Thursday 19 February 2015

GOOD EDUCATION? NOT SO MUCH!

"Little of what merits the name of “education” goes on in our schools. Some subjects have been discarded: grammar, for instance, as a coherent and systematic whole. Our approach to education springs from a truncated view of man. It is dully utilitarian in its aims, which it nevertheless fails to meet. It fixes a low ceiling over the mind and heart and soul. It begins by denying God, by whom and for whom we are made, and proceeds to deny the objective existence of beauty and goodness, until at last all that’s left are the shreds of learning, political expediency, and the fads of the day." (Yes! this includes current trends in Catholic schools! Keep reading.) "Our schools are Petri dishes of vice: impiety, lust, spiritual sloth, ambition, and avarice...There’s no reason why parents should send their children to schools that sprinkle holy water upon the mind-deadening and soul-denying education provided in the public schools. If your child is going to be separated from faith and reason, you might as well purchase the ruin on the cheap. But they might well send their children to schools that are wholly different from the public schools. That single descriptor, “classical,” will attract their notice. If our Catholic schools are not classical, it’s high time they considered becoming so, and advertising themselves as such while they embark upon the reforms. Teach grammar as the logic of language, not a grab-bag of arbitrary usages. Read Homer and Virgil. Learn poetry—the most sublime of human arts, now almost vanished from the public schools. Reject Common Core and its useless utilitarianism, root and branch. Return geography to its rightful place in the elementary grades, as a separate subject from history. Return to world history, taught as an intricate whole; not ancient Egypt here and the Civil War there. Return to Latin. Return to reading important works in foreign languages: teach Spanish so that students can read Don Quixote, not just so that they can order tacos in Tijuana. Return to the titans of British and American literature. Make the practice and the truths of the faith permeate all subjects; let it be the air the students breathe. This cannot be, if they use the same dreadful textbooks the public students use. Establish a fund whereby a Catholic family can pledge to buy textbooks for one student in a classical Catholic school every year. If you do not have the teachers who can teach a classical curriculum, begin to find them. I know of plenty. Anthony Esolen, Crisis

Tuesday 17 February 2015

A Governor for Public Prayer and Education Reform!

Governor Jindal Unveiled A K-12 Education Reform Policy Proposal Aimed At Scaling Back The Federal Government's Role In Education And Increasing Parental Choice. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is in Washington Monday to unveil a series of education reforms as part of his 2016 presidential preparations. But his proposals call for scaling back Washington's role in education while promoting increased parental choice for children's schools, better measures to assess teacher performance, and more autonomy for individual schools over their own operations. … "The federal government should absolutely not be offering incentives, mandates, or coercecing states to adopt a national curriculum—whether it's Common Core or the next iteration of it," Jindal said. "We don't think curriculum decisions should be made at the national level. I'm all for rigor, I'm all for standards, but ultimately, I trust parents. I trust choice and competition. I don't want a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach." To that end, Jindal said he favors rolling back the mandates in George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law.

Common Core Creates Chaos!

Why is no one listening to the parents? Now, the teachers are shaking off the brainwashing that they received when Common Core was implemented because they realize that this method of teaching is a travesty meant to crush the free spirits of children, to make them feel stupid and incapable of learning. When seniors in high school can't tell the difference between states and cities, countries and states; when they can't spell ordinary, everyday words; when they can't work simple math problems, someone should get the message out! OBAMACORE is incapacitating kids! Parents, how long will you put up with this detriment to your own children just because it is free? Keep them out of school for a year. Give them a break from the madness. You take a break from the madness. Public school and any other school that has implemented Common Core is killing our children and the future of this country! href=>"http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/02/top-teacher-winner-quits-due-to-common-core/#iyorjHkQiwOBct17.01">