The future of Education…
Barack put forth his selection for education secretary today, Mr. Arne Duncan, who has been in charge of (insert suprised facial expression here) Chicago Public Schools for the last seven years. Most of the media about this guy pegs him as a ‘reformer’ who took the bull by the horns in the nations 3rd largest school system. We’ll see. A quick drive through the CPS website reveals a chart of dropout rates that has actually shown some positive progress in the last seven years, although the best rate that could be shown was 42%. Yup, that’s right folks, in Chicago public schools, only 6 out of 10 students actually graduate! I bet the intensely educated masses up there do a good job of electing politicians that will actually promote freedom and liberty and not handouts and welfare…
So now this guy is going to be in charge of the nations education policy… we’ll see how he does. Apparently, he plays basketball (which is some sort of resume enhancement according to the press) and he went to Harvard. He’s on a number of different non-profit boards – none with known terrorists that we know of yet – and has the blessing of our current Secretary of Education. How about this… what does he think about lessening the Federal Government’s Power in deciding the fate of our education system? What is his stance on providing each student with a voucher and letting their parents pick the best school? How about school competition? Surely, the man that went to HARVARD knows a thing or two about the value of having a diploma or degree from a school with a prestigious name and pedigree.
We see that very issue come to life around here with our local high schools. Parents go absolutely catatonic when they hear the words “school redistricting” because their baby might not get to go to Harvard if they don’t attend the right high school. We had such a problem a while back with some of our MIDDLE schools. EVERY school (according to Newsweeks 2008 Top 1300 Highschools in the Nation) that these middle schools feed into is on the list. Walton – 109, Pope – 1118, Lassiter -435, Kell – 1195, Wheeler – 873, Sprayberry – 1178, see the article and list here. Yes folks, these people (who’s children will ALL go to public high schools that rank in the top 5% of the NATION) are bitching about which middle school their children will go to because some are ‘better’ than others.
All of this serves to illustrate my point. If schools are dependent upon the performance of their students for their well-being and success, they will either get better or get gone. Some kids may not get into the school that they want, but where is it written that we should always get what we want, much less the first time out of the box? Challenge in a person’s life can bring about great things. Our second ‘First Lady’ Abigail Adams had something to say about that:
“It is not in the still calm of live, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”
- Abigail Adams to her son John Quincy Adams
Let these children strive for greatness, challenge their minds, reward excellence and let the lazy fall to their place in society.
Just as an afterthought: Anyone want to put up all the schools in Conservative areas of the county against the Liberal areas for basic academic performance? Just think, Cobb County Georgia versus say… Chicago. That ought to be fun. I can’t imagine that the schools around here have 42 dropouts between them, much less 42%. Hmmm…