Slashing Education is Good for America

[Modern School]

Public education always has and continues to be a means of social control, one with the specific function of perpetuating a status quo in which a tiny minority rules over the overwhelming majority in order to sequester increasing amounts of wealth. The hysteria over the deplorable state of our schools is a deliberate deception, as schools never really got worse at this function. They still reproduce a well-educated elite minority and vast numbers of poorly educated, compliant workers with just enough training to run their machines and offices and purchase their goods.

One goal of this deception is to convince the public that it is in their best interests to relinquish local control, and allow private companies to take over and turn a profit. Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Michael Bloomberg, Broad, Walton, and others promulgate this trickery by repeatedly reminding us about terrible test scores and graduation rates, blaming it on recalcitrant and selfish unions, and promising us perfection if only more charter schools and corporate management were allowed. What’s good for Bill Gates is good for America.


However, the deception is not just about privatization. As more and more tax dollars get diverted to wars, tax cuts and corporate bailouts, there is less available for social services, like education, and there needs to be a scapegoat other than Halliburton, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. As children become more impoverished and consequently do poorer in school, and as schools lose funding and consequently provide fewer services, the schools and teachers (and occasionally the parents) get the blame for low student achievement, rather than the ruling elite who are the real culprits. It is classic divide and conquer: the public continues to support their bosses and the wealthy, some dreaming of joining their ranks, while attacking members of their own class, like teachers and other government workers, under the mistaken perception that they are the ones responsible for their misery. What’s good for Wall Street is good for America

To read the res, please visit http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2010/12/slashing-education-is-good-for-america.html

[FreakinDJ]

1. School Funding is BIG Money and the corrupt want a piece of it

[HereSince1628]

3. Exactly. n/t

[MichiganVote]

2. Public education is not a social service. And a population does need to learn

reading, math and to be able to write. This is the mission of public education. American education has always been a Chevy, never a Cadillac. Now people seem to want a Cadillac model for a bunch of different reasons; eventual workforce training, cultural needs or dominion,or in your case, for the sake of increased critical thinking among youth.

Ok. Good.

The fact is there is inequality among our various districts and states in the Nation w/regard to educational advantages. And there will always be inequality so long as poverty remains, which it always will.

The one thing, the only thing that consistently interferes with educational progress among children and youth is poverty. It always has and it always will. Coupled with that problem, we now have two generations of children who are the beneficiaries of the drug use their parents or grandparents took part in. These two central problems interfere with the eventual workforce training, with the fulfillment of cultural needs and with the critical thinking of our young.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I believe the drug use impact is greatly exaggerated

Genetically. The idea that there is a large number of drug babies is a myth.

However, too many children are in families affected by the incarceration of drug abusers. That's a far more serious problem.

[MichiganVote]

5. I don't. Surely it varies by area, by economic class and by other factors.

But we'll never fucking know because it hasn't been adequately studied.

Must break the teachers, unions and local control of schools instead.



:eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. The drug baby myth has been studied. That's how we know it's a myth.

Many studies have shown that the environment the baby is raised in has a larger impact on the baby than the drugs Mom took while pregnant. There was a big study in LA back in the 80s.

Fetal alcohol exposure is much worse. Often there is not much that can be done to correct the damage done to those babies. And even small amounts of alcohol ingested by a pregnant woman can cause severe disabilities in her children. Pregnant women shouldn't drink at all.

But a baby born to a drug abusing mom can be given therapy and often (when in a good family environment) show no signs of disability when they start school.

[MichiganVote]

7. Exposure to drug or alcohol abuse in or out of any family scenario is damaging.

Like I said, the studies are not up to date. IMO.