This is why liberals should support private schools

[bluestateguy]

Not vouchers, mind you, but private schools. When public schools are taken over by this crowd, we need liberal private schools as an alternative.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1001.blake.html


Don McLeroy is a balding, paunchy man with a thick broom-handle mustache who lives in a rambling two-story brick home in a suburb near Bryan, Texas. When he greeted me at the door one evening last October, he was clutching a thin paperback with the skeleton of a seahorse on its cover, a primer on natural selection penned by famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr. We sat down at his dining table, which was piled high with three-ring binders, and his wife, Nancy, brought us ice water in cut-crystal glasses with matching coasters. Then McLeroy cracked the book open. The margins were littered with stars, exclamation points, and hundreds of yellow Post-its that were brimming with notes scrawled in a microscopic hand. With childlike glee, McLeroy flipped through the pages and explained what he saw as the gaping holes in Darwin’s theory. “I don’t care what the educational political lobby and their allies on the left say,” he declared at one point. “Evolution is hooey.” This bled into a rant about American history. “The secular humanists may argue that we are a secular nation,” McLeroy said, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis. “But we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.”

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[Brickbat]

1. And when "that crowd" takes over private schools, what then?

Sorry, I'll stick with the public option.

[liberal N proud]

2. And the poor kids are just fucked

[EFerrari]

3. Respectfully disagree. This is why we have to fight for our public schools. nt

[LiberalAndProud]

4. Homeschooling looks better and better.

Yikes!

[Bucky]

5. Texas is only scary from the outside. If you lived here...

...you'd be fucking terrified.

That said, as a history teacher in Texas, I have enough classroom autonomy to teach reality. Any teacher who relies on the textbook isn't really doing their job, anyway.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. Are teachers such as yourself an endangered species?

It's rather terrifying from my perspective as well, as it has been pointed out that Texas has a huge influence on textbooks nationwide.

And around here, teachers such as yourself are truly rare.

[Bucky]

9. In my big city experience, no. I'm pretty typical.

Even my Republican coworkers can't stand the fundies who try to hijack the book approval process. In Houston at least, teachers are academics first and partisans second.

[seabeyond]

15. as i said in a post below, our schools in our area of texas gets evolution, no creationism

the teachers are excellent, and open in their teaching. i have not had to address one teacher in all the years in the school.

[AspenRose]

6. I saw "Bryan, Texas" and didn't need to go any further

All too familiar with that, having attended A&M

[RainDog]

7. this idiot will have to face the fact that Universities will not admit students who lack

...students who lack basic educational information have to attend remedial classes. this idiot will face this fact - and the parents who support him will face the wrath of parents who will have to spend more money on expensive college tuition for education they should have received in high school (and this is the case across disciplines, not just science, as we speak, btw.)

when OK or whoever it was was trying to implement dumbing down their educational system, Universities let them know those students would be "red-flagged" when they applied for colleges.

and that whole thing never got past the ranting stage.

we need national educational standards because it is a waste of time and money to fight these idiots state by state. we need to have a national statement that acknowledges science over myth. let some idiot run for president who wants to deny the entire world's acknowledged understanding of science (hey, Huckabee) and see how that plays on commercials against that candidate.

the idiots may run their little corner of the world, but they face the rest of the world too. the rest of the world doesn't have time for that shit.

[Bucky]

11. Sadly, no, he will not have to face that fact. He's saving souls.

His supporters might have to face those facts when their kids apply to college, but then most of his voters don't send their kids to public school anyway.

[RainDog]

12. yes, but parents who DO send their kids to college will stop this

because those parents who do send their kids to college tend not to be as stupid as the avg. republican fucktard.

...even when they say things like "let both be taught." sadly there are lots of educated ppl in the U.S. who use that cop out as a way to not face the lies of their religion, but it's true.

however, when those parents know that they are damaging their childrens' futures, they will care.

I really detest Texas. I've spent quite a bit of time there b/c of family and, honestly, Texas is my definition of hell. except for Austin. and that's because of UT. if UT were not in Austin, it would be just another pit of Texas b.s.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Riiiight.

Because private schools aren't filled with creationists.

[Bluebear]

13. "Support" in what respect, Charlie?

[bluestateguy]

16. Support in the sense that we should not demonize private schools as inherently evil

Many liberals do.

Not all private schools are conservative and religious, and even some religious schools teach progressive values.

For the record I strongly oppose vouchers.

[Bluebear]

18. Gotcha.

No problem with private schools whatsoever, I went to them as a kid, matter of fact. Long as vouchers don't enter into play, I support them as another choice for parents who are able to make that choice financially.

[seabeyond]

14. seeing how i live in conservative amarillo tx and kids have gone thru the system, NEVER

have they had this kind of teaching. their teachers teach evolution ONLY and allow no creationism in the class. they have sex education from 5th to at least 8th and abstinence is not the curriculum.

and the only private schools we have a religious.

you decide

not an accurate reflection of public schools or the public schools in texas

[krabigirl]

17. I am for private schools, I just can't afford them. There's a great secular one near my house.

It's French-based but way too costly. I'd prefer my kids go there rather than be assaulted by "Good" news clubs and fundies on school boards.