate's confirmation process. Or Senators not knowing the 3 equal parts of the Federal Government. Or... 🤦🏽🤦🏼♀️🤦🏻♂️
Well said!
Let us not forget that tRump loves the uneducated, for who else would vote for him.
"Let us not forget that tRump loves the uneducated, for who else would vote for him."
It is a very long list of graduates of the very best schools. Think about it.
The GOP coalition cuts across every demographic. The common thread is not lack of educational credentials. The common thread is what Hannah Arendt termed the 'banality of evil' - a blinkered self interest which gives no thought to the individual and communal (and we now can add planetary) devastation people do by 'just doing their job.'
It is a long list of graduates from the very best schools, but only because they know they can manipulate the poorly educated, as well, to get what they want. They are still too few to be the majority, but enough to be the minions who knowingly spread misinformation.
Indeed, Planetary concern jumped to the top of my priorities in the worst case scenario.
People who don't follow ANY news voted for Trump by +19 points. (Source either. Simon Rosenburg's or Robert Hubbel"s Substack.) People who follow a lot of news swung towards Harris, but only by +6 points.
Maybe Oklahoma, Mississippi etc but hardly Michigan.
Michigan is home to Betsy DeVos and her incessant work to wrest the locus of civic power away from secularly educated citizens and seat it firmly with white-christian-determined, entitlement values. She is of the Planter-Class mindset. All for me, none for thee.
It's home to a lot more than DeVos, MLR
Yes, how can we forget the Palestinian Diaspora curling team that swept the ice in front of Trump because easing the path to the presidency for the person whose leg Bibi most wants to hump in all the world would really show those Zionists in the Biden administration?
That really seems short-sighted …
She also has a home in TN, the better to “help” TN’s governor rabid to shove vouchers down our throats. It was defeated last session; he’s now reintroduced vouchers after working against those legislators who opposed them in the 2024 election.
Michigan is also home to Hillsdale College. Per Wiki: In 2021, Hillsdale K–12 released a Civics "1776 Curriculum."[37] In 2022, Hillsdale had schools following its K–12 liberal arts curriculum across 19 states and Barney Charter Schools in 9 states.
Missouri, ranking very low in both teacher salaries and educational results, is a prime and very effective example.
There is a strain of grievance in this country toward education—and teachers in particular—among people who could benefit from better education. When I was younger I saw it in my parents and attributed it to their having grown up during the Depression, when teachers were relatively secure on the public payroll while others were struggling. But more likely that grudge was always there and probably exacerbated by the Depression. In a country where all men are created equal, disparities in education and wealth strain the premise. But since we value wealth above education, resentment toward wealth tends to slide downhill toward education.
And that is why Republicans support the downgrading of education.
True
Carol, you are right about the states with the poorest-paid teachers are the biggest Trump supporters. If one does not learn to think critically or even to listen to what they are up against, they will support the "reality TV" guy who offered nothing positive the first time around, so will give him a second chance to wreck our democracy. Nice going red states and the reds in the swing states, the counties and districts that care least for positive honest education, who care least about their children and the world they are leaving to those children.
But education is also on the parents, not just the schools. My own parents instilled in me a love of reading and passed many an hour reading to and with me as a child until by around the age of 6 or 7 I struck out on my own. The problem is there is a societal dynamic now, in which the social context to be accepted demands the consumption of media. If your child does not have the latest device or is not up with the latest pop-cultural fad they will be outcast. I appreciate that it has been thus for decades now, since the advent of mass pop culture. But it is now by degrees worse. Growing up in the 60s and 70s I was bullied and mocked for not knowing who certain athletes and pop-stars were. I was able to summon the courage to simply live with being isolated and somehow survived it. But in today's atmosphere, I can only imagine how tough it is to limit social media without creating a major social trauma for one's child. As an added note, having been involved in education my entire life, you are right about teachers' salaries, but the worst place for that is the university system, where coaches and presidents and administrators are paid excessive salaries, and adjuncts less than minimum wage (if you calculate their time hourly) with no benefits.
The Catholic School Graduates, no, I'm not Catholic, that I have encountered, have have always seemed to have solid Academic Foundations... These Schools also spend less per Student... If these things are true, maybe we should find out why...
I've wondered about this, also. Many years ago, I asked a professor why this was the case. One reason he mentioned was that Catholic schools can choose their students. They did not, at least at that time, allow students with disabilities and/or behavioral problems. I went to a Catholic elementary school (K-8th) and that was the case. We had no students with disabilities and if someone had behavioral problems that often disrupted the class, they would be expelled. This happened to one student who was in my class. He was sent to "military school."
Chump is uneducated, why he likes the “uneducated.” And why they like him. People used to say that the educated look down on the uneducated. Well, not anymore. Now the educated are disparaged by the most haughty ignorance.
Orange Jesus needs the "uneducated" in order to maintain his Orange Hitler dream. Retarded inbred underage sex offenders, trailer park, beer drinking Fox News addicts with pick up trucks and Trump flags keep that Orange base rock solid.
The low lifes have plenty of company, Buckley would be appalled
That kind of bias has been around since forever, JD. both ways, up and down.
Are we hopeless to ever learn from history?
Exactly. AND they do not have to hire credentialed teachers. I taught in the Catholic schools because I needed a job. One year I had 47 students, the next year 55 sixth graders. I was not credentialed at the time. I went on to get my masters and became a PUBLIC school administrator. (I'm not Catholic)
"Military School", for Disruption?, like DJT? The Catholic Schools are also essentially Private... The Student Parents have to pay Tuition...
Our children were given a choice and chose Catholic schools for grades 1-12 (with one year where one couldn't get in due to no openings). We gladly paid the tuition for our children (and helped others when a parent died, for example, with anonymous donations they were told was part of an insurance plan).
We never asked for, or wanted the taxpayers to pay for our choices, but always willingly paid taxes to support public schools.
In the spirit of my great grandmother (born during Grant's administration), and all the other previous generations of our family, my answer to childless people that don't want to pay for other people's children is that, if you received an education, you owe an education.
That was the least they owed, the other reasons are the benefits you receive from a universally educated and healthy society.
Where did you get the idea from the post and comments that "childless people don't want to pay for other people's children''? That is not my experience in California, PA or New England. The "childless people" I know all believe in the societal value of a good public education and believe it has to be paid for in taxes. The ones whining about public education are themselves the recipients of a poor one.
I agree, education is an essential part of social infrastructure, a way to partially level educational opportunity, which is the foundation for society and its institutions of every stripe, in short "the foundation of the world".
As a "childless cat lady" I have always voted for public school measures (being the child of a teacher and a self-taught historian/Army trained meteorologist I knew the value of education) and was taught to love reading by both parents. Any child that has knocked on my door selling things for school is guaranteed a purchase from me.
I'm a childfree 63-year-old woman and a lifelong progressive. My black husband and I always vote to support education in all ways.
My dad passed away when I was three. My mom raised four kids on her own after that. She sacrificed and sent us to Catholic schools (I grew up Catholic). She and my dad were firm believers in education. They read to us, both of them read voraciously, and encouraged our reading.
I was fortunate to receive an excellent, college-prep education. I obtained a full-ride engineering scholarship and was a metallurgical engineer at 21. I had a wonderful career. It was all due to my education and my wonderful parents.
It seems to be a MAGAt thing. In some places, anyway
👏👏👏
Not for long, vouchers are the thing. Starve the public schools. Pretty soon, everything that Benjamin Franklin began for the betterment of his new country will be for the coffers of the rich. Is there a reason why the junk bond crook, Michael Milken, after prison, went into educational innovation??? Pardoned by chump, he is back on the prowl, greedy as ever.
Soon Texas will have the voucher program Governor Abbott bought with his newly installed legislators. They will not help poor students but add to already enrolled students' tuition subsidy.
It will take funding from our public schools.
Or they don't. Look at the voucher program in Wisconsin. The poster child for voucher schools - paid for by tax dollars!
However, the Church has also historically made room for Catholic families who could not pay, or could not pay full tuition.
Like any other private school, Catholic schools can expel disruptive students. The goal was to teach, not to babysit or be correction officers. I went to Catholic school grades 1-9 then, (because my parents could no longer afford the tuition) went to public school grades 10-12. I immediately noticed a big difference in the quality of education. The teachers were good, but the 'discipline' of the private school wasn't there.
The policy on accepting students with disabilities was the same for all schools (private and public) at that time. Disabled children went to separate schools.
Moving often in the military meant I went to high school without knowing the previous histories of my classmates. I was impressed by how socially responsible and accomplished they were in later life (from our 40th reunion, the first time I saw many of them in 40 years since I went into the military and kept on moving).
When I asked what made them seem so special to me, I learned they had a disabled student in their classes all through the lower grades. I think they all learned so much more from that experience. It may not always be possible, but I do think it can be at least a bit better than shunting all of them off to just special classes where they only see other disabled children (unless those classes are exceptionally well run).
That said, I'm often surprised to find that interesting people I have met that seem capable of much more seemingly rewarding jobs at first glance, find their rewards in lifelong dedicated care of disabled family members or friends.
"The policy on accepting students with disabilities was the same for all schools (private and public) at that time. Disabled children went to separate schools."
So are you saying that the Catholic diocese provided schools for children with disabilities?
No. I'm saying what you're saying. Children with disabilities went to schools for the disabled rather than to regular public or private schools.
I wonder why the law sides with “students” who “often disrupt the class.” Blindly insisting that they remain (and inevitably continue disrupting) is what stirs antiwoke anger. Has anyone proposed a better way to handle this?
(I graduated in 1970; back then the disrupters got paddled. Not saying that was best. My rural school was poor and I self educated to a large degree. I don’t recall the classes finishing any textbook in the school year. Sometimes not even half. Algebra II was dropped before I got to that grade level.)
So much of America has never been great.
This isn't always true. I was raised in Catholic Schools and have worked in a Catholic school for 19 years. My Grade School and High School took everyone. I do not know of a single Catholic Grade School that only takes certain students in my town.
The Catholic High School where I work is the largest private school in the State. Why? Because we welcome EVERYONE. We welcome all religions, learning ability, students from a wide range of economic and societal backgrounds. We have a robust program of financial aid administered out of house. Our academic programs are fitted from traditional students to AP students. All ranges of student receive millions in college scholarships.
This is the same blueprint of the other Catholic High Schools in my town.
I personally know young people who would not have had their particular learning needs addressed in a public education system. The public schools admit they can't address all tyles of learners. Catholic Schools in partnership with the Public Schools can provide education for everyone.
The most important thing is the education and care for our children in the United States.
Happy to hear the faith school in your town is inclusive, but that is an exception.
I don't have national data on inclusivity in private schools to comment.
So are you saying that the schools within the diocese had schools for special education students and/or disruptive behavioral problems? Did they have schools for children with physical disabilities? If so, I'm guessing that they either receive funding from the federal government or charge higher tuition to the family with a disabled child or the tuition is higher for all students.
You are wanting a one size fits all answer. How would I know all the ins and outs of funding? It is a really complex matter.
Here is my bottom line so clearly stated before.
The most important thing is the education and care for our children in the United States.
Let's work for solutions, get out of the us/them corners, release any experiences good or bad we had as children be the adults in the room and simply take care of the children.
"Catholic schools can choose their students"
This is it exactly, and this says it all. A voucher system should require that schools that take vouchers accept any student, just as public schools do.
Not all Catholic Schools choose their students. Please read my comment.
I"m not sure I'd lay this one on the inclusion of disabled kids in schools, though i know from a friend whose career was build around support services, this has been a challenge the entire time.
I had a girl with osteoporosis imperfecta in my class. She was in a wheelchair. My school was built in the early 1900s so no ADA accommodations. We bumped her chair up and down steps and included her in our activities.
Bad behavior was probably a bigger issue but to a degree it was tolerated in very narrow bounds. But there really were not many. Once Sister gave you The Look you settled down. And remember, parents expected lots more then too.
Yes, this and, in my day, free labor from nuns/brothers.
Product of Catholic schools 52 1st grade kids 1 nun, if you didn’t learn to read you were held back. I did fine my siblings struggled. Corporal punishment was employed often. I am certain the nuns were not qualified teachers.
My children went to public schools - loved it and flourished.
I strongly oppose vouchers. Strong accredited public schools are the backbone of our country.
I strongly oppose the use of tax dollars for vouchers. It weakens our public schools in so many ways!
Agreed!
As it stands today Public Schools cannot meet the needs of every kind of student. Public Schools have become zip code funded, subjected to politicized School Boards whose members are not educators and ravaged by the exodus of educated professionals who are treated like dirt as they try and teach.
I sense a lot of fear of the "other" kind of schools. There is a private school system in 2 States that are designed to meet the needs of profoundly visually impaired preschoolers. In previous times these kids would have been hidden in homes or tucked away in institutions. The sad thing is so many kids are not getting what they need because of tuition.
Remember that the Schools for the Blind scattered all across the Country were among the first "other" schools designed to meet the needs of a specific population.
Why is there such a resistance to more than one type of school system? While the adults are dickering around with this issue children are actually suffering.
Choose their students, public schools take what comes in the door. And I have seen some who were “home schooled” and then brought to public school. It ain’t pretty, mostly. There are exceptions but rarely.
I also saw " home schooled" turn to public schools as "focus of concern" for inclusion in special education. What education needs is some real problem solvers not the so called "quick fix" what ever is popular solutions . People who teach are NOT in it for the $$$$$$ & shame on the orange fascist & others who blame & shame teachers.
I had to deal with plenty of parents who used the special education law as a cudgel. Now it looks like they want to dictate to private schools and have tax money pay. That had already started before I retired.
Can you elaborate? I've always wondered but not seen data nor analysis.
I don’t have data or analysis. I just had to deal with students who had no remote clue, and one who didn’t know how to sit in a desk. If anyone has analyzed the data, feel free to chime in. BTW, one very bright student wanted to be put on homebound (like seriously ill students were) because her dad said he was a Renaissance man and she needed to be home. Believe me, public schools take what comes in the door, and deals with them, and their parents. Private schools charge a mint to deal with them. Soon taxpayers will.
Thanks for this. I've some passing acquaintance with educators (and teachers) who do the daily struggles. Their ability to carry on is epic.
And I used to follow the threads of the classic American Grift as applied to education (DeVos being a bog-standard example). I gave up long ago flogging that peril to anyone who would listen (because, as with my anti-fascism rants, no one, not even the people who were really smart and tuned in and resourceful and dedicated to the struggle at large) seemed to care.
Ready to learn skills use to be taught in Kindergarten . Now head start & early childhood education are teaching the ready to learn skills which are more focused on adult directed activities rather than child directed-- like how to sit next to someone, how to stand in line, how to follow directions, share, etc. Kindergarten has been termed "boot camp". Until about the 4th grade , development skills can vary widely. Without acknowledging that, many kids who are not developmentally ready for certain skills become discouraged learners in kindergarten. Also learning skill varies & big box schools teach to language skills & if you are more of a visual learner , hope for a teacher that can adapt to your needs. Teaching is not for those who want an "easy job" with summers off.
I briefly experimented with homeschooling and found it nigh impossible to find secular homeschooling materials. They all seemed to really emphasize Christian overtones, even to the point of anti-evolution and Flat Earth nonsense. Ultimately I put my kids in public school, and was an active room mom supporter for their teachers while insisting on keeping up with a "project" of their choice every summer. We played educational games at home. When they had lackluster teachers, they were still held accountable for learning the material; as a result, both learned how to self teach and learn from other sources, something they still do now in their thriving 20s.
There is a ton of data in Wisconsin. You can look it up. Ever since ACT 10 when the then governor pitted the parents against the teachers. You can find a wealth of information about vouchers and how they are paid for etc.
My mom sent me to a Catholic Boarding school when I was in my teens because I had become somewhat of a feral child after my parents separated. While I'm not religious in the least, I'll say one thing for the Presentation Brothers, they scared me into the best grades of my school career; straight A student for two years. The only time I came even close was in university where paying your own way instills its own brand of discipline.
Do Catholic schools have any problems with parents who think & act as if their child is "entitled" ? In public schools one encounters parents who do not have their child's education or education as an important value and/ or are not engaged in their learning. Also if you discipline their child, they take issue or become litigious. Starving public education will increase problems & costs in others parts of society. The % of inmates in prison that can not or have low reading abilities . Guess that is good for the profit prisons.
I so agree! We have a whole generation of parents who have coddled and helicoptered their kids in all aspects. They raise kids who are unable to function or adult when they go off to university or out on their own.
Carole, Yes of course they have those parents. They are the ones with money who think they—and their child—is entitled. But usually they are also members of the parish that runs the school so they might not want to be too obnoxious. If a parish school they will eventually go up against the pastor who may or may not cater to them.
.
presentation Brothers, and what was their secret?
I'm Glad that it turned out well for You...
When I was a freshman in high school the Catholic schools invited one public school math team to participate in their annual math competition. Our math team coach told us they wanted to see how their math program compared to the local public school math program.
At the time the Catholic school system had about a dozen schools that sent a team to the completion. We were asked sometime during the week before the competition if we could participate in the competition on Saturday. So basically, our team went into the competition with zero preparation.
Our team took home EVERY 1st place trophy and a couple of the 2nd place trophies where more than one of teams participated in an event.
As far as scientific studies go, this competition meant very little, but it doesn't give one confidence that the Catholic school system at the time was academically adept.
My sidebar math team story....
My high school had a math team called "Knights of the Log Table". Solid group of 10-12 kids, both genders. For one competition, there was some other school event (for once, not the debate team; or marching band I can't remember what it was) and they needed one more person to go. My trombone playing buddy drafted me.
I am spatially dyslexic (undiagnosed, but it sure explains a lot of my difficulties in comprehension of numbers and formulae) and I advised that I would be next to no help. His reply "as long as we can compete, you're good with whatever you can do." The final problem of the day was a complex problem that included a very basic algebraic formula imbedded in the middle of it. All the Knights (including about 1/3 girls, I must add) were struggling with it. I looked at it and (since I had two years to understand the concepts of basic Algebra) was able to solve that one part of one problem. Helped us win the competition.
@ Apache. When I was a school lawyer, Catholic schools were inferior, used uncredentialed teachers and their scores were low. Most are no longer in operation.
In some archdioceses, massive judgments for child, sexual abuse
That is unfortunate... The Catholic Church does have issues with Abuse... So do Public Schools... I was is talking about Student Outcomes for some of the Catholic School Graduates I know... One Woman that I know, went on to Graduate Summa Magni Laude from Berkeley, and another a Phd from another Top-Ranked School... Other People that I know, have observed how easy Public Schools were when they transferred to them... Like all things, it varies on the Parish, and the Public School... Each Person is different... The Important Thing is that K-12 Education is failing, and now we have DJT 2.0 ...
Their teachers most likely are not unionized, so teachers benefits and perks are different. In addition, these schools do not enroll children with disabilities. I will add that quality of public education is also linked to who gets a seat at local school boards, from academics to costs. Take, as an example, contractual terms and expectations around teachers sabbatical programs between 2 public schools and between one public and one private school. It can be revealing. I 100% support public schools but we can’t ignore the various shades of quality amongst them and that there is so much that money alone can do.
It’s not true to say categorically Catholic schools don’t enroll students with disabilities. It depends on the nature and severity of the disability and whether they can offer a good education to that student.
Don't Catholic schools also spend less per teacher? And their health insurance sucks?
Our children's teachers often took lower pay rather than try to teach in under funded public schools with too many discipline problems thrown in. We still carefully (with our children's input) chose which Catholic schools to attend.
One of their favorite math teachers was actually Jewish and an inspiration that led to a Phi Betta Kappa PhD. Both the teachers and many of their students like our children are great human beings, and inspirational to us parents.
My favorite decal on our offspring's computer says "Is he rich, or does he just have money."
Absolutely not true in my town. The Catholic School system where I work is competitive in salary, benefits and is doing a better job of educating students. They accept all students.
Hello Terry... That can be true if they use Clergy to Teach... I was only referring to Student Outcomes...
Most of the teachers (maybe all) at our regional high school have at least masters degrees.
I administered the benefit plans for my diocese (been retired 10 years). Our health insurance was to the public schools what a Mercedes is to a Hyundai, and it was mostly paid by the employer. I did a “total compensation” statement for every teacher in the system. Though their pay was somewhat lower, they had benefits greater than the public school teachers, who paid more for theirs.
Well, one big reason is they didn’t have to pay teachers, usually sisters—they paid the orders something. Catholic schools were a response to anti-immigration and -Catholic sentiment especially prevalent in the early 20th century. I’m a product of Catholic elementary school; we were expected to behave, Mass every day at that time; classes were rigorous (diagramming sentences comes to mind); expectations were high; and parents supported the discipline and rigor. I am blessed.
As a military brat, I attended lots of different schools over the course of my earlier education years - DoD, public, and Catholic. Catholic was by far the most rigorous! I remember diagramming sentences 😊! Reading and learning to write (not the mechanics of penmanship, although penmanship was a subject time was devoted to) but learning to structure sentences and paragraphs, organization, grammar, logical thought, etc. My love of reading and writing were inspired early on and remain with me 60 years later. I am thankful.
As to mainstreaming the disabled into public schools…I have mixed feelings about it for a couple of different reasons. First, I like that able bodied students are afforded the opportunity to get to know students who are “different” and may gain insight into empathy and appreciation for every individual’s contribution and humanity. On the other hand, public schools are not always equipped with the resources to best serve special needs students. The support staff used in the classroom are often not trained or credentialed.
"First, I like that able bodied students are afforded the opportunity to get to know students who are “different” and may gain insight into empathy and appreciation for every individual’s contribution and humanity. " Thanks for this. WE have not heard enough like it.
My parents always stressed that everyone in the community has a societal responsibility to educate its children and I totally agree. People, as in family and friends, have called me a “socialist” because of it. HORRORS! The trick is to find an equitable way of funding public schools. In Pennsylvania, it’s with property taxes so if you live in the right zip code, the school system is great! But the inner city and rural schools struggle and have to do without many of the necessary resources and tools that modern schools need to provide a competitive education. I don’t have the answer but I certainly hope the people we elect do and I plan to keep them accountable!
Good idea, Apache. I recall that those kind of studies were done about 20-30 yr ago. I am both a graduate of Catholic schools and a former math & science teacher in both Catholic and public schools, as well as a long-time educational reformer. I can't remember the exact conclusions so I won't throw out ideas. But I remember being impressed and not surprised by the findings.
Maybe, because the kids in Catholic School were scared $hitless of the nuns and paid attention. I grew up in a small rural/bedroom district community. For some reasons i don't recall why other than my mother said the President of the local school board was Catholic. Us Public school kids heard stories about the nuns on the bus back and forth to school. We were scared of the nuns. That said Catholic schools spent less per student maybe, because they don't have to fund special education programs or other programs.
When I was in second grade my family moved from Alaska —where I went to catholic school—to Seattle, where I had to go to public school because the local catholic school was full. But the public school curriculum was 2 years behind what we were doing in the catholic school. When I showed the public school teacher what I was reading—when I should have been paying attention in class—she informed me that I didn’t know how to read that yet and took my book away.
Maureen... I am sorry that You had that Experience...
The Catholic religion is all about money and hiding perverted priests. I became a bastard when the Bishops granted my father (also a pervert) an annulment from my mother, so he could marry again in the Catholic Church. Its bullshit
Perhaps its the educational "values" they include... not that that's answer.
Enjoyed your story,Steve. My mother also read to us kids regularly, i couldn't wait to be able to read myself, even pretending to read though i didnt have the remotest, my kids followed in that wake. But then, through to now, only a minority of people enjoy reading per se. Social media actually provide a mix of engagements, both visual, but lots of readable. In fact ebooks are a mainstay for me as well. I also keep in touch with friends and relatives. We may not like the rise of extremism via the internet, but all kinds of boats have risen thus. Including Heather Richardson.
Before I could actually read, I would (according to family memory) memorize the little books read to me by my brothers, then proudly recite them to prove "I can read!" often holding them upside down thus exposing my trick. I wanted to be like everyone else in my family of readers.
Yep i did that too! In Grade 3 i signed up for the local Children's Public Library, became a "home away from home" for quite some time!
Frank, we lived about 5 blocks from the Public Library. I would ride my bike up there about 2-3 times a week, checking out my allotted 5 books at a time. I'd read them and bring them back. Their summer reading program always included a free ticket to our local minor league baseball team. They limited me to 3 tickets; each ticket was earned by reading 10 books.
I grew up in the library, and at the YMCA, which was slightly closer to my house.
My branch library was one block away and the librarian lived in our community where it appeared to me everyone knew my parents. 😚
Yeah, the local ymca was just across from the library, another hangout!
The game afoot is making the selfishness of the white-christian, Planter-Class mentality again the norm and driver of all policy. They loved education when the dollars were entitled to them and theirs. The moment it ventured to be shared for the strengthening of the entire nation, they revealed their true Un-Americanism. They are always, always, always, Slave-owning-mentality people. They do not want to share. They do not see the benefit of a level playing field. In fact they know the level playing field will just reveal their ineptitude. That has to be hidden at all costs.
Technology is a gift and a curse at the same time. I am seeing cell phones used for "baby sitting" and toddlers that now how to operate them better and faster than I do
You are right, Steve. It is on the parents. However, so many have turned parental responsibilities over to the schools. Sometimes, it is from necessity because parents are working 2 jobs to make ends meet or a single parent trying to hold the family unit together. I attended public school. All of my children attended Lutheran elementary and public high school. We live in a very small town. They received a good foundation and so did I. And, I do think it was the home atmosphere that was responsible for our education as much as the schools. Unfortunately, parenting is one occupation that requires no training or qualifications. There is some education available to teach parenting skills, but it is very limited. Perhaps our nation needs to concentrate on support systems for the parents as well as the children?
I was an adjunct for 12 years and I agree with your assessment.
Not everyone has parents who can be the kind of parent you had.
We also have standardized testing which is anathema to many teachers. It teaches test taking, not critical thinking nor does it speak to an individual student's strengths and weaknesses. The wing nuts have tried to take over school board to push their brand of Christianity and ignore any students who are not just like them. This is why people must pay attention and vote in local elections. Right not Salem's board is more progressive, but it has and has had some real putzes on the board. Board members in St. Helen's probably wish they weren't board members...big scandal over a couple teachers caught in sexually inappropriate behavior.
Change for betterment, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!
No idea of how this relates to my comment.
Did I get the above right?
Public schools, like any place where adults gather, have as much sexual drama as any other place. I could write a book. Thanks for the reminder. BTW, being a board member for a religiously supported non-profit, was a shock to this ex-civil servant. Three-ring circus.
I really like the cut of your jib JD…actually, I have no idea what that means but I’ve traced the thread of your comments and find myself agreeing with you on everything you point out. Nice. And yeah I’m pretty sure that a jib is sail. John Taylor Gatto wrote “Dumbing Us Down” in the’80s, check it out. And 70 years ago, I was that kid who couldn’t sit still in that chair.
I know that the "jib" is a sail on a boat. I looked it up, because I have always heard it as a compliment, and assumed that the reference was that someone was "shipshape", meaning all together. What I learned was this:
"The phrase originated in the mid-18th century with sailing navies. Before the national flag was visible, the shape of a warship's jib could indicate its nationality. For example, French jibs were shorter on the luff than English jibs. The phrase originally meant that a person was recognized by the shape of their nose."
Now, I have no clue what shape JD's nose is. I do know that they often both post astute commentary and do not suffer fools gladly.
Just a plain old nose, Ally, thanks for the info. We all seem to be suffering more than a fair share of fools. Texas is rife with such…
Here's another one you can look up...Hoisted on my/your own petard. I've used it now and again so I looked it up. I thought it was another sailing ship reference. Nope. It is Shakespeare and it is a "small bomb" which includes a fart. There was a sailing ship named the HMS Petard. No joke. Hoist on my own petard happens to me almost every day. Or perhaps the hebrews have a better way of describing my conundrums (another word). They say "Man Plans and God Laughs". The military calls it Fubar. Another one: "Don't piss into the wind or uphill.
Probs were not kids not sitting still, more like lying on floor and crawling around. Squirming in chair sort of normal. I still do it and was called out by another board member at that circus. Yep, we’ve been down that same road. So many kids are carrying heavy baggage of others as they try to cope with the basics of academics. Sometimes I wonder what the “Lincolns” did to focus. Maybe their distractions and burdens were not so existential. Maybe just the next meal. Big mystery.
Sooooo much drama! It was insane, worse than the most pandering of telenovellas.
We (the students) had a betting pool in my rural school about which teachers would hook up by the end of the year. In my four years there, I watch *minimum* four marriages get destroyed by affairs within the school. Others I'm sure managed to cover up their infidelity or somehow work it out with their spouse. Our superintendent was fired over it, but other teachers got *maybe* a slap on the wrist.
Also had a male teacher who would sit all the girls up front and shunt all the boys to the back. He liked to loom. All the upperclassmen warned us to wear high collar shirts, crew necks at least. Baggy sweatshirts were stored in lockers for this class *specifically* and still the school didn't do anything about it. He's still teaching there, far as I know. He'd also refuse to teach anything that went against his religious beliefs, so in our *science class* we never learned *anything* more than surface level about evolution theory.
Wow, sadly, such is not rare. I stayed away from the Geometry teacher because he pawed the teen girls. Hurt me later, but Lordy, leech’s all over. Parental oversight is good, but too many think they are helicopters, censors, or experts on everything. I called one parent I knew a “professional mother.” It was not a compliment. I also spent one weekend with the school psychologist talking with a science teacher who was breaking up with a history teacher and was suicidal. Both married to others. Lordy, brings back memories.
What are you saying here with the reference to his looming and certain kinds of shirts? Was the guy trying to look down the girls shirts for a glimpse at a boob?
Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying.
The problem was not that they were there, but that the school administration did not act immediately and put them on paid leave immediately. The one guy had to be long retired, so his story was not clear to me. The other was and is pleading not guilty. Now the super and principal are on paid leave and I think the school board chair resigned. I could write a book too because of what I witnessed where I worked.
Yep, gist for some best sellers. I went to work at high school where two teachers shacked up in the Life Skills apt that was there to teach the handicapped. The kids were not the only challenges.
This 'Dumbing Down' of the Electorate is what has given us DJT 2.0... I've been told that many Teachers have to Work more than 1-Job to make Ends meet... Same as many 1st Responders... The Tragedy of this is that the Attainment of U.S. Kids comes in last in Reading, Math, & Science among 1st-World Nations: "Ironically, despite the United States having the best-surveyed education system on the globe, U.S students consistently score lower in math and science than students from many other countries. According to a Business Insider report in 2018, the U.S. ranked 38th in math scores and 24th in science." Indeed, some Improvements can be made...
We have produce world class science in the US but we don't seem to impart much appreciation of the scientific method to those who do not aim to be science professionals. I think most people are left with the impression that science is a very specialized class of technical information, but the engine of science is a trained way of thinking, and just like playing baseball, you don't have to be a pro to participate. Learning how to derive reliable information from evidence and logic is useful in any walk of life.
And, yeah, my son-in-law is currently working as first responder, and the pay is low considering the hours, expertise, and risk. Were you shipwrecked on a desert island, would you rather discover you were joined by a shipmate who had been a first responder or a hedge fund manager?
What People don't realize is that the U.S. has over 1-Million Foreign Students conducting much basic Research... If DJT throws them out... Guess What?... Even now many are forced to leave when they complete their Studies...
One thing that I love about Kamala Harris is that her mother came here from India to pursue her goals as a scientist and she did not go quietly when a white man was given a position promised to her.
Canada benefits from a lot of brilliant from from the rest of the world that we benefit from while they are in our universities, but then are denied post graduate opportunities here. If we're lucky, they only go to Canada or other countries friendly to us. If we aren't lucky, we get repeats of counter-productive expulsions like that which ended up with Qian Xuesen, "...the father of China's missile and space programme..." being deported.
See https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-54695598
Yet, the first responders, nurses, and fire fighters I have known are MAGAts. They adore a man who is a crook, incompetent, and lewd. Hard workers admiring a lazy lout. Keep that pecking order going, just find somebody (or group) and peck them into submission.
Inexplicable...shouldn't they be the very people who would despise a lazy, lewd, incompetent, compulsive liar??? He isn't a person they would want on the same team as they had to work on, I'm sure. There are so many levels of "I just don't get it" going on in my head here.
His efforts to do something normal are laughable. Couldn’t believe anyone was impressed. Cults are a special kind of crazy.
Not this nurse!
Just a question; are you in a minority. I think there were about half a dozen of us more liberal cops in my sheriff's department.
JD, it boggles my mind. Far too many cops/firefighters/paramedics are MAGAts. I think that, at least in Copland, so many have authoritarian personality traits. Same holds true for the military, I suspect.
You brought a chuckle. I remember one ninth grader who loved to trip kids on the stairs. His goal was to be a cop. I hoped that he was an exception. I hate to paint with a wide brush but one school had many military retirees and their kids. The kids were often rebellious and wouldn’t conform for what looked like opposition to daddy. The more pressure the worse they did. Drove military parents crazy. They would ground for a whole semester, rather than an appropriate time. The kids saw no hope and gave up. Big stick, no clue. I learned that affluent parents had as many foibles as poor ones. Learned a lot of “what not to do.”
Years ago in a Linear Algebra class, two new Chinese students didn’t speak English, but they did speak math. Quite well, in fact.
I think that Professor Richardson eloquently discussed the problems with the plans outlined in Project 2025 for the Department of education and education itself. As a former teacher, who has taught in public and private schools in the US and an international schools, I would not decry the teachers just yet. Most that I know are doing a yeoman's job of educating their students under increasingly difficult circumstances especially since covid when the right wing parents got to look into the classroom.
Another part of the P2025 plan is that after dismantling the Dept. of Education they would put Regular education stat gathering and services under the Dept. of Labor and then Special Education services under Health and Human Services, but then get rid of HHS and turn it into the Dept. of Life. So, who knows what that is going to look like? I can see it being that children who are already the most vulnerable, will be brainwashed about anti-abortion policies and their responsibility to procreate. By putting regular education under the Dept. of Labor at the same time that they discourage people from going to university, and encourage child labor is I suppose, to make up for the labor lost by deporting or putting into concentration camps millions of undocumented and other "immigrants."
Instead of educating children to be better future citizens, there will be mass incarceration of the ones whose background or physical appearance does not appeal to the incoming leadership and their loyal minority following.
Andrea Pitzer is an expert on concentration camps and has studied various 20th century authoritarian regimes. This is from Andra Watkins Substack How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life. https://substack.com/home/post/p-151702504
So you do have to think what can you do to protect your grandson's future. There are other countries with good education systems, if ours is destroyed, which will not happen overnight. As I understand it, they want to have things firmly in place in these 2 years before the mid-term elections in 2026. It will be important to have organizing capabilities so that one can get information out there and get information that is not co-opted, so I have been recommending that our Democratic governors who are gathering together, start their own Social media platform. It should be located outside of the US so that Musk cannot have it shut down as it competes with his big disinformation machine X. We should all support such an endeavor. Perhaps then Substack can split and its democratic accounts go to this platform while others go to another.
Andra Watkins has been doing a series of posts on suggestions of what to do. https://substack.com/@andrawatkins/p-151612416
Young women are particularly in danger. They will particularly need protection. Your grandson's are going to need to make up for any shortcomings in their education by learning from you and your children. That is what parents always do to make up gaps. And, you will be getting active in their local schools, running for school board on sane policies, and staving off right wing policies and actions as best you can, as well as finding ways around them.
"Instead of educating children to be better future citizens, there will be mass incarceration of the ones whose background or physical appearance does not appeal to the incoming leadership and their loyal minority following. Andrea Pitzer is an expert on concentration camps and has studied various 20th century authoritarian regimes."
Years ago, we met Kiku Hughes aunt. Kiku's graphic novel "Displacement," brought tears to my eyes thinking of what her innocent mother, aunt, and grandparents went through by spending years in the Japanese American displacement camps during WWII. The treatment was not as torturous and deadly as the concentration/extermination camps Andrea Pritzer describes in "This is How We Survive This Mess," but are a darker chapter in our history than any I would ever want repeated.
[Edited to correct error pointed out by Linda Weide]
Migrants innately know of the horrors of these “detainment” camps. A neighbor who is Mexican told me that undocumented immigrants in Florida are already returning to their countries and shortages of garlic, onions and potatoes are beginning to be felt. We’re in trouble….
It is not Andra Watkins describing this, it is a link from her Substack. The person talking is Andrea Pitzer.
Thanks, I corrected it.
Yikes!
Better informed, better prepared!
Ruth, Regrettably, while I imagine there are exceptions, I’m hard-pressed to think of a district where the quality of education, replete with differential salaries, isn’t inextricably linked to zip code, by design. I also understand, over time, the level of inequity has stayed the same or has gotten worse. This is not just a matter of demonizing disproportionality, but an issue, woefully unacknowledged, of democratic survival.
At one time "wealth" was considered a suspect criterion under the 14th Amenment, so some states tried to compensate poorer districts. Eventually it was struck down.
When I represened districts in Pa, state reimbursement was made on a reciprical of school tax revenue. Districts had independent taxing power.
In some places, taxpayers vote against good schools.
Daniel, You’re right about blocs of taxpayers voting against tax increases to fund education. Given the myriad of reasons, nothing will change without open discussion and dialogue covering benefits and pitfalls of raising taxes.
There is still compensation, but at the state level, where some of the blue states’ paid taxes are sent to the red states in various ways.
Stuff like Chapter I (Title I) funding for disabvantaged kids, IDEA, etc. But what I mean is direct state paynments to equalize costs for salaries, facilities and equipment.
As a result of "rustification" and the demise of the manufacturing sector, we lost more than half of our ad valorum tax base at the same time we were targeted for litigation for school strikes, busing, school closures.....
We went fro being "wealthy" to "impoverished" in a couple of years. We had a great assistant superintendant in one district who was able to get foundation grants to supplement Chaper 1 -- part of a "schools without falure" program.
This country is currently suffering under the tyranny of a minority. When it comes to public education, it’s worth remembering that the American public education system was once the envy of the Western world, admired and emulated by many. A strong public education system not only fostered individual opportunity but also provided businesses with skilled, capable employees essential for their success.
You have every reason to despair for the children of your children. trump is sloshing around the idea of installing Tiffany "Justice," the co-founder of Moms for Liberty as Secretary of Education....
Teachers for decades and decades have been the villains and victims of a substandard education system. Children aren’t keeping up, blame the teachers. Children are failing, blame the teachers. Children are falling behind in standardized tests, blame the teachers. Taxes are too high, blame the school system. This is true regardless of which party is in control at the state or federal level.
Former Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, instituted a tax cap of 2% on increases to real estate taxes for schools. After allowing for all other expenses, there was little to no money for increases for teacher’s salaries.
What happened to parent/teacher conferences and meet the teacher nights? What about summer school because a child failed a grade or course? I’m long out of the public school system, do any of these still exist?
While individuals are crying about the lack of religion in schools these days, I was in second grade in 1962/3. I clearly remember every Wednesday afternoon at 2:00, Catholic children were released for Religious Instruction. So in essence, my school day ended an hour early on Wednesdays. The school system didn’t want anything new taught after students were dismissed for Religious Instruction.
I’ll leave everyone with this. Segregation was not a Southern state’s issue, it was in the North as well. If anyone is interested, look up US vs City of Yonkers, NY and the Yonkers Public School System.
Ruth: I agree with you completely. It is tragic. I fear not for my self or my son . I fear about my two young granddaughters and their possible progeny. I actually hope they do not choose to have children. ( I would never voice it to them.)
Yes, teachers are under paid across the board but there is not a more dedicated, intelligent,
caring group of people who care for humanity over themselves. Support our teachers, your children's teachers, support your public school even if that means sending a note of thanks or buying a book at the book fair
Douglas county Colorado, one of the wealthiest in the country, just elected Lauren Boebert. CORRECTION: we just got Lauren Boebert. We did NOT elect her, she lost in this county, to the DCCC's astonishment.
She managed to get her GED on the fourth attempt. The local joke is she'll be appointed head of D of Ed.
The woman who turned Douglas county blue (it's part of Boebert CD4 but the rest is eastern plains ignorant Colorado full of priests) is waiting to announce she'll run again in two years in case the joke is true. She did an astounding job, winning the vote in Douglas county which hasn't been done for over a decade.
Colorado ranks somewhere around d 40th for teacher pay. Douglas county helps bring that number down, because of the grossly corrupt county commissioners, all republicans.
Worry your grand and great grand children. A dictators can send them to a war of another country to die. Look at North Korea.
I feel you, I am so worried for the future of my great granddaughter and great grandson! They are so filled with curiosity and wonder for the world around them. They love books and learning. My great grandson is in Head Start what will happen to that?
Right! I have been thinking (especially since last Tuesday) that priorities for winning the Long Game should be: educate, and stop banning books!!! I don't know how we are to make this happen, but happen it must.
It is time for all of us to step up to ensure a good education for all the kids pre-k to 12 in all schools. We need to go back to it being a community’s responsibility. Teachers can’t do it alone, parents, students and the rest of the community need to step up and support good education. There should not be book banning, there should not be acceptance of teachers being harassed or bullied for trying to maintain order in the classroom. Teachers and librarians should be backed. They are trying to do their jobs well, we need to support them.
The far right/evangelical party has a vested interest in NOT educating our children to think creatively or critically. They can’t be controlled and are dangerous!
Curt...this is the crux of it...so dangerous.
Actually, it seems racism is the crux of it.
I am not sure that I agree with that racism is the crux of what Ryan is saying. Believing the Bible literally seems to me to be the problem.
Racism is the core, control is the crux.
We vividly, and nauseously, remember Newt Gingrich’s early 2000’s cable news tour, advocating against squandering family treasure on post High School education. And Newt was a college History Tracher in the 1970’s.
And then came Schmucker Carlson’s years challenging funds and time “squandered” on College.
College or no college we have to do a better job of teaching kids to spot a phony. Because of the Great Depression (yet another disaster with Republican fingerprints on it) neither of my parents had a college education, but they were curious and thought about stuff and they read a lot of non-fiction. They would have spotted Trump as one right away, as they had spotted Joe McCarthy. When the denouement of Joseph Welch's examination of McCarthy was announced, my mother, who was listing to the radio said to me in a very serious way "This is a very important day". I had not the slightest clue who McCarthy was, but I still remember it was somehow important.
Anyway, media has delivered more than it's share of crap l during my lifetime and lately I been getting phone calls telling me I have won millions of dollars I can claim if I just call a 900 number. Crap detection isn't necessarily "rocket science". It's a questioning habit of mind.
Grifting the rubes is the American Way. Always has been. Works at the individual level and can easily be scaled to population-wide.
I'd be very impressed if this nation made a genuine exit from Rubeville.
Agreed 100%. I'm finding that my college-educated parents are *far* more likely to fall for online scams, grifters, and malicious actors than my siblings and I, who didn't attend college, but grew up with and around technology.
I keep going back to how I was taught to research and assess information in school for papers: where is the info coming from, who is giving the info out, what is their agenda?
My parents went to libraries to read published books for research; they didn't question the validity or trustworthiness of their sources. It was a given. So now they give that wholehearted trust to whomever they agree with - there is no individual responsibility to evaluate the information. They just accept it.
I encounter many with college degrees that embrace Trump hook, line, and sinker. That said some colleges actively promote critical thinking. I attended one and my daughter attended one and both were excellent. Alas, both have gone out of business. Encouraging thought rather than just downloading data is hard to scale industrially and more labor intensive for instructors. After receiving her BA, my daughter took additional undergraduate classes at an admired state university to qualify for a specialty. She was taught by PhD candidates via Powerpoint. When she asked about the function of a muscle, she was told (quote), "Don't worry about what it does, just remember it for the test".
The latter is training, and there is a societal need for training, but it is not education. Education prepares you to appreciate and navigate reality. It includes the arts and the sciences and observant lived experience, and school is only part of it, but a very important part. Government of the people, by the people, for the people is as wise as the electorate.
You are both denigrating our educational system somewhat in your remarks. This denigration is, in my opinion, part of the problem we now face. I was educated in public schools through high school and attended a public university after that. I think I received an excellent all around education through our federally and state-supported systems. My education was at the very least good enough to help me spot a conman, grifter and sexual predator pretty easily. Are the homeschooled kids able to say the same? And why did college-educated voters do better on voting this election than non-college educated voters? Putting education down is not a a solution to the situation we find ourselves in.
I am not denigrating public education at all. I am denigrating technology and the intuitive gap it left between those who grew up with it and those who didn't, *regardless* of their education level.
I was also publicly educated, K-12, and through my bachelor's degree. I went to a local community college, a rural public high-school, and a rural public K-5. My father attended the same elementary, middle, and high-school as me (though obviously generations apart) and went to a state university for his degree. He is well educated, well learned, and smarter than I will ever be when it comes to math and mechanics. The education system didn't fail him; he fails himself, now, regardless of his education, because he refuses to learn to evaluate his sources.
He was not *taught* this, though. His schooling did not require it (why would it with only vetted and printed sources available?), so it would have been something he would have needed to pick up later in life. Maybe that means I failed to steward him properly into the world of the internet, but what did 10 year old me know of needing to teach my father?
The point you missed was though we are both educated, by the *same school system* no less, my father grew up without technology. He is predisposed to believe that which is put in front of him *first*, especially is he agrees with the bias. This is not a failing of the school system which could *not* have accounted for the prominence of technology 40+ years ago, this is a byproduct of the generation who had technology thrust upon them and only barely understood it even as it changed, rapidly, in their hesitant hands. Their approach to research has not changed even though the methods of research have, which is patently Not Good.
Education, 40+ years later, accounts for technology. High schools and colleges, even middle schools, teach students how to evaluate sources for bias, subjective statistics, and underlying agendas. Whether or not people *use* that schooling is up to them, they just have a head start when compared to my father, who was never told it was something he *should* do.
As for homeschooling, that brings in a whole host of different problems and standards outside the purview of my original comment. If they're homeschooled for religious reasons then their insular and bubbled faith most likely won't survive contact with the greater world - which would mean most would continue to live where the least amount dissonance is, hence rejecting any kind of fact check. They are also probably greatly restricted in their internet usage and the number of "sites" their parent-teachers find "credible". This would lead to larger issues of confirmation bias, pigeon holing, and the lack on intrinsic, instinctive knowledge of how to evaluate sources.
To even try to comparably compare education at a public level to home schooling is denigrating, especially in this socio-political climate. People who are homeschooled are *not* getting the same kind of education as their public schooled counterparts.
As to why college educated folks supposedly "did better" (which phrasing is disingenuous) in this election than their non-college counterparts, I again go back to the soft skills that college requires of you: research and evaluation. Even so, there were *plenty* of college educated people who still voted from Trump; my father, once again, being a prime example. This was because, even though they were *educated*, they were not *informed* and if they were not informed, that means they *chose* not to be. Again, not a education failing, but a personal one.
So we've established it's not schools which are failing, but the students who fail to exercise their lessons or who were blindsided by technology which their schooling *couldn't* have prepared them for. Therfore, I go back to denigrating the intuitive gap that technology had left in older, *educated* generations and the lack of interest in younger generations.
Public school is the only thing that separated me from my MAGA family's beliefs by encouraging my curiosity, love of rhetoric and philosophy, and nuturing my ability to think about the "why's" instead of only the "what's". The only denigrate feelings I have for public schools is for those teachers who cannot separate their personal beliefs from their education charters and damage their students' learning because of it.
Yes. Spot A Phony 101.
The christofascist fake christians have no concept of the teachings of Jesus. Wealth and Power gospel is blasphamy in the Bible.........Christofascists need the .001 % LGBQ and Gay population to instill fear, hate and control over the millions of cult followers.
Us Christians who study the Bible, and many other ancient people/documents/artifacts/geology, etc. generally come to the conclusion that the Old Testament was replaced by the New Testament with the first coming of our savior Jesus Christ. His coming is prophesied in the Old Testament, but our primary edict, as followers of Christ, is to love our neighbors as ourselves, forgive those who transgress against us, the greatest of these is love, the meek shall inherit the earth, judge not lest you be judged, etc. Not exactly evidenced by the words and deeds of T***p, or his supporters. The Bible is a written document by humans about a part of ancient religious history, good and bad. However, as a guide on how to become a Christ like human being, it also contains a great deal of wise and powerful wisdom for us to strive towards.
Well said, thank you.
Demagogues always find an out-group scapegoat; Jews, blacks, whomever.
Well, what they really want is critical thinking that backs putting their version of Christianity back into the schools, and pre sexual diversity norms, and likely sex ed which attacks abortion, sex outside of ordained marriage. And don't forget creationism. Kinda how I heard it as a kid in the 50s without the rancour since sexual diversity wasn't a hot topic if at all. I do remember my mother joking that "abortions" were disguised as D&Cs to clear the uterus for "health reasons". Mind you this was in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, just east of Maine. In those days, also mind you, we were going through an unsustainable baby boom.
What I have a hard time with too is the pervasive sense that the "pre sexual diversity norms" were the *only* norms in the world. They were in fact only norms in the Western Christian world - plenty of other cultures had cited more genders or different orientations and still do.
This self centeredness in the USA is mind boggling. The USA isn't the only country in the world and it certainly isn't the "moral center" of the world either. People have been deluded into thinking this for a long time without ever opening their eyes to the fact that the world is *so much bigger* than the USA.
American exceptionalism, being the world's economic superpower, by far, and top of the pack militarily, has aided with that sentiment. Sexual norms traditionally were probably taken more rigidly than you suggest. eg Most of the world eg still treats homosexuality as criminal or severely forbidden.
Yes, but it varies(ed).
Extreme narcissism is probably humanity's most tragic flaw, whether manifest in individuals or the dominant posture of a society. Pushed to extremes it fits the description of evil; "master race", "holy war", etc. Humane education teaches empathy and proscribes hubris. In one form or another, that's a pretty ancient idea, but it takes a lot more energy and discipline than riding cheap thrills and entropy all the way down.
Hi Kathy, im from "the south", still here lol
We just went through an election which roundly turfed our PC incumbent party under Higgs, largely his own doing I think, the party is pretty split and lately demoralized. A young Liberal premier is the new premier with a commanding majority. I haven't followed Can politics as much as i should, so if you have a good channel or site to recommend, post me. My email is fwloomer@gmail.com It looks as if Polineuve is polled to take over at the next federal election. It looks as if Trudeau has expended his political capital. I'm not sure how radical P. really is, but generally i don't vote conservative, i'm a generic centre-left kind of voter. I do follow American politics, kind of like an ongoing drama, never know how it's going to turn out! Ive signed into HCR now for 3 years holy smokes!
Looks like Jefferson predicted our future, as education has been devalued in this country over the decades, for more than a generation. But what I never realized until reading Dr. Heather over these past years was how narrow the history lessons were, since elementary school.
"Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against [the evils of “kings, nobles and priests”], and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.”"
The “founders” really knew their stuff.
Wish the founders had known about Fox News.
Or common humanity.
Because they were educated.
JustRaven, like you I also ‘never realized until reading’ Heather’s detailed history ‘how narrow the history lessons were’. I have to add that I was a very poor student at the time …. squirmed around until gym. It was a highly rated NYC very enlightened private school. However, it is now checking all the boxes and more. Not easy to grow, expand, push against old traditions & habits is it particularly long held habits of thinking: oh I’ve ever been an active political person. Now I feel like ‘a weapon’. That weapon is looking for daily actions to take. Actions that wipe away apathy.
The more I read from the Founders, beyond the Declaration and Constitution and all the other establishing documents, the more and more I realize that the "Founders" they Republicans have in their minds are grotesque perversions of the actual people who we can see in their writings.
This is the main failure of the education system: Who were the first *European* settlers of the USA and why did they come here? What is the foundation of America?
Putting aside the Spanish and French reasons for coming to America, the English reason for sending the first people in ships over here was NOT because they were fleeing religious persecution. They landed at what would become Jamestown in Virginia, several years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Colony in Massetchutcess. These first people were here to accomplish one thing. To find out what natural resources were easy to harvest and transport by ship back to England, to make money for the owners of the companies who sent them. That the Pilgrims were the first “Americans”, who founded the country “by the will of God” is not true. But it’s what I was taught in a public school in the 1960s.
It wasn’t until my first road trip to Virginia in 1984 that I found out the reason I hadn’t learned the truth about our founding mothers and fathers. It was because, like the saying goes, history is always told by the side that won the war. The north won the civil war, and changed the national narrative to support the “truth” that it was the religiously persecuted Pilgrims who were the first settlers of America. Believe me, if it was that easy to discover just one huge lie about our history, which the Virginians proudly tell everyone visiting the state, even the low educated among us can do the same. I am still unsettled about this one fact that has been intentionally obscured and continue to wonder how many others there are.
That would be “Massachusetts”, not what I typed in my last post!
Exactly! This is 100% what I meant! I had this argument with my parents; they're both staunch supports in the "fleeing religious persecution to found a Protestant nation" myth that is espoused in schools. Forgetting the fact that there were *many* schools of protestants in the original colonies as well as agnostic, atheists, Jews, and Catholics.
When I told them basically what you had typed out, they said I was indoctrinated by a democratic schooling system. When I said that I agreed with the Founders on the separation of church and state and didn't believe in a theocratic government (which is why I'd never vote Republican again), they said I was a heretic. That I was being taught lies. When I asked them where they learned their facts, however, they just said "everyone knows that's the truth". (???)
God only factored in to the founding of the US as He was convenient. People came here for money, to escape a theocracy, and to try to rise above their social station. The USA was an opportunistic capitalist venture at its heart with justification of "persecution" at its fore. As it was with any kind of Imperialism.
American exceptionalism needs to die out. We are a country like any other prone to the same mistakes and flaws; we are no more "morally superior" than any other country in the world.
Reading the end of this newsletter reminded me that fully one-third of the adults in this country don't ever read books for pleasure and that the vast majority of those who vote for Republican candidates are so-called "low-information" voters. Is it any wonder the Republicans hate public education? The better educated Americans are, the fewer will vote Republican.
Yes. Remember when trump said that he loved the uneducated?
This is somehow reminding me of the cultural revolution in china where all the intelligentsia were rounded up…
Yes. That was horrifying.
Having already traded away their souls, without lies what would Republican leaders have left to sell? And what if a lot more people just weren't buying?
The problem, as I see it, is that lies can be made so much more attractive. The truth is sometimes uncomfortable. Who wants to admit that the man they have revered for eight years is nothing more than a demented criminal who pretends to fellate a microphone stand in public?
Yes, disgusting.
Indeed, cult mentality can be applied perfectly. To see and accept his faults and failings would be to see and accept their own - their unconscious minds probably rail against cognitive dissonance without them realizing.
Right-wingers don't handle cognitive dissonance well. Remember George W. Bush once said, "I don't do 'nuance'". They are also much more prone to disinformation than we lefties. Numerous studies have proven both statements I just made.
It's the movement's leaders who "hate" public education because it mitigates against their program of indoctrinating people to accept their position on the social ladder no matter what it is.
Absent these leaders I don't think MAGAs would necessarily hate public education. They might think it benefits their children!
Growing up in a mixed-party household, both of my parents were keen on education. My dad was a Democrat and my mom a Republican. They purchased their home in a neighborhood that had the best.schools in the city and lived there for almost 50 years before they passed away.
My parents home was in a separate school district from Omaha and had about 10000 students. The school system was totally segregated, except for one black family, a few Hispanic families and an Indian family.
It wasn't until we went to college that we finally interacted with people from other countries, cultures and races. This is the part of education that was mostly free, but it taught us kids so much.
I also lived your pre-college experience. I went to school in the almost totally white DC suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, in the 1960s. My community was not racist, it's just that almost everyone living there was some kind of government worker whose job was literacy-based. In the 1960s around DC, that meant white people. My high school, Walter Johnson (the only high school in the country named after a baseball player at the time), had some Asian students, but no Hispanics or blacks until my senior year, when one black student enrolled.
It wasn't until I got to Bard College in 1970 that I began to experience the diversity that is such a fantastic aspect of our society.
An excellent piece on public education. The attack on it ALSO stems from the fact that the National Education Association is the largest union in the United States. Breaking unions has been on top of the conservative agenda since Reagan.
Yes, they want no unions!
They like breaking unions because they do not want any collective bargaining going on.
They want us all the fall in line and know our "place". Unions make people uppity and are the first part of a resistance - can't have that!
This is not just about elementary and high school. Early intervention for infants and toddlers (IDEA Part C) are essential services to minimize impact of developmental interruptions such as premature birth, complex medical conditions, disabilities, exposure to substances, family dysfunction, and abuse or neglect.
Funds funneled to states from the DOE support early intervention programs that promote optimal conditions for brain development thereby optimizing capacity to learn as well as prevent socio-emotional disabilities. DOE funds spent on infants and toddlers at risk can change far later outcomes in school performance, employment, as well as preventing delinquency, among other things.
When children are not ready to learn, when their educational system is eroded, how can they learn about their government and responsibilities as active citizens?
Yes! I helped set up IDEA Part H in Michigan in the early 90's. Crucial program for so many children, families and communities. At the time I was not thinking about the impact on democracy. But then, that was before Fox "News."
The game changer. Public education can’t compete with entertainment news. I watched brilliant family of my bff in the late 90’s become right wing nuts, Great schools, great kids, parent Fox addict. Trash TV on 24-7. Three of four brilliant kids (now middle aged and very affluent) rabid chump lovers. Damn depressing.
My sister and her family benefited from this, from what I understand. My niece had some fairly pervasive speech issues in her pre-kindergarten class that was caught. Now both her parents have been educated on how to help her at home and she has check-ins with the speech pathologist at her school regularly. As her speaking has improved, so has her temperament, now that people understand her better.
Thank you for helping set that up in Michigan!
So glad your niece and family were able to get early intervention! In Michigan we call it "Early On." I am a nurse, in awe of all the excellent therapists and teachers in our system. It's quite a gut punch to see trump blithley announce he plans to eliminate the U.S. Dept. of Education, after all the good it does for Americans.
Great point about early childhood intervention programs if they are cut. That would contribute to a vicious downward spiral of child abuse and neglect. Parents are more likely to act out against a child with behavioral issues.
Children, too, are more likely to act out when they are unable to communicate what they feel is wrong. It's a terrible, terrible cycle.
Absolutely. So much for being “pro-life,” right?
They've always been pro-life where it's easy and low impact.
They want children to live, but do not care for their quality of life. In fact, if one of the children they "saved" through their polices eventually ends up convicted of murder, they'd call for the death penalty. So, by then saving that one life, didn't they then condemn at least two to death? Where's their pro-life agendas then?
They don't like those kinds of philosophical debate, though. Much better to just say "save the children" as it's a objectively sound statement.
Bumpersticker politics. It has to be that simple. If it takes more than two sentences seems the voting public isn’t interested. No level of nuance at all.
Right. They only care about children until they’re born. After that, it’s “You’re on your own, kid.”
When Thomas Jefferson envisioned the University of Virginia in 1818, he set out with some guiding principles in his Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia. He stressed ideals bound by honor and duty, of enlightenment, and the greater good.
These included:
- To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.
- To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts in writing.
- To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.
- To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.
- And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.
He went on to prescribe various branches of higher education, such as government and civics, agriculture, mathematics, manufacturing, the arts, and more. In summing up, Jefferson advocated that education should advance “the prosperity, the power, and the happiness of a nation.”
Oh, the humanity(ies)
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/oh-the-humanities
Shame he also declared that the ownership (and propagation) of dark-skinned people was the highest, best (ie most lucrative) enterprise that landowners could partake.
Let’s not forget
Also a shame that he an Madison did away with the original intention of the VP - it was supposed to be the majority winner's running opponent. It was a check for a bipartisan system that failed *really* early.
"he," "him," "himself."
Much like invoking God, regardless of your faith or religious standing, it was a quirk of the language at the time.
There are other things I dislike Jefferson for, but this is one thing that I'll give him a cultural pass on.
Just as white people in the former slave holding states have never come to terms with the end of their dominant lifestyle and the elimination of their segregationist societal structure, so too religious zealots demand their dogma be promoted by schools. The war against public education that accepts all, encourages critical thinking, tolerates diversity and challenges every student to reach beyond their grasp has taken on many strategies. Vouchers, charters, christian theology as the core of curriculum, bathroom inanity (including hysteria about menstrual products being accessible), not to mention idiocy like the business about kids being gender-converted, are all part an parcel of the persistent effort to fund private and parochial schools at the expense of public schools which would be the landing space of all those derided and rejected by the dominant white, Christian power structure. Make no mistake about it. The goal is to starve public education as it was envisioned in a free, democratic society, in favor or private/parochial education for the acceptable and privileged.
Well said and to the point. I taught for 35 years, and there is no doubt in my mind that the goal is privatization of public schools. The take down of Randy Weingarten , head of the teacher's union is a good example.
Not to mention that Trump wants to end wait times for mergers and acquisitions. So, they privatize everything, and then the highest bidder (hmmm maybe Musk?) buys up everything, merges it into one, and now he's got the USA under his thumb.
This rhetoric about privatization is, in my mind, really just a way to give legitimacy to a kleptocracy headed by those who can't claim the presidency by issue of birth place.
Very clearly stated. Ty
I too worry a lot about my grandchildren, especially the younger ones, and their world will be like. I wish that somehow we had been able to make civics a required class for all students. If more people understood how their government worked at all levels, I think they would make better choices of who they want to lead them. That will not be happening any time soon, but states can do it. We are going to have to rely more on our states to make life bearable under this regime. Funny how the Republicans have been the ones calling for states' rights, and now they want their ideas to be the right ones for everyone, and we are wanting our states to be more powerful....
Hi, Susan - The problem is only partly the lack of sufficient social studies and civics classes. The other part is that today's students, if my 8th graders are any example, are simply disinterested in the world around them. I work as hard as I can to get them interested, but I just wind up feeling like Sisyphus.
As for Republican hypocrisy over states rights, remember, these are the people who want to track pregnancies and criminalize abortion, but who yelled "My body, my choice", when told to wear a mask during Covid.
I was on the “smart” track in high school. I got off-track one semester and took a required history course with kids I’d never met or seen in my 2000-student school. On the first test, “There was one 100% and all the rest were Fs,” said the teacher. I knew who the 100% was and was scared the other students would be mad (at me). But they loved it! They laughed and laughed. They didn’t care about school.
This was in the late 1950s.
There are lots of good classes where kids are given the opportunity to learn a lot. But there are a lot of people (many of whom turn out to be among our best citizens) who fight school.
It’s always been true.
I taught in a small rural school near Salem. I think people do not realize the importance of teachers to many students. This week I read a thread in which one of my ex-colleagues(biology, now recently retired) posted about how she still loved her students. I really enjoyed reading all the comments acknowledging how they enjoyed her class and how she helped them in numerous ways. Many schools in the state are now looking to do something about cell phones during class time. We will see how this works.
Michele, my Mom taught for about 5-6 years at Crater High School (rural community outside of Medford). She started teaching in her 50's, and one of her first assignments was to teach "Package Nine" (also known as "last chance English" for seniors who needed to pass that year of English to graduate). Most of the students were "behavior problems", some had to work outside of school, and others were just coasting. She taught them how to read Middle English and the agreement was that when they could read Chaucer in its original form, she would teach them how to swear.
She died some 30 years after she left teaching (I think she made it 4 or 5 years). She had a steady stream of kids come to the house and thank her until she moved to the coast. We had 3 of her kids come to her small memorial service.
Interesting thing to call it. I love the plan of teaching them Middle English. We had an English teacher do this, but it was college prep English. I did smile about Chaucer. Our senior English lit teacher told us he could not teach The Miller's Tale. Of course, there was a run over to the public library to check it out. Brava to your mom. She is an excellent example of the kind of teachers I am talking about.
Reading "The Miller's Tale" was their reward!
I love this story about your mom, Ally. What a wonderful woman and teacher!
Hi, M. Apodaca
The longer I teach my 7th and 8th graders, the more I reflect on my own junior high school experience. I realize that I remember virtually nothing of the curriculum in any of the subjects I took, but I also realize that is normal because the adolescent brain is only half there in middle school. What I did get out of it was the development of essential habits, such as being on time, having what I needed to do the assignment, and trying my best.
I taught at one middle school in South L.A. for 15-1/2 years and actually ran into a number of my former students out and about when they were in their early twenties and working in restaurants or museums or supervising after-school programs. They all remembered me vividly and fondly, but not for what I taught. They remembered that I was kind and that they felt safe in my class and classroom.
I wasn’t attacking schools. My point was that politicians and political people love to blame schooling for anything that happens. Watch for it.
Kids not fitting into schooling and politicians saying there used to be a golden age, is — and long has been -- a favorite go-to. Blame the schools!
Schools are imperfect, but not to blame today anymore than 60 years ago.
Hi, M. Apodaca
I never thought you were attacking schools or teachers. And yes, blaming the schools and teachers is a favorite tactic of politicians, along with other crackpot ideas like merit pay. I actually wrote an op-ed about that which appeared in the L.A. Times more than twenty years ago. It's linked below.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-01-me-25456-story.html
Today's students reflect today's commercially dominated culture. We no participate little in the creation of our culture. It is manufactured by corporations.
Hi, J L Graham.
I largely agree with you, but I think the process was accelerated by the internet and social media. Today's young people have demonstrably shorter attention spans if my middle school students are anything to go by, and their interpersonal social skills have also deteriorated.
The struggle, however, has gone on for decades. Remember a movie called "Network", or was that before your time?
"Network" was well within my time, alas. I recall when the Internet was monochrome text only, and was (mostly) a polite, self regulating space. I thought its inherently decentralized architecture made it inherently democratic. It is that, as this 'forum" (to use the outdated term) is proof of that, but I did not foresee how easily corporate America was able to dominate the medium or how the tool could be used to divide as well as connect the public.
Other animals clearly think, and often I think we underestimate them, but I think our species is capable of exceptionally complex and long-chain thinking. I think we prosper best and most sustainably when we practice long-chain and multi-dimensional thinking. And like reading or music, even with exceptional aptitude, I think that takes training from somewhere or other for competence. Seems to me our culture as a whole would be wise to further encourage and support that. Not just let for-profit run everything. I'm not anti-profit, I'm against for-profit, love-of-money, usurping everything else that matters.
I took Civics many decades ago. It was made difficult and hard to understand. I can’t believe that any of my schoolmates learned a thing about how government works. I know I didn’t. And I got an A.
Blaming current education is nothing more than a game. To know about how government works, one needs to be a lifelong learner. And evidently that’s asking too much of many.
I taught government with no textbooks, no tests and quizzes, and lots of library work. We had to give finals, so I had a create your own final from a list of possibilities to which I assigned points. If students came up with an idea, that was OK too. I sat down with each student to plan what they would do and the funny thing is that many of them chose over a 100 points worth. In the three years or so that I taught that class I had the same student fail twice..no help at home, but all the rest of them passed the required class.
Outstanding educator. Hats off!
" I sat down with each student to plan what they would do and the funny thing is that many of them chose over a 100 points worth. "
That's teaching.
"How a bill REALLY becomes law" needs to be taught in every school.
REALLY would shock most of us. The trade offs, and machinations, when you have the likes of Manchin to deal with.
Actually, just the basics and the opportunities for influence (the earlier the better) would do the trick.Then it doesn’t get into opinions and fights.
Basics necessary. Too many try to build on shifting sand. Told my grand girl that when she was having trouble with math. Basics first. Then up you go…
Of course, I had to go back and take Tech Math because a coach subbed for Algebra teacher in 9th grade.
Schoolhouse rock was a great resource
True. I got the Disney version. The actual truth is more useful and likely more interesting. Forewarned is forearmed. How, despite fierce and entrenched resistance did women get to vote? How did anyone overcome the perils of invested interest politics?
I noticed in multiple encounters in the 1980 a repeated phrase of "I'm a realist, not an idealist". It seemed to be a phony excuse for cynicism. Reality COMBINING the real with the ideal is how we improve anything. The US Constitution is an attempt to combine a set of ideals with a grasp of practical necessities. Creativity, be it in the arts or sciences, involves freedom of thought, integrated with a practical scheme to make it so, whatever the product may be. Menus, channels, sites, are a great resource, but if we only choose from other's menu's we are hobbling our own liberty, wisdom, and potential. Worse, without practiced experience with which to trial-run them though our own minds, we may fail to grasp the character of unwise choices.
Cartoons on Saturday
I disagree. I think you can teach basic civics and government in a way kids could get it and make use of it. Again, at all levels—local government is probably the easiest to understand, because you see the results every day, so it’s relevant. Of course there are always people that aren’t intetested, but I’m always surprised at the number who are but don’t understand the basics. Not everyone has to be a political junkie, like those of us on here!
Quite true, but you do need to make an effort to keep up with what's real or self-government is not going to work. And lies should be regarded as shameful, when not evil. Evil lies are stories about innocent Haitians eating people's pets, and all the worse when influential liars keep repeating the lie, even when it's proven to be false. That's how Nazi Germany happened. A lot of great evils arise out of vicious lies. It is my impression that we have become gradually more and more tolerant of serious lying and liars since after Nixon was exposed. Joe McCarthy told dirty lies, but even (at least some) Republicans got sick of it. Republicans in the Senate were ready to convict Nixon when he resigned. "Decency" is not just a nicety. Too many societies learned that the hard way. It's a prerequisite for a meaningfully free society.
Learning to spot lies and liars, and also how to win without cheating, may be the most foundational civics lesson of all.
Yes, learning how to tell about lies, and how to check facts, is very important these days.
"To know about how government works, one needs to be a lifelong learner."
It's true. I don't think we as a culture we drive that home effectively.
Civics used to be taught in public schools. Social studies, too. Now we have an electorate that doesn’t even understand how its own government works.
I don't understand it, but I know a society as large and complicated as our can only be sustained with a hell of a lot of physical and service infrastructure. I know that without advance planning and contingency plans, a lot more could go off the rails. How is it that we, ostensibly the richest and technically medically advanced civilization in the world had the worst per capita COVID death rate? A million here, a few hundred thousand there and pretty soon you're talking an appalling death toll. Have we learned anything?
For some reason your comment is cut off so I can’t see the whole thing (Substack has been doing this lately, which is incredibly annoying), but I just wanted to answer your question about the U.S. per capita death rate during the COVID pandemic: it happened because trump threw out Obama’s playbook for pandemic planning, and so it was egregiously mismanaged.
It was a required class when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s in rural NC. What we did not learn was the atrocities about slavery and our state being a huge part of it.
There is where I grew up, same time frame. Were you in the Piedmont area.
Yes! Lenoir. Where were you?
Thomasville, Piedmont area. We used to go to Linville Falls. Daddy liked mountains and hated the beach. Weird, had a b-I-l whose family was from Hickory. Was Lenore a furniture hub like Thomasville was…
Marlene, I was in school in Georgia during those years. Civics was a required course in 8th grade, and covered everything from the federal government down to who paves the local roads and what those roads were made of.
Civics was required for me in NC too. Govt is a required semester in junior year in Texas. Or was 20 years ago.
You learned more about the roads than we did, Camilla!
Yes it was. We had Broyhill, Bernhardt, and Hammary furniture factories. The owners always put money into public education for city kids. The ones in rural Caldwell County did not get that benefit, unfortunately. They did that because their own children went to school with us. Broyhill and Bernhardt furniture still exist and have brought manufacturing back to the town instead of outsourcing to China. Thomasville is still kicking, right?
Beyond just civics, there should be a required ethics class and maybe something about philosophical theory - how to debate, how to circle a problem, how to be uncomfortable in your thoughts but think through your emotion for a clear argument.
People ride that 90 second high of pure emotion in any reaction and continue to chose it over anything rational.
My oldest son did the Speech Team in HS and learned all those things. I’d add how to check things for truth and accuracy.
Never heard of such in high school. But saw lots of consequences for 30 seconds of rage.
There's not been much emphasis on it, I don't think, with Common Core so prominent.
The ethics and philosophy classes I took in college, technically while dual enrolled. They had profound impact on the rest of my high-school career though, and I felt more people could benefit from them.
You're right though. Soft skilled classes aren't required in K-12 education, they're electives at best, I just feel if we're throwing wishes and desires out there, then this would be one of mine for high schools.
My daughter loved the art and photography classes she took. Miss “logical” Me took art classes and they took me out of my comfort zone (taking notes, tests, sitting quietly). Best thing I ever did.
The bedrock of the MAGA movement is the proliferation of ignorance. This has been achieved by cutting public school funding, forcing schools to teach a curriculum based on whitewashed history, and using a deluge of disinformation to overwhelm the voting public and make their ridiculous claims about schools brainwashing children and performing sex change surgeries seem plausible. This is how America got itself into its current predicament.
This is not new.. Isaac Asimov said 44 years ago, not coincidently when Reagan was first elected President, “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
I used to post this on FB and T before I got banned
It’s amazing that FB would ban you for posting a historical quote, yet permit flagrant disinformation/misinformation posts to exist.
Went against “community standards” in Nov 2020. Algorithms were checked by humans. So they said.
I hadn't known someone had written down the feeling I had so succinctly.
Thank you for the quote! It's...all too relevant and speaking at the moment.
It is indeed. Asimov’s scifi writing was very prescient, and he had a particular gift for envisioning the effect of technology on society. As awful as another four years of Trump will be, I am optimistic that the Constitution will survive intact. But the underlying societal divide will continue. I hope for some level of buyers remorse will help rebalance things at the midterms.
I have been a bit perplexed about the attack on the Dept of Education. Thank you for putting it into perspective. Now, it all makes sense. I’m more scared than ever.
Exactly my thoughts, Susan :(
Thank you Heather
54% of adults in the US read at or below a 6th grade level. 21% of adults are considered illiterate.
This is so sad and this election signifies that we have reached a critical mass of uninformed, poorly educated people!
Indeed! 76 million Americans refuse to think above a first-grade level.
They don't have to (think above a first-grade level), since their chosen leader is in that same class, and they don't want to trump him... (pun intended)
What! That's crazy! How in the world do they make it through life like that in this day and age???
The statistics are from a study released in 2022, there are many sources referring to them. Here's one: https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2024-2025-where-we-are-now#:~:text=21%25%20of%20adults%20in%20the,were%20born%20outside%20the%20US.
Last year I was in the Dokumentationszentrum in Munich, Germany, last year, which gives a history of Munich's Nazi past. I had been in several before that, in Nuremberg, etc. What struck me about the one in Munich is that it emphasized how the National Socialists attacked the education system throughout Germany (it also emphasized the Nazi assault against the LGBTQ community). It was a significant step in the indoctrination of the people of Germany towards totalitarianism.
Having spent a career in the US in education and having taught at two different universities, I think I can fairly state that the inequalities in education are stunning. But something has gone terribly wrong. By the time I graduated high school - in a middle class suburb in Portland Oregon, I had had an impressive amount of history (and could place generally everything from Mesopotamia to the Second World War chronologically - hell, we had a unit on the Renaissance in the fourth grade!) and had read six Shakespeare plays as a part of the regular curriculum, with a load of other American and world literature (just by way of example - I took Shakespeare as an elective so had read about 10 plays by the time I graduated in '81).
Anyone who knows Oregon knows it can be something of an educational backwater. So that standard level of education in a "provincial" setting speaks a great deal to how far we have slipped. It served Trump to have people with no understanding of the twentieth century, with the rise and fall of Athenian democracy or Roman republicanism, with no clue about Caesarism. But at a certain point this is not on the schools but on us. My parents instilled a love of reading in me with a hefty dose of help from youth reading programs and book clubs in our schools, starting from age 6 in the first grade. In the fifth grade we had access to classic novels in the form of graphic comic books designed to attract young people to great literature (I was partial to Jules Vernes myself).
In addition, my media time was limited - my parents only allowed so much television and were careful about what I was allowed to watch. I'm old enough to recall when we thought we should hold hearings because media was not living up to its promise but feeding us absurd trash - the Beverly Hillbillies came in for particular attack if memory serves. Since then we have all sent up the white flag and just surrendered. We are not free, but slaves to our screens and devices. This is not surprising. Even when growing up, I had siblings and teachers (yes, teachers) who mocked me as a reader, probably intimidated by a 15 year old who preferred Shakespeare to football and had to constantly apologize for creating a rich inner-life.
Alas, can we survive half philistine and cruel and half reasonably educated and compassionate? I'm afeared that we are finding out in real time. Neil Postman's prophecy in Amusing Ourselves to Death, written in 1982, is coming to pass before our eyes. Attack on education is a fundamental step towards the pulling down of a pillar of democracy.
To link to some earlier comments - the first group the Nazis went after were the mentally disabled.
Amusing ourselves to death. Rupert’s mission statement
Steve, I grew up in Medford, and graduated 5 years before you did. Our close proximity to the Shakespearean Festival gave us a fabulous opportunity each winter to take an English class called "Stage Two". We got to see four plays put on during (what was at the time) the winter season. We read each of the four plays, and then went to see them. Amazing experience.
Jefferson was a very perceptive man in many ways. We must as citizens care for each other regardless of race or class, one way is to support education. If you use some private education, for example music lessons, debate clubs, or Black history, be as generous as you can to help others also find learning. If 60% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck, as Bernie Sanders said yesterday, then the other 40% must help support them. We are obligated to help each other, known or unknown.
Heather leaves out one fact in the Reagan era when anti-secular whites saw public ed as a danger.
She leaves out how the Powell memo of 1971 had already gone to war with humanities of any kind at any level of education. The far-right foundations that organized and coordinated then all attacked novels, memoirs, histories, and all the other arts which so allowed license to the personal. With this license, they felt, instructors and students had ammunition for the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, and similar energies for women, gays, La Raza, and Native American causes.
Kill the humanities -- which these foundations had already successfully done before Reagan won in 1980 -- and profs in higher ed would become careerist careful and specialist neutered in the few tenure track positions remaining after ALEC had mega reduced state funding everywhere.
Students in higher ed would revert to shelter in the silo safety of group identity (and trigger warnings, and vulnerability to bank-enriching but otherwise crushing student loan debt).
In K-12, all would feel similar budgetary cuts, and the emphasis shift to intimidation to the conceits of the billionaires' new deluge of standardized testing: abstracted categories, group think, the unit-by-unit linear, and totally neutered language in the tests as well as in all packaged corporate textbooks.
Yes to everything else Heather well cites. But a big miss to leave out the Powell memo, and those new clusters of far-right foundations serving not just the dehumanization, but more so, too, all the dark money swamping everything. Even before the offshoring of the tens of millions of jobs, the financialization and commodification of all life, and near totally far-right tilt of the U.S. judiciary.
Not to be too Picky... The Human History of the American Continents started when the Indigenous walked here over 30,000 Years ago... The Mayan Temples in Central America predate the European Settlements...
Don't forget the use of the Handheld 'Zombie Devices'.... They fragment the Attention-Span, and allow the introduction of mis-information which crowds out the Good...
So true, Apache.
The trouble with our living dead, however, comes from those who model behavior for them. And too many teachers, journalists, pundits, and public officials just never reference any reading that's long.
Too many schools have just totally stopped assigning any full novels, memoirs, or histories.
Those handheld devices, they cost money -- a lot of money. And in a vulgar society, the cost of things ups the fashion threshold of those willing to pay the cost. Plus the cost for privately-owned vehicles (look at the highways, most contain only one occupant).
A vulgar society promotes money, quantifying life, so in life itself there's just a lot of lonely, lonely people (a long-ago song said look at them). And now with guys (in many countries) a lot of incels (the "involuntary celibate").
That’s what we have, a vulgar society. Thank you for that. I was so hoping for better, or at least aspirations for better. I saw Fox as the first significant step backward, then greedy bastards, reality tv, and so many institutions leaned or caved. Political, social, religious, and here we are. Vulgar, greedy, and proudly ignorant…
Fox might have been the first step, but "reality" TV has really accelerated the downturn.
I remember a time before Fox and Survivor when I had so much hope for our media. Seems like an eternity ago. I blame Andy Cohen and Mark Burnett, for starters, but before them, Rupert introduced the possibility of big bucks for trash.
Sadly, 'Civil' Society is becoming 'UnCivilized'.... Look at DJT 2.0... What Kind Of Example Is DJT & His Zombie Horde Setting?
More Uncivilized will make life unbearable for animals and humans
Attached below is a link to the Powell Memo (‘’Attack On American Free Enterprise System’’) to which you refer in your comment. It may be helpful to those who are not familiar with it.
The Memo was submitted to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, at its request, on August 23, 1971, one decade before Reagan assumed office. It is an ominous piece of writing.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/assets/usa-courts-secrecy-lobbyist/powell-memo.pdf
Thanks for the link, R Dooley.
She's mentioned the Powell memo quite often in other posts. But it does seem like another dog catching the car example doesn't it? The US Chamber of Commerce et al supported all of the points you mentioned, and now we have a workforce that struggles to compete which ultimately hurts the bottom line.