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Reblogged from Voting American.
They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are “Baby Boomers” getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time.
We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were. We have worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and grown old together. (continued here)
The generation that proceeded mine still lives on, and it is hugely deserving of our respect. Yet even that generation made mistakes and sinned. So The Grey-Haired Brigade includes these lines.
It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress. You fell for the “Hope and Change” which in reality was nothing but “Hype and Lies.” You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don’t like it after all. You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or “Climbing the Social Ladder” to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting. Many of those who fell for the “Great Lie” in 2008 are now having buyer’s remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the ‘Kool-Aid.’
Too many entrusted politicians with the education of their children. They put their precious children on a bus and let people they did not choose fill their children’s heads with whatever the politicians of that day thought appropriate. Then they expected their children as adults to be prepared to see through the lies of politicians? Why would they expect such a thing? How long have the politicians been telling us lies? How many do even the Grey-Haired Brigades still believe?
If parents want their children taught properly, then they cannot pass that responsibility onto government officials. They have to do what the people who founded this country did. They have to see the education of their children as a matter of paramount importance, not a matter to be entrusted to “experts” picked by people they do not know.
Proverbs 22:6 Good News Translation (GNT)
Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their life.
Ephesians 6:4 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.
Because we have been letting the wrong people teach our children, we are losing the Culture War. We are losing our children, and we have only ourselves to blame.
Dismantling the Department of Education is pretty extreme.
As extreme as it may sound it needs to be done!
Because. . . ?
Thank you for re-posting this Tom and thank you also for those words of Wisdom we all so desperately need to hear.
wdednh and samiam60 – Thanks for your comments. It is good to have such great allies.
joesix – The Department of Education is unconstitutional. However, the Department of Education is not extreme. It is quite normal for Congress to authorize the Executive Branch to spend our tax dollars unconstitutionally. Yes it is normal for our elected officials to violate their oath of office and for us to let them get away with it. That is the norm; there is nothing at all extreme about it.
Currently, we have school boards, local governments, state governments, and the Federal Government all trying to manage our schools at the same time. When our Federal officials have to violate their oath of office to in order to interfere with the public school system, how much value do you think there are likely to add? Can you really point to any accomplishments that justify the billions we have spent. Besides more administrative overhead and broken oaths, what is the value added? Besides printing money and inflating our currency, what can the Federal Government do that state and local governments cannot do just as well?
The Department of Education is unconstitutional in the sense that it’s not mentioned in the Constitution? The same could be said for Medicare, Social Security, and the Department of Defense. I can’t point to any major accomplishments of the public school system, because we haven’t spent enough on it. Public schools are in dire need of federal funding, and the billions that you claim have been wasted are still just a fraction of what we spend on defense. Of course, it’s also good to know that there’s a government agency out there making sure kids aren’t learning that intelligent design is just as credible a theory as evolution and the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
Joesix – Would you like to volunteer to serve as an example of the quality of our educaton system? Well, you have.
Let’s see what you got wrong in that little paragraph.
1. You have not read the Constitution and understood it. If the Constitution does not authorize our government to do something, it is not suppose to do it. That has to do with the way we protect ourselves from the abuses of government power. As individuals, so long as we do not violate someone else’s rights or break a law, we can do whatever we wish. Government, on the other hand, has to have constitutional authorization to act. Therefore, you are partly correct. Because the Constitution does not mention anything like either Medicare or Social Security, those programs do not have Constitutional authorization, but the Constitution is quite specific about national defense. See for yourself. http://www.house.gov/house/Constitution/Constitution.html
2. You are obviously ignorant of how our government spends our money. Check out http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/.
We spend a bit more on Education than we do on national defense. The problem is that socialism does not work. If you had been properly educated, you would not expect our socialist education system to work well.
3.
Had you been educated properly, you would abhor the very idea of using government power to promote your own religious beliefs. You would applaud the fact the Constitution specifically prohibits using Federal powers to establish a religion. As it is, you think you have the right to use government powers to educate the children of others as you see fit.
You now seem to be advocating for the dissolution of Medicare and Social Security, which even Tea Partiers have to admit is a pretty extreme measure. Nevertheless, you do provide an excellent case for the legalization of gay marriage, marijuana, and prostitution since none of those are explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.
Go to that link you just sent me, click on “Federal,” and see for yourself just how much the federal government spends on defense compared to education. You seem a bit ignorant to the fact that the US is ranked far lower than other countries that invest far more in education than we do. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/education/10educ.html
Countries like Finland, Poland, and South Korea are excelling in education and improving economically without fear of being labeled “socialists” by old men wearing tea bags on their hats.
Evolution and the big bang aren’t religious ideas, they’re scientific facts. Let’s keep science in school and religion in church.
You’re partly correct in your implication that government can’t be the only source of education. Here in South Korea, almost every student is sent to a Math, English, or Chinese private school that they attend after their regular school day, regardless of whether they can afford it or not. I’d love to argue with you some more, but I have a class to teach.
joesix – You have a class to teach?
I have to wonder how serious you are. Are you joking, creating a phony web persona just to needle strangers? Do you believe that nonsense? Are you really teaching others? I suppose you could be real. The fact we elected Obama speaks for itself.
Anyway, our differences in opinion should suggest something to you. Would you want me running the schools where, assuming you have any, you have your arm twisted to send your children? No? Yet you are perfectly willing to sacrifice your own rights in the future to get what you want now.
For what it is worth, I have a post I intend to publish Monday. The stuff you wrote should provide a few good illustrations.
Don’t get your adult diapers in a bunch, Tom. I assure you, I am a real teacher at a real private school in South Korea. I also taught at a real public school in Bulgaria for two years as a real Peace Corps volunteer.
If your views on this post are any indication of the kind of person you are, I definitely wouldn’t want you running a school cafeteria, let alone a school itself. School administration should be apolitical, with the focus being on teaching children precise facts and critical thinking skills in an engaging manner. The US education system has its share of flaws, particularly in the overuse of tests and teaching around those tests. However, we are starting to make great strides by following other countries’ examples by promoting project-based learning and focusing on smaller class sizes.
Would you want teachers to berate their students for disrespecting the president? No? Yet you are perfectly willing to give local school districts the freedom to teach whatever they want however they want on a comically restrictive budget. Nevertheless, your implied respect for personal liberty does provide an excellent case for the legalization of gay marriage, marijuana, and prostitution.
Joesix — Thank you for the resume.
Relatively few sources on the Internet can be trusted. Consider your own example, an anonymous commenter on a blog. Since it cannot be easily validated, what you say about yourself must be viewed skeptically. When there is almost nothing to gain from it, I do not know why an anonymous commenter would puff himself up, but it seems that some do.
While I don’t understand your skepticism, I can certainly appreciate it. Abraham Lincoln said it best when he opined, “The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine.”