Archive for the ‘Public Schools’ Category

Dear Mister Obama,

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Dear Mister Schoolteecher,

I have some ideas on how you can help to edyoomacayt my child. Instead of tasking him to scrawl down democrat party talking points and send them off to the President-Elect, which aren’t too much different from what the incoming administration was going to be doing anyway, you could take the time to discuss what might be right and wrong with these ideas, and what might happen if (when) they are actually pursued. You might also cover all the questions the Obama voters got wrong in that poll that is so controversial…for reasons that have yet to be explained to me. I’d be happy to arrange a meeting with you so we can discuss some other ways you can do your job, if you’re really out of ideas.

That’s what I’d be sending in if my child was subjected to this.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

I am a fifth-grade student at Liberty Elementary School. I am writing to you for a school project. These are some things I think you should do while you’re in office.

My family discusses alternative energy a lot. I think you need to look into it, such as solar panels and wind power. We need to get them at lower, less expensive prices so more people will be willing to buy it. We should also get more organizations that sell alternative energy. It would be nice to get totally electric automobiles, but that can’t happen quickly so you could start with having a law that cars, trucks and other things like that have to have a certain miles per gallon.

Another thing I think is very important is to get out of the war in Irack. Many lives would be saved and it would show that the government cares for its people. Families would be happy to be together again and they would thank you and the rest of the government. There would be a lot more money going to other things such as alternative energy, schooling and libraries.

I understand how this is supposed to work. Once Obama is sworn in, He’ll be doing most, or all, of these things anyway. So the teachers will be able to tell the adorable crumb-crunchers “Look! He listened! You made a difference!” And that will raise the kids’ self-esteeeeeeeeem. Right? Because the only other thing I can think of, is that the education cartel in the Pittsburgh area is just a democrat-party indoctrination mechanism and it isn’t even trying to hide it anymore.

Yesterday, commenting on an early-1930’s film-propaganda piece extolling the virtues of inflation, I commented on the pressure that is placed on people who are thought to be “smart” to pretend things are upside down. It’s damaging to your reputation as a super-smart guy, to put your reputation behind mundane things. It raises the possibility that maybe you’re just an ordinary dude who knew the right people; there is some truth in that, if only a glimmer of it, so this is spectacularly frightening. Could be the death knell of a career. So things get all topsy-turvy and they stay that way. Inflation is good…convicted murderers are innocent…babies deserve to die…kids are smart…

This is the burden of a brain trust. When you’re oh so super duper smart, and you feel the weight of keeping that kind of reputation alive and going strong, you’re forbidden from pointing out the obvious. Every little thing that comes out of your mouth has to have this touch of irony to it, this “you wouldn’t think so, but Bob says it’s true.” You have to contradict common sense, to show how smart you are. Up becomes down, women become men, children become wizened old sages, surrendering your guns becomes an act of responsible self-defense, starvation becomes nourishment.

Honest to God, I had no idea this kind of lunacy was being peddled out in Pittsburgh when I typed that in. You’ll just have to trust me on that. I’m just an ordinary dude typing in some true stuff, which in turn is being proven correct the very next day.

So what’ve we got here…out of the mouths of babes comes such wisdom as —
 • Look into solar panels, wind power, other forms of alternative energy;
 • Get us out of the war in Irack, who cares what goes on there after that;
 • Put more money into the schools (they’re obviously doing a fantastic job);
 • Lower the driving age because I don’t want to wait until I’m 18 to drive;
 • Improve the school system and its technology, so we can write more letters;
 • Make people stop dumping “barrels of toxin into the oceans”;
 • Look into global warming, because all the land’s going to be flooded by melted icebergs.

And out of all these ideas, not a single sensible one. How refreshing it would be if we had an exchange like —

Stan Fields: What is the one most important thing our society needs?
Gracie Hart: That would be…harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.
[crowd is silent]
Gracie Hart: And world peace!
[crowd cheers ecstatically]

Really, what’s sillier? Bringing back stocks in the public square to help restore the meaning of public stigma when punishment is handed out for the lesser crimes that could lead to the bigger ones later on, like graffiti-tagging — or — harnessing all the energy you need every single morning, to accelerate your one-ton vehicle up to highway speeds with a freakin’ windmill?

New Year’s Eve is coming. Perhaps a good resolution for all of us parents, would be to keep an eagle eye on our little darlings’ school systems, and at least put enough of a damper on this coast-to-coast irrational left-wing exuberance to see to it the next generation receives a decent education.

It’s our job. Our God-given job.

Hat tip to: Stop The ACLU, via Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

Posted in Poisoning Individuality and Reason, Poisoning Western Civilization, Public Schools | No Comments »

Nice Pencils, Now Fork ‘Em Over

Monday, August 11th, 2008

It’s time to go back to school, and Neal Boortz is indulging in his annual tirade about “government schools.” Read first, then form your opinion.

The government teacher steps in front of her virtual hostages and promptly delivers the first raw lesson in the power of government: She instructs her students to bring all of their precious new school supplies to the front of the classroom and put them into a huge box.

Wait just a minute here! Why am I putting my stuff into that box? My daddy took me to Wal-Mart and bought that stuff for me! It’s mine! You can’t take it away from me!

Oh, yeah?

As your child sits in stunned silence, the teacher tells him and his classmates that these supplies now belong to all of the class. What was once private property has been seized and transformed into community property, courtesy of the teacher’s demands—demands that amount to a government mandate. There is no due process. No rule of law. After all, in school the teacher is the law. Your child’s supplies are now everybody’s supplies, and the teacher has assumed the responsibility of distributing them as needed.

I dunno about this, personally. I’ve been looking for evidence on it, and every now and then Boortz comes up with a specimen or two…it’s certainly not a widespread event.

I’ll tell you what does get under my skin, though. The time-honored tradition of the school “assembly.” I’d say it makes sense if you have a celebrity or public figure visiting the school, and you want everyone to be able to listen to what the guest has to say. Other than that — pure communism.

What’s happening here is a continuation of that sad event that takes place in first or second grade in which the teacher steps up to the head of a small classroom, and asks a question beginning with “let’s see a show of hands, how many…” — and heads start swiveling around. The kids want to see if everyone else is raising their hands.

As the years roll by, our schools should be working to put that phenomenon into a state of decline.

The “school assembly” or “pep rally,” call it what you will, is an event that exists for the purpose of perpetuating it. Look around, see what everyone else is doing, to figure out if you should or should not be doing it. It makes all five hundred of you so much easier to manage, that way.

It is inherently un-American, and any school administrator who works to make the problem worse ought to be fired. And then shipped out of the country. I mean it. It’s got nothing to do with anything that made this country any better, and everything to do with what’s made it worse.

Posted in Public Schools | 4 Comments »