Kids today don’t know much about communism. They don’t know about the Soviet Union’s system of government in which just about every aspect of daily life was controlled by the central government; where inefficiency and failure reigned supreme; where compliance was enforced by the strong arm of government; where information was tightly controlled by the rulers and false propaganda was regularly employed to fool the people into believing the system was really working.
You know, like our public schools today.
Like communism, today’s Jurassic public school system is destined for extinction. It’s inevitable. The only question is how many more of our kids have to get screwed out of a high-quality education before the system finally, mercifully collapses.
Today’s school bureaucrats and union bosses are like the old Soviet apparatchiks, blowing Suzy Sunshine up our skirts. They stand in the middle of a barren desert telling the people what a bountiful harvest there will be this year. They’ve embraced, if not perfected, the practice of telling a lie often enough that parents believe it. You know, like, “Education is improving.”
And just like many Soviet citizens back then, too many American parents today are in denial. It’s not “their” public school that stinks; it’s those “inner city” schools, they talk themselves into believing.
Well, um, yeah. But in today’s worldwide economy, suburban kids aren’t competing just against kids in Harlem and Watts. They’re competing against kids in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong. And they’re getting their butts kicked.
But fear not. Help is on the way. Internet technology is quickly filling the gap between the home-schooling and expensive private schooling alternatives to the government-controlled system. Students learn online, while still having access to assistance from a teacher. Parents have an increased responsibility for their kid’s education, but not the entire responsibility, as with home-schooling. They are more tutor than teacher.
Starting this month, Nevada parents finally have such an option available to them. The Nevada Connections Academy (www.connectionsacademy.com) has been approved as a virtual charter school for grades 4-11. The online program includes a first-class curriculum, high-quality teaching and state-of-the-art technology (every student gets a free computer). The program provides personalized instruction in which kids work at their own pace, not the pace of the collective - er, classroom - yet still meets state standards (not that that’s much of a hurdle these days).
As a charter school, NCA is “free” to parents; which is to say it’s taxpayer subsidized. Still, as a charter school NCA is not subjected to the same level of bureaucratic micro-management as the typical government-run education camps. And as long as they can keep the teachers union out of their hair, NCA will be able to obtain and retain high-quality teachers.
The Nevada Connections Academy is a huge step in the right direction, and such virtual schools may be our best hope for competing against the world in the future. They will eventually help bust the current public school monopoly over education, and not a moment too soon. That is, if we can keep the unions and bureaucrats from killing them in their cribs, Soviet-style.
Posted on September 4th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
I like the story..just think the hyperbole is a bit much. I assume you mean to say that if the teachers and administrtors were not allowed to join any union, that education in america would then and only then reach an acceptable grade?
At the end of the day I would agree that in Nevada the teachers/admin union have negatives that negatively impact how education is provided, I don’t see how parents, er, breeders, not being involved in their children’s lives isn’t the biggest obstacle to passing grades (and not on the curve or ratchetted up for a millenuim scholarship).
I agree that the parents are the major factor in their children’s success or failure in school. However, involvement in their children’s lives is the second contribution parents make to their children. The first contribution they make is their gene pool. What propensity for success or failure did the child inherit from his/her parents? If a kid has intelligent parents, he/she will probably be smart too. If he/she has stupid parents, he/she will probably be stupid too. I know this will offend some people, but there are a lot of kids in our schools who will never be able to be doctors, engineers, computer programmers, etc., simply because they don’t have the aptitude for those professions. So why does our school system try to force these square pegs into round holes? It’s no different than athleticism. I can train at the track every day for eight hours, but I’ll never be a world class sprinter. I simply wasn’t born with the physical tools for it.
One of the problems with our education system is that teachers and counselors tend to take a “one size fits all” approach. They think that every child should go thru high school taking college prep courses, then go to college. A lot of teachers and counselors don’t view trade school as a worthwhile option, even though that might be the best path to success for a lot of kids. God forbid that a high school senior might actually consider going into the military.