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Public Education: Trapped by the Progressive Agenda
For years we’ve been talking about the poor state of education. For conservatives, it’s even worse: our children are learning propaganda with a Progressive agenda; the government and teachers control the curriculum and textbooks to the detriment of the students; and there is no indication that anything will change soon.
It’s time that we took back education, and we can already see strategies that are beginning to support a balanced agenda for authentic learning.
To highlight one of my major concerns, school textbooks, I was alarmed to read an article by Joy Pullmann in The Federalist about a new textbook being considered for Advanced Placement courses in the 2019 edition. Pullmann reports on some of the content of By the People: A History of the United States:
In describing the rise of Black Lives Matter in the aftermath of the Ferguson, Missouri shooting: ‘The nearly all-white police force was seen as an occupying army in the mostly African-American town.’ In a section discussing President Trump’s cabinet, the book says ‘They were largely white males, more so than any cabinet since Ronald Reagan.’ In a discussion of the nation’s politics after 2012, it says ‘Those who had long thought of the nation as a white and Christian country sometimes found it difficult to adjust’ to secularization and an increase in people of other races. Elsewhere, it describes Trump’s ‘not-very-hidden racism.’
You might ask how much damage one biased book might have on students. Pullmann tells us:
Psychological research shows that repeated exposure to fringe concepts conditions people to be more likely to accept such ideas and behavior. This is one reason media bias is such a big deal: even people who are aware of it are influenced by it, and that influence is enough to tip elections.
By the time students reach college, where the indoctrination is widespread, they have already been conditioned:
Where do you think the Parkland high school foot soldiers got their wild ideas? They weren’t born with them. They were taught them. Who taught their teachers, and who taught their parents, and their parents’ teachers? Well, the United States’ monolithically leftist professors.
If the description of the textbooks isn’t troubling enough for you, I suggest you read Walter Williams’s latest column which addresses the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka The Nation’s Report Card:
It’s not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.
It’s time to move past shrugging our shoulders or wringing our hands. Our kids are being given a substandard education, taught in a neo-Marxist environment with a socialist curriculum, and distorted and biased textbooks. Here are the places I suggest we start:
Promote K-12 public charter schools: Hillsdale has developed an outstanding program. One of these schools is located in Palm Bay, FL, called Pineapple Cove Classical Academy. Its curriculum includes history taught through original-source documents, music, art — and even cursive writing! It serves lower- and middle-income families. This is the school’s mission:
The mission of Pineapple Cove Classical Academy is to develop graduates in mind and character through a classical, content-rich curriculum that emphasizes the principles of virtuous living, traditional learning, and civic responsibility.
We are building intelligent, virtuous American citizens.
The effort to build more charter schools will be difficult. Teachers, teachers’ unions, administrations and legislatures (especially due to the influence of unions) are fighting the establishment of charter schools. They publicize poor results from existing charter schools (some don’t do well) and are not shy about “manufacturing” the data. My hope is that more and more charter schools will set high standards and evaluate results; will share information with potential charter schools about knocking down the endless roadblocks to building charter schools; and find new and better ways to encourage the community to build and attend these schools.
There is another option which is growing in popularity:
Providing ongoing support for home-schooling: Since families are becoming more aware of the limitations of the public education system, they are trying homeschooling. Although it’s not for everyone, there are many advantages to teaching your children at home. For an overview, read here. I hope that many of you who are participating in charter schools or homeschooling will share your experiences.
Provide Balanced Textbooks and Original Sources: Publishers must be identified that can provide textbooks that more accurately teach conservative and traditional values and provide a more balanced view of this country and the world. This effort would be a first step toward moving away from Pearson Publishing, which currently provides most of the textbooks that support a progressive agenda.
We need to take some positive and constructive steps before any more damage is done. Let’s think outside the box: how can we identify new and better ways to educate the next generations?
Published in Education
Great news, Drew! I love it!
Like most situations, I would say it always varies. Some administrators & teachers would grab the opportunity & thrive. Others would make huge mistakes & either become gunshy or – more likely – would be constantly held up by the Progressives as bad examples. In larger districts & cities, I suspect there would be such a critical mass of mediocrity that the good teachers that want to take responsibility would be pushed out sooner or later. But none of my speculation includes the influence & politicking of Teacher’s Unions & other activist groups.
Almost a decade ago – before certain conferences had become largely political – I saw an interesting (short) talk about education from an unlikely source. https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unplugged The part about education starts at 7:45. The critical stats about teachers starts at 9:40. To summarize the relevant pieces:
I suspect that more freedom would work in some areas, fail in others and – over the long run – the tendency to evolve back to the current mess would manifest. Inertia would be difficult to overcome in large districts, so the experiment would only be valid in less dense areas.
They might cheat though.
BTW, when my wife was in the military the schools were very excited about us signing a paper saying that our kids were military kids because the school got extra money. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but seeing as how schools are legally bound to teach any student, whether he’s an citizen or not, and seeing as how we, not a military functionary, had to sign the slip, I imagine not signing might be a way to starve the beast as well. Or a person could say, “Let’s see how you do this year and if there’s no nonsense I’ll see about signing next year.”
We have a school bond vote coming up May 1st. I’ll be voting “No”, but I’m motivated by the fact the county council has already decided how the money is going to be spent!
This is what I mean. We need to get creative.
It’s time we stop going on bended knee to the government and they start asking our permission!
“You want to teach my kid what?? Oh, I don’t think so…”
I think we all need to see ourselves as starting fresh. Through everyone’s comments, I’m learning a whole lot and I hope everyone following the thread feels the same way. We start from now!
I wonder if there’s an opportunity here for the organic growth of a Charter system.
If the initial pooling of parental resources were set up as an education co-op for the existing parents, it might have a chance at long-term survival.
Does anyone know how much money is actually allotted to charter schools from the government? I assume that money is shifted over from the traditional public schools to the charters.
I remember those, my parents filled a bookcase with them and refused to have a TV in the house until us kids grew up.
Careful. “Staff” =/= “teachers”
If only the staff was teachers. Instead, what you end up with in most school systems is a hierarchy of poo-bahs who have little to no effect on the act of teaching. In one place we lived, there was a ballot issue for more money nearly every cycle. I never saw charts that indicated any better outcomes, but that school system’s list of employees included many multiples of superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and on down the line to assistant to the assistant of the secretary to the assistant. Working for the school system seemed to be the meal ticket in that locale and I would venture to say that’s the case in many towns.
Libs love co-ops. Maybe if it was sold that way they would bite….
Of course. It also includes all the
free ridersparasites in the bureaucracy ….Education is a system of graft.
A major obstacle to reform is the strong positive social construction of “teachers.” Politicians, at every level of government, start with unqualified praise, thus weakening any public support for reform. It is almost as bad as British politicians with the NHS. See a couple Prime Minister’s Questions to get the flavor. We must first challenge the assumption of superior social virtue by appeals to equality and anti-elitism. It helps when “teachers” are represented by a politically inept woke “Arizona elementary teacher.”
This is exactly the way it is and very well articulated. Also, all of that Frankfurt School stuff is a real problem that doesn’t get enough proper attention.
You misspelled insanity.
Jeeze, is that guy David Hogg’s older brother?? Same scowl.
This is what the lefty education establishment would have you believe…
Then they moan that “Ohhhh, charters are draining our resources!!” Don’t fall for it.
I’m sure every state makes up its own rules for distributing money, but I’m willing to generalize that the bulk of funding is done on a per pupil basis, which is why they’re so very desperate to have your kid in attendance on Count Day (typically the 1st of October). They get paid by how many students they “serve.”
Charters have to operate lean, though, because they don’t provide special education services (for the most part), and don’t get the SPED student rate of reimbursement, which is on the order of double the typical per pupil rate. I’m sure there are other ways public schools spend our money that is not available to charters, but charters have the advantage of being able to seek grants and private charitable donations that aren’t allowed in the public school system. Any money donated to the public school system has to go in the pot for “fair” distribution to all the schools in the district. Iow, you can’t support just schools exhibiting excellence — it’s all of them or none. At least, that’s how it works in Colorado.
Thanks SO much for explaining the resources for charters question, WC. I am learning so much!
Some apartment complexes have clubhouses that are rarely used by day.
Most churches would be cool with students and a lot of the animal lodges (Elks, Moose, etc.) are desperate to rent out their halls.
It’s time to bring back the one-room schoolhouse.
The more ‘staff’ a school gets, the less responsibility they take; used to be you could send a misbehaving child to the principle’s office to get the fear of god put into him (or at least give him a smack on the butt). Now they send him back and ask why you can’t “manage your classroom”.
I love that idea…up until the hippies come in to teach. Or not. Maybe we could use those people for art class. I’m pretty sure they all of these ancient hippies have retained their primitive skills. They could teach children to weave God’s Eyes, or make bongs.
Nassim Taleb. Possibly an answer, here.
IMO, this is how you look at it to start fixing things in aggregate. Liberal education obviously has value, but everything is so mucked up right now.
link
There is a movement among charters to address this by opening voc-ed schools in partnership with the classical curriculum schools. We just had an existing classical charter open a voc-ed school last year.
But, yes, everything is so screwed up, I think it’s worth reassessing the whole thing — including mandatory schooling through 12th grade. I just don’t see that being useful for everyone.
IMO, this is ideal. Get classically educated (i.e. “How to understand the world and not to be a stupid Democrat )for 2-3 years and get a career (you like) that you get highly compensated for that can’t be out sourced. Let Mises.org, Dennis Prager, Camile Paglia, and Jordon Peterson pick out all of the books.
It takes until twelfth grade to give our students and eighth grade education though.
The thing is, you coop with people who are like minded and find a teacher you want to hire.
Remember, though, that until homeschooling caught on big with conservative Christians, it was largely a weirdo hippie thing. Because the original hippies were a lot more like a back-to-nature Tea Party movement, wanting mostly just to be left alone by the Government. The left co-opted the hippies, turned them into commies, . . . an’ ‘ere we are an’ that’s that!
So yeah . . . I wouldn’t fear the hippies that much. As long as you can tell the difference between the hippies and the yippies.
(Which reminds me, one of the most outspoken anti-abortion kids when I went to high school was the hippie chick.)