President Obama said Thursday the United States “had gotten a little soft” before he took office and needs to regain its competitive edge in the global economy because opportunities for younger Americans are not as plentiful as they were for their parents.
Mr. Obama was asked if he was worried that today’s recent college graduates do not have the same opportunities that the baby boom generation had when they were younger.
“Absolutely,” Mr. Obama told Orlando’s WESH-TV.
“Even before the financial crisis hit, one of the reasons that I ran for president was that wages, incomes, had flat-lined at the same time that costs were going up,” Mr. Obama said, adding “I think people felt that opportunities were becoming more constricted for the next generation.”
“And that’s why, making sure that we’re revamping our education system, making sure we’ve got world class infrastructure, investing in basic science and research and technology, making sure that we are moving manufacturing back to the United States, and that we are being tough with our trading partners — making sure that they’re not taking advantage of us,” Mr. Obama told the interviewer.
All of this of course happened before Mr. Obama was elected. Not on his watch. He’s chosen to be the cure.
And, you know? Pace Jimmy Carter – and to agree for once with Mr. Obama – we have gotten a little soft.
It started in the nation’s public schools, which for two generations have ceased to teach what it had heretofore meant to be a citizen. As Dennis Prager said, this is the worst thing ever to happen to our country:
I believe the greatest threat facing the United States of America, and I have believed this my entire adult life, is that we have not passed on what it means to be American to this generation.
Oh, to be sure, students are still taught to “rock the vote!” as the highest expression of civic duty in on cycles (it’s dissent, in the alternating ones). But we used to have a unifying theme, a clarity of moral vision. Our values included independence, hard work, and individualism. You got out of life what you put into it. We pledged allegiance to the flag.
Your kids aren’t getting that in school these days. Or if they are, the version that they’re getting isn’t the one you received, and it’s not the one that 400,000 members of the Greatest Generation died for, in Europe and the Pacific.
Rather than their accomplishments, and that of those that came before them, our children have been treated to American history as a non-stop guilt trip.
- The pilgrims, who came here to escape religious oppression and live free lives hacked out of a wilderness? Puritan scolds.
- The settlers that came after, building a new civilization? Land rapers and genocidaires.
- Thomas Jefferson, author of Declaration of Independence? Patrician slave owner.
- The great struggle to define the limits of the federal government against the will of the states? A cartoonish caricature of the “good” citizens of the north suppressing an evil rebellion of unrepentant slaveholders.
- Our expansion westward, with free peoples once again carving out an existence across vast distances in the face of great hardships and savagery? More genocide by land grabbers against peaceful, agrarian aboriginals at one with nature.
- Our industrial expansion, the engine of widespread prosperity and eventual arsenal of democracy? Rapine and repression of the working class by avaricious and amoral robber barons.
- The Spanish-American War, which drove a harsh, corrupt and declining empire out the hemisphere, eventually liberating millions of minds? America’s own first foray into colonialism.
- Our participation in the Great War against militarism, and to put an end to war? An inexplicable and historically irrelevant overseas adventure that only led fascism, more genocide and even greater bloodshed on an industrial scale.
- Our victory in the Second World War against the forces of fascism? A perhaps necessary but nevertheless regrettable waste of blood and treasure which led in turn to imperial overreach by the last unravaged country. A war, moreover, fought by a “greatest generation,” comparison with which is impossible, thereby alleviating its successors from attempting great things of their own.
- The titanic clash of dialectically opposed ideologies represented by the Cold War? A period of foreign misadventures, military over-spending, hysteria and fear in which it is too soon to say whether the better side won. Don’t get me started on Viet Nam.
All of the things you learned growing up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s about the birth and growth of a great nation were lies, gentle reader. And the generations that came after you know it. They do not get a “both/and” or “yes/but” course of instruction in the history of the great (dead/white) men that built this land, with their very real sins contextualized to the times they lived in. What they have learned instead is that American exceptionalism, to the degree that it exists at all, is a great litany of uniquely American mortal sins; over-indulgence, global warming, greed, hubris, and a whole host of “isms”: Colonialism, militarism, and imperialism. But far and away they have been taught about our worst sin of all, racism. This is a sin that can never be fully expiated, no matter how many over-credentialed and under-qualified community organizers of color we elect to lead the free world.
But we can try, can’t we? So instead of national greatness, our students are lectured on the moral imperative of “diversity” by unionized public servants who seem to care more about the size of their paychecks than the number of students in their classrooms. The new priests of orthodox mediocrity have been for two generations teaching our children to kneel with them at the sacred altar of government, from whom all blessings flow and to whom all things should be given, apart from some spare necessities suitable to their plebeian status as cogs in the great wheel of government-driven society.
Hard work? It’s, well: Hard. Why bother, when somebody from the federal will eventually show up and give you the fruits of some other putz’s labor. More fool him, for putting his back into it. “Independence”? That’s just a city in Missouri, what with unemployed and unemployable 30-somethings coming home to live with mom and dad, having spent a useless decade of protracted adolescence becoming “credentialed” for jobs that don’t exist. And individualism is all well and good in today’s diploma mills, so long as you don’t stand out in any way by failing to conform to the lumpen campus political orthodoxy.
The popular culture largely eschews the notion of morality, when not actively campaigning against it. Our youth have been trained for going on forty years now to instead value their own feelings about moral conundra, morality no longer being a treasured inheritance passed down from generation to generation for over 4000 years, but rather largely a matter of personal preference. Then they are thoroughly steeped in the language of unearned “self-esteem”, which eventually collides with the cold, hard world of the market economy, a market that cares far less about their feelings of self-worth than it does about their productive potential whilst on the clock.
We have the greatest universities in the world, with top notch engineering, science and technology classrooms. A quite remarkable number of which, lacking motivated and qualified applicants closer to home, are filled with students from India, South Korea and the Peoples’ Republic of China. Most of whom will go back home, taking with them their hard won knowledge, and leaving behind soon to be empty podia. Who will teach those classes a generation hence?
The rising nation, equipped with advanced degrees in comparative literature, and having amassed unpayable student loans, lacks the skills necessary to thrive in a growingly competitive world. This leads to inchoate anger, class resentment, and feeble and infantilized citizens dependent upon the largesse of an ever-more-smothering nanny state. And, yes, malaise. Or, to put it another way, we’ve “gotten a little soft.”
President Obama is right, he didn’t cause this softening, although to be sure he profited from it. Its the natural result of teaching two generations of students that the great things done in the past by exceptional people didn’t merely mask sins, they were in themselves sinful. It’s the natural result of preaching the toxic gospels of moral relativism and statism. It’s the natural result of preaching the morally neutral value of diversity for its own sake, and its crowning achievement was the public school system’s touchy-feely obsession with “self-esteem” unattached to any accomplishments. The sad thing is, of course, that Mr. Obama’s election to the presidency offers no cure for this syndrome.
Indeed, it is a symptom.
Two bloc quotes, 10 bullet points, 12 paras, 2 sentences=26 reasons to hit the Barbancourt–as if I need any–all one has to do is wake up daily and scan ANY media. Thanks a lot, Lex, thanks A LOT–Like I really needed that reminder…it is to weep..
YOU need a drink? He’s talking about MY generation. There are days where all I want is a bottle of scotch, a gun, and a few hundred million bullets. Then there are the days where all I want is a case of scotch, a gun, and one bullet.
In the end, we’ve been through worse. If there’s one defining American trait it’s pragmatism. Every so often we let our optimism get in the way of our knowledge, but we quickly learn our lesson and go on. Obama is going to be the last liberal President for quite a while, and every year the media that effectively shielded his liberalism become less and less relevant.
Lol, Jeff, as I’ve said on many an occasion, there ARE REASONS why people climb to the top of the Texas Tower with a good sniper rifle and PLENTY of extra ammo. Not sayin’ I condone such actions–but I UNDERSTAND.
PS: Plus two links=28 reasons..
A greater Intellect than I summed it up in very few words:
“As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
We need to find a leader who recognizes all of the above, and get started on a real fix.
Odds of it happening? Slim to ain’t it a shame.
All that vx, and he still forgot how the great industrial engine of the United States destroyed the Earth’s fragile environment causing the seas to rise, the plains to flood, and Texas to burn.
Which that’s what the comments boxes are for, and it’s not like I can do this all alone.
Lex,
You summed it up in a stunningly clear and concise few paragraphs. Unfortunately, there is a large fraction of the populace who cannot fathom the words. They have been carefully taught, in the type of Truth espoused in “1984″ that “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia”.
2012 is going to be a watershed election. If it goes the wrong way, we will not be able to recover.
Yeah, that’s what Elizabeth Warren said. It’s ok, your just the 20% that does 80% of the work. I’m in the majority.
Sorry, I have to use humor, because you hit upon one of my own pet peeves. I completely agree with your comments, but usually, I get so upset (p/c tells me I shouldn’t get mad or angry) that I tend to blather as I try to put together all the examples of what we done to ourselves. You did a great job. Thanks for the inspiration.
It’s sad day when the Chinese Space Program is more patriotic American than our President (use sound).
Lex, if you tried to do it all alone, it wouldn’t be as much fun. Not only do we get to pick on each other, we can pick on you too.
But, it’s all in fun. Trust me.
The “greatest generation” of Americans will always be our Founding Fathers. All generations of Americans are great. But the original Americans actually risked it all, not just their lives but their entire family’s prosperity to MAKE me a free man. All subsequent soldiers KEPT me a free man. I thank them all. The conspicuous valor of the Continental Army facing the red coats,the most powerful army in the world gives me goosebumps to think of it.
The “greatest generation” of Americans will always be our Founding Fathers. All generations of Americans are great, but the original Americans actually risked it all, not just their lives, but their entire family’s prosperity, to MAKE me a free man. All subsequent soldiers KEPT me a free man. I thank them all. The conspicuous valor of the Continental Army facing the red coats,the most powerful army in the world gives me goosebumps to think of it.
Channeling VDH are we?
Not like that’s a bad thing…
Shack, Lex. Freaking SHACK!
On the Broader topic: Don’t fret this socialist regime that “American Idoled” it’s way to power. For the political pendulum will swing back. It now has been swung very far to the left. So we can expect it to swing with great momentum back in the other direction (God I hope I’m correct).
We as a nation have endured this ” The Constitution is out-dated” baloney before. The silent majority will rise when the political stench finally rouses them. Today the Media and lefty beltwayers have painted centrist Americans as “wing-nuts” and “right wing extremists”. This will not be tolerated over time by the aforementioned silent majority.
Teach your children well. My 19 year old knows the truth. I make sure he knows that some of what he is taught at school is revisionist history. I am his father. His education is my responsibility. He and I talk history and politics. We also discuss treating anything in the news or on TV as false until shown to be true. I will not abide the lies. Teach your children well.
I’m sure you left some stuff out but it hardly matters. This is a great summary of what is wrong with our country.
At some level yes it all starts with education. The truly exasperating thing is that when one points out that our education system is lacking the same crowd who has transformed our education system into the wasteland it is simply want more money to double down on the same BS they’ve been peddling for decades with the results to prove it.
I’m amazed at the level of ignorance of the basic facts of our country by just about anyone who doesn’t take it upon themselves to learn it. This usually happens when they start paying taxes and since so many don’t these days the slide to a squalid, ignorant society dependent on the government accelerates. When the government goes broke it will lead to the end.
+1
Those who tell the lies are evil.
Those who teach them to our children as truth are even worse.
If, repeat IF, our nation recovers from Obama’s maladminstration, January 20, 2009 will be the date in the truthful history books recorded as they date many of our people lurched into the abyss following a false prohpet.
Worst. President. EVER!!!
Well that was quite rant!
Personally, I like to read history that is actually objective and truthful; not history that is subjective, slanted, fairytale-ike in our (or anyone’s) favor.
He offers a lot to question, red meat for conservatives, is a good performer who seems to know little about education, and is just another ranting jingoist to me. But isn’t that how he makes his money?
flit:
Paul
Judging from Flit, Prager knows a lot about education.
Kind of funny how your side of the political equation always claims to be just proclaiming the truth. But somehow that “truth” is always slanted towards an America is evil, white men are evil, Christianity is evil and only one world collectivism is good.
Lex covered some of what is taught. But he didn’t get into what is not taught along the same lines. Like Lincoln being a mentally unstable, racist megalomaniac. Or the Kennedy Klan being power hungry, adulterous, sometimes homicidal, lushes.
The Rev. Dr. M. L. (Michale Luois) King Jr. was a womanizer almost the equal of JFK.
I could go on about some of the other untouchables, but you get the idea. Somehow those icons of left wing ideals of unlimited wealth and power never seem to have their failings printed in the texts. Why is that, Fliterman?
JoeNCA – Actually I agree with you, to a point. Much of the history I learned in school during the ’50s was sugar coated American pabulum, just like what you suggest. It wasn’t real history.
Also at the time we did not know about what we later learned about the Kennedy’s. Nor were we aware of some serious flaws of MLK. But history now teaches a more realistic history of people – and indeed our nation, warts and all, fortunately.
Yes our early settlers were industrious and courageous individuals to be admired. But they also annihilated a continent of indigenous people, either unintentionally with germs, or intentionally by the thought of “any good Indian is a dead Indian.”
Thomas Jefferson was a pillar of a man. But he also had slaves.
The civil war was caused by both good and evil.
Manifest Destiny was good for us, yet terrible for those in the way.
The industrial revolution built this great country into what it became, and protected us throughout the 20th century. But it came at considerable strife, pain and suffering of many workers.
While there were great deeds of heroism, the Spanish American War was trumped up, hotly contested among our citizens, and an embarrassment to the world as we abandoned some of what our forefathers and nation had stood for. But it thankfully gained us key nations for future wars… later lost.
The Great War, necessary more than not, still was hotly contested by many good and true Americans.
All those things are facts. They are a part of our history! They need to be learned. No nation and no person are perfect. We need to stop pretending we are. I never learned any of this in the 1950s. Not in school or the university. Only in later readings. To ignore historical fact is to risk repeating it. And risk it we do.
I will also agree that we as a nation for the most part have become soft. Indeed, selfish, lazy, fat, and slovenly. But while “the schools” make for a nice scapegoat and reason for this – just as do “progressives”, they are not the reason. But I’ll leave the reasons for another time.
Veritas vos Liberabit (The truth will set you free)
But, again, those things I mentioned are not what makes it into the grade school and high school history books, Flit. But all the little tykes are taught that our founding fathers were (gasps of horror) SLAVE HOLDERS! The entire slant is to make America seem as evil as possible rather than instill pride of our Republic in them. Why not teach them the foibles of the left wing heroes too?
Add in that the tone of the teaching is that the US is the only nation to ever do these evil things. Well, maybe Ancient Rome (those darned Catholics, don’t you know). But show me any nation that doesn’t have some skeletons in the closet.
So, Flit, it comes down to the left wing agenda of tearing down the US and our freedoms. We might be an evil country. But we are the best damned evil country this tired old Earth has ever seen.
I tend to think that many of the icons hefted up by both sides of the aisle have been white washed by the history books to a point, no?
Miss Loralee, I’ll agree that many have had there faults kept under wraps, at least from the younger students in an attempt to instill in them the virtues of those people. Then when they are older introduce them to what we today see as faults (say, the slavery issue) at a point where they are able to see those things in their historic and societal context.
But, again, it seems that the ONLY faults that are laid bare to the young and very impressionable are those of people whose political philosophies don’t match up with the agenda of todays left wing – Jefferson and his idea of limited federal government is vilified because he owned slaves and even had sex with one, for example. But the faults of those the left wing sanctifies, Lincoln and JFK, are not mentioned until upper division college courses. And those who dare mention those of St. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are branded as racists.
We hear almost nothing of Wilson’s American Protective League, for instance, because he was a progressive internationalist, the precursor to the one world government types today. He was also no friend of the Constitution: “the U.S. Constitution prevents the government from meeting the country’s needs by enumerating rights that the government may not infringe.” I believe Obama, Biden, and Kerry have all made similar statements within the past few years. Kind of gives you the warm fuzzies, doesn’t it? Right up there with “We need to pass this bill so we can see what is in it.” and “We will just deem it past and move on to the amendments.”
All wars are started by evil. One side wishes to impress their will upon the other.
We got Lincoln’s war because of his northeastern industrialist backers and the Confed administration walked into their trap.
We got Wilson’s war because of his internationalist outlook and wanted the US to be part of that order. Never mind the men it killed. We got WW2 because FDR wanted us in it for his own purposes, and we now know that Acheson and his gang cut Japan off from resources to put their backs to the wall, and the FDR admin ordered the battle Fleet to Pearl as bait (The US Fleet Commander protested because of the provocation it was, and the danger it placed the fleet in, and was relieved for his troubles). The Admin knew where the Japs were (this from Navy radio traffic) because the Japs were not quiet as they crossed the Pacific. FDR sacrificed over 3000 men to get us into the war.
I have no trouble whatsoever with us defending ourselves, but the founders warned against involving ourselves in entangling alliances and getting involved with Europe’s disputes. Dangling ourselves as bait in US outposts is nothing short of obscene, and after a cost in lives of nearly 600,000 in WW1 and 2, we should have learned our lesson.
Evil starts wars, flit. People minding their own business can have them forced on them, but no one starts a war just by defending themselves.
Qm, you write like a rational old-fashioned American from at least a hundred years or so ago. I do totally concur with everything you’ve just written, there.
” I like to read history that is actually objective and truthful; not history that is subjective, slanted, fairytale-ike in our (or anyone’s) favor.”
And I’d like to motorboat Scarlett Johanssen. Neither is going to happen. History is never objective. It is always recorded by someone, with their own point of view and their own agenda. The best we can hope for is to put together enough points of view to allow reasonable inferences about what happened. And given that dead men tell no tales that doesn’t happen very often.
Radioactive and glowing J. Gauch – Written history may never be 100% objective. But certainly many historians and their works come close. The late historian, Barbara Tuchman comes to mind. No?
Too often when people do not like the facts they read, they shoot the historian.
To work around any suspected subjectivity or bias of even the purest of historians, one must only endeavor to read several other respected author’s works on the same subject. That usually gives a very clear picture.
Ten years ago I read a history of Mexico. It was written by a German and in the German language, then later translated to English. I figured that was probably more objective than if written by a Mexican national. Indeed it supported both US and Mexican authors historical accounts, albeit without their occasional and obvious bias. It was from a purely objective perspective. Try it sometime.
Hope this helps.
The reason I joined the nuke program is because I wanted a smile that would light up a room.
The problem with history has nothing to do with historians. Yes, they are people and they have their biases. And yes, the good ones attempt to filter out those biases, but they’re never totally successful. The fundamental problem is that the basic material historians have to work with is biased. That German historian had to work with original source material from both the US and Mexico. That source material was written by people who were biased. When those sources were in conflict at least one of them must be wrong. You can attempt to find out by comparing to other, biased, sources, but the truth is never determined by majority vote.
Frankly when you get beyond trivial facts such as date, result, and place you’re learning more about the psychology of the historian than you are the truth.
Funny, I joined because I wanted to make those chem guys jealous that my bombs were bigger than their bombs.
The fact that it would tick off those Greenpeace guys was just gravy.
– Max
I judge historians not so much by what they include, but what they leave out.
The best histories of the war to prevent southern independence are from Great Britain. They certainly mention slavery and it’s effects on the south, and condemn it, rightfully, but the onus for the war is placed firmly where it belongs, on the north, Lincoln and his handlers.
I can believe a German could produce a better history of the Mexican War than a US author. He has no skin in the game and, theoretically, no axes to grind.
We are just beginning to get far enough away from WW2 to start seeing the truth about it. WW1 we already know about, but is avoided because the left is Wilsonian and they can’t deal with the truth as it is.
So how do you judge a historian that leaves out the basic sequence of events?
Only a child thinks the Civil War was fought over slavery. The real issue debated was secession. That’s why the Union equivalent of “kraut” or “jap” was “secesh”.
The Confederacy was formed a month before Lincoln took office. How in the hell was he responsible for the war. Lincoln didn’t call for an army until after Ft. Sumter, where the Confederates shot first. You and George Lucas have a similar respect for history.
The real blame for the Civil War lay with the indolent man-children running the southern states. They saw their political power declining, mostly due to their own policies. They decided to throw a bitch-fit, take their ball and go home.
Jeff, read what I wrote. I stated that the Confeds fell into Lincoln’s trap. Do a little reading and you will know what trap I’m talking about.
And the war was neither over secession or slavery. Only a child thinks those were the real issues.
Hint: follow the money.
Jeff, he said in his Inaugural Address that he would use force to collect tariffs and such from the states that had issued bills of secession and were no longer part of the Union.
Ft. Sumter was fired of 1) after Lincoln refused several offers of safe conduct to remove federal military from SC soil and 2) to prevent it being resupplied with provisions and fresh troops. If there is a thug on your doorstep with a shotgun and he has friends coming with more guns, do you wait for them to get there and break in your door? It wasn’t a bunch of guys having high tea as it so often seems in the history books. Lincoln was starting to stage into Sumter in preparation to his invasion of the CSA.
Only a child thinks the Civil War was fought over slavery. Then about 70% of our population is children. Most people got all they know of the Tariff War from their 5th grade history texts. As a re-enactor the most common question I get is “Why do you support slavery?” (well, maybe the most common as a gun sgt. is “Is that a real cannon?”). And you should hear some of the abuse that Black Confederate re-enactors have to take from the public. “Race trators” “Uncle Tom” “House Nigger” for instance.
I have two quotes about history.
The victor writes history in his favor.
The only thing we know about history is what we are told. And that may not be the truth.
“It started in the nation’s public schools, which for two generations have ceased to teach what it had heretofore meant to be a citizen.”
Absolutely. The schools are key in destroying our culture. In schools you can influence generations en masse. And it didn’t start in the public schools; it began in the universities and colleges. From there the teachers are trained who go forth and spread the progressive word. At least progressive is what they call it.
Lex, This piece is a perfect example of why I return to your musings day after day. Your erudicity, and gift of painting with words inspire and challenge me daily. Thank you for that.
This post took me back to the perils of 8th grade. Other than trying to figure out girls who suddenly were quite interesting, the number one cause for concern was passing the mandatory U.S. Constitution class. In Arizona in 1971, no pass constitution, no graduate and continue on to high school. Even the boneheads paid attention.
The times have indeed changed for the worse. Damn.
Met the new interns today, did you?
“Even before the financial crisis hit, one of the reasons that I ran for president was that wages, incomes, had flat-lined at the same time that costs were going up,” Mr. Obama said. (He just failed to say so at the time.)
When will Obama re-define Carter’s “Misery Index” so that today’s score is lower than W’s, too?
That would be another grand success for Obama to claim to illiterate voters.
It starts early. Asked my first grader “are you the best reader in the class”?
She: “Daddy, that’s not going to happen.”
Me: (surprised) “Why?”
She: “The teacher said she doesn’t want anybody to be the best.”
Well she doesn’t have far to go to become the best thinker in her class.
TC6Flyer … It does all start with the education you and your children didn’t get, even though you were entitled to it. I have been constantly amazed at what the present generation *doesn’t* know, or care to know, and I place the responsibility for that squarely on the shoulders of the teachers, members of the National Education Association, who don’t want to do the hard work of repeat learning. Yes, it’s boring for them to have to give young minds a certain amount of rote learning as a foundation — in math, in English [God save us], in economics, in world history and American history. But if they don’t get it from the schools, where the heck will they get it?
I know where Lex’s kids got it — the same place I got mine, and where many of you very knowledgeable commenters got yours; from your parents, from reading on your own, and then bothering your busy parents, or some talented teacher [yes thank God there are some] to talk about it with you. Busy parents like mine were and yours also, run informal teaching seminars at mealtimes, including their children’s friends as well as the shoots from the family tree. Before they reach the age of twelve, kids are pretty much empty slates, and what they learn at that time stays with them all their lives.
Twelve is a magic age. Before that time a child will pick up languages almost without effort. After that age, it becomes much more difficult. So what do today’s teachers do? Many of them refuse to do the boring stuff like grammar, spelling etc. for the younger children.
I usually can deduce the age of a new poster on some websites by the fact that they can’t spell or parse a sentence, and they feel insulted if we expect them to. Which is why I’ve encountered college-level teachers who teach remedial English grammar in college. And bless them for it. Maggies Farm website has had an ongoing discussion of what’s right and what’s wrong with today’s educational system for some time, and this point has been made repeatedly. Betsy Newmark who has her own blog, Betsy’s Page, is one of the teachers I greatly admire. She teaches Civics in a charter high school and gives up her own time on weekends to take her debating team to other charter schools to debate.
I find that our military folks are some of the best educated, thoughtful, grown-up people in the country. Which is why I dote on you all, and read Lex every day.
Marianne
Teachers are now being virtually spit upon, just as soldiers, sailors, and Marines were during Vietnam!
It is not their fault. No child left behind means teaching-to-the-test, rather than real teaching and learning.
Meanwhile state and city budgets have cut their business of teaching to the bone. It is a national tragedy, but not of teachers’ making.
Yes, because all our educational problems started with the passage of NCLB.
If teaching to the test results in poor education fix the bloody test. Each state employs thousands of subject matter experts in almost every field imaginable. Have each university professor supply 10-20 questions they expect an incoming freshman to be able to answer on the first day of class. There’s your test bank.
Jeff, don’t you find it strange that well before NCLB teachers “taught to the test” but that test was the semester or end of the year final? And that was just fine.
CA has had STAR testing for about 30 years, maybe more. That too is a standardized test that was “taught to.” But that was just fine. And before the STAR tests, there were other standardized tests that were “taught to.” And schools and teachers were just fine with doing that.
But suddenly, once Pres. Bush signed the Kennedy sponsored NCLB, and Kennedy denounced it after sponsoring it, it became Satans tool in the education industry. And “teaching to the test” is denounced as a waste of time and resources.
Can you name a verifiable instance of this happening?
We cannot reconstitute the values of the founders unless we also subscribe to the fundamental principles upon which they were based.
“There is none righteous, no not one!”
They understood that, and built an exceptional country by knowing that we were no exception: If we followed a given path, we would meet a predictable end. One cannot plant weeds and rationally expect corn, but that is now the overwhelming zeitgeist.
Whirlwind on downwind and turning.
Gray, I like that.
I think it’s already turned final.
Which is why I have so little faith in our financial guru’s, corporate CFO’s, etc. They have gulped the kool-aide and believe off-shoring production and jobs will make our companies stronger and better. Unfortunately, they also believe the countries we off-shore jobs & manufacturing to will always be our friend & business partner. What happens when MBA fantasy meets adversarial military/political reality? We’re hosed!
The worst lesson we teach our kids is the combination of “as long as you do your best, it’s okay” and the sense of entitlement. I can’t stand when people have a sense of entitlement because they “did their best”
Where’s the “it pays to be a winner” attitude? Work your butt off, win, and reap the rewards. If you don’t? Sorry, don’t expect a bail out. Didn’t save/invest responsibly for retirement? Don’t expect a bail out. Didn’t purchase health & medical insurance and now you’re in trouble? Sorry, don’t expect a bail out.
Sounds harsh, but as long as we bail people out, they are never going to learn. Problem is, if you’re trying to rob the responsible few to give to the irresponsible masses, you’re always going to get the support from the irresponsible masses. I don’t think our country is EVER going to correct itself because I think it’s gone beyond the point of no return.
Given below is a link to a book which explains why we have public education. The public schools are doing exactly what they were intended to do.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=is+public+education+necessary&sprefix=is+pub
Even worse is that no one learned for the housing market crash. We all recognize that too many people were borrowing way too much money for housing, yet fail to mention that americans borrow WAY too much money on EVERYTHING! My father, a Doctor, was at his Master’s in Business class for doctors, when the teacher asked “Everyone put your hand in the air. Now, put your hand down if you aren’t 100 PERCENT debt-free!” My dad was the ONLY doctor the professor had seen (in these classes of 35+ year old doctors) who was debt free. The housing crash was a sign of american financial irresponsibility, yet how many americans learned their lesson? How many people can you find that don’t have ANY debt? How many can you find that don’t have any debt even excluding a mortgage? Our country is financially stupid at this basic level. We’ve advertised and marketed credit SO AGGRESSIVELY that our children are raised thinking that “having 3 credit card payments, a car payment, a house payment, and no money to save is normal.”
Just as financial stupidity is the root of most divorces (studies show that the majority of heated arguments in marriages are rooted in money problems), it is also the root of the whole mess the country is in now.
Our public school systems teach almost ZERO about finances, and even most university/college courses get it wrong today. Fact is, most finance teachers are in just as much debt as everyone else.
Adam – Everything in moderation.
But yours is mostly binary thinking. For many on the Right, it is “either/or” debt.
Debt is not either bad or good. Indeed some debt is very good – for the individual and the nation.
I still have a mortgage on my house, even after 36 years. I don’t need to. I could have paid it off many years ago, totally. But I have a low interest rate on it, and I make double that rate with my investments on that debt money. It is called leverage. It is what capitalists do… even though I remain a bleeding heart liberal.
You make double that money, then after paying taxes you end up with MAYBE a small gain..and at what RISK? Debt is not leverage and it’s this exact teaching that is screwing our youth. Sure it works every once in a while, but thats the exception, not the rule. If you want to maintain some debt is good-fine. But rarely anyone only has “some” debt, even if they might think they do. Now it’s unrealistic to expect america to stop using mortgages and they typically aren’t the problem in someone’s finances. It’s the credit cards, the car payments, and payments on a washer/dryer/electronics. It’s the paying 20k for a car when you could bargain down to 17k if you were paying with cash. It’s paying 100k for a home mortgage when you could get the house for 90k if you were paying with cash.
There is a difference between being taught and being educated. Lies can be taught, fallacies can be taught, but you cannot be educated and think a falsehood is a fact. Teaching is learning what to think, education is learning how to think. Teaching happens in the schools, but education happens at home.
Which is why we call them teachers, I suspect.
Rather than blame the teachers I choose to blame the parents. The parents who think school is a day-care program and who think handing their children over to the State for 7 hours each day is without ramification are guilty in this.
If our children no longer know what it is to be an American, who did we expect would pass these lessons along?
– Max
I think Brave New World is a much more apt comparison to the world today, than 1984. The Mommy State is here, telling us what to do “for our own good”. I am waiting the arrival of Vonnegut’s Diana Moon Glompers, the Handicapper General in Harrison Bergeron. I expect her any day. I am sure Hillary Clinton has someone in mond, if she couldn’t have the job herself. Michelle Obama would probably pay to be allowed the job.
We’re going soft sez Mr. Obama.
A hard man is good to find said Mae West.
I’ll go with Mae’s view on life.
Obama is right. Prosperity and abundance normally leads to the downfall of a civilization. Historically, we have more than our share of both because of the Protestant Reformation and the practical fallout from it.
Now we feel entitled to wealth and what comes from it. No such entitlement exists and we will pay the price for acting like it does.
My wife is a teacher. I used to go to her union meetings with her. When NCLB came out, the main topic of discussion was on how to sabotage it to have something to beat Bush over the head with. She now teaches at a private school, which has no problems in meeting NCLB standards. By the way they also teach real History and critical thinking that allows students to evaluate what they are being taught.
Jim,
Thank you for sharing that inconvenient truth. I have a similar experience with an in-law who was a fine teacher who cared that his students actually were educated rather than were resources for more $$ for the school.
BTY, here in CA a school gets additional $$ for each student placed in ESL. Guess what practice this encourages. My Chinese-American godson, fluent in English and not speaking a word of Chinese, was to be placed in ESL. His parents put him in a private school instead, opting to have him educated rather than used.
Why do think that there are so many kids being diagnosed with ADD?
The schools get extra $$ for each one. They also get a break on the NCLB test scores. The parents are led to believe that the school has their child’s best interests in mind when it is all about the $$
I do have a problem with Obama telling this country that they have grown soft. Coming from someone who hasn’t held a real job, who coasted thru college on the coattails of Affirmative Action, who hasn’t actually finished anything he committed to – what does he know about it anyway? He’s never lived in the real world.
Bullseye.
Kris, my sweet friend, you are so right! My grandmother used to say, “People will always accuse you of what they would do, or be, themselves.” So every declarative statement a politician, or any other conman makes undergoes “the grandma test”. It’s amazing how accurately that works.
Marianne
One side note: The Spanish-American War was, in fact, an imperialist war.
Don’t mind me, I still can’t get QM off of his “Lincoln == Hitler” monomania…
Casey – We agree again. Go figure?
Lookout for flying pigs, I suppose.
Phalanx08 — “The victor writes history in his favor.”
Maybe, but maybe not. And so what if they do?
Whether Winston Churchill said it, or by Winfried Martini: “Der Sieger schreibt die Geschichte,” but they are wrong.
1. History is not only about victors or even war – although war occupies much of it. History includes the entire continuum of mankind, not just occasional warfare. To corral history tightly in only terms of warfare does all an injustice. Indeed the events leading up to war are more historically important than the outcome, to the objective historian.
2. Unless totally annihilated, losers also write history, which obviously will differ greatly from the victor’s.
3. Wars are observed by many outside historians who have no dog in the fight, and write their own history of events.
Gaining an accurate reading of history – other than actually living some of it, which I have personally – is a lot like navigation. To wit:
1. If you want to know where you are (or a bit of history) take a bearing from a single source. That will give you a very rough idea of where you might be along that line of position.
2. To gain a more accurate reading of where you are (or to gain more accurate history), find another source to gain a bearing. If you select a source close to the one you already have charted, your fix will be wildly inaccurate. Thus it is best to select source 90 degrees off from your initial (historical or geographical) source. That will give a fix. (The more bearings the better if possible. And never take one from a non-stationary and amorphous point ….. like VDH
)
3. But if you truly want to know your geographical position (or more accurate history), you will need to seek disparate sources that are opposed, like maybe 120 degrees apart. That will give you a triangle that is much more accurate to identify your geographical position, and also more accurate plot of history.
So if its only war you are interested in, read the victors’ history, read the vanquished history, and read some history from those not involved. Then judge for yourself. That is how it should be done. QED
I believe Churchill said, “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
Some of my most treasured volumes in the library are from Churchill and, of course, Teddy Roosevelt.
– Max
It is at times that I ask the question………Was that twenty years I served even worth it at times. I see these “victims” on the news…..along with the enablers that keep them subservient to the welfare state.
Did I give the best twenty years of my life for this.
I include members of my own family. I have two nieces and a nephew that are being set up as “professional victims” by my baby sister.
As if it is our fault that she has poor judgement in husbands and significant others. Geesh!!!!!!!
As the one commentator stated……Some days I want a bottle of scotch, a gun and million bullets or a bottle of scotch, a gun and One Bullet. Having dodged the rhetorical bullet of Renal Cell, that route is closed. I intend to go kicking and screaming and shove history down their throats.
Well said Lex. Well said.
The idea that we should be ashamed to be American PISSES ME OFF. My son is a freshman in high school. His world history teacher told us that he would be teaching world history not from the American point of view.. but from our opponents, so that the kids will understand why so many people don’t like us. WTF OVER.
Needless to say, I was not happy, unimpressed, and am keeping an eye on what he is telling them. Your line about “our children have been treated to American history as a non-stop guilt trip” is so sad and true.
[...] Neptunus Lex: All of the things you learned growing up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s about the birth and growth of a great nation were lies, gentle reader. And the generations that came after you know it. They do not get a “both/and” or “yes/but” course of instruction in the history of the great (dead/white) men that built this land, with their very real sins contextualized to the times they lived in. What they have learned instead is that American exceptionalism, to the degree that it exists at all, is a great litany of uniquely American mortal sins; over-indulgence, global warming, greed, hubris, and a whole host of “isms”: Colonialism, militarism, and imperialism. But far and away they have been taught about our worst sin of all, racism. This is a sin that can never be fully expiated, no matter how many over-credentialed and under-qualified community organizers of color we elect to lead the free world. [...]
Pace Allan Bloom’s the closing of the American Mind.
Two of the things that most irk me about my generation (which indeed did get taught what our host says, and, in my case, even more radical than what he’s reporting) is their complete lack of appreciating any beauty, honor, morality or accomplishment, especially in the past -anything older than their birth year is inconsequential at best and downright stupd/worthless more often- and their lack of intellectual curiosity/will to accomplish great things. We no longer build space shuttles, skyscrapers, or monuments that inspire and make for a better, more advanced, more wonderful civilization to live in. Instead we build trivial distractions. While no less technologically complex and impressive in the engineering details than the things listed above, the ability to watch a mega block buster super special effects movie on a tiny postage stamp sized screen anywhere in the world is ultimately far more underwhelming to me at least then what I felt when I first saw the WTC or a 747 lift off or the dome of the capitol building and the national mall for the first time. Our society is becoming increasingly un-interesting.
While the problem runs far deeper than can be solved with policy I still firmly believe that federal aid for college should be limited to the hard sciences, engineering and the medical field as at least a start. And vouchers to give parents the choice of opting out of the public school death trap sound good, but, politically, I doubt we could implement them without federal control following the money . . .
Not sure it’s really all that bad – maybe on the east and west coasts, but haven’t noticed much in the way of guilt inducing instruction here in Houston, and the university professors I know seem to be about the same type style and grade as they were back when I was not paying much attention in class…
As for academic challenge, my 13 year old son is doing math I was doing in high school and my 16 year old daughter is in physics and calculus as a public HS junior, with linear algebra on tap for next year. These kids are much more serious about school than anyone I knew ever was in the 60s and 70s.
The real problem as I see it is that the jobs that might employ engineers and scientists have gone overseas. If a kid wants to make a good living in this country, he or she heads for the service or financial industries. Big oil is probably the last bastion of engineers running the show, and that’s changing. Everywhere else things are run by lawyers and accountants who seem to spend their days figuring out how they can outsource anything technical to somewhere, anywhere, cheaper.
Technical professionals get no respect. Research and development? Waste of money. Keeping an engineer working on overhead for a a month or so between projects? Never happen, get rid of him, we’ll get another one when we need one. Manufacturing is a commodity to be “sourced”.
The problem’s not unions, hell there aren’t that many left. The problem is greedy CEOs and stockholders who don’t give a shit about anything but the next quarterly report.