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    Default Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?


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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Huh.

    See my comment about the confederate flag in the Lounge area. This sort of thing in action.

    What is really painful, is that when you try to have an educated conversation with the ignorant - they can't keep up. Then they fall back on name calling and slogans and call you a liar speaking untruths because "they know the truth."

    If one cannot have a conversation about the facts, then conversation fails - what are we left with after that? Yep.

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    which explains all the "conservative/liberal/blue/red/right/left/etc" bashing....when knowledge and ability fail...stick a label on it

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Not knowing history is worse than ignorance of math, literature or almost anything else. Ignorance of history is undermining Western society's ability to talk straight and think straight. Parents must attack the problem by teaching their own children the facts. Only fools would rely on the schools.
    One more reason to homeschool. As if I needed one!


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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    The answer to your question is simple. The reason our schools aren't actually teaching history is because the the vast majority of teachers are members of the NEA, one of the democratic party's affiliates. This is not an accident brought on by a bumbling beauracracy, this is a deliberate plan. Modern educators value indoctrination over education. If you question them on it they will couch their goals in terms like, "making history relavant" or "teaching the why, not just the when and where". While those sound like noble goals, the actual end result is the same, a group of idealogues using our tax money to indoctrinate our kids in accordance with their politically correct views. The average public school grauduate these days is so ignorant of the truth that terms like, "nazi", "gulag", and "racist", are in danger of losing their true meaning. That lets the Dick Durbins of the world get away with their ludicrous statements. The end result is that the pain and suffering inflicted by real nazi's, real communists and real racists on their victims is cheapened.
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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    ^ so now it's all the Dems fault?



    Indoctrination over education?



    One word for you on this subject: Creationism

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Weekend Reports
    ^ so now it's all the Dems fault?



    Indoctrination over education?



    One word for you on this subject: Creationism
    Oh come on now...

    we all know creationism has evolved into intelligent design...


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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Most estimates I read said that about 1/3 of the delegates at the last Democratic National Convention were members of the NEA. To deny that the NEA is joined at the hip with the Democratic Party is to deny reality.

    As an example, take a look at the horrible Washington D.C. school system. These schools, which are an embarassment to the entire country are some of the worst in the country. One solution proposed was to give vouchers to the predominately african-american parents and let them enroll their kids in private schools. Where did the rabid opposition to this proposal come from? Democrats in congress. The Democrats and their auxilliary group, the NEA would rather consign black children to a life of poverty than shake up the status quo.

    If you are dissatisfied with the product of our public schools, then you have to place a part of the responsibility on the teachers (personally, I'd put a lot of it on the parents). Whatever responsibility teachers bear for our failing schooly system has to be shared by their partners in crime, the Democrats.
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    Post Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Here's what I think:

    American kids aren't learning history (or math or science or much of anything else) because we live in a culture that doesn't really value education or intellectual achievement. Smart people (especially smart kids) are stigmatized as geeks, dorks, and nerds. Girls, in particular, are constantly exposed to the notion that they can be sexy (and desired) or smart (and unattractive), but certainly not both smart and sexy. [I'd venture to say that there are a number of SW members who disprove that misguided notion in a big way ]

    Are super-smart, high-achieving kids bullied and tormented and ostracized in schools in Japan? Not so much, I'm willing to bet....

    I'm also willing to bet that if the girl in the article had actually read her textbook she'd have known that only males can be drafted, as well as a good deal more about U.S. history. Let's face it: most kids think history is boring. I certainly did. And I agree that is partly because kids generally get a bland, sanitized version of history in school.

    Still, I don't think we can blame it all on the schools (or the NEA--I'm just not getting that connection. Sorry.) I think we should blame our children's ignorance more on parents who don't push their kids to excel in school, and on the kids themselves, who probably spend more time watching TV and playing video games than they spend on schoolwork.
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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Nicolina
    Here's what I think:

    American kids aren't learning history (or math or science or much of anything else) because we live in a culture that doesn't really value education or intellectual achievement.
    I went to a high school that you had to test into, so yeah, I went to a school with a bunch of nerds.
    At functions, parties/dances/whatever, where we would be with other high schools, a VERY LARGE majority of my friends would lie about which school they went to. In social situations, smart kids are discriminated against. Not only is it sad, but utterly disgusting.

    Most high school classes are totally pathetic. My brother, in his sophomore class this past year watched Old Yeller in English class. WTF?

    Education in our society needs to be put back in the right place, as a TOP priority. This nation's children, for the most part, are disgustingly stupid.



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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Quote Originally Posted by hardkandee
    Education in our society needs to be put back in the right place, as a TOP priority. This nation's children, for the most part, are disgustingly stupid.
    All part of my evil plan to take over America! Mu ha ha ha ha....

    That said... someone will take advantage of ignorance in the future.

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Nicolina
    ...American kids aren't learning history (or math or science or much of anything else) because we live in a culture that doesn't really value education or intellectual achievement. Smart people (especially smart kids) are stigmatized as geeks, dorks, and nerds. Girls, in particular, are constantly exposed to the notion that they can be sexy (and desired) or smart (and unattractive), but certainly not both smart and sexy. [I'd venture to say that there are a number of SW members who disprove that misguided notion in a big way ]

    Are super-smart, high-achieving kids bullied and tormented and ostracized in schools in Japan? Not so much, I'm willing to bet....
    An excellent point. I don't know about Japan. However, I was reading recently about China. In China, our nation's richest geek, Bill Gates, is treated as a huge celebrity, much more so than here. Observing the differnce in values between China and our country, the author remarked, "In China, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In the U.S., Britney Spears is Britney Spears, and that is the problem." In our country we acclaim people that can shake their ass and lip synch to music more than people that can write software or engineer complex computer systems. Then we wonder why so few of our kids are attracted to math and science.

    I'm also willing to bet that if the girl in the article had actually read her textbook she'd have known that only males can be drafted, as well as a good deal more about U.S. history. Let's face it: most kids think history is boring. I certainly did. And I agree that is partly because kids generally get a bland, sanitized version of history in school.
    I'd suggest you get a current textbook and look it over as I have. As one example, I'll mention what I found in the section on the revolutionary war. In the name of multi-culturalism, most of our the content in our school's textbooks has been hijacked. Ben Franklin? Alexander Hamilton? James Madison? You'll find little mention of them in most history books these days. While Washington and Jefferson are still mentioned, lost of space has been given over to highlight the role of african-americans, hispanics, and women in the revolutionary war. That may be politically correct, but it's historical inaccurate.

    Still, I don't think we can blame it all on the schools (or the NEA--I'm just not getting that connection. Sorry.) I think we should blame our children's ignorance more on parents who don't push their kids to excel in school, and on the kids themselves, who probably spend more time watching TV and playing video games than they spend on schoolwork.
    It's the parents responsibility first, true. However, the role of the biggest teacher's union in the country, and one of the Democratic Party's biggest supporters cannot be overlooked.

    Whenever anyone talks about improving education, the subject of smaller class sizes always comes up. Why? There is absolutely no proof that smaller classes results in higher performance. The average class in Japan is at least twice the size of that in the U.S. Yet Japanese kids consistently out perform ours on standardized tests. While there is no proof smaller classes would benefit our kids, it would benefit the NEA, which would have a larger labor pool from which to attract dues-paying members.

    What about attracting an keeping good teachers? A great way to do so would be to give raises based on merit, rather than length of service, which is the norm in public education. Want to pack the school board meeting with angry union members? Dare to suggest that schools pay people based on their performance. In public education, teacher's pay is based on what the worst performing teacher with the same length of service is worth. What if your club limited your compensation to what the worst dancer there made? And we wonder why good teachers are leaving the profession.

    Finally, how about we shake up the education monopoly and bring some competion to education with vouchers? You mentioned parental involvement. How about we let the parents decide what school best meets their child's needs? No way. I challenge anyone to find me five elected democrats willing to go on record as favoring school choice. In the view of the Democratic party, choice about bearing a child is good, choice about where a child will go to school is evil.
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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    I'll go with what Destinyhas said here, particularly with regard to the evil that is the NEA/ATF.

    If I ever have children, I'll eat fucking dirt to afford their private tuition before I send them to a public school.
    Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

    William F. Buckley, Jr.

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Casual Observer
    If I ever have children, I'll eat fucking dirt to afford their private tuition before I send them to a public school.
    Cheers to that.



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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    You know, I'd be careful about that--some of those private schools are pretty damn bad, too, scrambling for funding and teachers as much as the public schools. And it's really easy to blame the teachers, those overworked and underpaid poor fuckers. And would you really blame the teachers when a classroom full of kids coming from destitute households perform poorly? One of my friends is struggling to get those kinds of kids through school, but how can she teach a pregnant fourteen-year-old, a sixteen-year-old who's already a father of two, or a kid who has to work to help support six siblings in a one-parent family? Are their standardized test scores really a reflection of the time, paid and unpaid, she's put into her work?

    I'm in agreement that he schools are screwed, though. But I prefer to blame the slack ass parents who can't be bothered, like Nic said, to instill respect for learning in their rugrats.

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    I'm homeschooling my kids. I don't trust the public schools and I don't believe in the religion of private schools...so homeschooling it is.

    The other problem is that history is all made up. Depending on where you learn it...the victor of the war makes the story...and away it goes.

    Remember all of the school books that spoke of slaves and how they were "honored/privledged" to be brought to America? Or how the Indians were savages and we were just "taking care of the problem"? History is opinion, in many cases, and the only true way to learn about history is by learning from each side involved.

    The other problem is that we've evolved into a society that has "self-raised" kids. I remember my teachers used to call my parents if they had a problem with either my brother or I, and they could sleep that night knowing that my parents would step in and do their jobs. A vast majority of the parents today think that the disciplining should be done in the schools and then try to sue the schools when someone actually tries to put the smack down on the offender. It's one way or the other. If parents were more involved with their children's education...then this wouldn't have gotten so bad. But, it's the curse of the public schools...private schools usually have a better student base because most parents who spend $$$ on their child's education are going to be very involved.

    Sad.

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    Default Re: Weekend Commentary - why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    Q:Why aren't our schools actually teaching history ?

    A: Because they are teaching herstory.

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