Posted on 03/20/2014 1:56:20 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Wikipedia says that the United States has more than 200 million Christians. Why do they seem nearly invisible and powerless? Where are the leaders who can mobilize this huge force?
Presumably, Christian groups agree on the importance of education. Predictably, conservative or traditional parents want the schools to be as good as possible. Wouldn't we expect to see a coordinated effort by Christian groups and their leaders to make sure that public education operates at the highest practicable level?
What we seem to see instead is fragmentation and passivity. Particularly striking is that there is no leadership. When have you ever seen a Christian leader stand up and say something like, "Education is vital. Public schools are doing a lousy job. We demand they do a better job."
This demand requires an understanding of educational possibilities. Each denomination or group needs to have an advisory committee devoted to explaining education. The advisors would be the more successful, better educated people in the group. (Not trained in the narrow field of Education but broadly educated in the liberal arts, humanities, finance and business, the fine arts, or other careers.) These experienced, worldly people would make it their mission to understand the theories and methods used in the public schools. Why are these particular methods chosen? Why do they seem to give such bad results? Christians, and especially their leaders, must know the answers to those questions.
Then school officials could be challenged: "You've chosen a clunker here. Let us suggest better methods you could use."
Leaders could say to the school, "Judging from the evidence and the statistics, you've been doing a bad job for years. You've got to show us that you're serious about improving. Otherwise we are going to nag and complain. If we have to, we will protest and boycott. We will march in front of your school. We will encourage our parents to educate around your nonsense. We will set up parallel schools, on afternoons or weekends or on the Internet. We will make sure that our children are educated, with you or without you."
It's important to understand how the Education Establishment renders all opposition powerless. There are two main weapons. First of all, the so-called experts turn everything into jargon and disinformation (i.e., lies), so nobody can be sure what anyone else is talking about. Second, the so-called experts have festooned themselves with degrees and credentials. Dr. Jones, we might be told, is the national expert on assessment and reading diagnostics, or some such. Ordinary people are afraid to talk back to this deity from above. The result is that ordinary citizens trust the very last people they should trust, our Education Establishment.
The truth is, these official experts have consistently misled the public. Their so-called "research" (and their credentials) are often as flimsy as papier-mâché. A bunch of professors agree on what they want the public to embrace, and then claim it is "research-based." The bottom line here is that Christian leaders cannot trust the official experts. That would be like letting Putin and his KGB suggest policy for the United States to follow.
The education committees must take a little time and understand, for example, what Rudolf Flesch was talking about when he wrote his famous book in 1955, "Why Johnny Can't Read." Indeed, everyone should know why Johnny can't read, because the same dumb policies are still being followed in some schools today. (http://www.improve-education.org/id46.html)
Education committees have to understand why groups all over the country hold bitter meeting after meeting to fight Reform Math. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parents-Against-Everyday-Math/37453309495)
Education committees have to understand why so many groups are fighting against Common Core. (http://www.examiner.com/article/common-core-conspiracy-unraveling-update
Education committees have to understand why Constructivism, now dominant throughout public schools, is a gimmick that almost guarantees less learning. (http://www.improve-education.org/id55.html)
In all these cases and many others, the official educators are not going to help you understand the problems. They are going to tell you that they have the best answers. But they clearly don't.
Religious people, Christians and others, are more likely to have traditional priorities and to believe in a commonsense definition of education. Namely, children should learn a lot.
More aggressive leadership can mobilize this energy to improve our public schools.
CAUTION: this article is not about making public schools more religion-friendly. It is about making public schools more education-friendly.
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For a general statement of what school should be doing, see a Bill of Rights for Students 2014 (http://improve-education.org/id90.html (For further assistance, contact the writer.)
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PS: I'm going to write another version of this article called "Where are the Black leaders in education?" We see the same mystery. If you're an editor who would like this article, please contact me.
//article as published on rantrave
They’re called, “Mama’s and Papa’s” and they’re home with their kids ... EDUCATING them ... be patient ... the kids’ll show up in a few years.
What if they believe that the federal government has no legitimate, God-mandated role in educating their children?
He seems to have forgotten the part about taking over the Education Establishment, not just telling it what we want.
“they’re home with their kids ... EDUCATING them”
If you are writing about home schooling, perhaps that’s part of the problem. Maybe they should be uniting, along with the dissatisfied parents who can’t home school, to change the Education Establishment.
Personally I think trying correct public schools is a waste of time...that’s why their efforts are aimed at establishing Christian schools and supporting home schooling.
Big problem here is that the author doesn’t define the purpose of education. He simply assumes educators will know what he means when he uses the term.
In actual fact, education has been corrupted and politicized to where the word itself no longer means what it should. To many of today’s educators the purpose of education is to pursue “social justice.”
The easiest way to do so is to make sure all children get a poor education. It is MUCH easier to drag down the top 20% than to raise the bottom 20%.
Well, the parents have been removing their children from the public schools for years. HSLDA was started in the early 1980s to support homeschooling. An organization called ACCS supports Classical Christian schools. There is Veritas Press... and on and on... (see my tagline for a another group)
At this point most people deem public schools unreformable. You have California in 2011 mandating that homosexuality be taught in public schools as an acceptable lifestyle, and on and on...
see my tagline for a another group
Not only does he not define the purpose of education, he also doesn’t define what he means by Christian.
Plenty of Christian FReepers defend or even are public school teachers. Most places, a huge majority of the parents are some kind of mainstream Christian. Same with school board members and legislators.
The author really means to ask where are HIS kind of Christians.
You’ll get what you tolerate.
They are hiding because they lack the courage and conviction to “impose their religion on others”.
They’ve been cowed and threatened into believing that if anyone is able to see ANY outward sign of their religious beliefs, then they MUST be GUILTY of “imposing”....
Oh...and we’re “too Christian” to tell the PC crowd to “GET LOST!”, in varying terms.
If WE don’t stand up for Christ, have we relinquished the expectation that Christ will stand up for us?
The parents with courage, intelligence and love for their children have all gone to private schools, Christian schools or homeschooling. Many of them are veterans of "school wars" where they were stomped into the ground when they suggested that parents should have something to say about their own children's education.
Public schools are government schools, run by bureaucrats. Your child's teacher might be your next door neighbor and a nice person, but she doesn't have autonomy in her own classroom.
Who has influence in our schools? Teachers unions, state and federal agencies, education professors and giant textbook companies. All of these people make MONEY from producing a bad product.
ping
My kids go to a Christian school that I am increasingly disappointed in. It’s beginning to feel like an expensive public school. They have adopted the Common Core curriculum, they spend money on expensive items like a huge aquarium and an obsevatory, and they are more concerned about being the best in things like sports than on serving God.
I don’t blame the teachers. Most of them are very good still. It’s the administration.
My girls have 1 more year, and I’m wondering if I’ll send them for that.
Bureaucracies can't be reformed.
1)No flow of information from the top to the bottom.
2)Poor incentives to improve product – no rewards, no punishments. Bureaucrats can act irresponsibly with no fear of punishment.
3)No competition - teachers have a captive audience and a monopoly.
4)Bureaucracies are inflexible . They cannot reform themselves.
5)In the bureaucratic machine the way toward promotion is not achievement but the favor of their supervisors.
6)Teachers who are efficient incur the dislike of their peers (“You make the rest of us look bad”).
They’re called, “Mama’s and Papa’s” and they’re home with their kids ... EDUCATING them ... be patient ... the kids’ll show up in a few years.So long as they're not using those A Beka Book textbooks, they should be all right.
HSLDA was started in the early 1980s to support homeschooling. An organization called ACCS supports Classical Christian schools.I like ACCS. Not so personally fond of HSLDA.
I don’t blame the teachers. Most of them are very good still. It’s the administration.It's always the administration. Here in GA the problems are located in the administrations and the County Board of Educations. It's where the rot spreads from and it's where the cures have to begin. Problem is, cleaning up a County Board of Education is a futile effort as best. Doesn't matter the party, those things are run like mafia. Mess with them, you end up with...problems.
My wife .. home with the Lord now since 2004 .. used a "list" of Christian women she met through various Christian/school/chat/whatever lines and they all shared Christian curriculum .... good enough for my daughters to attend a local McGuffey School District (yes .. THAT McGuffey) senior year so they could get a 'real' diploma and, if I recall correctly ... all they had to take was basket weaving and advanced recess.
I was elected to that school board in November and I have my eyes and ears open (and a few times so far, my mouth)
See my #16
My wife .. home with the Lord now since 2004God bless her memory.
used a "list" of Christian women she met through various Christian/school/chat/whatever lines and they all shared Christian curriculumGood idea. Crowdsourcing like that should usually steer you right.
I was elected to that school board in November and I have my eyes and ears open (and a few times so far, my mouth)Excellent! It's up to all of us to do our part in civic responsibility like that. I'm glad to hear that you do so.
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