Education On The Chopping Block

Posted on by under education, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

The education of our young people is probably the single most critical issue, after climate change and the environment, that our nation faces today.  In recent decades, we have seen the decline of our public education system.  Schools have stopped or cut back on teaching such things as civics, social sciences, philosophy, and even literature, trading them for a more technical education based on computers and their applications.  That was bad enough, for we now have a generation of adults who in many cases are unaware of the role history has played in leading up to our lives today, do not understand how our government works, and are not deep thinkers.  They are not the problem-solvers of tomorrow that we so desperately need.  Oh sure, they can write a computer program to accomplish almost anything, but they are not well-versed in real-world issues, are not the problem solvers we need today.  Not every problem can be fixed with a computer application!

But today, rather than trying to address these problems, trying to give our youth a more well-rounded, liberal arts education, politicians and religious groups are attempting to diminish our schools even further.  I believe that there is a reason for this, that they do not want the kid from the poor side of town who put himself through college by hard work, to become the nation’s leaders of tomorrow.  However, the reason is less important than the effects, so let’s focus on what is happening in our schools today, the attempts to undermine the value of our children’s education.

About a month ago, I wrote about Arizona’s Governor Doug Ducey who, rather than raise teacher’s salaries in order to attract more teachers, removed the requirement for teachers to have a college degree.  The only educational requirement to be a teacher in Arizona is that you be enrolled in college or university.  This week, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing a plan to bypass teacher certification and hire former first responders including former police officers, firefighters and EMTs as well as former members of the military.  Like Ducey in Arizona, DeSantis would rather lower the standards for teachers than use some of his budget surplus to raise teacher pay.  Obviously, the future of our country is not of any great importance to Ron DeSantis.

Meanwhile in South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem released a revised proposal for social studies standards in public schools that lays out a mostly shining vision of American history, one that omits large blocks of facts and focuses more on religion.  Noem claims she is “weeding out certain divisive teachings on race” in public schools.  Weeding out facts.  The new standards would put forth the idea that from its inception, this nation has provided equal rights and access to all races and genders.  The standards also include a significant amount of ‘Christian’ history.  Now, if I’m Jewish or Muslim, paying my taxes and sending my child to public school, I’m going to have a problem with her learning that there is some superiority to Christianity, that this nation is a ‘Christian nation’.  And if I’m Black or Native American, I’m going to have a real big problem with the whitewashing of the history of my ancestors.

And then in Arizona, there is Kari Lake, running for governor against Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs.  Lake claims she would model the educational model in Arizona based on that of Hillsdale College, a private Christian school in Michigan that’s influential in right-wing circles and is run by Larry Arnn who spearheaded Donald Trump’s short-lived 1776 Commission, created to support what Trump called ‘patriotic education.’  Ms. Lake has said she would work to “ban diversity, equity, and inclusion training in schools.”  Oh yeah, that’s just what we need!  Ban diversity, ban equality, encourage even more racism and bigotry than we already have!  Why not just start a KKK school and teach kids how to hate even more than their parents do?  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

There are more examples, but you get the picture.  Our education system in recent decades has devolved.  Especially under the four-year leadership of former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, schools have lost much of the emphasis that used to be placed on turning out students who were fully prepared to take on leadership roles, to help shape the future of the nation.  If the current trend continues, I don’t even want to try to envision this nation twenty years from now.

50 thoughts on “Education On The Chopping Block”

  1. Pingback: Education On The Chopping Block – Rescue The Perishing Generation African

  2. I agree that a strong education system is key to the future of any country. I think we could learn a lot by taking a look at some of the more successful educational systems around the world, and adopt some of those best practices…

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Jill, the US had already fallen in world rankings in math and science to the twenties in position. It may be worse now, as that was a few years old ranking. The answer is not to lessen the quality of education with a lower bar on the entry for teachers. The answer is not controlling what kids can read that would have allowed for more critical thinking. The answer is not teaching evolution as a science. Dumbing down America will lead to disastrous results. Now and more so later. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • I fear we are already seeing the results of the dumbing down of American education, although I must admit I’ve been impressed with some of today’s youth, such as those who survived the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School who have become anti-gun activists, and some who are staunch environmental activists. They stand above the crowd, but imagine if we gave every child an honest education without book-banning, without whitewashing our mistakes. Sigh.

      Like

  4. Humanities and social studies shouldn’t be done away with, because, they offered the lessons of those who came before, but, these shifts toward the technical are happening all around the world right now, as that’s what the enterprises are hiring for, people with the technical skillsets, and so, the humanities, the social studies are, slashed out, and that’s just not right.

    Liked by 2 people

    • You’re so right … if we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past, then we will continue to make the same mistakes well into the future. In fact, it is some of those mistakes we are repeating today that are on track to destroy the planet. There is more to life than money, and that money will have NO value when there is no water or food to sustain life.

      Like

  5. Having no children I have no idea what Canada’s education system is like nowadays, but I do know the ruling Conservatives in Alberta have upset most every school division in our province with the new cirriculums the teachers do not want to teach! It superiorizes white citizens and ignominizes people of colour. And they expect people of colour to send their children to schools where they are taught to hate themselves. What the hell kind of a cirriculum does that!
    Four years of power for Trump in the USA has affected our education system in Canada. It affected our whole culture where hate crimes are on the rise. If I could go back in time and change one thing, it would not be Caesar, or Paul of Tarsus, or even Hitler. It would be blowing up the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, and any other European-based vessel that approached Turtle Island shores. What has happened here is unbelievable. And we are now suffering for what we allowed to happen 530 years ago!

    Liked by 1 person

    • It sounds like Canada … or at least Alberta … has taken a page out of the southern U.S. playbook. Not a good model to follow! I’ll never understand what people think is so ‘superior’ about white skin! Personally, just on an aesthetic level, I think darker skin is far more pleasing to the eye! And you already know my views on racism, so I’ll leave it at that.

      I do think, however, it might be a bit extreme to say that it would have been good to have killed hundreds of people who came to this country way back when. Some contributed in positive ways, some led to generations of people who did good things, so … let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater, eh?

      Like

  6. 20 years from now…try 10. This is so outrageous, but then we do know why..keep the masses dumb and dumber and the rich wealthier and in control all for themselves. We are heading downhill so fast, it’s making my head spin.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yep, don’t let them learn to think for themselves, but rather create a “1984” society where they believe whatever “Big Brother” tells them to believe and follow what they are told like the sheeple the Republicans have turned them into.

      Like

  7. Conservatives hate public education because they would rather have their kids going to religious based schools where history is either re-written or ignored altogether and where they can indoctrinate their children with Conservative idiosyncrasies and, therefore, isolate them from the main stream … giving them a sense of entitlement, privilege and superiority , and making sure they grow up to be submissive to their idyllic leadership and remain fanatically devoted to all democratic idealism. Their love of home schooling has proven one thing if nothing else … they have proven they have the ability and the willingness to bring all their children up to the highest level of their parent/teacher’s incompetence. It isn’t just education on the chopping block, it is every traditional American value that is in their sites for demolition. They have created an alternative universe for themselves and they want to drag all the rest of us into it’s dark depths. Worse than that, a great number of Americans are swallowing their hog wash and showing indications of accepting their Orwellianism.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Yes, that’s a big part of it. They want to live in an Orwellian society where the ‘proles’ don’t bother to think … don’t know how to think for themselves, and therefore will believe what they are told to believe and follow their leaders like sheeple.

      Liked by 2 people

      • They have already managed to accumulate 80 million of those kind of people and the majority of the ones they have accumulated are adult in stature even though the stature of their mental capacity is at question.

        Liked by 2 people

        • You are so right about that … I would venture to say their mental capacity is narrowly limited in scope. 80 million … sigh … that’s a lot of fools … fools who are sadly reproducing the next generation of fools.

          Liked by 1 person

  8. Pingback: EDUCATION IS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK. |jilldennison.com | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

  9. A certain segment of the American population is too invested in ignorance to invest (financially and/or intellectually) in education. It’s much easier for followers to let leaders do their thinking for them — leaders who need the gullible (and their political donations) to gain and stay in power.

    Liked by 2 people

    • True, but … it’s one of those “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” conundrums. Are the people too ignorant and that’s why they are not vested in the education of our children, or are they ignorant because the wealthy and the religious decided decades ago not to teach those things that would allow people to think for themselves, but rather would keep them in place as sheeple, blindly following, doing as they are told?

      Liked by 2 people

  10. During COVID we put our daughter in private Kindergarten because we did not want to participate in the online do-it-yourself. Firstly, while I have a master’s degree, I am not a teacher. I did go over work with her through summer break such as math, reading, and spelling. But, my daughter excelled in that private school, and now that she’s back in public school. She’s entering second grade as an advanced reader and student.

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Conservatives do not value education.

    For much of my life, I have been noticing that conservatives do not understand education. They do not understand the difference between education and indoctrination.

    Liked by 2 people

    • It took me until the past decade or so to realize it, but you are right. And you’re spot on when you say that they do not understand the difference between education and indoctrination. The greatest lessons I learned in my 15 or so years of education was how to think for myself. It is a critical skill that we are hiding from our young people today, for conservatives also do not want people to think … they want them to simply absorb whatever they are told, rather like a sponge.

      Liked by 1 person

    • It is sad, but it has been coming for a number of years now, slowly at first, almost imperceptible, but of late, state after state are taking steps to ‘dummy down’ our schools.

      Like

  15. Pingback: Education On The Chopping Block — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

Comments are closed.