Any of you out there who feel that one political party is receiving too much "credit" for the destruction of the public-school system in this country, don't blow a gasket! There's plenty of blame, it seems, to go around. While a few greedy "Corporate-America" types are busy trying to alter textbooks, history, and basic morality, too many idealistic "Academic-America" types, usually Ph. D.s, most who've never taught children, are equally busy trying to teach 3rd graders advanced calculus and nuclear physics! It's the old University of Florida philosophy that has built the morbidly incompetent legislative culture that is currently suffocating our state: Make the material so difficult that only the most brilliant students will survive. Turn out brilliant graduates to make the program look wonderful, without having to actually teach much of anything. (Forty years later students can still remember the good professors, but the university cannot.) Of course, most of the freshman and sophomores wisely transferred to better schools in those days to be replaced by well-qualified junior-college students who had been prepared in a system that had actually tried to educate them. Unfortunately, there is usually nowhere for the non-genius students (almost all of us) to go if they "drop out" of public school. Most can't afford private schools or homeschooling and are not destined to become mathematicians or nuclear physicists, not because they aren't smart enough, but because they'll grow up missing the beauty and fun in science, math, literature, and art. By the time the "eggheads," adults who have never been able to think like children, are finished, instead, most young students will continue to hate virtually all of their subjects!
By the way, if you hear one of those "eggheads" spouting off about educational heroes like John Dewey, patron saint of modern education, don't blame poor Dr. Dewey. He was brave enough to try new teaching techniques on small groups of students first. Moreover, he had a habit of declaring promising results successful after his experiments, not before, as so many of our G-d blessed, but very ignorant Ph. D.s, are wont to do.
New York City- A Fight Between Good Guys and Other Good Guys
Unlike Florida, where the governor and the state's vacuous, cowardly legislature passes "Stand Your Ground Laws," hoping that they can somehow vicariously erase as many innocent African Americans as possible, in New York City, both Republicans and Democrats are actually engaged in a dialogue concerning the privatization of public education. Enough flattery, however, is enough! They too, seem to be missing the point of this article. They are arguing over whether picking a few lucky children by lottery for the privilege of attending a few public supported "successful" private charter schools is prudent, fair or even legal. Luckily I am not a Constitutional lawyer or a Supreme Court "Justice", which means that I am allowed to at least read the Constitution before I make a fool out of myself. I doubt that it is fair or that it is legal. The fact that the charter schools "are said" to have better results than the public schools makes the issue of "prudent" a dicey one. However, it must be obvious by now that the solution is to try to make the public schools as much as possible like successful private schools! If the charter schools are really so successful, then try to make the public schools as much like them as possible!
This use of logic is tiring and generally unrewarding, however, because I doubt that those who would abuse and exploit school children for profit will find my article particularly enlightening anyway. The sad fact that this group includes the majority of the Florida legislature is particularly disappointing. I would like to remind those "pious" lawmakers that when Jesus described the chances of a rich man getting into heaven as that of a camel fitting through the eye of a needle, he was not referring to those wealthy people who supported the majority of the community and helped the poor. He was referring to you people, the government aristocracy appointed by the "Romans," the filthy-rich counterfeit-temple priests who robbed even the poorest of the poor of their last crumb, serving their own lobbies instead of the people who stupidly trusted them!
For whatever it's worth, instead of turning the lives of our young into lottery picks, let's go the extra mile and stop the financial exploitation of our children. It's time to at least try to make the public schools as much as possible like the successful private schools without destroying them. "Business is business," but "public education" is much more important!
Allen Finkelstein, D.O., M.Ed., Asst. Clinical Professor of Medicine, Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine and other sobriquets meant to make this article seem more professional than it probably is! (O'Finky) 3/22/14(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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