9/8/09 09:51 pm - Susurrations of Caesar's Salient Sermon to Students
So there's been a lot of clamoring among the right-wing radio media about a speech targeted at kids of school-going age. And as these things inevitably follow, a corresponding wave of whatevernot from the analogue pundits at certain online publications so esteemed as bastions of impartiality. The places where I get my news seem to hob-knob a little more to the left than right politically, so I've gotten to hear all sorts of aghast bewilderment about how any sane person could possibly oppose such a benign speech, which from the source itself, seems to mainly concern individual responsibility.
It's all a matter of jurisdiction. I can relate to the final statement of the author of this article. Stay the hell away from my kids, indeed. But not in the vitriolic tone that the author seemed to intend. I don't want some stranger on the street to give my kid advice on proper manners, I don't want teachers to cram personal moral ideologies down their throats, and, yeah, I don't necessarily think it's the government's jurisdiction to lecture my kids on the merits of a good education. I think I'm doing a fine enough job already, and don't need somebody else coming in and cramping my style, as it were. I don't think that minor annoyance would lead to keeping my kid out of school for a day, but it does kind of rub me the wrong way.
I can empathize with school administration who might have a problem about jurisdiction, though this is in all probability a rare justification. I will admit that there are many parents who won't take on the personal responsibility to instill appropriate morals about education in their kids. There are plenty of teachers and administrators who feel that the responsibility thus falls to them. From accounts of many family and acquaintances in the teaching industry, that can feel like a last line of defense. I can say with some confidence most teachers would welcome any help from anybody, no matter how politically loaded it might be. I think it is more plausible that there is a slight resentment to the magnificent seven riding into town with a lot of pomp and fanfare, only to leave the folks in the trenches every day to the actual gunfight.
The only problem I really have are the very subtle hints to a mob mentality, but it's nothing to do with this speech in particular. Sell wrapping paper. Join the PTA. Celebrate holiday X in the prescribed secular fashion. Gold stars and black marks....er, mind the bigotry, make that thumbs up and thumbs down. Education/Psych 101 drilled into a five year old, very impressionable, skull. What the hell does all that have to do with my daughter's education, exactly? About as much as some strange guy she watches on TV(who just happens to be the publicly voted American President) telling her a bunch of things that her parents had better already have been telling her.
That is the biggest paradox of public education. Spend all this time and effort trying to motivate kids to value their educations, whilst promptly quashing an existing love by hindering growth and punishing over-achievement the entire time. When a student excels, they are a burden, so teachers often make them act as de facto in-class tutors to the students that are struggling. All in the name of civic duty, with the prevailing educational propaganda stating that tutoring helps students learn more. Really?! Super convenient for understaffed, underfunded, over-stressed-to-pass-state-curriculum-s tandards administration! Unless the plan is to train more teachers(which arguably is a need for public education to survive), that is a wagonload of horseshit I'm not buying. It's bad enough that they have to deal with that shit when it relates to education...why is the ostracization and hive mind requisite on all the other social, religious, political, and financial matters?
It's all a matter of jurisdiction. I can relate to the final statement of the author of this article. Stay the hell away from my kids, indeed. But not in the vitriolic tone that the author seemed to intend. I don't want some stranger on the street to give my kid advice on proper manners, I don't want teachers to cram personal moral ideologies down their throats, and, yeah, I don't necessarily think it's the government's jurisdiction to lecture my kids on the merits of a good education. I think I'm doing a fine enough job already, and don't need somebody else coming in and cramping my style, as it were. I don't think that minor annoyance would lead to keeping my kid out of school for a day, but it does kind of rub me the wrong way.
I can empathize with school administration who might have a problem about jurisdiction, though this is in all probability a rare justification. I will admit that there are many parents who won't take on the personal responsibility to instill appropriate morals about education in their kids. There are plenty of teachers and administrators who feel that the responsibility thus falls to them. From accounts of many family and acquaintances in the teaching industry, that can feel like a last line of defense. I can say with some confidence most teachers would welcome any help from anybody, no matter how politically loaded it might be. I think it is more plausible that there is a slight resentment to the magnificent seven riding into town with a lot of pomp and fanfare, only to leave the folks in the trenches every day to the actual gunfight.
The only problem I really have are the very subtle hints to a mob mentality, but it's nothing to do with this speech in particular. Sell wrapping paper. Join the PTA. Celebrate holiday X in the prescribed secular fashion. Gold stars and black marks....er, mind the bigotry, make that thumbs up and thumbs down. Education/Psych 101 drilled into a five year old, very impressionable, skull. What the hell does all that have to do with my daughter's education, exactly? About as much as some strange guy she watches on TV(who just happens to be the publicly voted American President) telling her a bunch of things that her parents had better already have been telling her.
That is the biggest paradox of public education. Spend all this time and effort trying to motivate kids to value their educations, whilst promptly quashing an existing love by hindering growth and punishing over-achievement the entire time. When a student excels, they are a burden, so teachers often make them act as de facto in-class tutors to the students that are struggling. All in the name of civic duty, with the prevailing educational propaganda stating that tutoring helps students learn more. Really?! Super convenient for understaffed, underfunded, over-stressed-to-pass-state-curriculum-s

