I'm well aware of where we are in the world in math, reading, and science, but I refuse to lay the blame on left wing despots. I live in one of the most conservative areas of Florida. We also have some of the most conservative teachers in the country. The scores here are no better than most of the country. I can take you to some school systems that are run by left wing zealots and show you schools that are producing some of the top engineers, math, science and technology students in the world. (by the way, I'm far from a left wing zealot) As one who has taught at the university level, I can tell you that there is one thing missing from the education of eighty percent of the students that I had in my classes. The title said more to me than the article, and the post that I replied to was an example of that. THEY COULD NOT THINK! They knew how to party though! (at least they thought so) IMHO the cause of this is politicizing the education process.
We (the Christian Right) are hung up on the basics (rote reading, math, and science) that should be taught in K-2 as the education standard. They (the far left) are hung up on the removal of all Christian belief from education. Here's the facts. If you can't look in your hand and know that you have the correct change (you have to count it to know you have the correct change), you are lost. If you can't sight read, (you have to read every word) you will never complete one of my assignments, let alone keep up with the changing technology. If you want to continuously debate creation or evolution, you will never get anything else done. As long as we say that it is the far left, or the far right that has the best path to education, we will be at the bottom of the list of developed nations. If you want some food for real thought, look at the political leanings of the countries that top the list of scores. You'll find some rather far left leaning countries.
Here's my suggestion. If we want to see a revival in American Education. That requires those of us who are Christian to apply the Godly principles that the scriptures teach us to our schools and workplaces. We must demonstrate that God's way is the best way. In my 50 plus years in the workplace, I met hundreds who claimed to be a Christian, but I can count those who demonstrated that they were , and were respected as such, by those who they worked with, on my fingers. When we leave the workplace, we must also demonstrate that God's way also works in our home. Does your neighbor call you a Christian? Do you participate in the education of your children? When's the last time you showed up at your local school, or volunteered to help at it? Wow! I wonder why people can't tell if they have the correct change by looking at the change in their hand. Are they teaching trig to fourth graders? Can the students in middle school look at a picture or a page of text and tell you what's in it? God expects us to be involved in, not a sideline complainer. Besides, it's your tax dollars that are paying for the education of the student. The children, and young adults won't be assembling gadgets, or flipping burgers. (A short aside. In 1982, I was on a design team that was building a system to repair a complex industrial system using AI and Fuzzy Math. The system was partially implemented in 1998.) Finally, in this ever more complex world, we must be able to demonstrate to the world that God is the most important part of it.
Do you want to improve the world today? Make the Christian the heart of it. Christ may return today, or it may be a million years from now. Are you going to hide you talent in the ground, or are you going to use it to improve the world?
