Posted by
Billy on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:01:00 PM
Public school reformers are like a fellow who scoops a bucket of water from one end of a swimming pool, carries it to the other end, dumps it back in, and then repeats the sequence endlessly, convinced he is making the latter end deeper. In the meantime, his labor causes the cost of the water to skyrocket as it becomes progressively (no pun intended) more contaminated.
(The above is part of a column written by
John Rosemond. Read more of the column below.)
Since the 1960s, reformers have succeeded at bringing about significant reductions in both class size and the student/teacher ratio. Their efforts have coincided with dramatic declines in student achievement. Yet, oblivious to facts, they continue to carry water from one end of the pool to the other.
The reason 1950s kids could be successfully taught in overcrowded classrooms (I’ve met women who in that decade taught as many as 95 first graders, by themselves, and with relatively few problems) is because they had been and were being properly disciplined in the home. They were not the center of parental attention in their homes; rather, they were expected to pay attention to their parents. They were not the object of great doing on their parents’ parts; rather, they were expected to do, to carry their share of the weight (Does anyone remember when children had chores and were expected to find their own entertainment after school?) They were expected to do at school what they had been trained to do at home—pay attention and do what they were told. (Did I mention that these kids were also expected to do their own homework, without their mothers’ help?) This training obviously paid off. The good news is that this same training will pay the same dividends today.
(I agree with Dr. Rosemond that parents should be in charge of the kids and that things have changed since the 1950's. He is right a lot of today's parents don't discipline their kids. However some of the blame should be placed on the government schools (public schools) for not backing up the faith and values of the parents. Once the same message was preached in the school house, the church house, and at home not today. Kids are told today in the schools if they have to have sex do it in a so called safe way. No wonder we have teens suffering from sexual illnesses. This could be a reason why so many parents are pulling their children out of the governments. Read more of Rosemond's column by clicking
right here.)
