Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
My recent columns have focused on the extremely poor educational outcomes for black students. There’s enough blame for all involved to have their fair share. That includes students who are hostile and alien to the educational process and have derelict, uninterested home environments. After all, if there is not someone in the home to ensure that a youngster does his homework, has wholesome meals, gets eight to 10 hours of sleep and behaves in school, educational dollars won’t produce much.
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There’s another educational issue that’s neither flattering nor comfortable to confront. That’s the low academic quality of so many teachers. It’s an issue that must be confronted and dealt with if we’re to improve the quality of education. Most states require prospective teachers to pass a certification test. How about a sample of some of the test questions.
Here’s a question from a recent test given to college students in Michigan planning to become teachers: “Which of the following is largest? a. 1/4, b. 3/5, c. 1/2, d. 9/20.” Another question: “A town planning committee must decide how to use a 115-acre piece of land. The committee sets aside 20 acres of the land for watershed protection and an additional 37.4 acres for recreation. How much of the land is set aside for watershed protection and recreation? a. 43.15 acres, b. 54.6 acres, c. 57.4 acres, d. 60.4 acres”.
The Arizona teacher certification test asks: “Janet can type 250 words in 5 minutes, what is her typing rate per minute? a. 50wpm, b. 66wpm, c. 55wpm, d. 45wpm.” The California Basic Educational Skills Test asks the test taker to find the verb in the following sentence: “The interior temperatures of even the coolest stars are measured in millions of degrees. a. Coolest, b. Of even, c. Are measured, d. In millions”. A CBEST math question is: “You purchase a car making a down payment of $3,000 and 6 monthly payments of $225. How much have you paid so far for the car? a. $3225, b. $4350, c. $5375, d. $6550, e. $6398.”
My guess is that these are questions that an eighth- or ninth-grader with a good education ought to be able to answer. Such test questions demonstrate the low bar that states set in order for one to become a certified teacher. Even with such low expectations, college graduates have failed these and similarly constructed teacher certification tests. Recently, New York, after being tied up in court for years, dropped its teacher literacy test amid claims of racism.
A 2011 investigation by WSB-TV found that more than 700 Georgia teachers had repeatedly failed at least one portion of the certification test they were required to pass before receiving a teaching certificate. Nearly 60 teachers had failed the test more than 10 times, and one teacher had failed the test 18 times. There were 297 teachers on the Atlanta school system’s payroll who had failed the state certification test five times or more.
With but a few exceptions, schools of education represent the academic slums of colleges. They tend to be home to students who have the lowest academic test scores — for example, SAT scores — when they enter college. They also tend to have the lowest scores when they graduate and choose to take postgraduate admissions tests — such as the GRE, the MCAT and the LSAT. Professors at schools of education tend to have the lowest level of academic respectability. American education could benefit from eliminating schools of education.
You might ask: Without schools of education, how would teachers be trained? I think that we ought to adopt a practice whereby teachers are hired according to their undergraduate major. I learned this talking to a headmistress of a private school. She said she doesn’t hire education majors. She said that if she hires a teacher to teach chemistry, math, English or any other subject, the person must have a bachelor’s degree in the discipline. Pedagogical techniques can be learned through short formal training, coaching and experience.
Here is food for thought, especially for those who support “public education” and rally about the doctrine of “socialization” that they claim is lacking in “homeschooled” children.
Let’s look at what “public education” has to offer:
1. Cliques and rampant bullying, quite often the victim of bullying punished more harshly for fighting back. Many times, bullies are part of a “protected” class–racial minorities, jocks, etc. Strong official disapproval of students making friends outside their grade level. “Peer pressure” used to push conformity.
2. Teachers that don’t teach reading writing and arithmetic. Pushing communist principles such as rabid environmentalism, blaming humanity for conditions beyond our control as well as pushing “communitarianism” (“it takes a village”)–actually communism. This also ties in with teacher-recommended feminizing and drugging (mostly boys) to make them “less fidgety” and more compliant–all for the “benefit” of the teacher.
3. Non-existent moral guidance…the communist concept of “values clarification”, allowing each student to set his own moral standard with no discussion permitted as to guidelines. A student dare not mention God or the Bible in “public school”–not permitted…discussing Islam is OK…even field trips to mosques are encouraged.
4. Sex education that normalizes homosexuality and other deviant practices, actually encouraging deviant behavior and downplaying heterosexuality and abstinence.
5. Insane zero tolerance practices, punishing students for pop-tarts shaped like guns or a student having an “unauthorized aspirin” or plastic butter knife. Of course, abortions and birth control are available without parental notification.
6. Lockdowns and backpack/locker searches by police utilizing “drug dogs”, getting the upcoming generation used to random unconstitutional searches. Quite often, students “roughed up” by “school resource officers”…just because they can…Lockdowns should be reserved for prisons–not schools…
Since these “socialization” practices seem to be the norm in our “public education” systems, parents who send their children to these dysfunctional “indoctrination centers” are guilty of child abuse…
Children who are homeschooled actually do much better in life as they are comfortable with people of all ages. True socialization takes place outside the classroom.
“Children who are homeschooled actually do much better in life….”. Are there longitudinal studies that support this?
Yes, there are many studies that PROVE that homeschooled children are better adjusted and get along with groups and individuals of all ages. It is interesting to note that public school educators criticize homeschooling for “lack of socialization” while segregating children by age, which, in itself, discourages “socialization”.
Let me guess, you can’t cite any of those longitudinal studies?
…do your own homework…you must be a publik skool teecher who sees his livelihood threatened…
“do your own homework”
I have. I’m asking if you have done your homework! It was a rhetorical question because I know the “many studies” you alluded to don’t exist. We should all be prepared to back up what we post with evidence. Anyone can post an unsupported claim and challenge the readers to prove me wrong. Here’s an example: many studies show that over 80% of employed Americans oppose Donald Trump’s policies. Therefore, Trump’s base is made up largely of unemployed people. Now, do your homework and prove me wrong. Also I am not a teacher.
We home schooled. My daughter got a real education – read real books – not McMillian garbage text books. Studied the constitution, founding fathers, etc. She could carry on a conversation with adults, read the WSJ, cook, sew -all this – and all you need is 3-4 hrs a day. We made sure there were many things to do at home – any hobby stuff she wanted. We also gave her violin / piano lessons. She attended a classical ballet school at Hennepin Center for the Arts.
Otherwise she could have gone to a government school – where she would have to stand out for a bus at 6:45 am. Experience classmates with bad behaviors / bad manners / curse words / slang / violent neegrows. Sit in boring classes with canned text books, brain washed about queers / muslims / illegals / equality – all this occupying her day, until getting home at 3:30.
So MarshRabbit – can you figure it out?
You didn’t answer my question. The hypothesis Anarchyst proposed may be valid, but we don’t know that without the data. What you offered is anecdotal evidence. Here’s a true example of anecdotal evidence, I know a young woman who graduated from the Baltimore City public schools, and she went to medical school. If we employ your logic, we should conclude the Baltimore City Schools are great. That is the flaw in anecdotal evidence.
She went to medical school – was she a custodian?
MarshRabbit you must be a product of government schools. You can’t think for yourself – you need a ‘study’. It’s so obvious that great minds never went to government schools. Watt, Edison, Ford, Bell, on and on many great people never went to an ‘assembly line’ government school.
Now we have many, many people who have little or no knowledge of US History, basic math (like how much is 5% of $10 – in your head), never read a book – but they know about same sex marriage. They watch sports and sit-coms – this is because they were dumbed down. Government, assembly line schools are a failure. Here in Minneapolis we (us taxpayers are forced to) spend $23,000 a student – and only 50% graduate.
Is it too much to realize that homeschooled children do better?
Another tragedy of government schools is that they take up too much of the child’s time:
Consider the ancient Greeks. They believed that humans could only realize their full potential during free time. Education, arts and politics were pursuits of self-development that could and should occur when a person had finished their work. The Greek term for leisure is schole — the same word from which the English “school” comes from. To the Greeks, leisure time was study time. Thank goodness the Greeks didn’t have television. Otherwise we might not have things such as maps, the alphabet or Hula-Hoops today.
“Is it too much to realize that homeschooled children do better”. It’s possible, but just saying it isn’t evidence. Also, which public school students are you referencing? There are GT, AP, and National Honor Society kids who are doing quite well academically. Regarding the $23,000 per student, did you arrive at the figure by dividing the total school budget by the number of students? If so, this is highly misleading because all students don’t receive the same services. Services for special education, autism spectrum, developmentally delayed, cost much more than for mainstream students.
Marsh rabbit, you are correct. Nobody answered your question.
I gave him a long list of links (see below) along with my thoughts on the dearth of such studies.
Most have been extruded thru the “education” grinder. Even if it worked, in terms of the sales brochure, which it doesn’t, it still wouldn’t matter. The foundation is ‘We own you. Give us your kids. Or else’.
(We is fractal, too. One hs year we lived on the wrong side of the street, the side that ‘inventoried up’ an (even more) inferior school. So I drove to the better school, gave it an acceptable address, began extrusion. Some anon neighbor called it in. I was kicked to the other curb.)
No “studies” are going to obviate that.
If you don’t start at the foundational premise, you got nowhere to go but Pisa. Or that highrise in San Francisco, almost brand new, that’s listing.
I am starting to understand the stuff you write. That scares the shit out of me.
I got the messages in the first four paragraphs after reading them about four times, and the messages that I seemed to elicit from those paragraphs seem quite meaningful. Maybe the messages were in the writing, and I found them by careful meditation. Maybe the messages were already in my brain, and reading the cryptic writing triggered a process that caused the messages to emerge from the dark recesses of my brain. Who knows? Maybe that conundrum can be the subject of more fruitful meditation.
After staring at the last paragraph for about 5 minutes, I think I may be close to understanding that one. That really, really, scares the shit out of me. Several possibilities: maybe I am starting to understand how you communicate; maybe the coffee I am drinking has been enhanced with some of the same stuff you are smoking; maybe I am learning to jump the gap in a suspended bridge with rotted floor planks in the middle.
What if you jump the gap, only to land on the other half of a different bridge. Will that lead you to a different reality? Will you be able to return? Will you want to return?
Hey Max, are you always Max? Cuz that’s the second ‘I understand & it scares me’ I’ve seen…brothers of different mothers. & cuz more than one handle seems popular here. Only noting a similar sort of multi-identity thing here as in that fight club flick.
No smoking here, except for the Traeger, & coffee hour was many hours ago (as of when you posted, last night). Maybe you’re on the far side. And what’s wrong with that?
If I remember correctly, synaptic gaps are plankless. But people do tend to fill in the planks with all kinds of stuff, whatever’s laying around & at hand.
I wrapped a melt-gapped fuse in stick gum foil one time, tryin’ to get back home. I forget if I made it. But I do remember how the insulation in that circuit was transformed. Smelled it before I saw it.
MacGyver gum & baling wire as last resort is one thing, 5-star resorting it’s something else. And it’s a more popular destination than I’d have thought (long ago).
The Bridge of San Luis Rey. About the compulsion to shoe-horn events into a nice, neat, curve-fitted bridge; a variation on buying\selling the Brooklyn bridge (be careful whatcha’ wish for, Brother Juniper). In this case woven around a bridge that collapsed & dropped people to their deaths. A decent read; you might like it.
Shit happens can’t happen, some insist. Neither can shit done on purpose, some – always vested somehow – insist. Infrastructure ain’t forever, except maybe for those two.
Drawn narrative bridges to the rescue…but then the judo flip: rescue\defend the bridge. Traffic in blind faith circle roundy-rounds – can’t find my way home. Is it any wonder why?
Some bits I marked:
“At dinner, after a day’s frantic resort to such invocations, a revulsion would sweep over her. Nature is deaf. God is indifferent. Nothing in man’s power can alter the course of law. Then on some street corner she would stop, dizzy with despair, & leaning against a wall would long to be taken from a world that had no plan in it. But soon a belief in the great Perhaps would surge up from the depths of her nature & she would fairly run home to renew the candles above her daughter’s bed.”
“The thing was more difficult than he had foreseen. Almost every soul in a difficult frontier community turned out to be indispensable economically, & the third column (in a sort of spreadsheet) was all but useless. The examiner was driven to the use of minus terms when he confronted the personal character of Alfonso V., who was not, like Vera N., merely bad: he was a propagandist for badness & not merely avoided church but led others to avoid it. Vera N. was indeed bad, but she was a model worshiper & the mainstay of a full hut. From all this saddening data Brother Juniper contrived an index for each peasant. He added up the total for victims & compared it with the total for survivors, to discover that the dead were five times more worth saving. It almost looked as though the pestilence had been directed against the really valuable people in the village of Puerto. And on that afternoon Brother Juniper took a walk along the edge of the Pacific. He tore up his findings & cast them into the waves; he gazed for an hour upon he great clouds of pearl that hang forever upon the horizon of that sea, & extracted from their beauty a resignation that he did not permit his reason to examine. The discrepancy between faith & the facts is greater than is generally assumed.”
“In compiling his book about these people Brother Juniper seemed to be pursued by the fear that in omitting the slightest detail he might lose some guiding hint. The longer he worked the more he felt that he was stumbling about among great dim intimations. He was forever being cheated by details that looked as though they were significant if only he could find their setting. So he put everything down on the notion perhaps that if he (or a keener head) reread the book twenty times, the countless facts would suddenly start to move, to assemble, & to betray their secret. The Marquesa de Montemayor’s cook told him that she lived almost entirely on rice, fish, & a little fruit & Brother Juniper put it down on the chance that it would some day reveal a spiritual trait. Don Rubio said of her that she used to appear at his receptions without invitation in order to steal the spoons. A midwife on the edge of the town declared that Dona Maria called upon her with morbid questions until she had been obliged to order her away from the door like a beggar. The bookseller of the town reported that she was one of the three most cultivated persons in Lima. Her farmer’s wife declared that she was absent-minded, but compact of goodness. The art of biography is more difficult than is generally supposed.”
“The Mothman Prophecies” flick is the same story, but with god’s love flip-side attribution.
Somebody holds the key…. Each & every one does…. But it doesn’t necessarily match all the locks. That’d be too simple, easy.
http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/05/16/10-telling-studies-done-on-homeschooling/
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ682484.pdf
https://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000068.asp
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-homeschoolers-do-well-in-college/
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=cehsedaddiss
http://college.usatoday.com/2012/02/18/do-home-schoolers-do-better-in-college-than-traditional-students/
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ893891.pdf
And of course given that “long term studies” require significant monies, and homeschoolers are NOT in this for profits, as the current, bloated educational “establishment is,” it is of little wonder that more studies are not funded or carried out…..especially since those that have been done ALL point to the same endpoint – homeschooling is superior.
It is the same reason why there are no long-term studies on the positive effect of vitamins, herbal supplements, non-GMO foods, and other non-patentable (and thus non-lucrative) products. Sometimes you simply have to apply logic to realize that a centrally-controlled, violence/force funded, mandatory, government-regulated product can NEVER be superior to one put forth out of love for one’s children, produced with the help of the free market, and supported by thousands of years of prior history.
Brother Rabbit knows about those studies you cited. He wants to divert the direction of the conversation by asking you to reach into your briefcase to immediately produce copies of studies to bolster your argument. That is a well known Alinsky technique. Comes right out of his book, “Rules for Radicals”.
Most people have read analyses or studies over the years that helped them form their judgements, but they normally do not keep a notebook with the names of studies indexed by subject. When a judge asks a lawyer for case law to bolster his argument, the judge allows the lawyer time to go to a law library to find copies of pre-existing court decisions, before the point is finally argued.
If you had immediately cited those studies by name, then ol’ Rabbit would have proceeded to use another misdirection method. Br’er Rabbit is actually a good Socialist polemicist but not great one yet. Jousting with you all here will help him sharpen his wits and improve his techniques. After a few more jousts here, he may go from merely good to great.
Spell check is a life saver for uneducated folk like me who long suit is not spelling.
“Comes right out of his book, “Rules for Radicals”
Have you read Rules for Radicals?
“misdirection method”
Expecting arguments to be fact-based is not a socialist conspiracy. It’s an incredibly dangerous time we are entering where many folks accept anything just because it reinforces their belief system or because they like the source. I fact-check everything, regardless of the source. But you are certainly free to believe whatever you hear (although I would advise you to steer clear of used car salesman if you do).
“the judge allows the lawyer time to go to a law library to find copies of pre-existing court decisions”
No, they don’t! If you’re are not prepared for trial it’s your problem.
The Arizona teacher certification test asks: “Janet can type 250 words in 5 minutes, what is her typing rate per minute? a. 50wpm, b. 66wpm, c. 55wpm, d. 45wpm.” The California Basic Educational Skills Test asks the test taker to find the verb in the following sentence: “The interior temperatures of even the coolest stars are measured in millions of degrees. a. Coolest, b. Of even, c. Are measured, d. In millions”. A CBEST math question is: “You purchase a car making a down payment of $3,000 and 6 monthly payments of $225. How much have you paid so far for the car? a. $3225, b. $4350, c. $5375, d. $6550, e. $6398.”
My guess is that these are questions that an eighth- or ninth-grader with a good education ought to be able to answer.
No, these are questions that my third grade chess students could easily answer….American public education and teachers’ unions are beyond redemption.
“Janet can type 250 words in 5 minutes, what is her typing rate per minute?”
Can Jane take Dick?
See Spot dick Dick.
For decades now, California has had the system Williams describes for teacher preparation. It has not solved the problem. Truly rigorous prgrams cannot succeed, because the majority of candidates would fail, and then the schools would get a bad rep.
A better model would be to require passage of a challenging comprehensive exam before a teaching credential is granted, eliminating the need for the Mickey Mouse tests described above. It should be a test administered by the state, like even hairdressers have to pass. Nurses and other medical professionals cannot get licensed unless they get a high store on a state test. Why teachers are not required to demonstrate competence like this before they are credentialed is a good question.
Of course the other fly in the ointment is the tenure system, which protects lousy teachers, sometimes for decades. Sadly, teachers appear clueless about why they don’t get more respect.
Supporting a state-administered test is only perpetuating the problem. The CURRENT testing is administered by the state. All this does is set government up as a gatekeeper for the profession, thus, as with all professions requiring professional licensure, doing nothing more than protecting the status quo from real competition. Instead, how about an independent certification agency (or many), who will stand behind the quality of the teachers they certify, has independent testing requirements, and drop any and ALL requirements for teachers and allow the public or the school, to determine who they wish to educate on their behalf?
At least in California, teaching credentials are granted because a student completed education coursework with passing grades. This criterion proved to be an inadequate measure of ability to teach, thus the implementation of the basic skills tests, which are also inadequate measures.
Just about every other professional license requires successful performance on a test that actually measures the skills required to perform the job, not “basic skills.” My son-in-law just became a registered nurse through a private school. At the conclusion of course work the school required a score of 96% on a very tough comprehensive exam before permission was granted to take the state licensing test. This is the kind of rigorous performance that has never been required to become a teacher.
It doesn’t matter who administers the testing program, the state or a private entity. The level of performance demanded is the issue. Just my two cents.
Agreed, but with private entities, their REPUTATION stands behind their certification. Folks like UL can be held liable for electrical safety issues found with products they certify. GOVERNMENT CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE (or if they are, the taxpayers ultimately pay the bills), but THEY set the standards, set up the hurdles, and maintain the protectionist barriers to market entry. I completely agree with your point about level of performance. A degree from Harvard holds more weight than one from a local junior college. This is about historical reputation, performance of graduates, etc. A state license means NOTHING as it is created by politicians, NOT professionals who can properly assess quality of work, training, skills, etc. Maybe the two collide every now and then, but fundamentally the purpose of the license is about a barrier to keep supplies low and prices high, not to keep quality high.
I work in education, and at this point there’s no fix. No competent people would ever consider teaching at this point given the poor quality of students, total lack of discipline, or irrelevance/propagandist nature of the curricula. And none of those things will ever get fixed unless competent people are put in place.
Agreed; I’m also with the “make use of people in the field and coach them” approach noted above. I read through the education certificate curriculum of our local college where I would go to get the minimum credential needed to even appear in a classroom and almost one-quarter of the classes were diversity and inclusion related meaning I would be paying out many credit-hours of tuition to the credentialist gatekeepers and spending about half a year of my life in such drivel. Sort of cuts out the second career I was hoping for after 30 years in computer science.
It also tends to cut out normies including white men from the teaching profession – who wants to be propagandized while paying a great deal of money for it? With a >90% female presence among teachers in the local schools (and the remaining men nearing retirement) it’s not looking good for boys to become men without a huge amount of intervention at home.
Which makes homeschooling look better and better.
Work for a private school. They generally do not require the BS state licenses. The WORST teachers I had in my blessed time in private schools, were the ones who actually had teaching credentials. ALL the rest were simply outstanding, mostly because they actually knew the subject, but mostly because they actually wanted to teach, not just be government parasites.
We homeschooled – and I am so glad we did.
anarchyst pretty much hit the nail on the head/
‘Government indoctrination camps’ = public school. Glorified baby sitting services. They never have enough money. If a school does well – it deserves more money, if a school does poorly – it needs more money so it can improve. Schools are all about teachers unions, teachers benefits, teachers retirement funding, and administrators. Near the bottom are the students. Most of the teachers continue to study bullshit courses, and get worthless masters degrees, so they boost their pay even more.
Here in Minneapolis (and other larger cities) the superintendent of schools must be a nigger. It’s ironic because the niggers don’t go to school, drop out, all the while they bitch about white privilege. The superintendent must have a Ph D in education – WTF is a degree in education? Just bullshit, that what it is.
Good on you for staying out of MPS. This article, on St. Paul schools, tells you all you need to know about the schools there and the priorities of the people who run them: https://www.city-journal.org/html/no-thug-left-behind-14951.html.
The question not asked and discussed, what is the percent of students who fail and are left behind each year? I believe there have been articles on TBP discussing the pressure teachers experience to pass their students, even if they do not show up to class. Eventually, that culture corrupts the entire systems, from first grade student to senior state administrators.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/07/detroit-illiteracy-nearly-half-education_n_858307.html
According to estimates by The National Institute for Literacy, roughly 47 percent of adults in Detroit, Michigan — 200,000 total — are “functionally illiterate,” meaning they have trouble with reading, speaking, writing and computational skills. Even more surprisingly, the Detroit Regional Workforce finds half of that illiterate population has obtained a high school degree.
This is just one example of the corruption in the government schools.
The US Education system cannot be fixed by fixing education.
It is a tailing indicator, not a leading indicator.
“…Pedagogical techniques can be learned through short formal training, coaching and experience…”
That last sentence made think of this – (I had to dig it out of my archives)
Several years ago, a magazine ran a “Dilbert quotes” contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real life Dilbert-type managers.
This was one of the finalists:
“As director of communications, I was asked to prepare a memo reviewing our company’s training programs and materials. In the body of the memo one of the sentences, I mentioned the “pedagogical approach” used by one of the training manuals.
The day after I routed the memo to the executive committee, I was called into the HR director’s office, and told that the executive vice president wanted me out of the building by lunch.
When I asked why, I was told that she wouldn’t stand for “perverts” working in her company. Finally, he showed me her copy of the memo, with her demand that I be fired – and the word “pedagogical” circled in red.
The HR manager was fairly reasonable, and once he looked the word up in his dictionary and made a copy of the definition to send back to her, he told me not to worry. He would take care of it.
Two days later, a memo to the entire staff came out directing us that no words which could not be found in the local Sunday newspaper could be used in company memos. A month later, I resigned. In accordance with company policy, I created my resignation memo by pasting words together from the Sunday paper.” (Taco Bell Corporation)
It seems that after they have a stellar career in teaching that they go on to become executive vice presidents of large corporations.
There is no escaping them…
Steve C.
Spring, Texas
Then there was the City Manager of Washington DC who was accused of using a racial slur when he termed some budget allocation ‘niggardly’.
The poor shlub in DC was fired, even though he groveled, crawled, and begged.
Learn a lesson from the Orange Topped Moses: never apologize. Just politely suggest that people make an effort to learn the dominant language in their country. If I lived in Mexico, I would damn sure learn the Mexican version of Spanish. If I lived in China, I would try to learn Mandarin. I probably wouldn’t do well, but I imagine the Chinee would appreciate that I at least tried.
Zillions of Chinee can speak English better than the average American or Brit, and I ain’t just referring to Moon Crickets not being able to speak English. Some allowances can be made for Moon Crickets, since Ebonics is their first language, but no allowance should be made for pale folks who have lived in ‘Merica or Britain all their lives.
Your comment makes me think of “My Fair Lady.” I happened upon it the other night while channel surfing and caught the song “Why Can’t the English Learn to Speak?”
The song’s lyrics are premised upon the fact that you can tell EXACTLY where someone is from and how educated they are based on the way they speak English (they of course meant in Britain, but the same could be said for America). Today this song would be blasted as being racist, regionalist, or some other such nonsense, but the truth of the matter is that if you AXE a question instead of asking one, your prospects are limited (except in the SJW/Hollywood/Music industry). But we shame teachers, beat down teachers, fire teachers, etc. who bother to correct the mistakes their students make when attempting to speak proper English in class. Pathetic.
Dang, Steve C, that is some seriously funny shit. Truth always trumps fiction.
Kinda like someone who carries a sign with “Love Trumps Hate” written on it, then uses the sign to whack a guy over the head just because the poor shlub was wearing a MAGA hat.
To be honest nothing can be done with the negro male academically as long as there is pro football and basketball. The odds maybe remote he will play in the NBA or NFL but they are better than the odds of a negro male student starting a successful business or gaining admission ( without AA) to a first rate medical, law or engineering school and graduating.
An NBA team has about 15 players. An NFL team 50. That amounts to about 2000 positions. Given the turnover in players and the number of white players that still means around 2000 blacks will make it into the professional leagues for a season or two over a 5 year period. You only need one or two years in the NBA or NFL to make more money than any negro will ever earn ( short of AA ) in any other field they can reasonably aspire to and they earn it at the start of their working life not the end.
It simply is not reasonable to expect a person with a below average IQ to give up the one chance he has in life to be a success.
Au contraire!
A black guy can make a very decent living with just a presentable logo-imprinted pickup, a couple of good mowers and edgers for summer work, and a good snowblower for winter work. Mexicans do it all the time.
The forward thinking Beaner starts working for someone else, but saves every penny he can by living with 15 other Beaners in one apartment. Later, after he learns a few words of English, he invests in his own equipment and becomes an independent contractor. Save your money you earn; invest in productive equipment; make bigger money using the equipment (tools, machinery, computer & printer, yada yada.) It is called capitalism.
There are a myriad of other fields an enterprising black guy can enter. Ever notice that all the guys sweating out in the hot sun pouring and forming concrete driveways and small slabs are Mexicans who can’t speak English? They may not understand English, but understand hard work.
I found “au contraire” somewhere and use it whenever I can. Knowing one or two words of a foreign language can make even a hillbilly with 6 grades of schooling seem educated.
Moon Crickets, AKA Porch Monkeys or Pavement Apes unfortunately don’t have ambition, and the IQ of a door knob. If it weren’t for us, they would be living in straw huts.
I’m shocked by the facts Walter Williams showed – but not surprised that these are the facts per se. This explains the dumbing down all around me.
It all ties in.
If you start cutting back on the career opportunities for college credentialed minorities and women in education, where else they going to go? Be a shame to cut that college/student loan/apple gravy train, wouldn’t it?
One of my workers, who is divorced, brings in his 12 year old when he’s out of school. Kids great, no problem, we like having him around. His mother got him for Christmas, $1,000 iPhone x, an Apple watch, Apple wireless headphones, and who knows what else. This is a 12 year old. Student loans, baby
I submit that all the problems in public education are related to Federal Government intrusion and Unions.
Government intrusion in general. So many want to bring education back to the state level, but there is more than ample evidence that the corruption, sloth, and waste that plague every level of state and even local government would simply spread further into education were the feds out of the picture. The socialist funding mechanism, unions, mandatory attendance laws, the regulatory environment that stifles private/creative alternatives, etc. are the REAL root of the problem. The useless feds have only elevated the problem to a centrally-controlled national level.
Liberty….at least with the Fed out of the way, the big $$$$$ involvement is gone; e.g., either go along with Common Core or you won’t get federal education money – virtually every state is financially underwater so even if they were against Common Core they would take the money.
edit: and the Unions went too far with their demands, re: General Motors.
Indeed, please don’t treat my criticism as any endorsement of continued fed intrusion. I am just saying that things will not be getting better SIMPLY because the feds are out of the way. Its much like my brother in Texas suggesting that Texas would be a great new nation to come live in if they seceded. I remind him that this is the same state that elected LBJ, Connally, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, George W. Bush, etc. Clearly they need to fix what’s going on in their own state before claiming any mantle of superiority.
I liked your comment; I just wanted to expand the thoughts further.
Reference: John Taylor Gatto
Maybe its different today, but in the past, when you asked someone why they wanted to become a teacher, the most common answers were “to have the summers off,” and “the great government pension you get after only 20 years of work.” Of course such laziness would attract the worst of the worst.
And thanks for the article. I often cite his great statistics about the dregs becoming teachers (except to my former college roommate and niece – who are both teachers).
If you can’t “do” – teach.
If you can’t teach – teach gym.
If you can’t teach gym – be a guidance counselor.
If you can’t be a guidance counselor – teach teachers.
If you can’t teach teachers – run for Congress
Steve C.
Spring, Texas
And then once in Congress, pass education legislation that FORCES teachers to teach a certain way. LOL.
With all due respect to the esteemed author… “low academic quality of so many teachers.”
How exactly would high academic quality teachers make a difference when they are shackled to the NEA, no child, common core, etc?
My two kids were homeschooled from 7th grade (girls in 7th grade are apprentice torturers, mostly to each other) and third grade.
The girl has a BA in English, works nights at a company and just interviewed to try for a step up the ladder, more IT than customer service work.
The boy is 1 or 2 semesters away from a BS in IT; he loved computers from elementary school, and is looking for a way to make it pay.
My wife taught the majority of homeschool while I was out earning money; she does not have a teaching certificate, but a STEM degree. She does teach well, though, having to catch enough of their interest to get them to retain the material. The girl has saved nearly $15K towards her goals, and the boy hates to spend his own money, so he should do well.
We need to end Public Schools and provide the property tax money to ALL parents (not just Blacks) as Vouchers as is done in Europe. Presently, Whites fund the “Black” schools (public and private) and they fund the private educations of their own children (educational double jeopardy). I was a Certified HS Math/Science Teacher and the (Cultural Communist) Public System cannot be adequately reformed, ever, period, end of subject; abolish it forever and put it in the Constitution.
While an end to ALL government-run “educational” establishments is a great idea, I take issue with the premise of vouchers or similar. Education is funded through force and violence. STEALING from the general public to fund the educations of some is immoral on its face and MUST END. Additionally, NO MONEY ever handed out by the worthless government has EVER come without strings attached (unless handed to a welfare queen). ANY school taking such vouchers would find itself quickly under fire by the liberals/progressives, etc. if it did not admit EVERYONE who wanted in, kicked out troublemakers, etc. or otherwise set higher standards than the lowest common denominator standards the current government monopoly schools set. A new crop of substandard schools will pop out of nowhere looking to feed at the generous teat of the government voucher trough and they will further undermine the overall quality of the marketplace. The very expensive schools will STAY very expensive as they will of course raise their tuition exactly the amount of the vouchers so as to no be impacted by the glut of new students from the poorer sector of society. Curricula will be mandated, inclusion will be mandated, gender-neutral bathrooms will be mandated (or gender freedom with bathroom use will be mandated), and the abuse of government power will NOT END……..EVER. I appreciate the appeal of vouchers. I made the mistake of working for a voucher ballot initiative when I lived in California. But I have realized the errors of my ways. Government MUST be kept out of education and that includes the use of the government gun as a means to steal money from everyone to pay for schools for some. Education need not be expensive. Government MAKES it expensive. Working on creating FREEDOM in the education marketplace, along with a robust, competitive, and open marketplace, would do more for education than vouchers – despite their appeal.
Nobody could force your anti-voucher private schools to take voucher money and any government strings. If a voucher school’s standards are poor, parents will choose a better school. Vouchers available to all students would give poor Whites some choice for their kids and give them back a portion of their property taxes; none of that would harm a voucher education system. You always jump in with these arguments which seem groundless to me; we should try to take this discussion point by point someday…