How about a controversial thread?
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Originally Posted by fltsfshr,Jan 18 2005, 09:19 PM
Dean let me respectfully disagrree. I think there are lots of professors with personal agenda teaching in colleges, protected by tenure and convinced that their opinion and belief is exactly what they should be teaching.
Dean
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Originally Posted by ralper,Jan 18 2005, 08:28 PM
Flts,
You have to teach the difference between right and wrong, and fake and real at the same time as you are teaching your kids about the world. There is no first or second, they are equally important. Ultimately it is the parent, not the cowboy, not the teacher, not the baby sitter who has the obligation to teach their child the difference between right and wrong, real and fake. Liberal parents and conservative parents both, politics has nothing to do with it.
I don't know where you get this notion that it is the liberals who ruined the higher education, or any education. But then, I don't know where you get most of your notions about liberals.
Quite frankly, an awful lot that has gone wrong with our schools in the last few years are the result of conservative policies. This whole "No child left behind" policy has been a disaster. Have you heard of "Everyday Math"?
I think you are very misguided to point a finger at liberals and attempt to blame them for the problems in the public schools. Its not becoming, and you should leave that rhetoric for people like Rush Limbaugh. The problems in the public schools are the results of misguided policies, misguided politics, poorly thought out programs, bad teachers, a lack of parential involvement and many other things that have nothing whatsever to do with whether a person is liberal or conservative. Stupidity exists on both sides of the aisle.
The reason private schools gain students every day is because public schools are not doing their jobs properly. It has nothing to do with liberal or conservative so much as it has to do with the teachers, administrators and parents. I can show you some public school districts right here in the metropolitan New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area that I'd put against any private school you can show me. Some of them are in liberal areas, some in conservative areas, all are in areas where parents want better for their kids. And take the responsibility of parenting seriously.
As far as the movers and shakers coming from the private schools, I've heard that for a long, long time. Some do, some don't, many will come from the public schools.
You have to teach the difference between right and wrong, and fake and real at the same time as you are teaching your kids about the world. There is no first or second, they are equally important. Ultimately it is the parent, not the cowboy, not the teacher, not the baby sitter who has the obligation to teach their child the difference between right and wrong, real and fake. Liberal parents and conservative parents both, politics has nothing to do with it.
I don't know where you get this notion that it is the liberals who ruined the higher education, or any education. But then, I don't know where you get most of your notions about liberals.
Quite frankly, an awful lot that has gone wrong with our schools in the last few years are the result of conservative policies. This whole "No child left behind" policy has been a disaster. Have you heard of "Everyday Math"?
I think you are very misguided to point a finger at liberals and attempt to blame them for the problems in the public schools. Its not becoming, and you should leave that rhetoric for people like Rush Limbaugh. The problems in the public schools are the results of misguided policies, misguided politics, poorly thought out programs, bad teachers, a lack of parential involvement and many other things that have nothing whatsever to do with whether a person is liberal or conservative. Stupidity exists on both sides of the aisle.
The reason private schools gain students every day is because public schools are not doing their jobs properly. It has nothing to do with liberal or conservative so much as it has to do with the teachers, administrators and parents. I can show you some public school districts right here in the metropolitan New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area that I'd put against any private school you can show me. Some of them are in liberal areas, some in conservative areas, all are in areas where parents want better for their kids. And take the responsibility of parenting seriously.
As far as the movers and shakers coming from the private schools, I've heard that for a long, long time. Some do, some don't, many will come from the public schools.
And Rob, it is liberals and policies put in place by teachers unions and educators who believe in passing uneducated children through the system in order to be fair.
That didn't come from the conservatives. It came right smack from the left.
I don't know why we let the NEA exist. It's not there to benefit children, it's there to protect bad teachers. It has a history of lobbying for the left. It has a history of denouncing conservative educators.
Parents need to stop allowing the degredation of education to continue.
Parents should want their children tested, if they can't pass get them help.
fltsfshr
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From: SoCal
Lemme' see here--we'll hire you (if you're liberal), and tenure you (if you think like we do), then you're free to teach what you (we) want! 
Is the state mandated testing created by politicians?
Let's face it, there are PLENTY of problems not related to standardized testing in academia. Do you want to talk about how English is taught (or NOT taught) as a second language here in California? Or how about the enormous financial burden that the children of the "undocumented workers" place on the system? I've got PLENTY of easy answers--problem is, they're not quite politically correct.
Not being politically correct is my New Year's resolution--I don't want to be a thread killer...
Is the state mandated testing created by politicians?
Let's face it, there are PLENTY of problems not related to standardized testing in academia. Do you want to talk about how English is taught (or NOT taught) as a second language here in California? Or how about the enormous financial burden that the children of the "undocumented workers" place on the system? I've got PLENTY of easy answers--problem is, they're not quite politically correct.
Not being politically correct is my New Year's resolution--I don't want to be a thread killer...
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From: Randolph, NJ
Originally Posted by cordycord,Jan 18 2005, 08:30 PM
Sorry Rob, but this thread of yours is threatening the genteel nature of Vintage!
I respectfully disagree. I think this thread is bringing out the best in Vintage. Clearly there are participants involved from every part of the spectrum. There are lots of views, opinions, ideas but mostly we've been able to talk and approach these issues without the noise that oftentimes accompanies these discussions.
Yes, there are a few wisecracks and each of us has gotten a bit huffy once or twice, but after almost 500 posts in about 6 days, I think I'd declare this thread successful.
We all are what we are, and the fact that we all keep coming back to this thread says something pretty nice.
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Originally Posted by cordycord,Jan 18 2005, 09:49 PM
Lemme' see here--we'll hire you (if you're liberal), and tenure you (if you think like we do), then you're free to teach what you (we) want!
).Dean
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From: Randolph, NJ
Originally Posted by fltsfshr,Jan 18 2005, 08:48 PM
Parents need to stop allowing the degredation of education to continue.
Parents must demand excellence of their schools, teachers and children.
Parents should want their children to learn, and if they can't learn they should get them help.
At the end of the day, when all of the teachers have gone home, and the administrators have gone home, and the politicians have gone home, and the critics have gone home, and the philosophers have gone home, that child is my child, and I must take care of him. If not me, who?
That really is the answer.