Thoughts on our public schools

I was listening to Glenn Beck this morning. He made a comparison that I hadn't really thought about. Lately John Kerry has been shouting that the choice to "take the healthcare plan" he will institute is yours. You don't have to take it. But, even if you don't take it you will still be paying for it.

Glenn then compared that to the fact that so many people are choosing private schools or home schooling options for their children and the fact that these same people are paying for schools they don't use.

Good comparison. Makes you think.

Your children are in the care of a school for up to 8 hours a day. What are they learning? I've posted on this before. My blogger friend, Meritt, has also voiced her opinions:

So this is on my mind and gosh darnit I'm going to post it.

School is for teaching. Math, reading, social sciences, etc. I have concerns about our government overstepping their boundaries... coming into our families through school, the medical field, etc. (OK, I could really get into this but I need to stay off that soap box). My soap box is the fact that I happen to think social services suck. And to put a social service person into each school upsets me. They cause more harm than good.

where am I going with this?

My son, who is 12 and in 6th grade came home with a paper about 'feeling anxiety'. I read the questions. "I feel anxiety when I have to make a big decision" choose 'low' 'medium' 'high' (how much you agree with the statement). On to others similar.

Then... "Asking someone out on a date" "Telling someone I like them" "Being offered drugs" "Being offered hard liquor"

My son doesn't even like girls yet! He likes girls who play football. He likes girls who can belch the alphabet. He does not ask girls for dates. He hasn't told a girl he 'likes her'. He doesn't even know what hard liquor is!!!! He told me: "Yeah, I was a little confused on that one. I figured they meant it was frozen."

UGH.

Teach my kids math.

Teach them to read.

Teach them Language Arts and Music... but stay the hell out of our private life.

And then there are the multiple incidents of schools showing Farenheit 9/11 to students without parental consent. That's a rated R "documentary", people. No matter which way you lean politically does a teacher have the right to show anything rated R to your child?

So, what began this rant? The NEA (National Education Association) has given nearly $2 million worth of teacher's dues to fund attack ads on President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind.

The people we are trusting with our children are attacking a program that makes schools responsible for what they teach and what our children learn. If a school doesn't "measure up" under NCLB steps are taken to make changes that are necessary for the school to better teach our children. What's wrong with that?

Another point: "They're (the NEA)a union and their agenda is supposed to be to help teachers, and it's supposed to be to help education. But it's estimated that about 75 percent of the money the NEA collects is used for politics." Full Article