WHY?

Why do you suppose there is so little interest in education? Almost everyone has children or grandchildren or friends with children that they care about. Everyone knows they are our future leaders. And one would hope people realize an investment in our children is an investment in our national well-being.

Oh well...

"you must play the game to get good grades, but you will learn at home"

I doubt my son will. History was a joke, English was a bore, math was interesting (mostly due to the teacher) I want to make my son gets a good education and knows how to utilize his intelligance and learn to think critically.

is a crock, benefiting no one but corporate America. We are working to dismantle it but what an uphill battle.

Uneducated people are easier to put the fear into and they succumb to the herd factor.

If all I knew was what they taught me in school, I'd be as dumb as the parents who don't get the value of education.

School has been made into a soul-killing experience for most children. The trauma carries through in life. And politicians act out as much as anyone.

--p!

These are interesting responses. The soul-killing you describe has been magnified many times with the oppressive regime of high-stakes testing that has been imposed on us.

But if people so dislike the way things are, why not get involved and work to change things, to make school a place of joy?

I don't have time or energy. In order to change policy on education from the outside would take an extensive amount of time. I work 60 hours a week and am so tired. I would rather insure I teach my son whats right and wrong then fight for someone else to do it right.

and most important teacher.

but don't value other peoples children anywhere near as highly

school voucher programs highlight this
but you only need to go to a school sports activity to see disbehaving parents

and they love public school and are thriving. Guess it just depends...on parents...schools. I push reading and my grands are doing well there as well as math. Teachers need support for sure! God bless you for caring, my friend.

Most of the people are here to discuss national politics. It only comes up when something bad happens or there is some federal action on education.

that exists within the universe of the disenfranchised. Those with the financial means have moved their children into 'other' schools.

Or, as I have witnessed locally, there have been success in creating two separate school systems within public education, the magnet-like/high academic schools where funding goes, school within school scenarios, and the failing schools.

Perhaps it's gone on longer than that, but I see a shift happening under Reagan. One that scapegoated public schools and public teachers as being incompetent, untrustworthy, etc.. At the same time, a different branch of that same machine was devaluing intellect and over-emphasizing faith. Anti-intellectualism, a push for obeying your religious and political leaders without thinking or questioning, and demonizing public education.

Those strategies have been highly successful. It isn't just the republican and/or the religious wing of America who now thinks this way.

In a media-driven world, an issue like public education, which quietly works over a generation to produce results, isn't flashy and attention grabbing. Let's face it: MOST issues are not given the attention they deserve, even the more immediate issues like war, and like corrupt, criminal people in office in Washington. Politics is an entertainment show like American Idol, existing from one stage-performed campaign to the next, with inconvenient things like issues shunted to the side.

Education SHOULD be a top priority. A democratic republic requires a citizenry that is literate, numerate, and who can and will use independent, critical thinking to make choices at the ballot box.

Instead, we have a citizenry that is conditioned to watch dramatic political productions, vote for the flashiest performer, and then vote the way they are told on the rest of the items on their ballot.

In a debate about whether or not abortion should be made illegal or gays should be allowed to marry, it's clear who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, and so one can get self-righteously angry and be confident that one really is being righteous.

In a debate about whether or not it's a good idea to set more homework, or whether single-sex education should be allowed, it isn't, which makes it an issue with much less mass appeal.

The economy has exactly the same issue - it's complicated, and therefor it's not sexy.

The issues that really get DUers worked up are the easy ones - abortion, gay rights, the war in Iraq - rather than ones like education and the economy which are at least as important, but far less prone to simple, obviously-correct solutions.

All the emphasis on getting a job leaves little room for other concerns. I know, there are people struggling for money, who can't afford to be concerned about anything else ... but even when they have a choice, most don't take the time to learn anything they don't NEED to know. In school, all too many students are there to get a certificate marking them as employable, and not looking for anything more than that.

It's been said that America doesn't have a culture, it has an economy. It's all too true -- we are so obsessed with making money, compared to other cultures (including Europe) that it has warped all our other priorities almost out of existence. Perhaps we got that way for the best of reasons -- immigrants who had no hope of rising out of poverty in the old country could get rich in America, and so getting rich (not educated, content, etc.) became the American standard of success.

I know the media pawns off gen-y college kids as wanting salaries comparable to vice presidents... and try to stomach any article from Nadira Hira, who sadly is NOT a cartoon character...

I think I see what you mean...

But we all have our individual cultures too.

in these responses to WHY?

But like the rest of America, education is being overtaken and hijacked by corporate interests, contributing to the growing gaps between the poor and the rich and a dwindling middle class.

I think many Americans are indeed just struggling mightily to make ends meet and are generally exhausted and overwhelmed. Many have little time or even energy left to put up a fight.

Yet I'll maintain that those who are willing and able to MUST RESIST. We are losing our nation to greed and selfishness and ordinary people have got to band together, unite in resistance.

For those powerful interests behind high-stakes testing and the destruction of public education, I'd say perhaps the greatest weapon in their arsenal is the deafening silence of the vast majority of our nation's public schools teachers. Silence is complicity and yet I do understand the fear. Speaking out, not complying, can mean the loss of your job.

Nobody would say, "I was in a hospital once, so I know how to be a nurse."

Having done some college teaching (which is far easier than public school teaching) in my day, I'm convinced that most Americans have no idea how hard teaching is. I was astonished at how much outside preparation is required to conduct a credible class, not to mention grading papers.

There should be a reality TV show in which all those smart ass public figures who criticize teachers are brought into a typical public school and told to teach a room full of squirrely seventh graders, some of whom come from dysfunctional families, some of whom have disabilities, some of whom don't speak English at home.

Experiential learning is one of the most powerful modes. :evilgrin:

we'd get increases with nary a thought. But children have always come in last in this country. Nobody asks the post office what they did with the last stamp increase. Nobody writes continual legislation about this or that package left behind. There are no highly qualified postal worker requirements despite the importance of the mail. And nobody suggests closing postal offices for failing to make adequate yearly progress delivering the mail.

Its all a big joke.