Education is important for any great society to form. The masses NEED to be educated. So I'm one of the many who believes that education should be a free pursuit and a privalege that a member of a free society earns. Let me say that again. Education is a privalege. Not a right.
First of all, education should not be mandated or forced. That's a good way to lose basic freedoms, soon it becomes forced to watch an "Inconvienant Truth" and God only knows how horrible that would be...oh wait, already happens! I understand the k-12 system. I went through it, graduated from it, glad its over with!
Here's the problem with it. Teachers are trained to teach from the books. What ever are in the books is fact and that is the end of the discussion. If you have a question on the information, you may ask, but (and this is the problem) students are DISCOURAGED from asking a question against the information. The books says the Pilgrims settled in Jamestown? Well the book says it I guess it has too be true. Hold on! Jimmy is raising his hand! "Ms. Teacher, weren't the pilgrims on the Mayflower and land at Plymoth, not Jamestown?" Uh-oh. He asked a question. "Why no Jimmy, the book is never wrong..."
Now I know what you're thinking. That never happens. I went through a K-12 system and I never had that problem. Well I'm glad for you! But it happens and here is why:
Teachers are severely underqualified to do their job.
Now I've gone too far. Blaming teachers? Well yes, I am. If there is one thing I don't like it would be a politician, followed by a cheap lawyer, but the third on that list is a proffesor/teacher. Don't like them. They are overpayed for a job that they hardly do in the first place. Sorry.
Now here is what happened with teachers. You see it all started with the progressive era in which labor unions started taking a stand against employers. Well teaching became a career that was unionized. Well more and more people wanted to become teachers due to the many benefits you can gain by being one. Also the demand for teachers went up roughly in the mid 1900's due to the crisis of the cold war. The government decided that teachers only need to meet point requirements to become a teacher. Well that standard has been lowered and lowered until now it hardly means anything to be a teacher.
So my solution for this teacher crisis: Abolish all things once great called a Union, did I put "once great" in front of unions?....sorry scratch that part out. After the unions are finally rid of, throw a huge celebration, for freedom has finally come back to the market!!! *Thumbs up!* After everyone sobers from the party, re-evaluate the teachers, with higher standards. How high? Well this is a job for the states. "Darn conservative putting his 10th amendment into his blog* Yeah I know, cry me a river. But in this case, its what the founding fathers told us to do. If something is not mandated in that constitution directly, then the responsibility and the power goes to the people and the state. It's called federalism people, and it needs to be revamped.
So let's say my home state of Virginia decides that the proper evaulation for a teacher is a standard knowledge test. Ranging from proper grammar, too basic mathematics, even, dare I say it, basic United States history and civics. Alright, then Virginia decides the requirements to pass this test must be anything higher or equal to a 90%. Fair enough, this is a basic exam. So Virginia then decides to create another test for teachers wishing to become 6-8th grade teachers. Virginia creates another test just for them. This time its a little bit harder. It has Algebra and basic science, mixed with advanced history and civics. The requirements for this test are a bit higher since the job is a bit more demanding. It's a 93% or higher. The same then will happen for those wishing to teach high school and even college. This is a state right! If their is a demand for teachers, its not in the federal governments authority to mandate to another state to lower their standards.
Today, people are putting more and more trust into their government because they believe it will work. Well here is the problem. The bigger government is actually crippling our Constitution. Education, a privalege nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, is being taken away from the States. Or if not taken away it is falling under the control of the Federal gov by pell grants being tossed into the state.
Rabbit Trail Moment: I'd like to applaud South Carolina. They actually refused Federal Money!!! That's is what the states need to do!! Refuse the money and gain back their rights.
The next huge problem comes with the ideology of the majority of our teachers. Look at it logically, liberals tend to side with Unions. Liberals favor more government. Teaching is a Unionized career. Most teachers are liberals meaning they favor more government. It happens every day, especially in college! It's called indoctrination and its poisoning our freedom to think. In college it is rare for a student to question a professor. In high school you can easily get away with it. In college you can get kicked out of the class and even the college. Today more and more teachers teach their own biased views instead of facts. They preach their own agendas instead of furthering the education of America. Progress comes by questioning everything we are told. I expect all my readers to question what I say and do their own research. THINK! It is essential for a society to grow.
Don't believe me, ask Hitler's Third Reich. He took over the education system. Made the people believe in his sadistic lies. He was a very charismatic man. He tricked thousands and thousands of Germans that the problem for their problems was because of the Jews and look what happened.
Over in the Middle East, dogmatic extremists are teaching their children that their was no such thing as the Holocaust.
Tyranny can easily be attained when you get rid of the ability to question and think. History is full of examples.
Will we give up our right to question and think? Will states continue to give the privalege of education to the federal government to control? It's up to us to make a difference.
God Bless America!!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Freedom of Religion
This next blog is a major controversy, but I know it NEEDS to be said. I am a man, er young man for all freedoms and this one is NO EXCEPTION. If I offend anyone, well I don't care. Read my Political Correctness post =p. So without further comment...
Freedom of religion is a major freedom that America's Founding Father's realized was essential for many reasons. The first was because America was the land of opportunity, to escape the religious dogma that was the Church of England or the varying sects of controlling religion in Europe. The second was because our Founding Father's, if not Christian themselves, realized the importance Judeo-Christian themes could have with the message of Freedom. Many of America's founding principles were based on these themes and thus the first amendment specifically starts off with Congress shall make NO law establishing a state religion and restricting religious beliefs.
Like I said in other posts, once we start hindering the free beliefs and practices of citizens, the closer we step towards tryanny and totalitarianism. This my dear readers, is bad.
In August, 1984, one of the most inspirational and well respected presidents, Ronald Reagan spoke in Dallas, Texas about a country with "no God."
"We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we posion our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions.
"I submit to you that the tolerant society is open to and encouraging of all religions. And this does not weaken us; it strengthens us....
"Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses percieve. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we are a nation gone under."
As Ronald Reagan says, we are a country free to practice any belief you so believe in. You HAVE that constitutional right. But we are starting to lose that right. It all goes back to being politically correct. Because people are offended at a religion, they demand that it be removed from government entirely, complete seperation of chruch and state. This is what I say to that belief.
This country has great men and women in it. From all different races, to political ideas, to religious beliefs. It's these differences that make this country work. How? It makes things so much harder to get things done? That, my friend, is essential to freedom. Make passing of laws harder. It slows down the speed of the government, thus restricting the government from rapidly obtaining more power.
Rabbit Trail Moment: Wake up America! Our charismatic President Barack Obama is playing with that idea. Does any one wonder why he is pushing for his policies to get down so quickly. It's not because he cares, it is because he realizes that the longer it takes the less likely it'll get done.
Anyway, religious ideals form the background of ethics. Now I'm no philosopher and I don't pretend to be, however, imagine a society where morals were unimportant? Terrible I know. My religious views make me who I am. Just as yours make who you are. However, because of that horrible thing called "PC" religious views are being restricted in the United States. more specifically the Christian view is.
People get offended because a child prayed in front of an athiest at school. That means the Christian child gets punished. For what?! For expressing his beliefs?! That my friend is the start of a dictatorship. But truly that example is an extreme case. Really, is it?
A young girl in a second grade history class in Boston, Ma. was given an assignment as with the rest of the class to choose their role model in history. The child chose Jesus as her historic role model. However the teacher, an athiest, decided to fail the child for "not following" the instructions by choosing someone that did not exist.
Clearly, Christian views are being attacked, but why?
The number one answer is because those who wish to gain control ie more government realize Christian ideals are essential to a free nation. So it starts with harmless laws such as no school prayer or no posting of the Ten Commandments.
Rabbit Trail Moment: Funny thing, in my former high school, the World History I class learns about distinct religions, ironically we spend so much time learning about Islam then any other religion in history. The students then do a project about the Pillars of Islam and they get posted on the school walls, yet, the Ten Commandments are not allowed. Hypocrisy? no of course not!
I don't care what people say, religion has had a benefit on society rather then a negative effect. The freedom to believe and express those beliefs is essential to any free culture. We must not allow dogma and political correctness to supress these beliefs. Remember one of the first groups Hitler targetted were the Christian and Jewish groups.
God Bless America!
Freedom of religion is a major freedom that America's Founding Father's realized was essential for many reasons. The first was because America was the land of opportunity, to escape the religious dogma that was the Church of England or the varying sects of controlling religion in Europe. The second was because our Founding Father's, if not Christian themselves, realized the importance Judeo-Christian themes could have with the message of Freedom. Many of America's founding principles were based on these themes and thus the first amendment specifically starts off with Congress shall make NO law establishing a state religion and restricting religious beliefs.
Like I said in other posts, once we start hindering the free beliefs and practices of citizens, the closer we step towards tryanny and totalitarianism. This my dear readers, is bad.
In August, 1984, one of the most inspirational and well respected presidents, Ronald Reagan spoke in Dallas, Texas about a country with "no God."
"We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we posion our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions.
"I submit to you that the tolerant society is open to and encouraging of all religions. And this does not weaken us; it strengthens us....
"Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses percieve. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we are a nation gone under."
As Ronald Reagan says, we are a country free to practice any belief you so believe in. You HAVE that constitutional right. But we are starting to lose that right. It all goes back to being politically correct. Because people are offended at a religion, they demand that it be removed from government entirely, complete seperation of chruch and state. This is what I say to that belief.
This country has great men and women in it. From all different races, to political ideas, to religious beliefs. It's these differences that make this country work. How? It makes things so much harder to get things done? That, my friend, is essential to freedom. Make passing of laws harder. It slows down the speed of the government, thus restricting the government from rapidly obtaining more power.
Rabbit Trail Moment: Wake up America! Our charismatic President Barack Obama is playing with that idea. Does any one wonder why he is pushing for his policies to get down so quickly. It's not because he cares, it is because he realizes that the longer it takes the less likely it'll get done.
Anyway, religious ideals form the background of ethics. Now I'm no philosopher and I don't pretend to be, however, imagine a society where morals were unimportant? Terrible I know. My religious views make me who I am. Just as yours make who you are. However, because of that horrible thing called "PC" religious views are being restricted in the United States. more specifically the Christian view is.
People get offended because a child prayed in front of an athiest at school. That means the Christian child gets punished. For what?! For expressing his beliefs?! That my friend is the start of a dictatorship. But truly that example is an extreme case. Really, is it?
A young girl in a second grade history class in Boston, Ma. was given an assignment as with the rest of the class to choose their role model in history. The child chose Jesus as her historic role model. However the teacher, an athiest, decided to fail the child for "not following" the instructions by choosing someone that did not exist.
Clearly, Christian views are being attacked, but why?
The number one answer is because those who wish to gain control ie more government realize Christian ideals are essential to a free nation. So it starts with harmless laws such as no school prayer or no posting of the Ten Commandments.
Rabbit Trail Moment: Funny thing, in my former high school, the World History I class learns about distinct religions, ironically we spend so much time learning about Islam then any other religion in history. The students then do a project about the Pillars of Islam and they get posted on the school walls, yet, the Ten Commandments are not allowed. Hypocrisy? no of course not!
I don't care what people say, religion has had a benefit on society rather then a negative effect. The freedom to believe and express those beliefs is essential to any free culture. We must not allow dogma and political correctness to supress these beliefs. Remember one of the first groups Hitler targetted were the Christian and Jewish groups.
God Bless America!
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