Posted on 04/13/2003 3:23:34 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Sometimes a single incident can reveal the widespread rot that has affected the nation's school systems as they strive to indoctrinate the children entrusted to their care while neglecting to teach them the Three R's.
In Inverness, Florida, a 12-year-old boy was cuffed*, arrested, and taken in a patrol car to jail where he was held for two hours. His crime? You aren't going to believe it! Kyle Fredrikson was walking back to class from lunch when Deputy Tim Langer saw the boy "purposely stomping in the water" after being told numerous times by school personnel to stay with the group and out of the rain. Little boys like to stomp on puddles. Always have and always will.
He didn't comply and Officer Langer took the sixth-grader to a school office where he was handcuffed and taken to jail. Kyle was charged with disruption of an educational institution, a misdemeanor. After sitting for two hours by himself in a police holding room, the police released the boy to his mother and grandmother.
His parents were understandably outraged. "The inmates had access to him. Can you imagine that for stomping in a mud puddle?" said his father. Lt. James Martone, who oversees the school resource officer program, said Langer made a proper arrest. "He did his job," Martone said. "It's a fine line any officer in the schools walks."
Why was it a good arrest? Why do these things happen to children today, when earlier generations of children never faced such lunacy? The answer is that the school "curriculum" today is 100 percent behavior modification, not academics. Kyle was being a little boy, expressing his individuality and his indifference to overzealous authority. In today's educational environment, both are affronts to the "system" and must be dealt with quickly and severely. To the system, students are intended to be properly trained human resources. In the world of education today there are no children anymore.
An item from the Education Reporter reveals how, under the Socialist concept of Sustainable Development, schools are being restructured to enforce "cradle-to-grave life-long learning." Preschool, formally known as kindergarten, is becoming mandatory. Parents are told it gives children a head start, but it only gives schools a head start in their mission to indoctrinate them. It gives the school the priority of determining the children's values.
Retired educator and former Fulbright scholar Margaret Brogley who spent nearly 40 years in the classroom says public education is failing because of the methods and materials used, not because there aren't enough toddlers enrolled in preschool.
Mrs. Brogley noted that, over the past 40 years, education has been dumbed down, from fuzzy math to the dearth of phonics reading instruction to the inability of many students to use cursive handwriting. "For 50 years, we have heard of the necessity to improve education," she wrote to Arkansas state education leaders, "How long will it take? Every time the 'experts' fix the situation, it becomes worse. Now the child is to learn to read by the 4th grade. Why so long? I am no genius, but I learned to read before the first year was over."
"Will education be improved (by enrolling young children in pre-school)?" Brogley asked rhetorically, then answered her own question: "No, but it will cost billions of dollars…adding more school years to a child's life will accomplish nothing."
With preschool showing poor results, it should come as no surprise that the more than one billion dollars a year of federal aid for after-school programs in 7,500 public schools nationwide has not helped most children academically, according to a federally funded study.
The report, "When Schools Stay Open Late," conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., said children who attend after-school activities at public elementary and middle schools are more likely to encounter bullies, vandals, thieves and drug users than those who do not. The after school centers, says the report, have limited influence on academic performance, no influence on feelings of safety or on the number of "latch-key children; and some negative influence on behavior. Middle school participants are "more likely to report that they had sold drugs and were somewhat more likely to report that they smoked marijuana."
From being arrested for stomping on a rain puddle to the ineffectiveness of both preschool and after school programs, and everything in between, the failure of the US education system continues to demonstrate how thoroughly trashed it has been in the past half century of "reform." The reform that is necessary now is the return of control to local school boards, the reduction of the control that teacher's unions exercise, and an end to the disastrous federal involvement in the nation's educational systems.
It has been several decades since a government study revealed the failure of the nation's education system and nothing has changed, except for the worse. A new American Revolution is needed to take our schools back from those who have been deliberately dumbing down our students. We need real teachers in our classrooms, not "facilitators." We need a renewed emphasis on the basics, not the judgement-neutral curriculum that is more concerned with "self-esteem" than teaching children anything.
Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and president of the American Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. The Center maintains an Internet site at http:www.americanpolicy.org
And they wonder why many law abiding, upright individuals have nothing but contempt for them.
Come on. This was a man bites dog story. This police department must be unique in arresting a 12 year olds for splashing. That's why the AP picked up the story.
I agree with many of the criticisms of the educational establishment, but the arrest doesn't have much to do with them. If the arrest is a symptom of anything, it is a symptom that the US is becoming an increasing legalistic place.
One aspect of legalism I am seeing in the district where our youngest goes to school is that they really expect the teachers to follow the curriculum, mightily annoying some of the best teachers.
We've been talking about doing that for how many decades now? We've been poring money on the public school system, trying all kinds of different things. If I recall correctly, about $10,000 a year is spent to "educate" a child in the D.C. school system.
This has all done no good. It has all been so much bullshit and waste. Thousands upon thousands of lives have been ruined.
I think the public schools can compete -- if they are made to. That is the one thing that has not yet been tried. Not in any serious way.
Vouchers would do that. That is why the NEA is so opposed to them. They would have to get off their butts and go to work. Like the rest of us.
If you had a kid in the public schools in D.C., you wouldn't want to wait another twenty years for the problem to get "worked out" by a bunch of bureaucrats who are mainly concerned with their health benefits and their vacation time.
You'd want it done tomorrow morning. Tuesday morning at the latest.
Zero intelligence.
Ridiculous. Kids should not be allowed to splash other kids in school, even with clean water. What was bizarre and wrong here was the punishment, not the rule. It is not being sissified to learn to be respectful of others.
LOL! Now that's an interesting spin to put on some moronic cop arresting 12 year olds for jumping in mud puddles.
You know, I can remember when you had to be smart and use good judgement if you wanted to be a cop.. Guess they lowered the bar since the last time I looked.
But I am saying vouchers are not going to fix it - vouchers will only ruin the private schools we have. It is not being suggested and would not be implemented for the good of all children - just 'qualified' children and that does not mean middle-income, working taxpaying people. It never has and never will.
I am not willing to pour more sand down the rathole by giving vouchers to people. People in failing school districts have the same voter clout and same voices as people in any other school district. You said it yourself, money is not the issue. Why don't these parents get in there and do something.
I just want the politicians to be honest and upfront about this. I truly believe big campaign contributors all over this country have the blueprints drawn up for their 'private' schools that will be getting this voucher money.
To me, the voucher issue is no different than the 'we need more money for the schools'. Just because it comes from the Republicans doesn't make it right or good -except for them.
When the government seems to offer money -be very wary - it is never, never to your advantage - unless of course you are one of the big guys.
I have been trying to say that for a long time and a lot of people are just refusing to consider the possibility. Of course, in doing that, they are totally not looking at the recent history of this country.
I fear for religious institutions with the 'faith-based initiative' issue. Just think of a small clinic that begins to get government funds, goes in to debt to expand to give more care to the needy and then ---- the government decides you must give abortions or loose your funding. They have already tried to attack Catholic hospitals on this basis.
I realize a lot of middle-income people have seen so much giveaway in their lifetime, they think, finally, someone is going to give me something. They need to look at what has happened to those people who took all the government 'help'. They are not better off for it.
Vouchers and faith-based initiative is just another way for the federal government to get its foot in the door and destroy the independence of religion.
These days, the schools obey the state Dept of Education, which is given orders by the Federal Dept of Ed, which is run by all sorts of touchy-feelie types.
Given a Principal with full and complete hire/fire/promote authority (something the teachers unions wouldn't stand for these days) and complete accountability for results (the kids can read, write, and do math, or we get another principal), would have things cleaning up real fast
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.