We Don't Give a Damn About Education

Most Americans don't really give a damn about the education of their children. If they did they wouldn't tolerate the dumbing down of the public schools. They wouldn't tolerate the closing of neighborhood schools in the urban areas and the underfunding of the impoverished school districts. They wouldn't tolerate true education being sacrificed by insane achievement testing that only measures the obvious....the richer the school district the better the education. In truth, the testing requirements are a ploy to destroy teacher unions and privatize schools with lower wage and benefit packages. The truly insane part of the testing in Colorado is extra reward funding goes to the schools with the higher test scores. In other words the richer schools get extra money while the poorer districts already struggling don't get the needed help to educate their children in modern school buildings with the needed equipment and materials to keep pace.
But we must also condemn the way most educators educate. Every child, every human is unique in the way they learn. Some learn through the imposed verbal presentation of material most public and private schools use as their primary form or education. But many children learn from experiential ways of learning. They learn by doing things themselves. So how does this translate to writing a paper or doing math? Educators need to figure it out.
The truth about American education is it's about regimentation and being non-questioning of authority. It's about conformity. I vividly remember starting every day pledging my allegiance to the flag. I remember being punished as a very young student for "doodling" while a teacher droned on about a subject I couldn't find interest in learning about. My sons were exposed to the same conditions. One son during his first grade was punished for rocking his chair and figdeting. I asked the teacher when she called me if she'd ever studied the growth and development of children at the first grade age. Young boys and girls want to be active. Asking them to sit through hour after hour of classes is confining and numbing.
Asking children to take test after test that measure only rote memorization is a sham. Where are the tests that measure abstract thinking? Where are tests that measure creativity. Art and music have been phased out in many districts as being irrelevant. Is it testing that takes their places?
The truth about the educational system seldom comes up in discussion. We pay starting teachers less than cost of living salaries and think they'll somehow be motivated to become great teachers. We pay experienced teachers less than they can make in other fields. And yet we claim we care about education of our children.
The truth about the evangelical, Tea Party, right wing politicians is they want to impose their agenda on all children. They want their values, and only their values taught to children from kindergarten to graduation. Education to them is indocrination to their system of oligarchy where children are the future wage slaves to their economic model of the rich getting richer and the rest of the population staying under control and fearful of resisting and rebelling.