Social Responsibility

Recently I received an email from a friend. This friend is a teacher of teachers, that is, this person travels from district to district and teaches other teachers how to teach students. As a high level educator my friend has a finger on the pulse of the public education system as much as anyone could. So you have to understand my concern when I received a link from this friend with a message attached begging that I get this information out to the public.

Our founders told us that we needed two separate systems of education, “one to teach us to make a living and another to teach us how to live.” The intent was for our families, churches, and social groups would teach us the latter and they would create a public education system for the former. This separation between moral and intellectual training was considered vital to social cohesion. Even now most public administrators want to keep religion out of school.

All of this being the case, how is that our public educators are taking it upon themselves to decide, define and provide the morality to our children? It never has been, nor is it now the job of the crappy public school system to teach morality or “social responsibility” to our kids. Frankly, I don’t see that our school system holds the moral equity to pass on their flawed ideology to my children.

Having looked over the link that my friend sent (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may09/vol66/num08/toc.aspx) I must say that I was rattled, to say the least. It seems innocent enough when you read “Shouldn't we also expose economics students to the humane, religious, and ethical ways of thinking about economics? The standards and texts ignore poverty as a moral issue, are silent about economic and social justice, fail to even mention charitable giving, say nothing about work as a calling, and avoid any mention of the effects of economic growth on the environment (Nord & Haynes, 1998)”, but read it again.

If you are a liberal then please consider the same written like this.. “Shouldn’t we also expose economics students to the vast rewards of the capitalist system while teaching them to live as children of Jesus Christ? The standards and texts ignore poverty as a personal responsibility, are silent about the basic truth that there is no such thing as economic or social justice, fail to mention that poverty comes from either laziness or a series of bad decisions and that churches and families are the sources of charity, say nothing about work as a decision, and avoid any mention of the effects of economic growth on improving the environment.”

How does that make you feel? You would consider it propaganda right? Well it is, and it’s all true, but it has no more place in our education system then your socialist propaganda does. It is only because you think you have some kind of moral and ethical high ground. The fact is that the public education system is a shining example of how government can screw up anything. You teachers feel smart because you went to college and received a document that says that you have been taught enough to teach children. This does not make you smart, in fact, chances are, you chose to teach because you had no marketable skills, talents or knowledge to help you succeed in “the real world”. So you went back to school, the only place you had ever been. You now have a sense of intellectual superiority (because your peers are children) and a job for which you are required to show no merit to succeed.

Yes, I realize that there are some teachers out there who are actually doing it for the right reasons but then, you’re not the one’s pushing this socialist agenda. You see, public education is a socialist environment. Teachers are paid to show up! If they keep showing up, year after year, they keep getting raises regardless of their “productivity” (or lack thereof). They receive benefits of the highest order, they get tons of holidays and they qualify for tenure (meaning they cannot be fired without an act of congress). I know, I know.. Why EARN a living wage when you can just vote for it.

It’s easy to see why these people support socialism, after all, the money for schools is handed to them by the almighty government and nobody has to actually sell anything. The public is forced to buy their product by law while truancy officers force customers through their doors. What they do not understand is that the same system cannot work if all receive and there is no one to give. But then, most teachers only know what they were taught and their teachers were never taught to teach them that stuff.

Again, I encourage you to look over the site linked above and if you see nothing wrong with it then please.. Smear some environmentally friendly, non petroleum, Government Issue, union supported, high viscosity lubricant around the pointed top of your long haired, pot stinking, Stalin loving melon and cram it up your free market hating, MSNBC watching, Obama worshiping rectum.