Emile Midgley: Our nation's public school system at the elementary and middle-school levels should expect more from the students, which is why the new Core Curriculum effort should be given a chance to work. Critical thinking skills are essential, but our nation has fallen behind at least eight other nations in these vital skills, just as we have lagged behind in mathematics and science. Republicans have poked fun at the Core Curriculum by posting, for example, questions on Y!A with short videos describing a subtraction problem with, in the asker's mind, only one way to arrive at the answer. Part of the Core Curriculum involves teaching young students at grade school and middle school levels how to tackle problems from all angles, looking at each challenge differently than the "accepted norm", and this type of ability fosters creativity and invention. I am fully supportive of the changes. In terms of funding for the schools, we run into pretty much the same problems ! faced by the state-situated VA medical facilities: Administrators get their corrupt or greedy hands on all those allocated dollars and use every trick possible to keep the dollars at the top, letting only a few token dollars "trickle on down" to the schools (or VA hospitals) for which these taxpayer dollars were intended. One suggestion I proposed to the White House for the VA problems at state levels would probably also work with the nation's many public schools: Set up a panel (of veterans, nurses, and technicians for the VA; of teachers, a parent or two, a principal, and maintenance personnel for schools) with the power to PREVIEW all executive level proposed expenditures and then have VETO POWER if any of those proposed projects or expenses do not meet the PRIORITIES of the institutions. Get that money away from the top elites and down into the system, in other words. My large family headed by a career military man gifted in electronics got me interested in politic! s because we would all gather around the dining room table on ! Sunday afternoons for a no-holds-barred debate on any topics we wanted, including politics and religion, our idea of FUN! I dubbed this exercise our "Cosmic burp"---very cathartic. As a kid, I was bothered by the fact that topics which were of interest to us students would sometimes be "skimmed over" to meet time deadlines---I thought there should be more opportunities to EXPLORE IN-DEPTH (a role for parents to play, perhaps, or for extracurricular assignments), to discover all the meanings and possible applications. Two examples that come to mind would be Pascal's triangle (which my metaphysical me thought was a window into the everywhere and I wanted to know more!) and my personal hero George Washington Carver that warranted only a single paragraph in the class history book and my thought was this good man could be a class subject all by himself, touching on all topics (including the history of discrimination, all sorts of science, self-determination, transcendence of ! injustice---all sorts of things from which to be inspired or to learn)....Show more
Talisha Digrande: I educate my kids. School is where my kids learn how to deal with the LIEberall assholes of the world.
Granville Stray: My political views were shaped more by life and an understanding of economics than by the hysterical left wing ideology constantly being spouted at the Ivy League university I attended as an undergraduate.
Lue Podewils: Equal funding so all children can keep up in America.
Hollis Demasters: Socialized education for all, pre-K to college. Free healthcare for all children.
Nannie Kasee: I think the US should consider adopting an actual education system that educates. And it needs to happen soon if the US plans to stay in the same playing field as the rest of the world.
Evelin Turlich: Old enough to have avoided the education system attempting to shape my political views. Education, above basic skills, should teach you how ! to think, not what to think.
Hubert Jestes: Well I believe that K! through twelfth grade should be paid for by the government do to the significant positive neighborhood effects of doing so. I believe college should be paid for by the individual since he will reap most of the gains rather than society. Though do to the fact that it is more beneficial for more individuals to get an education I believe it would be beneficial for the government to give loans based on a percent of future salary or a percent interest if they choose not to work after college....Show more
Hong Hunkin: I would shut down our public schools---and declare them as disastrous experiments---with our CHILDREN as the unwitting victims. The social atmosphere of our schools perfectly mirrors that of a PRISON YARD. The ONLY problem is-----our children have NOT been convicted of ANY crime.
Ronald Moehr: Education is a public investment in the future. In order to maintain a thriving economy, we must have more highly trained, skilled and educated people entering th! e workforce than leaving. If we fail to give the majority of our children comprehensive educations, then we will find in a generation or two, America's capacity to maintain its relative dominance on the global market continuously diminished. Our people are our resources, and like any other national resource, we must make sure we don't waste their potential.This means, that while I support Parents rights to teach their kids whatever belief system they want, I reject the idea that a Parent has the right to with hold information from their children. All knowledge must be accessible, and those foolish parents who refuse to allow their children to learn the principles of Science, or evolution, or sexual reproduction are not just disadvantaging their children, but harming the progress of the nation....Show more
Ricardo Rozelle: That 'money' is not the solution to our nation's failed educational system. 'Money' doesn't fix things. Societal attitudes, community involvement an! d parents are the key to education. I also believe that the federal gov! ernment contributes absolutely nothing to the quality of education in the country. Education is best handled and left to the local and state governments who know, understand and are far more capable of addressing education and the needs of their educational institutions. My political views were not shaped by my formal education. My political views were shaped by my life experience...which is an education in itself....Show more
Rebbecca Sorkin: Public education doesn't teach wisdom, life does. That is where political view become solidified. A knowledge of history and a willingness to listen to one's core values shapes political views.
Herma Ellebrecht: I really just developed an opinion my step daughter had to go to public school till her engish improved who teacher told her that America did not do much in WW 2 later she was assign to write up on Indian atrocities so I helped her write about the Beaver Wars more indian were killed or displaced, by other India! ns, then all the wars the white man had with them, all to trade for British rum and guns these tribe claimed much of the Midwest as their personal hunting grounds and would kill any white or red who step foot on their hunting ground they wiped out the beavers in the Midwest her teacher would not let her read it in front of her class something the indian loved mother earth...Show more
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