How Many Times Have I Heard That Our School System Is Terrible

[Solomon]

Constant carping about it.

Then they turn down the best speaker bar none on the entire planet!

[BlooInBloo]

1. (shrug) I think our schools are shitacular, and having Obama talk is a step in the right direction.

[donco6]

5. It certainly explains a lot about you. n/t

[endless october]

2. i got a great public school education.

and i took it all the way through graduate school.

required :

1. parental involvement. studying was not an "option." my parents made sure i did my work, and they followed my progress.

2. individual effort. those who "never took a book home" did not succeed.

we have one of the best public education systems in the world. "worst schools in the world" is another bullshit limbaugh / hannity talking point.

[randr]

3. The emergence of the lunatic fringe is ample proof of how our educational system has failed us.

[donco6]

4. Yeah, because we taught them all that shit.

:eyes:

[create.peace]

7. neil postman was probably right.....

http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/post_1.html

[LWolf]

6. Way too many.

As an educator, I can say that nobody knows the dysfunctions in the system better than educators.

We aren't the ones fucking it up.

The constant carping is a right wing propaganda effort in the long war to privatize schools. And they are winning. Our new Secretary is on their bus, not ours.

As for the speech:

Our school system isn't banning the speech. Local districts, school sites, and individual teachers decide what to do with the speech.

It wouldn't have been an issue if the WH hadn't posted some problematic "suggestions" for how to deal with the speech in the classroom. That's what gave the rw the ammunition to energize the current controversy.

Obama is a skilled, eloquent speaker, to be sure. "Bar none on the entire planet!" may be a little over the top.

The speech itself is good. It reinforces what schools are telling their students this week anyway.

What we DON'T need is to have that message politicized, and therefore diminished.

It's too late, of course, to erase the controversy like the offending "suggestions" were erased. If the frenzy continues to ratchet up higher, it's probably too late for the speech to be much of a public service, as intended.

And both sides are feeding the frenzy at this point.