Sowell: Education at a Crossroads

Townhall.com ^ | February 4, 2017 | Thomas Sowell

[jazusamo]

*PING*
Thomas Sowell

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Understandable. The left doesn’t WANT an ‘educated’ populace. If youngsters were educated, why, they might grow up to be *GASP* Conservative!

And we can’t have that! ;)

[RoosterRedux]

Good to see that Dr Sowell is not sticking to his promise of retirement.

One should not retire from life until they carry you off to the asylum or the cemetery.

[JohnBovenmyer]

I’d hoped his ‘retirement’ was only from regularly scheduled columns and he’d still contribute when he saw fit. I’m glad to have that hope confirmed. I hope this helps prevent the rino dingbat sisters from blocking Trump’s fixer!

[jazusamo]

Agreed, it’s good to see he’ll be writing from time to time.

[jazusamo]

Go President Trump!

Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

[kearnyirish2]

I also believe a very big problem in education is that most teachers can’t teach math or science beyond sixth grade or so; the union rules requires a math teacher to receive the same pay as a gym teacher, so those that can DON’T teach - they work in the private sector instead (where supply & demand reaps richer rewards).

For years we’ve heard that “education” majors are at the bottom of their college classes; I can absolutely believe it.

[ronnie raygun]

Like mushrooms they are fed sh## and kept in the dark

[BraveMan]

It is pleasant to realize Dr. Sowell has continued to share his opinion with the great unwashed. Perhaps his opinion of the President is softening. Can intellectuals admit they could have been wrong?

[Tax-chick]

If charter schools educate one-third of the students in a district, and get one-third of the money, how does that reduce the amount of money per child in the public school? Actually, charter schools usually get less money per student, but produce better results.

Maybe they're afraid the public will notice that the government schools continue to cost more, even as fewer and fewer students attend them.

[jazusamo]

Yep, I’d bet they are afraid of that and the NEA and public school districts don’t let facts get in the way when it comes to funding.

[Tax-chick]

They always talk about “budget cuts,” but they never talk about “spending cuts.”

A “budget cut” is when the district proposes an “everything but the kitchen sink” budget to the county, and the county gives them everything but the sink and a spoon.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

:I also believe a very big problem in education is that most teachers can’t teach math or science beyond sixth grade or so; the union rules requires a math teacher to receive the same pay as a gym teacher, so those that can DON’T teach - they work in the private sector instead (where supply & demand reaps richer rewards).

A pet peeve of mine is that in the best of circumstances - i.e., America in 1950 - people do not select themselves to be grade-school teachers because they love mathematics. They select themselves to be grade school teachers because they like to deal with kids. The result is that grade school teachers tend very strongly to think of mathematics in terms of Arithmetic - specifically, number crunching.

“Word problems” were the bane of the typical student; they were candy to me. An interesting challenge. But I did not on that account become convinced that I was good at math. I got no particular encouragement, and I disliked the number crunching exercises so I was not in love with grade-school “math.” That came later, in Plane Geometry class.

[kearnyirish2]

My kids’ teachers basically direct them to websites that show them how to do math; the teachers themselves don’t know how to do it.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Just not their thing.

[golux]

SOWELL’S BACK!

Bump.

[DuncanWaring]

Recall that in the antebellum South it was illegal to teach slaves to read.

Note also that the Democrat party was the Party of Slavery™ at its founding two centuries ago and remains the Party of Slavery™ today.

[trebb]

Like so many things that others have talked about, but never actually acted on, Trump is on the verge of actually empowering parents to choose and put their children in schools where the objective is to teach vs. indoctrinate.

Can you imagine what one or two generations of that might accomplish?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It sure is. But try to explain that to a member of the Socialist Democrat Party; they’re so brainwashed that they’re CERTAIN that is the history of the Republican Party!