Stossel launches potent strike for Education Revolution
By Nancy Salvato (01/14/06)
We are in the middle of a culture war. It is being fought like a civil war within our country between those trying to preserve the integrity of our system of government and those who see the US Constitution as a living document which can be altered and shaped to reflect the ideals of a global society. This confrontation is also being waged against Islamofascism; the radical Islamic ideology that Islam must rule the world (Wahhabism). On that front people are sacrificing their own lives to preserve our way of life.
This war is against time and time is running out. Although committed to fighting in this conflict, there are days I would love nothing more than to finish that cross stitch sampler on the sofa in front of a lit fire, curl up with a good book, work out at the gym or take a wine tasting class. However, there is no time. Any person with a solid education, a healthy respect for individualism, and a stake in the system has the duty to take up arms. In the “New Media”, our weapons are the words we write trying to wake up the sleeping giant; those around us more concerned with the divorce of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston, IPOD rebroadcasts of “Desperate Housewives”, and the trials and tribulations of homosexual cowboys in “Brokeback Mountain”. These are amusing but in the scheme of things shouldn’t take precedence.
Those on the front lines in this “war of words” realize that individual skirmishes can only have a small impact on the larger conflict occurring around us. Opinion editorials need to have larger reach. The message must have greater impact. To that end, some writers have narrowed their focus in the war, toiling to educate their audience over and over on one subject; terrorism and ongoing developments like the breach of security implications resulting from publishing FISA practices in the New York Times. Others are engaged in more domestic debate to bring to light the significance of judicial activism in decisions such as Kelo VS New London; legislation such as Maryland’s (communist) “Fair Share Health Care” bill, which unfairly targets (Walmart) successful business practices; and education travesties benefiting the substandard public education monopoly, such as the decision to declare illegal the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program. John Stossel recently launched a potent strike in the culture war, when he exposed the problems plaguing our agenda driven NEA approved public education system on prime time television.
As most people are aware, there is a huge problem with education in our country and it encompasses more than just low test scores, though that is all the NEA would like you to believe it is about. While many problems in our system could be solved if students just learned how to read, that in it self is not going to teach civic responsibility or provide them with the necessary tools to become stewards of the U.S. Constitution.
Nothing less than a thorough understanding of the philosophical influence, events leading up to, and the framers thinking regarding the U.S. Constitution, is necessary to counter the agenda driven NEA approved curriculum in our schools. Unfortunately, some on the front lines are receiving friendly fire on this issue. The point of contention is mainly over federal funding of the Center for Civic Education’s programs which teach about the U.S. Constitution and civic participation. There are well funded, purist ideologues who are so tunnel visioned on this issue that they are willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Though it has been written about before, this bears repeating. School districts teach about what will be tested. A comprehensive understanding of our system of government is not part of the AYP tested goals required by NCLB funding. Furthermore, in this era of budget cuts, no school is going to pay for a program which is considered superfluous in the agenda driven NEA approved curriculum. Nevertheless, teachers in individual school districts might consider incorporating a program which doesn’t cost anything to use and in which they receive subject training at no additional charge. Remember, teacher quality requires subject knowledge. Those who have approved funding for the Center for Civic Education understand that is in our country’s best interests to educate the public in our system of government if we value our way of life.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, spoken in 1787, "Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
Copyright © Nancy Salvato 2006
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