Post by manfromnormal on Sept 3, 2017 15:50:08 GMT -4
To educate or reeducate, which is the mission of American Public Education (APE)?
I retired from public school teaching at the high school level in February 2016 when I reached the age of 62. I taught 23 years in two public high schools near Washington, D. C.
As my years as a teacher increased, so did my dissatisfaction with American Public Education. I always loved the kids, but my relationship with the educrats deteriorated. Even though I taught as a substitute in elementary schools and middle schools, all my full-time teaching experience involved high school students and high school educrats.
One of my major objections to APE is that while we spend more money than most nations on APE, we are not competitive with other nations. When I first began teaching, America ranked in the teens when compared with other countries in the areas of math, science and language. Now our ranking has slipped out of the teens into the twenties when compared with the top nations. Former President Obama said we face another “Sputnik moment” if we do not reverse the negative trend. When I raise this issue with other educators, they either shrug their shoulders or tell me to let the politicians worry about that.
Teacher Unions and School Superintendents call every year for more money. The amount of money we spend on schools is right at the top compared with other nations. If we spend big bucks on APE, don’t we have the right to expect top results from APE?
Another problem I have with education is the social advocacy of APE. In the second half of my career, it seemed like we were focused more on social engineering than teaching. As illegal immigrants spilled into our schools, gang activity, tuberculosis and cultural awareness eclipsed things like reading, writing and arithmetic. Closing the achievement gap between races became an excuse to dumb down the curriculum. As the courts dictated new definitions of marriage, teachers and counselors and administrators had to deal with the fallout.
I object to the political advocacy of the APE. Most teachers are Democrats. Teachers Unions favor Democrat candidates over Republican candidates. Democrat policies are promoted as mainstream and Republican notions are ignored or ridiculed as extermist. Today’s Democrat party subliminally promotes socialism and globalism. Nationalism and patriotism are dismissed as nativism or racism.
When students voice ideas contrary to progressive dogma, they are labelled in the faculty lounges as hicks, red-necks or racists. In a country where freedom of speech is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, students with dissenting views are mocked and vilified.
When I began to teach, I thought that educating our young to be independent thinkers was our mission. The real mission of APE seems to be leading students to become narrow-minded leftists.