“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal well meaning but without understanding.” ~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Education is vital to liberty! John Adams observed that “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” In other words, there are principles and applications that, when learned, strengthen the Parapets of liberty. The converse is true when they are unlearned and liberty’s defenses are weakened.
The first weekend in February, I attended my second and the Constitutional Coalition’s 21st Educational Policy Conference. Several hundred were in attendance in St. Louis. The Coalition’s stated purpose is educating others to understand and know our Constitution, acknowledging absolutes as the basis for our laws and God as the giver of freedom, and researching issues through the lens of the Constitution. Presentations and questions often centered on how to restore education to “education.” How can schools be refocused to teach students how to think instead of telling them what to think. The first is education; the second is indoctrination - where thinking is a threat.
I wish every parent of school age children could have participated with me in this conference. Many parents feel they are losing control of their children’s education. They want education to improve but recognize that teachers are overwhelmed by a barrage of mandates, regulations, and political correctness that leaves little time for anything but lecture. There is no time for discovery – the spirit of education – and even less time to research better methods of engaging students in discussion, exploration, and research. Memorizing what others think is no substitute for education – education is learning what others have done, why, and whether it was successful (history, philosophy, analysis).
If we are to become more effective in preparing children for success, parents must help do research for the teachers. That research is the substance of the Education Policy Conference. I hope you will go to the Constitutional Coalition’s website and explore for yourself the resources to help parents help schools. A good first step would be to download a free copy of the book Let’s Put Parents Back in Charge by Joe Bast. The Constitutional Coalition’s website can direct you to other information from thinkers like Dr. Ted Baehr, Ann McElhinny, Dr. Karen Gushta, Dr. Jerry Newcombe, and more. Our children are worth the effort; our teachers need the help.
This blog features observations from Randy Turner, a former teacher, newspaper reporter and editor. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Emery: Our teachers need the help
In his latest report, Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, offers his views on education:
Parents should know and have an input of what is taught in schools. Too many legislators who have never spent a day teaching are making the education standards of this country. Teachers should have input as well. Sometimes I think teachers teach a test, not necessarily the material that matters the most...
ReplyDeleteSo Randy, with which part of this do you disagree?
ReplyDeletePolitical indoctrination of the students is not the problem. The problem has been the elimination of history, government, geography, and anything else at the elementary level that is not reading or mathematics. Those moves have been made to prepare for No Child Left Behind-mandated testing. Teaching students to be able to pass standardized tests and nothing else only gives them enough education to pass standardized tests, not cope with life beyond school.
ReplyDeleteAMEN Randy!!!
ReplyDeleteRandy, it is good to see that you and Ed agree on this issue.
ReplyDeleteI agree teachers are under a great deal of pressure, making sure students are proficient by the year 2014, thanks to NCLB. Then if you don't meet the yearly goal you go under improvement and risk having funding taking away, especially now when they are really cutting education, federally, and state-wide. As a nation as a state and as a person we know education is important so why is it always the first to be cut. Teachers are suppose to teach more to more kids due to cuts and with less materials and also raise state test scores, uh, get real, not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteDo we blame the teachers? No! The teachers are doing the best they can every single day. Think about it, noone wants to make pennies on the hour; therefore, teachers really do enjoy teaching and helping students learn.
Do we blame parents? Yes and NO. Parents need to be included in their child's education and hold them accountable, which is the prime problem with education. Education is at school and only at school and when a student goes home education is not valued as being important. Parents must recognize and be educated in the value and importance of education and give support to their child and to the school to instill a good positive attitude when it comes to learning.
Students who come from families that make education a priority are your good students who learn. Then there are the families who survive on government checks, minimum wage job (which is probably more than a teacher makes) and education is not important, they are disrespectful and have no desire to learn. Most of these children have had absolutely NO support at home and are reading below grade-level, which is the recipe for the typical classroom nightmare a teacher faces everyday. Balancing skills and reading levels and then trying to teach students who want to learn and who don't want to learn, who end up being more of a behavior problem and creating more stress and the use of precious time on managing the classroom. This is the truth of what is wrong with our schools and education. New guidelines, new standards are not going to fix this problem. Someone is going to have to take a stand. Once we make education a priority and a "privelage" instead of a "right" and give control back to the teachers then the teachers can actually teach.
The kids are lazy and smart. Why should they work hard when they know the system is going to reward them. Even if they end up dropping out of high school they are rewarded by receiving a government check and now even health care. Why should they work hard to only have to work even harder and to have bills and debt. Middle Class kids know they must work hard and they must go to college if they want to amount to anything and the ones that do spend the rest of their life scraping by because they must then pay their debts instead of having someone else like the government or taxpayers pay them.
If you can read you can do anything. We must FOCUS our attention on reading because students everywhere are failing because they can't read. Elementary must focus on READING and Math. Through intergration they can still read and learn about science and history.