Matters of Education 2

So many of America's public schools are inflicting stress and harm on their students.  This piece explains.  Quote: "Now a 13-year study from the Connecticut Children’s Mental Health Center in Hartford, proves that schools are literally driving our kids crazy.¹

It’s insane. Children committing suicide because they can’t stand the pressures of school? Yes, it’s true. The suicide rate among 10 to 14 year olds has doubled since 2007. And for girls in that age group, the suicide rate has tripled over the past 15 years."  And,

"Boston College psychology professor, Peter Gray, looked closely at this new data and found that children’s mental health is directly related to school attendance. Meaning the more time kids spend in school, the sicker and crazier they get.

Dr. Gray found that children’s psychiatric ER visits fall dramatically in the summer recess and rise again once school begins. The spike for danger to kids and the incidence of suicide is highest in May, at the extreme end of the year of academic pressures.

Dr. Gray concludes: “The available evidence suggests quite strongly that school is bad for children’s mental health. Of course, it’s bad for their physical health, too; nature did not design children to be cooped up all day at a micromanaged, sedentary job.”    http://alternative-doctor.com/blog/problem-with-school-teenage-stress/?

  

This is a sad commentary on the state of education in our country.  Quote: "The same human failings that create oppressive government can corrode other institutions. Higher education has become a painful example, dominated for decades by the political left. We are seeing the same kind of blinkered egotism, divorcement from reality and corruption of principles that one sees in one-party governments or outright dictatorships.  Consider just a few of the legitimate complaints that have been piling up in the past 20 or 30 years. Many of these have their source in well-intentioned left-ish ideas that went seriously awry: the proliferation of majors that hold little to no possibility of meaningful employment; the erosion of academic standards; the encouragement of sexual license and devastating “hookup culture” and “rape culture” issues; the elimination of in loco parentis and creation of a warped quasi-legal state in its place; the de facto criminalization of student and faculty disciplinary matters and denials of due process; the creation of inflammatory and absurdly expansive concepts like “trigger warnings, “safe spaces,” "privilege” and “cultural appropriation.” And then there is exploding tuition that has outpaced inflation and even the costs of medical care."    https://townhall.com/columnists/laurahollis/2017/04/27/the-left-has-dominated-academia-for-too-long-n2318927?

This item serves as a warning that far too many of our public schools are bad for our children. Quote: "With that new focus on getting all students to achieve at least at a basic level came programs like Georgia’s Hope Scholarship and No Child Left Behind.

The results of those programs were the tremendous devaluation of high school diplomas and college degrees – results which have brought us a terribly high rate of college grads who are either unemployable or cannot find work in their chosen field of study without obtaining a Master’s Degree.  This is no fault of the majority of educators or administrators who fight the good fight every day, in a mostly vain attempt to overcome the obstacles placed in front of them by both a failed system and a severely deteriorated family unit. That anyone can find success via our system is a testament to the tenacity and caring of those people – and to the few parents who still expect their children to work hard and don’t blame educators for their kids’ failures.  But despite those educators’ best efforts, the system is still a failure. And to that failure is now being added a complete rewriting of basic philosophy, faith, logic, and biology. Ideas like absolute truth, debate, intellect, and the scientific method are being sacrificed on the altar of varying agendas – the most vocal being LBGT, or LGBTQIA, or whatever we’re up to now; it is a moniker which becomes more fluid and less understandable by the day."     http://theresurgent.com/public-schools-its-past-time-to-get-out/?  

This complements the previous item.  Quote: "Education models, separate from mass schooling, already exist and are wildly successful at retaining childhood curiosity and promoting academic excellence. Perhaps these fidget toys can help turn our attention to those alternatives."    https://fee.org/articles/school-kids-fidget-because-they-feel-trapped/?

The education establishment has done this on purpose.  Started a long time ago and is part of the dumbing down of students about American history.  Their intent has been and remains to only reveal history that supports liberal/progressive narratives.  That notion can be challenged, I know, but there is plenty of evidence that it is true.  This piece provides only a piece of that substantial truth.   https://pjmedia.com/parenting/2017/06/16/four-ways-parents-can-fill-in-the-blanks-when-schools-fail-to-teach-history/   Why do you think the left works so hard to eliminate factual history by removing symbols of southern US history?  Or, eliminate or obscure the history of our nation's founding. Or teach about our form of government, the why and how it came about and contrast its goodness with other forms of government. When I grew up Civics was a required subject...thanks to progressive reformers, no longer.  Removing historical monuments and content from text books does not eliminate history, it only skews history.  That is unconscionable, unethical and terrible, terrible policy. 

This adds to the discussion in the previous item.  Praise is heaped on Rachel Carson for she is an environmentalist icon.  Building progressive narratives forbids anything that could detract from their vaunted icons.  But, the unfortunate truth for both Rachel and environmentalist is that she caused DDT to be banned globally.  As a result the trend of containing malaria ended and millions died as a consequence.  While she certainly deserves some praise for her contributions it is patently wrong to ignore the truth of the whole story.  History is what it is, the good, the bad, the ugly.  It needs to be understood by everyone.   https://fee.org/articles/millions-died-thanks-to-the-mother-of-environmentalism/?

Despite left leaning protestor's irrational and irresponsible behavior Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, is a true winner that deserves praise from all quarters.  This item explains.  Quote: "Parents know what's best for their children. Survey after survey show the majority of minority voters in America support school choice. For example, The Black Alliance for Educational Options poll in 2015 showed the majority of African-American voters surveyed support charter schools – Tennessee 67%, Louisiana 65%, New Jersey 65%, Alabama 54%. An American Federation for Children poll in 2016 shows 75 percent of Latinos support school choice.  Betsy DeVos’ critics are the ones who are tone deaf to these voters' plea for change. If they think their heckling, protesting, shouting, booing and shaming will force Secretary DeVos to change course, they do not know her at all. Betsy DeVos is the "iron" lady in America's education field. She has given 30 years of her time to advocate for school choice. There's no way she is changing course now. Her perseverance should be good news to all parents who want to choose the best education solution for their children."    https://townhall.com/columnists/helenraleigh/2017/05/13/hats-off-to-iron-betsy-n2326110?

These high school kids are better jurnalists than many high paid mainstream so called journalists who have been trained to be liberal activists rather than agents of propaganda.   Kudos to them for what they did for their school. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/05/these-high-school-journalists-investigated-a-new-principals-credentials-days-later-she-resigned/?

Higher education has long forsaken its primary mission of educating young people with exposure to a broad range of ideas and helping them learn to think for themselves.  Today these once great enterprises are in many cases, especially in the social sciences, propaganda arms of the political left's intent to turn our country into a socialistic hell hole.   This provides insight.  Quote: "From safe spaces to trigger warnings to cries for reparations for black students to segregated “privilege” workshops, many of today’s college campuses are steeped in a frenzy of political correctness."  And, "“Properly educated children who arrived at one of these college campuses would be able to mop the floor with these nutty activists posing as ‘educators’ and professors – logically, philosophically, and rhetorically,” Newman declared. “The fact that so many indoctrinated children succumb to the kookery of these colleges is a damning indictment of the K-12 system.  “For instance, if these students had been trained in logic or philosophy, they would instantly see through the irrational and often contradictory absurdities pushed by these fringe professors. If the students had been taught real history, they would instantly recognize the lies and distortions being promoted. But unfortunately, K-12 ‘education’ in America today is basically a giant exercise in dumbing down and indoctrination that renders its victims susceptible to the kind of mass lunacy and tyranny that has overtaken our supposed institutions of higher learning. The American people deserve better – and that needs to start in the K-12 classroom.”       http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/a-real-look-at-campus-hysteria-and-indoctrination-coming-in-2018/