EXODUS MANDATE-WV
2008
Articles, Letters and Op-Eds Urging Folks to Rescue Their Children (Plus some miscellaneous articles of interest to truth and enlightenment seekers.)
Notes:
1. Typos are fixed when found.
2. Some hyper-links were added on this page after article were published.
3. Be sure to see the reports of West Virginia public school test performance look for "Report of West Virginia public school test performance" on individual WV News pages (not all pages have the data).
January 27, 2008 Sunday Gazette-Mail (Charleston)
When teacher groups unite, look out
The last time the American Federation of Teachers and the West Virginia Education Association played footsie, they were going against a poll of their own members that supported criticism of evolution. The time before that they combined for a statewide teacher strike. Previous history of WVEA and AFT collusion is foreboding for West Virginia citizens.
Now, a perfect storm is stirring on the educational front. The ingredients are teachers angry over pay, an entrenched left-wing agenda, lack of moral standards (the Nitro book issue for example), low student performance and a dangerous environment.
Teacher quality probably is distributed on a bell curve.
Some teachers are wonderful and deserve a six-figure salary. On the other end of the scale are teachers who should receive a little above minimum wage. Some of those should not be in the profession and rely upon teacher union protection.
Good teachers punish themselves by being in unions that lock them into a non-performance pay system. If the talented teachers ever start entrepreneurial schools, the public schools will face the results of competition.
Sadly, teachers remain in teacher unions that promote a left-wing agenda that most teachers deplore. The excuses of "insurance" and "grievance representation" are not valid. There are other options. If anyone should have felt threatened by administrative reprisal, it would have been me. I had no need of the WVEA/AFT for the last several years of my career.
On State of the State night, teachers chanted (one with a bullhorn) for more pay. I agree with the AFT/WVEA that West Virginia faces a crisis. However, the crisis is not due to the level of teacher pay.
For the second year in a row, Gov. Manchin called for tougher anti-bullying rules. I taught for 35 years and we never had to designate a special anti-bullying category. The ever-present bullies were regulated by general school rules. The difference now is that "anti-bullying" is really code for "homosexual agenda."
I personally witnessed state government stealth tactics to implement a pro-homosexual program in Kanawha County Schools. That agenda is fully supported by teacher unions. If Gov. Manchin does not have a hidden agenda, his remarks should still cause concern for parents.
In the governor's own words: "I am determined to... give our teachers every possible tool they need to take back their classrooms." That means that children are in serious danger of physical or verbal attack. From my experience in the public schools, he is right.
Parents cannot be assured that their children will have excellent teachers in every classroom. As long as parents submit to state controlled education slavery, they cannot avoid a proselytizing teacher, or even a pedophile, at the front of their child's classroom. The only safe shelter is in the home.
A homeschooling pioneer, John Holt, got it right in the early 1970s. At that time many homeschoolers were closer to hippie than holy. Holt declared that public schools try fashionable innovations to get the federal government money attached. As a former schoolteacher, he finally concluded that it was impossible to reform public schools.
Ranging from the 1955 "Why Johnny Can't Read" to the 2002 "Let My Children Go," there have been several books (many by former educators) warning parents of the storm gathering around their children. Fortunately, parents have the ability to get their children out of that storm.
Teaching is not a mystical art. Good teachers overcome college courses in education and learn how to teach by teaching. If you are smart enough to remodel your home, work on your vehicle or cook family meals, you can successfully homeschool. During a public school day, a very small percentage of the time is spent in teaching activities. Think about it or go observe for a day. (While you are there, ask the principal for a printout of the school discipline referrals.) If a child is ill or injured, homebound tutors are provided. They certainly do not visit the home daily for seven hours.
Socialization in public schools is often detrimental to the values parents instill at home. Many young mothers discover their children learn to be disobedient while at school. Contrary to what is commonly thought, socialization should actually be a major reason to homeschool.
Folks who are already enjoying homeschooling have figured out how to overcome any obstacle holding back parents who are hesitant to find educational freedom for their children
If a siren were warning of an approaching storm, parents would do anything to assure the safety of their precious children. The siren has already sounded for the educational storm. In fact (figuratively speaking), the blowing debris is already irling around and hitting their children.
Parents should seek shelter away from the public school storm.
Priest, of Poca, is a retired teacher and state coordinator of Exodus Mandate-West Virginia, a group that promotes Christian education and homeschooling.
http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200801260218
The following paragraph was sent in time, but not included:
State School Superintendent Steve Paine has admitted our public school students are “not well prepared to compete for jobs”. I guarantee that the proposed solutions will involve lots of propaganda and money. Five years from now the news stories will be the same.
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February 26, 2008 Daily Mail (Charleston)
Karl Priest: Teachers unions are the big problem
They result in a poor curriculum and lower salaries
TEACHERS are in a never-ending Groundhog's Day situation when they rely on the same old union strong-arm tactics to get a few extra crumbs from the Legislature.
The citizens of West Virginia have always honored teachers and willingly allowed their elected representatives to pay teachers the maximum the state can afford. But reality is that it is impossible for all teachers to be paid $70,000 if most West Virginians only make about $35,000.
One education policy analyst, Dr. Vicki Murray, pointed out that "Since 1983, when 'A Nation at Risk' concluded that 'the professional working life of teachers is on the whole unacceptable,' little has changed." Murray blamed it largely on teachers unions.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs believes that teachers unions are what is wrong with public schools. He feels no amount of technology in the classroom can overcome the effects of teachers unions protecting bad teachers.
I spent over 20 years as a member of teachers unions - mostly the West Virginia Education Association. During the infamous statewide teacher strike, I was an ardent picket captain. I finally came to my senses, and now strongly believe there is no hope for education as long as teachers unions maintain power. I left the union for the last 10 or so years of my career and proved the teachers union is an unnecessary entity. Now I strongly believe the teachers unions are contributing to the ruination of America.
Christian and/or conservative teachers should abandon teachers unions without delay. They should act as a matter of ethics, but will give themselves an immediate salary increase by eliminating the hefty dues (over $400) paid to the unions.
Most teachers are motivated by their love of helping kids, but there is nothing wrong with teachers wanting some of the things normally associated with other professionals. Besides the limitations of taxpayer money, the shackles attached by the teacher unions are the reasons teachers have difficulty being paid like professionals. The condition of the teaching profession will never change unless teachers break free from the unions.
I taught with some wonderful educators who were woefully underpaid, but there were too many amongst us who were a pox on the profession. All of those teachers were paid the same, based upon a non-performance formula fervently protected by the unions.
The natural progression - and great desire of the WVEA and AFT - is collective bargaining, which will lead to union-pressured labor contracts that will bust even a gambling-enriched state budget.
Teachers unions promote abortion choice, but will not tolerate teachers having choices that would allow the cream to rise to the top. A former Michigan Teacher of the Year was censured by her state affiliate of the NEA for advocating pay based upon performance.
A New York teachers union was ready to give John Stossel an award before his revealing series "Stupid in America" revealed union shenanigans. I urge everyone to read Stossel's hilarious comments about the teachers union's reaction to his expose.
Teachers unions want to restrict parental choice also. A union leader made the outrageous statement that parents should not be allowed to teach their children at taxpayer expense. In other words, the teachers unions want to reach into the taxpayer's pockets for money the unions can use as their own.
Unions have filled lawsuits to stop online learning programs.
If parents get serious about removing their children from government schools, the teachers unions will undoubtedly try to stop them.
There is no one method of education that is best for all children. Parents and teachers must be free to choose. Educational choice for teachers and parents would allow competition for teacher salary and benefits. Attractive career choices would get the attention of the best and brightest future teachers. If teachers ever use a free market, then we will finally see the good ones paid what they deserve.
Teachers should also abandon the unions because of the left-wing agendas the unions promote. Most teachers I know would not donate a dime toward some of the causes their union dues promote. The local union affiliates have consistently worked to support obscenity and evolutionism in instructional materials.
The AFT is against stating that marriage is between one man and one woman, and they are pressuring the Boy Scouts to compromise their values regarding homosexuality, which aligns the AFT with groups that want to ban Boy Scout use of school facilities.
The NEA has to tread lightly regarding how aggressive they get in promoting left-wing causes because of potential member revolt. The NEA had to remove some content on its Remember September 11th Web site.
It is time for teachers to break free from the teachers union-controlled public schools.
Teachers of retirement age have wonderful opportunities to apply their previously stifled skills. They can volunteer to tutor home-school students, teach in a Christian school, or open up their own for-profit educational business and run things the way they proclaimed they should be run.
Teachers remaining in the system may survive under union bondage, but they can thrive in the promised land of non-union freedom.
Priest, of Poca, is a retired teacher and state coordinator of Exodus Mandate-West Virginia, a group that promotes Christian education and home schooling.
http://www.dailymail.com/Opinion/Commentary/200802260180
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March 26, 2008 Gazette (Charleston)
A money-proof problem: Future depends on education, not public schools
"This failure to prepare the next generation for tomorrow's challenges threatens our nation's economic and civic health." Those are not the words of a fundamentalist conservative. They come from none other than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to a liberal icon Web site (oprah.com), the Gates Foundation is "trying to revolutionize an education system that, if it were a business would be bankrupt."
With their billions of dollars as leverage, Bill and Melinda Gates have united with billionaire Warren Buffett to try to fix what their foundation calls "the crisis in American schools."
Melinda Gates admitted they were initially naive and soon found that "the system" was "pulling down" what their foundation was doing.
The Gates Foundation maintains that the public school system is outdated and must be dramatically revamped.
Their focus is on offering parents more choices within the public school system.
Their goal is for more and smaller schools that would foster competition and, they predict, produce quality schools.
Another innovator, with much less money, is the founder of the Rock the Vote campaign, Democrat Steve Barr, who runs the Green Dot group of charter schools that has produced impressive results with inner-city Los Angeles students. Barr does not mince words as he clashes with the education establishment that opposes the Green Dot movement to salvage students. Jaime Regalado, who directs an Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, says that Barr has "channeled the outrage of African-American and Latino parents into the public space in a way that's new."
On the liberal political front, the Democrats for Education Reform group is joining the chorus. At one of their events, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (who attended an exclusive Episcopal school as a child) spoke about his concern about a "monopoly" filled with failing schools. Jackson called for increased competition.
Those liberals are partially right in their plans to salvage an obviously obsolete public school monolith.
The Gates and Buffett billions will not solve the problem. In 1978, public school funding was $824 million. By 1988, it had risen to $1.1 billion. In 2006, it had jumped to an astronomical $4.4 billion!
http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200803250148
(My headline was "Even Liberals See the Light")
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NOTE: See the news entry for January 10, 2013.
April 21, 2008 Herald-Dispatch (Huntington)
Yoga should be left out of schools
It's fine to have religious indoctrination in public schools as long as it is not Christianity. Tax money is being used to promote religion, and the hypocritical ACLU is mute.
Kanawha County students are being indoctrinated in yoga, which is New Age/Eastern mysticism. The argument that yoga is used only for "relaxation, exercise, and self-confidence" is bogus.
Yoga masters themselves have acknowledged that it is impossible to separate yoga from its religious foundation.
Mike Shreve (former yoga teacher at four universities) says, "The whole purpose of practicing yoga, in any of its aspects, is to bring a person to an altered state of consciousness."
Students lie on the floor of a darkened room, seeking a higher state of consciousness while their academic levels reach lower and lower levels.
At least they feel good about those low test scores.
Karl Priest
Poca , W.Va.
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/archive/x720502145?r=s
For more about yoga see “The Common Thread” (especially the Addendum) and the comments under “Religious People at “What Bugs Me”.
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April 12, 2008 EdNews on the Web
(No paper in WV would run this one.)
RELIGION ESTABLISHED IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Did you hear that Kanawha County (West Virginia) elementary school children are given time for prayer so that they can get closer to the Judeo-Christian God? Also, did you hear that their school spent five grand to hire a Bible teacher who will give all of the kids a "Jesus Gives Peace" T-shirt?
"No," you say. "That is bringing religion into the schools!"
Well, it's fine to have religious indoctrination in public schools, but not the type described above.
Kanawha County students are actually being indoctrinated in yoga which is New Age/Eastern mysticism central to Eastern religions, particularly Hinduism.
The argument that Yoga is used only for "relaxation, exercise, and self-confidence" is bogus. If that argument is accepted then KanawhaCounty should allow Creation Science to be taught as long as it's for scientific purposes (no Bible or God references) and because Creation Science broadens the horizons and increases the cognitive processes of students.
Although there is no such thing--would the school system allow so-called "Christian Yoga" to be used?
Yoga masters themselves have acknowledged that it is impossible to separate yoga from its religious foundation.
South African yogi, Maha Sabha, admits that "It is an indisputable fact that yoga has its origins in Hinduism."
All of the positions and breathing exercises are based upon the goal of connecting with Brahma, the main god of Hinduism.
Mike Shreve (former yoga teacher at four universities, student of an Indian guru, and operator of a yoga hermitage) says "The whole purpose of practicing yoga, in any of its aspects, is to bring a person to an altered state of consciousness."
The higher consciousness sought by knowledgeable yoga practitioners is claimed to be a "higher level of evolutionary development". When I was a Kanawha County teacher I attended a week-long teacher training session that clearly revealed this agenda.
In 1998 Educational Leadership, ran an article that praised a teacher training program that brought the "fundamentals of Buddhist practice into the classroom."
Tax money is being used to promote religion and the hypocritical ACLU is mute.The ACLU must be in an altered sate of consciousness.
I wonder how public school pioneers John Dewey (an ardent atheist) and Horace Mann (an unfeigned Unitarian) would feel.
Another article in Educational Leadership admitted that "curriculum and teachers serve as the primary instrument to mold attitudes and beliefs".
Libertarian Neal Boortz asks, "How can parents not understand that turning over their children to the state to be educated will have consequences?"
Parents may not have children in a blatant yoga public school, but the teachers and curriculum are infested with religious doctrine. Besides the aforementioned teacher brain-washing session my middle school math teacher-edition had "ESP" and "Muhammad the Prophet" activity sheets. The student edition science books had sections on ancient Egyptian gods.It is impossible for parents to protect their children from public school religion.
Now the kids are lying on the multi-purpose room floor, with the lights out, seeking an altered state of consciousness while their academic levels reach lower and lower levels.
Next the kids can be guided to repeat the yoga chant "Om Namah Shivaaya, Namah Shivaaya, Nama Shiva": "I bow to Lord Shiva, the peaceful one who is the embodiment of all that is cause by the universe."
To maintain multi-culturalism the students can leave the darkened room and run some laps chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna".
Homeschooling parent Chuck Norris (Walker, Texas Ranger) says, "If one wants to control the future ebbs and flows of a country, one must have command over future generations." If parents want the ebb and flow of America to be diverted back to the direction of our founders they should leave the public schools.
This article was published at:
http://ednews.org/articles/24672/1/RELIGION-ESTABLISHED-IN-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS/Page1.html
For more about yoga see “The Common Thread” (especially the Addendum) and the comments under “Religious People at “What Bugs Me”
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May 2, 2008 Gazette (Charleston)
Movie shows flaws of evolutionism
THE MOVIE "EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed" (now playing at Marquee Cinemas-Southridge) is not an adventure like the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Rather, "EXPELLED" is an excellent documentary that exposes "Evolutionists and their Kingdom of the Dark Skull."
Throughout the movie, Ben Stein weaves a thread of the Nazi/Communist/racist connection to evolutionism. This shameful historical fact is especially hidden from public school students.
In "EXPELLED," the thread winds around the usual evolutionist henchmen like Eugenie Scott and P.Z. Myers. One unforgettable scene is a Geraldo Rivera-type "gotcha!" segment where an evolutionist professor is caught in a lie about his admiration for a highly credentialed colleague who had been ostracized for advocating intelligent design. The grand finale in "EXPELLED" is when Dr. Richard Dawkins tries to explain how life originated.
During my years exposing evolutionism extremism I have come in contact with several of the Darwinian disciples (such as Scott and Myers) who appear in the film. I have witnessed, first hand, their deceit and hostility. Richard Dawkins is arguably the eminent evangelist of atheism and evolutionism in the world.
In 2002, I presented the Dr. Joseph Mastropaolo "Life Science Prize" challenge (http://www.lifescienceprize.org/) to Dr. Dawkins. Dr. Dawkins and I exchanged some e-mails, and after he realized he had been cornered he published an intended face-saving article "Why I Won't Debate Creationists" in the Winter 2002/03 edition of the misnamed Free Inquiry magazine. Free (sic) Inquiry would not publish Mastropaolo's and my rebuttal to the Dawkins diatribe.
Evolutionists are not going to allow honest and open discussion of the immense flaws in evolutionism because, as Dr. Mastropaolo says, "Evolutionists have no scientific evidence. That is the reason they do not want to debate. Without evidence, they can't win unless they fix the jury. Given an honest judge or jury, they would make of themselves a laughingstock."
Judging from the audience guffaws, that is exactly what happened to Dr. Dawkins during the closing scenes in "EXPELLED." Indiana Jones is fiction, but Dawkins and his ilk actually believe that life on Earth could have come from higher intelligence from other galaxies. In other words, little green men who are smarter than us are responsible for all of humanity!
Dr. Mastropaolo searched the literature and could not find any record that Dr. Dawkins has ever published a peer-reviewed article in support of evolution. This led Mastropaolo to refer to Dawkins aptly as a "quack essayist of a 2,500-year-old pagan religion that masquerades as science."
Dawkins and others exposed in "EXPELLED" mandate that the hallucination of evolutionism be forced upon public school children. Parents who want an honest and open education for their children will not get it in the public schools because scientific truth has been expelled.
My experience of trying to get scientific facts, critical of evolution, taught in public school science classes proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the public schools cannot be changed. "EXPELLED" confirms this iron grip of censorship extends through all educational levels.
"EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed" superbly drives home the dangerous dishonesty of evolutionism. Evolutionists have even tried to prevent theaters from showing the film. Everyone who wants to think for themselves should see "EXPELLED."
Priest, of Poca, is a retired teacher and state coordinator of Exodus Mandate-West Virginia, a group that promotes Christian education and home schooling.
http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200805010721
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July 4, 2008 Gazette Charleston
Karl Priest
U.S. public education is a burning barn
KANAWHA County citizens, despite suffering from raising prices of everything, have taxed themselves more with an excess levy.
The hardest-working and most successful teachers will receive the same levy benefits as their lazy and/or lousy colleagues. Even with the evolutionism taught in KCS, terrible teachers will never become excellent educators - at any price.
Neither will the KCS yoga classes conjure student success.
The public should beware of school officials' claims of benefits because the Gazette exposed the state for fudging dropout statistics and West Virginia recently received a D- on a national study for setting standards of student proficiency.
The levy will also bring more technology into schools. Unfortunately, the touted "smart board" may become an electronic chalkboard like computers were used as high-tech flash cards.
Upgrading technology in public schools is like using a chair to replace the wooden stool to hand-milk cows.
Politicians have always wanted to throw taxpayer money (in the form of new stalls, harnesses, and buckboards) into the burning barn of public schooling. The federal government has no constitutional authority to educate children. Both political parties, using different buzz words, have wasted billions of dollars to get us into our current dangerous situation.
Let's evacuate the barn.
Leaving the barn will open wonderful horizons for teachers. Teachers may lead the evacuation because good teachers will have their harnesses removed.
There will be a monetary benefit to taxpayers. Upkeep of expensive buildings, which serve as a type of day-care prison, will no longer be needed. Millions of trees will be saved by nearly eliminating the need for propaganda-riddled textbooks. Transportation's budget-breaking costs will be eliminated without resorting to rickshaws.
Away from the smoke-filled barn is the fresh air of education freedom using distance, or virtual, learning, often referred to as Internet learning.
A Harvard professor predicts (probably underestimating) that by 2019, 50 percent of all high school classes will be taught via the Internet.
According to the North American Council for Online Learning, more than a million students are enrolled in Internet classes.
WVU and Marshall have growing Internet campuses with thousands enrolled. Students can receive undergraduate and graduate degrees without setting foot on campus. Hundreds of universities have courses available for credit and just for learning's sake.
West Virginia has around 1,500 students enrolled in Internet learning high school (and earlier) courses. Almost 8 percent of Alaskan students are educated in their homes. Florida has more than 10,000 students (nationwide) learning at "Any Place, Any Pace."
While using Internet learning, students do not have to worry about missing part of a lecture if their mind wanders. The fear of being laughed at for asking a "dumb" question, or answering wrongly, is eliminated. Classes would be eliminated that have some students bored and other students lost while the average students are taught.
A market-driven Internet learning system would allow parents to spend their money on the best choices.
New technology will soon eliminate schools as our source of learning because knowledge is increasing so fast that schools cannot keep pace.
The book Leaving Schools and Finding Education points out that schools are nearly unbearably expensive and so "issue-oriented that they are beginning to pull down other institutions."
Americans should not be forced to pay for a failed monopoly.
It costs more than $100,000 to educate one student K-12. This is going to soon drain state budgets. Enrollment and achievement go down while costs go up. Property taxes may soon threaten home ownership.
Home and Christian school leaders have already pioneered a way for transition to educational freedom using the University Model School (UMS) which combines traditional and home schooling.
UMS children receive some classes on campus and are home-schooled for other subjects. Campus classes are offered on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Tuesday-Thursday basis like college courses. Advanced-placement courses are obtained from groups like the Calvert School or the University of Nebraska Independent Study High School. Children are not locked into a subject that has been mastered or forced to wait on a course at a certain grade or age. Combine all of these choices with the option of classical learning (see www.insectman.us and click on Exodus Mandate) and Internet learning and the opportunities for children are exciting and unlimited.
Public schools cannot be fixed because they are obsolete relics of the 19th century.
America has everything needed to provide a top-notch education in private homes.
Crawling out of a smoke-filled barn is frightening and abrasive but the only way to survive. Americans can continue to prop up the educational inferno, or move children to fresh air and safety away from the burning barn.
Priest, of Poca, is state coordinator of Exodus Mandate-West Virginia, a group that promotes Christian education and home schooling.
http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200807030512
EdNews (Original Version of Burning Barn)
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Karl Priest
The good citizens of KanawhaCounty, WV, despite suffering from raising prices of fuel and everything else, have generously agreed to tax themselves even more by passing another bond levy. As always, the hardest working and most successful teachers will receive the same levy benefits as their lazy and/or lousy colleagues. Even with the billions of years of evolutionism taught in KCS, terrible teachers will never become excellent educators--at any price.
Perhaps the bond money and the school system yoga classes will conjure the ever elusive student success.Whatever happens, the public should beware of state and county claims. Last week the Charleston Gazette exposed the state for fudging the drop-out statistics and West Virginia recently received a D- on a national study of how states set the academic levels for NCLB standards of student proficiency.
Besides teacher benefits, the levy will be used to bring more technology into schools. Unfortunately, the touted "smart board" may become an electronic chalk board in much the same way computers were used as hi-tech flash cards.
To get tax-payers to hand over more of their hard-earned money the levy selling feature was that happy teachers and high technology will help kids become worldwide competitive scholars. In reality, upgrading technology in public schools is like using a chair to replace the wooden stool to hand milk cows.
Let's turn the "Way Back" machine to yesteryear and hear part of Robert Byrd's speech criticizing fuzzy math. "I have been continually puzzled by our Nation's failure to produce better students despite public concern and despite the billions of Federal dollars which are appropriated annually for various programs intended to aid and improve education."
Now, return to the present and hear Governor Bob Wise (president of the Alliance for Excellent Education) declare a crisis in US high schools due to the high drop-out rate. Wise proclaims there are moral and economic imperatives for the urgent need to fix the public school problem.
Politicians have always wanted to throw tax-payer money (in the form of new stalls, harnesses, and buckboards) into the burning barn of public (more accurately "government") schooling. This only provides more fuel and prolongs the inevitable collapse of the burning edifice of government education.
State school superintendent Stephen Paine, realizing that we live in an Internet world, calls for laptops for every student. Interestingly, he points out that he observed a "hunger for learning" in Chinese children who don't have individual laptops. Paine is joined by the president of Verizon in admitting that United States students are falling further and further behind internationally. Their solution is the Partnership for 21 st Century Learning which is simply more chairs piled in a burning barn.
Let's evacuate the barn.
The Federal Government has no Constitutional authority to educate children. Both political parties, using different buzz words, have wasted billions of dollars to get us into our current dangerous situation.
The future is here, outside of the barn, and it basically is what our country used when it was founded—with the addition of modern technology. In effect, to solve America's education emergency, we must go back to the future.
The solution will open new, and wonderful, horizons for teachers. In fact, teachers may lead the way because good teachers will have their chains removed.
There will be a huge savings to taxpayers.Upkeep of expensive buildings, which serve as a type of day-care prison, will no longer be needed.Millions of trees will be saved by nearly eliminating the need for propaganda riddled textbooks. The bus fuel budget breaker will be eliminated without resorting to rickshaws.
Colleges and universities, nation-wide, have already entered the fresh air.
As two liberal professors (Jon Wiles and John Lundt) have proclaimed in their prophetic book (Leaving School:Finding Education): TO FIND EDUCATION WE MUST LEAVE SCHOOL! (emphasis mine)
Away from the smoke-filled barn is fresh air of education freedom using Internet Learning (also called Distance or Virtual Learning).
A Harvard professor* predicts that by 2019, 50% of all high school classes will be taught via the Internet. I think he is under-stating what will occur.
According to the North American Council for Online Learning over 1 million students are enrolled in Internet classes.
WVU has a growing Internet campus with over 4000 students enrolled this spring offering three undergraduate and 12 graduate degrees, completely online, with more planned.
MU offers an extensive Internet course selection and also recommends The Southern Regional Electronic Campus which offers thousands of online courses. A Marshall student can obtain an undergraduate degree in three fields (and one graduate degree) entirely without setting foot on campus.
If one wishes to learn just for learning's sake, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has over 1800 MIT courses on-line in its OpenCourseWare which represent nearly every course taught at MIT materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. MIT is part of a Consortium of over 200 higher education institutions from around the world that provide free access to courses.
Almost every state has seen pre-college Internet Learning enrollments surge in recent years. West Virginia set up a Virtual School in 2000 beginning with three rural middle-schoolers which increased to several hundred students enrolled by 2001. Many West Virginia students use the Florida Virtual School which advertises has over 10,000 students who learn at "Any Place, Any Pace".
In Alaska it is impossible, due to the vast remoteness, to think about education in terms of using buses to bring students to buildings. Nearly 8% (more than 10,000) students are educated in their own Alaskan homes.
While using Internet Learning students do not have to worry about missing a part of a lecture if their mind wanders or they get sleepy. The fear of being laughed at for asking a "dumb" question or answering wrongly is eliminated.
If a market driven system is established, parents could spend their money where the best choices are found. A child based funding system would give parents their God ordained control of their children's education.
This is truly an American value:education on demand. Rich resources are available with a simple "click". America has everything needed to provide a top-notch education in private homes. Students can learn at their own pace and style, and they can network with students all over the world. Classes would be eliminated that have some students bored and other students lost while the average students are taught. Wiles and Lundt have a brilliant plan on how to deal with those who just do not want to learn and disrupt the learning of others.
There is a vast difference between schooling and learning. New technology will soon eliminate schools as our source of learning because knowledge is increasing so fast that schools cannot keep pace. Why should we waste tax-payer money to prop up a system designed for the 19 th century?
Wiles and Lundt bluntly state, "Parents should be both frightened and outraged" at the incompetence of public schools. They also point out that schools are nearly unbearably expensive and so "issue-oriented that they are beginning to pull down other institutions". Americans should not be forced to pay for a failed monopoly.
It costs over $100,000 to educate one student K through 12. This is going to soon bust state budgets.We end up spending $50-75 thousand on drop-outs which is a terrible investment. Enrollment and achievement go down while costs go up. Property taxes may soon threaten home ownership.
Home and Christian school leaders have already pioneered a way for transition to complete educational freedom for much less cost than a traditional school. The UniversityModelSchool was developed in the early 1990's by combining Christian schooling and homeschooling with a stress on academic standards and a strong work ethic.
In a UMS young children receive art and music classes and are home-schooled for most other subjects.Middle schoolers pick up more classes which are offered on a MWF and TuTh basis, with flexible scheduling loads, like college courses. High school (middle school too) students can use advanced placement courses offered from groups like the CalvertSchool or the University of Nebraska Independent Study High School. No child is locked into a subject that has been mastered or forced to wait on a course until reaching a certain grade or age. Combine all of these choices with the option of Classical Learning (see http://www.insectman.us/testimony/exodus-mandate.htm and click on Exodus Mandate) and Internet Learning and the opportunities for children are exciting and unlimited. (Our new motto will be: NCLI--No child Locked In.)
Wiles and Lundt correctly proclaim that schools cannot be fixed because schools are obsolete relics that are "responsible for increasing amounts of cultural decay and social dysfunction."
A 1983 federal report concluded that "if an enemy of the United States wanted to destroy our nation, they would use the public schools."
Crawling out of a smoke filled barn is frightening and abrasive, but the only way to survive. If we had waited on a perfect situation we would not have sent men to the moon.Americans can continue to prop up the government school burning barn, like we have the Post Office, while the homeschool movement acts as the educational UPS; or Americans can remove the tax support of a failed system and launch America back to the future of learning.
*May 7, 2008 Education Week article "Online Education Cast as 'Disruptive Innovation'" reviews the book Disrupting Class:How disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen
Priest, of Poca, WV, is state coordinator of Exodus Mandate-West Virginia, a group that promotes Christian education and home schooling.
Published July 6, 2008
http://ednews.org/articles/27028/1/BACK-TO-THE-FUTURE/Page1.html
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Some "cut and paste" spacing errors were corrected on 3-13-09.
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