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Thursday, July 17, 2008
Think of the children, dismantle the schools
I did enough (but thankfully not all) of my "schooling" in BC, following government-mandated curricula, to know that public education is at the heart of the whole statist enterprise. Locking up impressionable minds for a decade (a dozen years in NB and ON) of pro-state indoctrination is the most effective means that the government has of preventing Canadians from asking difficult questions or launching effective challenges to the powers-that-be. If I could snap my fingers (or "push the button") and make any government program disappear, it wouldn't be the HRCs, the income tax, drug prohibition, the Bank of Canada, or anything else, it would be public education.
Instead of having the government spend 7% of GDP on education, and forcing the provinces (except Quebec) to implement the convoluted Section 23 provisions, what if we chose competition and diversity instead of monopoly and conformity?
What if we left the resolution of controversial questions about what students should learn about religion, evolution and sex, how to deal with inadequate or batty teachers, and what students can wear up to the real customers of a school, the parents and their children, instead of teachers unions, school boards, courts, and legislators?
In the 1990s, Alberta took the first baby steps towards restructuring the education system, Premier Ralph Klein and education Minister Halvar Johnson cut the budget for the Department of Education, provided for more parental choice, and allowed for the establishment of public Charter schools which could bypass some of the strictures of the local school districts and introduce some diversity in education methods, but much more radical measures must be taken if we ever want to stop undereducating our children.
(HT: Gerry)
Posted by Kalim Kassam on July 17, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Coincidentally, I received this message today from Doris Darvasi of Real Women BC:
The BC government is consulting on early childhood education, such as full-day kindergarten for three and four year old children. I think this is nothing more than child care. We are institutionalizing our kids at an earlier and earlier age. Kids fare best raised at home by their parents; we have enough studies that prove that. Below is the direct link to the government where, on the left, you can click on CONSULTATION RESPONSE FORM. There are five questions they ask. It is simple. The deadline is July 18 TOMORROW. Pass this along to friends.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/ecla/
Posted by: Terry O'Neill | 2008-07-17 4:51:17 PM
Thanks for that link Terry; on Monday we ran an article by Maureen Bader about full-day kindergarden in BC and institutional day-care:
http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/article.php?id=2815
Gotta get 'em young.
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-07-17 5:06:11 PM
Excellent post, Kalim.
We need privately owned, operated and financed schools - but first the social engineers on the left and the right have to abandon their desire to control the public education agenda for their own purposes.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2008-07-17 5:57:07 PM
The marriage between the most powerful unions in the country, and the government, will not be easy to break up. Both have a vested interest in the status quo. For me, I just want to sepration of school and state.
The problem with the average person today, is they have never thought about this much. If they have thought about it at all, they can't imagine it being any different than it is today. Too bad.
Posted by: TM | 2008-07-17 6:27:28 PM
Private school teachers can be idiots. Try not to trade one idiot teacher for another idiot teacher on the basis of religion or type of funding. One may be sadly disappointed either way. One must start with parents and dedicated teachers, not idiot teachers and "all about me" parents. One needs really local community schools, not great national, unwielding complexes. Get on with it and stop blaming the schools.
Posted by: dewp | 2008-07-17 11:50:13 PM
dewp--or is that dupe?
What do you mean by "Get on with it and stop blaming the schools."
I take it that you don't have children?
There's more than enough blame to go around, including know-nothing/ask-nothing parents, but the knee-jerk, statist, lib-left, multicultural (sic), Christian-bashing, history hating school systems across our country are responsible for churning out at least four generations of cookie-cutter lib-left foot soldiers.
If we can't blame the schools, who can we blame? The so-called "education" system in Canada is blameworthy. If you don't diagnose the illness, the patient gets sicker and dies. 'Same with social problems. Refuse to name the problem? Then, no solution.
Posted by: batb | 2008-07-18 7:25:19 AM
dewp, there are idiots everywhere. That is not even close to what the real problem is.
Children are wet cement, and one doctrine or another will be set into them as they go through there formative years. As a parent I believe I have more right to determine what that is than anyone else on the planet. The many hours of schooling kids receive does indoctrinate them into the lib-left foot soldiers, as batb puts it. If you don't like that, or the many other things about school, such as counselling being offered to your 13 year old child that you may not be made aware of, then you have little recourse. Except to pull your child out.
If you do that, you can home school or private school them. But then you meet up with the coercive power of the teachers union, and the government. We home school, and the all knowing and wise government requires that we report in to them, the progress we are making. This subordinating behaviour in educating my child is a good example of what's wrong. The very entity that supposes to know better than I, how to educate my child, is the LAST entity I would want educating my child. The only thing worse is if the entity has coercive power. And that is exactly what we have.
OK, there is one thing even worse than that. Add to the above the fact that if you choose to home or private educate your child, you still pay into the system.
dewp, I have no problem if you like the public system, or if you simply tolerate it. But let me take my money and use it to educate my kids the way I see fit.
By the way, my grade 8 daughter was forced to watch An Inconvenient Truth in Social Studies. Nice eh? Al Gore is so honest and charitable that he didn't make any money of his talks and video sales. Wait a minute, hid did. Oh well, I can trust the system. They have no egenda I'm sure.
Posted by: TM | 2008-07-18 10:23:25 AM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uexMYBkfCic&feature=related
And we wonder why kids are the way they are….
Posted by: JC | 2008-07-19 5:55:19 PM
Our daughter was also forced to watch "An Inconvenient Pack of Lies" We've let her know that the truth is something very different and gave her questions to challenge her teacher's with.
Posted by: JC | 2008-07-19 5:56:49 PM
I answered tha questionnaire suggested by Terry O'Niell at:
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/ecla/
Here's how it went.
(You should give it a go too. :)
Part One
Given the importance of the early childhood years and the clear trends to increase and improve programs in other jurisdictions, the Early Childhood Learning Agency invites your response to the following questions.
1. What are your thoughts on full school day kindergarten for five-year-olds?
The parents of children aged 5 and even older should be responsible for the daily care of their own children. The state has no business in this area at all.
2. What about parent choice for full-school-day pre-kindergarten programs for four-year olds?
Unnecessary and none of the state's business either.
3. What about parent choice for full-school-day pre-kindergarten programs for three-year olds?
Why don't you just start taking the children from their mothers at birth?
4. What do you think are the most important factors to consider in expanding early learning programs in British Columbia?
That parents, not teachers are the natural educators of their own children. If the school system wasn't carrying such an obvious agenda to indoctrinate kids...the system might actually work. Until that changes the school system is just a platform for Communism and indoctrination.
Posted by: JC | 2008-07-19 7:31:40 PM
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