K-12 Boycott: Are You Ready? (Wednesday, April 17, 2024)
K-12 is too often a bad marriage. The Education Establishment is the alcoholic husband (photo) who beats his long-suffering wife.
All the progressive/socialist/communist schemes are dedicated to the idea of using schools to indoctrinate young minds. Real education is about freeing minds. Take that, John Dewey.
(For ideas, search “homeschool options.” You'll be amazed at the range of possibilities.)
- (((Alex Newman in Newsweek: "While Americans once argued about how best to fix the system, today's discussions—especially among conservatives and Christians—often revolve around finding the fastest way to get children out. Almost two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with the quality of public education. Even liberals are rapidly losing trust in the schools.")))
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Bruce Deitrick Price
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Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, artist, poet, and education reformer.
(For a list of literary titles, visit Lit4u.com.
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LET'S FIX EDUCATION: OVERVIEW
Recurring themes. Big ideas. Unifying concepts.
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LET'S FIX EDUCATION by Bruce Deitrick Price
Episode 146 --- Wednesday, April 17, 2024
K-12 Boycott: Are You Ready?
The media can save us if only they run articles explaining what's gone wrong. That's what I foolishly thought for many years. Finally I realized that the people controlling the media also control the schools. Evidently they want the country dumber.
I formed another theory. If only the movers and shakers, the upper echelon, the MBA executives who run everything, if only those people would announce: it's urgent, we must eliminate the crime and nonsense in K-12, and return instead to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, science, and literature, i.e., the Seven Essentials. Then there can be a Renaissance in the schools.
But when you think of the prototype of people in charge, you think of Bill Gates spending $1 billion to persuade the American people to embrace Common Core, a prototype of non-education. He seems to be in coordination with the worthless media and the dishonest educators you want to avoid.
Nothing's getting better. There's always more illiteracy, more ignorance, more decline, more dumb. And our self-appointed experts actually have the chutzpah to say that SEL, CRT, DEI, et al will make everybody more successful. The students will be more ignorant, that's all.
Don't you think there must be a better way? Sure, first step is not to accept the silly ideas and low standards that K-12 now embraces. You’re in an abusive relationship. Walk away!
Even as our schools are devastated by malfeasance, the world outside of K-12 is doing pretty good. Private schools of all kinds, charter schools, homeschooling, doing good. Do you know what their secret is? They make sure the children know how to read in first grade. That’s a big reason why homeschooled kids are usually several grades ahead of public schoolers.
Public education endorses too much stupid education. We want wise, ingenious, efficient education. Maybe it's time to send a signal to the Progressives, Marxists, and other Ideologues: do a better job or we’re leaving!
Start considering your options. Share your conclusions with the community. The world is full of beautiful resources. I'm thinking of the billion videos on YouTube. I’m thinking of the very active homeschooling groups. National Geographic and the Smithsonian publish lovely magazines that could be an entire curriculum.
Every student is entitled to an IEP program, that's an individualized education plan. Make your school teach phonics, that's half the battle right there.
Here's a fascinating tidbit, Old Schoolhouse Magazine, one of the mainstays, offers a $299 package described as "everything you need to homeschool your entire family for one year.” I'm impressed. Efficiency is possible if the experts bother to look.
Everyone says homeschooling is not for everyone. Equally true is that almost everyone who tries it becomes an advocate. Another truth is that homeschoolers typically do more in three hours than most public schools do in six hours. That means you can have an intense school scenario in the morning, and then spend the afternoon at a museum, factory, movie, or a baseball game. Two or three families can join forces so the project is more manageable for everyone.
Meanwhile, lawyers and community leaders should help parents to understand alternatives. I predict that Democrat politicians will keep supporting the insupportable. But Republicans should become more aggressive at recognizing that the K-12 system is often a horrific burden on the very public they claim to care about.
Our problem in K-12 is that official experts want to teach less and less. But we need to teach more and more at every level. If some kids can't handle the academic stuff, let's bring back the vocational training that was once universally available.
The Education Establishment seems most in love with the most destructive theories and methods, for example they hate phonics but they love sight-words. If a school won’t teach phonics, that's a good reason to abandon it. If they insist on some version of Reform Math, don't go to that school.
Not ready to leave the school behind? Fine but right now the public is like some abused wife that gets kicked around by a drunken husband. The school is not considering your needs.
Focus attention on the worst features in your local school. Fight each one separately. Bring back phonics. Bring back direct instruction. Bring back an emphasis on knowledge, contrary to marinating students in psychoanalytic soup. Bring back safe, sane public schools.
Bring back all the things that were common for hundreds of years. Maybe you can save this marriage.
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“While Americans once argued about how best to fix the system, today's discussions—especially among conservatives and Christians—often revolve around finding the fastest way to get children out. Almost two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with the quality of public education. Even liberals are rapidly losing trust in the schools.” Alex Newman in Newsweek